Strength and body weight

[mohiz]

Hi, coach. First of all I want to thank you for writing Starting Strength. I had been hitting the iron for about six months, making very slow progress but losing 65 lbs of fat. Then I discovered Starting Strength and my strength has absolutely shot through the roof in just four weeks.

I'm currently 21y/o, 5'9", about 160lbs and skinny-fat as hell. I want to get as big and strong as possible but I don't want to look like a fat guy. I'm worried about gaining back the weight I worked hard to get rid of, but since it's likely going to be mostly muscular weight, I decided to drink the GOMAD. It's not like there's any permanent damage that could occur.

But then again I've seen videos of 160 pound guys deadlifting 475, and I know some people that look more muscular than me but are actually weaker. So what's the deal with LBM and strength? If it's possible to be strong without being big, why would my body want to build muscle? Would it be better to maintain my weight in the hopes that I'll gain muscle and lose fat, or is it indeed more effective to first focus on gaining muscle and then focus on losing any unwanted fat? Let it be noted that I have no desire to be "ripped" either, my current bodyfat is just fine.

Here are my results so far:
Squat 3x5x237
DL 5x275
Bench 3x5x138
Press 3x5x94
Power clean 5x3x99

(I live in Finland and we use the metric system, but for clarity's sake I converted everything to US units)

[Mark Rippetoe]

Guys that used to be fat invariably have a greater reluctance to gain even muscular bodyweight that skinny guys do. The reason you want to gain muscle mass is because once your neuromuscular efficiency improves to the extent that it can, the only way to increase strength is to increase the cross-sectional area of the muscle, thus making it bigger and heavier. But these two processes happen simultaneously, so growth starts immediately. The guy pulling 475 at 160 didn't used to be 160. And 160 is not particularly big and 475 is not particularly strong. So quit thinking like a fat guy, start thinking like a lifter, and get big and strong.