My Workout and Diet with a couple questions

[Hendricks433]

Ok I'm 5-9 or 10 ish 150 lbs (started at 145) and Ive been lifting mon, wed, fri for 8 weeks now doing a 3X5 beginners strength workout. Start with a 5 min warmup on a bike with a bunch of stretches. Then I have 2 workouts aternating every other workout. Squats, bench press, deadlifts(1X5 but I normally did 2 warm up sets and either 1 or 2 work sets). Then squats, standing overhead press, bent rows. Also do ab work 2 or 3 of the days. I feel Ive made some pretty good gains but have gained nearly no weight. Maybe 3-5 pounds. I do see and feel a huge difference in my legs and feel a difference in the rest of my body. Im going to take next week off because its been 8 weeks, My lower back hurts(not from lifting) and I have a week off school and wont be around a gym. When I get back in the gym I would like to start this program Bill Starr 5X5 which is very similar to my current work out but just a little more advanced. I would also add in HIIT doing sprints on off days after a couple weeks if everything goes good. Should I move to the new program or should I stick with the 3X5 for a little bit longer? Heres what my diet looks like:
7:15 am - 1/2 cup of oatmeal ( with a little scoop of brown sugar) sometimes 2 or 3 eggs( mainly on weekends)
10:30 - 1/2 a cupish of cottage cheese and 2 tbs of natural peanut butter with a glass of milk
1 or 1:30 - tuna sandwich
3:30 - used to be a couple eggs but now I got protein powder and have replaced this with a protein shake(I put about 2 tbs of pb in it)
7:30-8 2 small chicken breasts with 1/2 cup of brown whole grain rice and sauces to make stir fry(1/2 of the time I put it in a tortilla)
9:30 -10 1/2 cup of cottage cheese and 2 tbs of pb before bed.
I just got the animal pak for multi vitamin. I eat practically no veggies. Is there anything I should add or take out of my diet and should I cut back a little for my week off? I feel like I haven't gained much weight because Im not getting that many calories. I'm pretty ok with this because my goal isn't to really bulk up. I just want to add strength and get cut.

[thirddan]

"I feel like I haven't gained much weight because Im not getting that many calories. I'm pretty ok with this because my goal isn't to really bulk up. I just want to add strength and get cut."

sorry, didn't read the beginning part...but adding strength/gaining weight and getting cut are pretty opposing forces...

in order to gain weight/strength you gotta eat, the muscle has to come from somewhere...

to get cut you have to lose body fat --> less calories...this is why people lift in cycles, bulk to get strong/gain weight then cut to lose weight/get ripped...

[Hendricks433]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm pretty ok with this because my goal isn't to really bulk up. I just want to add strength and get cut.


[/ QUOTE ] thats why I said I was ok with not gaining that much weight. Not really that important to me.

[skunkworks]

You have not lifted long enough to advance to a 5x5 Intermediate program. There's still plenty of juice left in a 3x5 beginner's program. What are your goals? What are your numbers? Why do you want to do HIIT? Why do you want to move onto a 5x5 lifting program already?

It also doesn't look like you are eating very much. Half a cup of oatmeal is not much, nor is half a cup of cottage cheese. If I had to estimate how many calories a day like that is, I'd say a little over 2200 but probably below 2500. What is your target weight? You need to eat as much as you would if you weighed that much. You appear to be eating clean, but you're just not eating enough.

I've gone from 148 to 165 in a year, and when I was bulking hard I was pushing 3000+ calories a day easily. I like the peanut butter idea, but I'd throw in more milk in every meal. Mix your shake with milk too. One cup of oatmeal can be a lot to put down, but one cup of cottage cheese is easy especially with some fruit.

Just saw the part where you said you don't really want to bulk up, but is that really true? Strength gains can be made while cutting, but:

A) There's not much to cut on you. You don't weigh enough!
B) You're a beginner so you'll gain strength while possibly dropping some fat, but eventually you'll plateau and your diet will be a limiting factor.
C) People that say "I don't really want to bulk up" are really just saying "I don't want to get fat and bloated and blocky-looking." If you're already slim, you'd have to do a lot of work to even get to that point.