Luna,
our "average" trainees are not all that different. Probably 7 out of 10 people that I work with are 20-40 lbs overwieght and 20-40 lbs undermuscled, and their goal is to lose that damn bodyfat and build some size, and most don't want to be freaky. just big and athletic looking. The rest of my guys, well they want to be freaks and I train quite a few that are. While there are exceptions and some people do handle a fair amount more work than others the 20 lbs overweight and big guys both have the same basic problem:
Overtraining if too much is done.
Losing weight while adding mass isn't easy and I am CERTAIN you would be amazed at how well I pull it off for them. Every trainee I have doing that (lose fat, gain muscle) is successful doing so, and yes for some it is much slower than others, but 90% of these guys make awesome strength gains and to a lessor degree size gains while dropping tons of bodyfat. And while diet is of course the prime factor in the fat loss, keeping the training volume down while doing this is what allows the week to week increases in the gym to occur.
Here is what I do. I put together a routine I beleive is optimal for the trainee. If gains are not IMMEDIATE, meaning significant form week to week RIGHT AWAY, no waiting for it to somehow "happen", I REDUCE their volume. If that doesn't work, I raise the volume significantly. I have NEVER had this fail to get a trainee making AWESOME gains. And yes, I know where you are coming from Joe Average at 175 can handle a fair amount more volume than someone a little more advanced and I usually write more volume into these guys routines. The only reason they can do more quite frankly is they don't generally train that hard. And many just haven't been training long enough to really know how to generate intensity. And in the long run, it really isn't needed. Lack of intensity can be made up by more volume. Bunches of ways to skin a cat.
Iron Addict