Dr. Feignbaum, thank you for taking the time to review my diet and training to see if there are and discrepancies or suggestions. My goal is to run this LP program as long as I can for a strength foundation and hopefully some more hypertrophy than the Starting Strength LP. Madcows 5x5 LP System had given me a solid foundation for strength and muscle, albeit I could have been smarter with my nutrition. I also should have started with the Starting Strength LP, post bodybuilding and boxing, for quicker daily linear progression vs weekly progression. I am aware that body fat will come with strength gains, I would like to try a more sensible approach in regards to nutrition than just stuffing my face w food this time.
Sex - Male
Age - 38, 39 in April
Height - 5’8
Weight - started 230lb → currently 231.5lb
Body Fat - probably around 30%
Medical Hx - 2009 R-Shoulder subluxation; chiropractor set shoulder & recommended internal & external rotator exercises. 2015 laparoscopic cholecystectomy
2021 L-Fibula fx; Dr prescribed 4 - 6 wks rest
Nutrition & Training Hx - I stuffed my face and went from 197lb to 247lb
Bodybuilding(spinning my wheels) & Boxing (2006 - 2008) Madcows 5x5 LP System (2008 - 2009 aprox. 6 months)
Final Lift #'s lb
Bench - 235
Squat - 325
Deadlift - 415
Press - 185
Row - 235
Current Nutrition -
My Fitness Pal - Started 2/7/2022
Activity Level - Not Very Active
Goal - Gain 0.5 per week
Total Calories (as per app) - 2672
Calorie % Breakdown - 40P/30C/30F
Calorie Weight Breakdown - 267g/200g/89g
Food Quality - Typical Bodybuilding staples
Food Timing - 60% Carbs surrounding workouts w 50g simple carbs, 25g ON Gold Standard Whey post workout & minimal fats post workout.
Supplements - ON Gold Standard Whey
ON Gold Standard BCAAs + Electrolytes, 2 scoops BCAAs 30 min pre-workout and 1 scoop intraworkout.
Metamucil at bedtime
Melatonin 15mg at bedtime
Unisom 37.5mg at bedtime
Motrin as needed
Current Training -
Greyskull LP Phraks Variant - Started 1/31/2021 A/B Split M/W/F 2x5; 1x5 +AMRAP
Starting Lift #'s lb; +AMRAP
Bench - 95; +12
Squat - 125; +12
Deadlift - 205; +10
Yates Row - 125; +12
Press - 80; +6
Chinups - 99; +9 substitute Supinated Lat Pulldowns till bands are delivered
Your age is great and you will gain the same amount of relative strength, muscle mass, endurance, etc. as 20-year-old you would.
For your diet, I would not be aiming to gain weight, as increasing body fat further would increase your risk of many medical conditions. This is absolutely not worth any potential (but not guaranteed) trade-off in reduced muscle mass gain. I would aim to lose ~ 2-3% of your body weight per month until your waist circumference is < 35". I would not take BCAAs, electrolytes, or focus on simple carbohydrates for any particular reason. Rather, I’d focus on weight loss, getting >5 servings of fruits and/or veggies per day, and >30 grams of fiber per day. You would do great with protein in the 160-200g/day mark. 260 is overkill.
I would skip melatonin and unisom as well.
I don’t particularly like the program you’re on, particularly the artificially light weights, no autoregulation, lack of variation, etc. I would much prefer our Beginner Prescription or similar for your goals.
Used MFP to recalculate current weight of 233lb x 2.5%/month= 5.825lb/month rounded up to 6lb/month = 1.5lb/wk. Total Calories = 1689 w a 40p/30c/30f breakdown = 169g/127g/56g respectively. I’m definitely get 5+ servings of fruit and/or vegetables a day. My main source of carbs are fruits, vegetables, oats, and milk. Proteins are Lean cuts of red meat, chicken, eggs, fish(sometimes salmon, and whey, fats are from milk, nuts and protien. How do you like these adjustments for food intake?
With GSLP, from what i read, there is some autoregulation in regards to having a good day and adjusting the increase of weight per workout. I’ve made reasonable adjustments in weight and haven’t 100% stuck to 2.5lb, 5lb and 10lb jumps for press, bench, squat/deadlift per work out. I’m also not sure what you mean with the term artificially light weights, I’m coming back from years off. I’m not to concerned with variation atm so I can retrain form. I do like that the beginner template has 2 gpp days worked into it. what would I gain from switching to the beginners template and how would the future of programming look?
While there’s nothing wrong per se’ with large deficits, I would not use these numbers from MFP as the arithmetic doesn’t really line up with what happens in the real world. I would expect you to lose weight at the recommended amount at ~ 2500-600 Cals/day.
I think your proposed dietary pattern is fine.
For the training, there is no RPE, RIR, velocity, or other metric that helps you determine the appropriate load for the given day. As far as the weights being used, you’re doing > 10+ on all your AMRAPs suggesting your < 70% 1RM for your work sets. That’s not where I’d be spending most of my time for maximal strength development, though lower intensity stuff can drive other adaptations that we should be developing. Using more variations would actually improve your technique, as motor leaning tends to develop faster with varied task demands.
so in my original post my calories were at 2672 and I guess I must have misunderstood you when you mentioned to aim for ~ 2 - 3% of BW per month, that is why I recalculated my total calorie intake down to 1689. So if I am understanding you correctly, my goal should be a recomp? My thought process in the beginning was to eat slightly above maintenance to keep the weights moving up in the gym.
Total Calories - 2430
Breakdown - 200g protein/250g carb/70g fat
is this a reasonable starting point to get to a minimum 35 inch waist while still being able to make advancement in the Beginners Template? I’ll be switching to it on monday. What part of the arithmetic doesn’t line up in the real world? For clarification, I weigh all my food and use MFP merely as a way to track food. I have my past wks food logs as proof of compliance and I hit my numbers +/- 5 cal everyday.
I get what you’re saying about training in your response.
No, your goal should be to lose weight. The calculated Calories just don’t really manifest into the weight loss rate we’re looking for. It would be MUCH faster. You DO NOT NEED to be at or above maintenance to gain strength.