Advice on Progress/Nutrition/Program

I posted some info over the weekend
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=508697

Someone had noted that my progress didn’t seem notable. Is 11lbs of LBM in ~6month decent? I am 5-9, ~200lbs, and 31 years old.

I am looking for some feedback on what I am doing. My local buddies seem to think “whatever you’re doing, it seems to be working”, but when I read stuff on here, I feel like I’m making little progress.

I put ALLOT of effort in eating/nutrition, training, I try to get my sleep, I don’t drink, etc, etc, etc…but if there’s something I could do better, please let me know. (all my info on what I do is on the link above)

I have another month of my “bulking” phase, before I start to trim down again…I just hope my legs fit into my pants. I am down to a 33/34 waist, but my thighs are now trying to bust out of my work/dress pants.

Am I being paranoid? or making decent progress? or just spinning my wheels.

Need feedback.
Thanks
Matt

Matt-

Please forgive me - I just briefly skimmed your bio, but I think you are on track for the most part. I saw that spreadsheet of your body fat and total body weight and I think you are doing a very good job. Don’t let anyone on this site knock your progress. A lot of these guys take pro-hormones/drugs or spend half their salary on the perfect food and some are just genetically blessed. On average, I feel that 11 pound gain in LBM with minimal fat gain is excellent, when its done all-natural. If you had done that while on a drug, I would seriously doubt that you ate/trained correctly.

The only thing I could suggest is to get back to the TBT 3xweek. The once a week per body part is for the birds. Make sure you are sticking to major compound movement, with just a few isolations thrown in for variety. Besides that, maybe just nudge up the cals a bit - make sure your PWO shake is on point! And, even if you are hitting lot’s of fruits and veggies, I would buy a multi. I like the “Adam” multi by Now.

Keep up the good work on gaining nearly 2 pounds of lean beef per month!

TopSirloin

Thank you. I really appreciate the review. I started using the “Fitness Assistant” software on Monday, and even though I never counted calories, I still managed to hit the target at ~3500 cal/day. The software made it pretty easy.

I’ll give the TBT a try. I have been training for my 1st powerlifting competition at the end of Nov. I decided to do the PLA event to give myself a more concrete goal for strength. Once that is complete, I plan on doing more Olympic lifting and TBT.

With the Mon/Tue/Fri/Sat schedule I have now, I usually take up to 4 days to recover, which allows me to concentrate on each lift. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks
Matt