Forage limited is a good term, but also it's the size of the forage that limits the growth. Calories gained vs calories expended.

Another aspect of LMB ponds is that if the bass don't have places to loaf and ambush their prey, even with a good forage base in the pond, they will be expending more calories by swimming constantly and also expending more calories by not being as successful at catching fish as they would be if they were ambushing them.

I compare those LMB in ponds without the correct cover (habitat) to marathon runners. While they can consume plenty of calories to gain weight, because of their caloric expenditure they cannot add the weight like "couch potato" LMB in ponds with the same amount of available calories but with proper cover (habitat).