Strength vs Bodyweight Management

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi I found you guys through Starting Strength and appreciate your attention to nuance and detail. Always great information. You guys have gotten insanely strong at what appears to be a similar height and somewhat - but not that much - heavier weight than my top weight. I am an intermediate trainee, and using sslp and your beginner template I was able to get to roughly B 245 / S 345 / DL 420. I think I started somewhere around 150 bench, 95 squat (yep), and 155 DL so this was enormous progress for me. I am 5-10/178 cm barefoot. My never-working out weight was around 174. On the program I ended up at roughly 190 max and things were really going nowhere by that weight strength-wise due to family obligations and tendonitis, and maybe a lack of intensity and resolve on my part.

When I see ordinary people getting to a 315 bench, in light of my overall athletic background and fast progress in the early going, I thought I could push further without getting over 200 lbs weight.

Just as I would get back into it, there would be another interruption of some sort followed by a reset.

I got tired of carrying the weight around and am now down at 173, 13-14% bodyfat based on average of methods available to me. So 150 lb lbm. I calculated that I lost roughly 2-2.5 lbs lean mass from my top weight based on the bodyfat analysis. My loss of strength has been significantly more pronounced, but I am still on a 500 calorie deficit.

What I am trying to decide is, what do you think of the tradeoffs between carrying around extra weight vs getting stronger? The starting strength answer is just - you are exercising not strength training and so this tradeoff is not worth discussing here.

For the typical used-to-be athletic suburban dad of 44 in my position would you continue to eat in a calorie surplus to add strength and then try to lose the fat? How much unwanted weight did you guys put on while going from intermediate to advanced?

I will never be competing in powerlifting or any other strength or muscle related sport. I also do not want to deal with tendonitis. I have two young children and longevity is a major goal. I fortunately have a rack and barbells is in the garage, plus two cardio machines.

Lot of questions here and interested in any insight from lifters generally if not suitable questions for the MDs.

2

These topics were discussed in some of our older podcasts/videos here:

When we are discussing this topic with individuals, decisions about weight gain center around 1) performance and/or competitive goals, vs. 2) health goals and context. This involves using tools like the waist circumference to decide whether or not someone is in a safe range for weight gain, for example. But to be clear: it is possible to gain A LOT of strength in the absence of significant weight gain, provided that you are willing to train enough and to train consistently for a very long time.

Hopefully this helps you started thinking through these things; feel free to reply if anything else remains unclear.

1 Like
3

Thanks Dr. Baraki for taking the time for the response and links! The information in the videos was helpful, and for whatever reason just hearing that there is considerable headroom to get stronger without more weight gain is very helpful also. My initial program can say there is the caveat of drinking 6000 calories a day or whatever it is is only for a 130 lb teenager, and that it is not necessary for someone who is 300 lbs with a 56 inch waist to eat above maintenance, but this is sort of a akin to making government policy only for the homeless and the 0.1%…

I am definitely willing to do the training consistently, so it will just be meeting the challenge of managing the resets post-Covid when I anticipate some more family trips out of town, and probably some dealing with some abbreviated workouts when there is a return to the office and kids school activities.

For anyone on here interested in weight management it seemed tedious at first but using a calorie counter app was remarkably effective for me at keeping my protein intake good and calories where I then wanted to be. Also just using it a week or so on the free trial gave me a much better idea of how fattening or nutritious various things I ate are. I realized how 80% of what i eat is the same every week.

(I came up with the absurdly simple realization that homemade meals alone are deficit; meals, snacks and desert is surplus; and meals and (only) snacks or deserts is maintenance.)