Calling all formerly obese men who now lift

It's good to have a point of reference I suppose, but it's really not a comparison. The main thing is keep track of where YOU started and keep building on that. What matters is the progress you're personally able to make.

Don't be embarrassed. Everyone else at the gym is there doing their own thing. I go to the gym late afternoon and it just happens to mainly be younger guys in the weight room at that time. The amount I lift in comparison to them is laughable, but I don't care and neither do they.

Hopefully, you're not starting near your 5R max at the beginning of Stronglifts -- you're supposed to start easy -- progressing 5 pounds each time (10 for deadlift) makes it plenty hard soon enough, so work on getting form down cold while the weights are easy. Unless you want to waste a bunch of time deloading in a month or two.

I think I was squatting and benching 20lb DBs. I started DL at 135 because that was the smallest weight I had.

Iron_Miss_Canada wrote: »

Comparison is the thief of joy. Are you doing better then you were a week, a month, a year ago? Then keep going.

Yeah, well-said. The only metric that matters is your full effort, every time.

bench 95 now 225
everything else basically doubled or tripled. I was pretty weak to begin with because I did the 'starvation thing', where I severely limited calories, dropped a bunch of weight and lost muscle with it. Glad I woke up and realized that wasn't sustainable so I started working out, eating better and 15 years later still enjoy lifting.
Eat right, work hard...you will do great things
Good luck

I lifted in highschool and college (over a decade ago) and lifted on/off before starting on SL5x5 (last lifted ~8 months before SL5x5, but didn't make much progress then and didn't stick to it for too long, maybe 2 months). I was 220lb at 5'11", and I'm now 182lb. I've been lifting (minus ~2 months off) since February 10th, so 7 months total.

Lift:     start, current (all 5 reps, in lb)
Squat:      125,     245
Deadlift:   115,     255
Bench:      120,   167.5
OHP:         50,     105
Row:         55,   137.5

My deadlift still has a lot of room to grow. I expect I can go up another 40lb with sooner than later even while losing weight. It was my most lacking lift since I never really did it prior to SL5x5. Everything else is a struggle to increase, but is still inching up.

Had I not lifted previously I would have started with closer to 45lb across the board for everything but deadlift and row as both of those the bar needs to be off the ground. If you want a comparison to a lifter your own weight, then go to http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/StrengthStandards.html and look at your weight range. A beginner is someone who lifts with proper form and has been at it for 2 weeks. This is a 1 rep max and since you are doing SL5x5 you would be lifting less, you can use the calculator linked on that page for an estimate. Also, depending on what weights you started with you could be behind, but that is perfectly ok as in the long run you'll improve rapidly with SL5x5.

As others said though, it is about what you can do and your own improvements. There are plenty of people who can lift significantly more than me, but I'm quite happy with my achievements in 7 months time.

My boyfriend started (and quit) lifting after I did. The only lift he out lifted me on during his 6 months of training was the bench press. I never once thought he should be embarrassed. You have to start light. Form is so important. Plus it's awesome that you even started at all.

The bar.
Seriously. I could do more but I started with that, as that was the recommendation.

Started at around 200 lbs and these lifts
Squat: 60
Bench: 75
OHP (Many months later): 65
Deadlift: 115
Rows: 40

Current PRs @ 180 lbs:
Squat: 270
Bench: 190
OHP: 121.25
Deadlift: 285
Rows: 145 (don't do them often)

Mind this is with three hard resets for unrelated-to-weightlifting medical issues.

If you're doing SL5x5 just keep doing it and before you know it, your weights will be "respectable"...whatever that means.

I had a post a few months back that might give you a little inspiration
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10034892/nsv-gym-respect#latest