StrongLifts 5x5 - Starting Weight?

hard to say. I didn't see huge body changes with strength because strength also starts in joints and tendons first. also if your on a cal def by a lot you will probably lose strength and muscle on something like strong lifts. great program if you want strength.
keep in mind most power lifters don't look like body builders for that reason.

This is completely wrong.

can you explain why? ive never gained strength starving my self. I did strong lifts for about 6 months and was on about 4000 cals aday to maintain what I was trying to micro load each workout

Oy. You need to do some learning if you desire to be an adequate "coach" on anything fitness/weight loss based. If you were eating 4000 calories for 6 months while doing stronglifts you were not mainatining, you were in full on bulk mode. Not knowing your stats, you would have to be a beast around 6'10" and 300 lbs, exercising 5 days a week (which is not stronglifts) to require 4000 calories to maintain. Also, you seem to lack the understanding of gaining strength in an untrained or novice lifter through neuro-muscular adaptations. In saying this, its not surprising that BeachBody (or any preferably free) cardio/HIIT based program with a calorie deficit worked wonders for you. You bulked up during stronglifts and prior activities, arguably ate way too much, gained extra fat with that muscle and then shed the subsequent flab via beachbody. There is nothing wrong with bulk/cut cycles, I am currently in bulk mode myself, but giving advice when you don't understand the basics is not helpful to those who are asking.

my original strong lifts cycle was to bulk correct. I was a very skinny guy then. its been awhile not even sure how long. probably 4 years or something. its also where I did gain most of my weight coming out of a skinny hard gainer phase from 150-180 ish originally. during that entire time period for me. I went with strong lifts as I have literally tried everything for many years.

also I did keep strong lifts slightly modified adding barbell arm work cause I hate how Mehdi has lack of arm development from not training them directly. I added a day of barbell work in arms and added dips and pull ups. although this really doesn't change the "idea" of the compound lifts in the program. as they are heavy sets and barbell style. I also, am a hockey player. and im sure those doing the program may have other hobbies aswell that can change the dynamic. so you can imagine strong lifts, with three games a week and 2 practice ice times for cal requirements.

also, to say I lack knowledge would be incorrect as its all experience, I have been training since I was 15 and now and 30. How long have you? To give you an idea, I have been a tim ferris style trial and error on everything you can think of. I have the hard gainers tales for the skinny guy you can only imagine.

im still confused on how you would gain strength on strong lifts eating low. Theres a reason Mehdi always talks about gomad, and his strong lifts diet is well into the 3000 cals his program is made for my type of start. The little guy. BUt he contradicts himself in saying that its what you need for muscle.

all mehdi will talk about is strength. and how that translates to muscle. He accepts nothing in "bro science" and unless you talk about strength and how this is the best program on the planet he wont hear what you have to say. He is a bit narrow minded that way. however, he doesn't even do his own program any more. because he is to strong as he states, but its more because he wont see any more physical changes doing it as printed. it will plateau as does everything.
im a little confused at what you are stating other wise. again to each his own, and I am only posting what my personal experience with the program was, and what I was trying to accomplish with it in the early days. I think the original question was will see see amazing physical changes with strong lifts and I think the answer is any new person to the program will see some minor changes, gain a lot of strength over time, but you wont see any body builder or fitness competitor training like this for a model type body.

I am not questioning your experience, nor your success with your fitness goals. You bulked, then cut. What I am questioning is your understanding of the basic principal of gaining strength, which, with the exception of already trained/strong individuals, can absolutely be done in a caloric deficit. You will not see gains in muscle mass, but the vast majority of people will get physically stronger doing weight training while losing body weight. Now Medhi talks about 3000 plus calories and GOMAD for the purpose of building muscle, not for the purpose of gaining strength (he is not contradicting himself here, he is right by saying it is for the building of muscle). You are again confusing the two. Medhi is a bro, and his program was written to appeal to bros and "the skinny guy" who is trying to put on mass. That does not however negate the fact that the average person, who is not an intermediate lifter or beyond, will achieve improvements in strength through neuro-muscular adaptations (your body learning to use what it already has more efficiently) on his, or any other heavy lifting program. And of course you won't see a body builder doing this. For one, it is a strength program and not designed for aesthetics. Secondly, a body builder is already fit and beyond the scope of being able to gain strength while cutting.

Regarding your comment about the linked Lyle McDonald article, I would be interested in reading the opinion of another respected professional that state there is a better way to PRESERVE MUSCLE while dieting than by strength training. I love information, so please share if you can, as I have never come by one. I took your suggestion and did a google search, every link in the first 2 pages (didn't go past that) advocates some form of weight training to preserve muscle while dieting/cutting.

Lastly, as a lover of information, I will check out the Hollywood Physique.

what I said was you cannot expect to gain strength on a defict especially over the course of a program or cycle you are doing. never said strength training didn't preserve muscle. of course it does. that is pretty common. big difference from maintaining muscle with "strength training" aka weight lifting and gaing strength aka benching 300 when you start at 200 and you are at a 500 cal def each day.

Gents, you're deterring completely from my original question.

(Luckily it has already been answered.)

I'll start with the bar and practice form with things much lighter, I know it's more important to get the technique right than try to lift as much as possible. I've been along the route of getting very cocky with strength training before and hurt myself quite badly last time I gave a solid shot at fitness. Then again, don't read me wrong. I used to literally just hit the machines after hard cardio for about ten minutes each session.

What I'm ideally wanting to do is tone, lose weight and build my strength as much as possible. I'd really like an end result similar to: http://www.mybodygallery.com/photos-30774-body-shape.htm?StartAt=26#.Us0BsfRdV1Z after a good few months of work. I've got all intention of doing StrongLifts in conjunction with some cardio also, which I hope is acceptable with the plan. I've got all intentions to try Insanity, I'd just rather have a higher base fitness before I touch it.

I think we are close to having an accord. I am not trying to argue either, our conversation is validation of the mass confusion out there that has prompted at least 5 threads like this one in the past 2 days. While we seem to agree on the benefits of strength training for preserving muscle whilein a deficit, it seems you still miss the point about gaining strength. You put forth another example that does not hold true for the average person. If you are already sufficiently strong (like your example of benching 200 lbs) then yes, you will likely not see big gains, if any, in strength while training in a deficit (like increasing to 300 lbs). However, most people, especially those just entering the fitness realm, are not relatively strong, and these types have been shown time and time again to make terrific advances in overall strength by weight training even in a deficit. Confusion between strength gains and muscle gains among the majority is what causes this question to be asked so frequently, and responses like yours that imply that you cannot get stronger while in a deficit further this problem. For someone like yourself, who has an athletic background and experience in various forms of weight training, sure, strength gains in a deficit are not as likely. But it is important to keep your audience in mind, or you come off as looking like another guy who is making a claim to sell a product. The web has enough of those

What if my wife can barely do a 35 lb bar? What should she use to get stronger? Can she use dumbbells first till she can manage the bar? We have some unused adjustable dumbbells that goes up to 45 lbs.

She is barely 5 feet tall and weighs 95 lbs. She is really weak right now and she really wants to get stronger. She also has very low blood count due to low iron so she gets exhausted fast but we are working hard on it like her eating habits etc.

What if my wife can barely do a 35 lb bar? What should she use to get stronger? Can she use dumbbells first till she can manage the bar? We have some unused adjustable dumbbells that goes up to 45 lbs.

She is barely 5 feet tall and weighs 95 lbs. She is really weak right now and she really wants to get stronger. She also has very low blood count due to low iron so she gets exhausted fast but we are working hard on it like her eating habits etc.