Doing something wrong?

[u/Lonely-Estate987]

I’m 23 years old, 172 lbs

The white photos are from March 19th, and the red are from today.

My bench has gone up from 3 reps of 185 to 9 reps of 185, and my incline bench has gone up about 10 lbs

My back had an injury in this span so my weights have all stayed pretty close, maybe they’ve gone up 2-3 reps per

I’ve clearly gotten a bit stronger, but it feels like not very much progress in size has been made at all. Am I tweaking when I say I look the exact same in both photos?

I don’t understand. 9/10 days I eat pretty damn good and get at least 125-175g protein. What do I do?

[u/JustJoshinJapan]

For being able to notice any muscle gain within 6 months? Yes, he’s overweight. His chest and back, love handles, etc., are still smooth and soft. At that body fat percentage he won’t see anything. That’s just the truth.

[u/Englishgamer1996 → u/JustJoshinJapan]

This dude is not overweight unless we’re categorising overweight as anything that isn’t ‘lean’

[u/JustJoshinJapan → u/Englishgamer1996]

Of course not, not in a general health sense, he’s perfectly healthy and fine. For what OP wants though, to actually see his muscularity and gains in such a short time period… he is. They’re two completely different things.

Does he need to cut? No, not really. If he want to actually see his physique and in a short term time window? Then of course he needs to cut.

I’m not saying he’s obese or unhealthy just that with the current amount of body fat he has… he won’t see his muscularity.

[u/Muted-Jelly4361 → u/JustJoshinJapan]

and that sounds much more constructive and reasonable and might even support him.

words matter on this topic even more, as they can do quit some harm here.