Any 5x5 Success Stories?
Replies
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IamUndrCnstruction wrote: »Question about eating enough, as the above poster mentioned. At 5'10" with about 50ish pounds to lose, lifting 3x a week and cardio 4 times a week....desk job otherwise, should I be eating more than 1350 calories? All calculators say yes, by way more, but MFP gave the 1350 number. I do eat back some exercise cals, but never all, and rarely half. And yes, I am tired all the damn time. The scale has not moved either direction in a bit....
I would definitely suggest eating more and for sure eat back ALL of your exercise cals. What do you have the weight lost setting to? I do SL 5x5 and Insanity MAX:30 cardio in between. I am only 5'4 guy and I'm eating around 2000-2500 calories set at .5 lb gain. Even at maintenance I am eating like 1750 and I was dropping weight at that number.0 -
I have it set to 1.5lb a week loss. I am female, 207lbs. Been seeing visual changes for the better, not much scale movement.0
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IamUndrCnstruction wrote: »Question about eating enough, as the above poster mentioned. At 5'10" with about 50ish pounds to lose, lifting 3x a week and cardio 4 times a week....desk job otherwise, should I be eating more than 1350 calories? All calculators say yes, by way more, but MFP gave the 1350 number. I do eat back some exercise cals, but never all, and rarely half. And yes, I am tired all the damn time. The scale has not moved either direction in a bit....
MFP gave you the 1350 in expectation that you would eat back a portion of your exercise calories that you burned. If I were you, I'd eat back at least half to 75% on hungry days. Also, are you weighing your food? Accuracy is a benefit when the scale is stuck. That said, I don't see scale progress for 2-3 weeks at a time. It's no biggie as long as there is eventually progress, somewhere (ex. measurements).
My workouts are regular except for an extra walk here and there, so I used the TDEE method. It takes into account ALL of your activity. Reduce it by about 20% for losing weight and you have your daily number.
Both versions work, it just a matter of preference.0 -
I do weigh my food, even condiments, unless it is a packaged thing I can scan the barcode on, like a quest bar or something. I do see *some* scale movement, and downward direction, just not as much as I want. I also see and feel definition where there wasn't any, and looser pants even right out of the dryer! So I guess something is working and my scale might be drunk. I am just tired and hungry all the time.0
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IamUndrCnstruction wrote: »I do weigh my food, even condiments, unless it is a packaged thing I can scan the barcode on, like a quest bar or something. I do see *some* scale movement, and downward direction, just not as much as I want. I also see and feel definition where there wasn't any, and looser pants even right out of the dryer! So I guess something is working and my scale might be drunk. I am just tired and hungry all the time.
I agree that you need to eat more as well. I'm 5'-8" and 175 and I'm still losing on 1500/day (plus exercise cals back) and so I'm eating close to 1800-2000 a day. I'd look at your protein to as that can help with energy levels.0 -
Not quite 8 weeks on SL; loving it.
Started:
Squat 60
DL 50
OHP 45 (5x5)
BP 45 (5x5)
Row 45 (5x5)
Now:
Squat 155
DL 145
OHP 50 (3x5)
BP 60 (3x5)
Row 70 (3x5)
5'8" and 186. Have lost a couple of pounds, eating at a small deficit most days. Have lost inches and am much firmer.
Moving from 5x5 to 3x5 really helped the upper body stuff. I'm an extremely pear-shaped person so figured my progress on upper body would be slow.0 -
I don't have pictures but I can tell you that when I first started SL 5x5 I thought the bar itself was heavy -- then I got up to squatting with a 25 lb. plate on each side and thought that was heavy but then I got up to 45 lb. plates, etc. -- currently I am doing warm-up squats at 2x5 @45, 1x3 @95, 1x3 @135 and they all feel light so that tells me I am making strength progress if nothing else -- yet my 5x5 squats feel heavy but they are going up 5 lb. each time and I am able to complete all 5x5 in each session.0
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arditarose wrote: »arditarose wrote: »keithcw_the_first wrote: »
Again, doing stronglifts but not eating enough. I was stuck with the "5 lbs. a week" progression and I let my form suffer instead of deloading or upping my calories.
So basically I chalk those up to poor decision making on my part. Listen to your body, make sure you're eating enough to match your work output. You'll be astounded.
This! I was trying to keep a significant deficit to keep losing quickly, but was soooo tired and my lifts were suffering. Upped the calories a bit to what I should have been eating, ~1500, and everything improved. Well, except the scale. It's not moving down too much. It's not reliable, anyway. If I can continue to go down in sizes, that's all I want.
How long did it take you after upping your calories for you lifts to improve?
The next workout. Seriously. I had been struggling with 55 lbs on OHP for a while. I went ahead and tried 60 and failed on the second set. Took loooooong rests and got through the rest, but I should have de-loaded.
April 2 - not a good feeling while lifting and tired all the time
April 5 - upped calories after doing some reading
April 7 - had a great work out. S=85 Bench=75 Row=75
April 9 - felt so strong. S=90 OHP=60 DL=155 It was hard, but I didn't fail on anything and had more energy overall. Take THAT OHP!
Ugh. I'm so upping my calories this week. Screw 130 lbs. Tired of feeling like a wimp with my lifts. Thanks for that time line
Preach! We keep converging on this, lol. Thanks for sharing your experience @ar9179 . Very motivating to me for following suit and upping my caloric intake too. 0 -
Not exactly on SL, but I've been doing SS (3x5 instead of 5x5) for just about 8 weeks now and I love it! I've gone from 210-195, which might not sound like alot, but the visual difference has been pretty big.
Started:
Squat: 85
Bench: 60
Deadlift: 95
OHP: 50
Clean: 55
Now:
Squat: 135
Bench: 85
DL: 185
OHP: 70
Clean: 900 -
Not exactly on SL, but I've been doing SS (3x5 instead of 5x5) for just about 8 weeks now and I love it! I've gone from 210-195, which might not sound like alot, but the visual difference has been pretty big.
Started:
Squat: 85
Bench: 60
Deadlift: 95
OHP: 50
Clean: 55
Now:
Squat: 135
Bench: 85
DL: 185
OHP: 70
Clean: 900 -
Not exactly on SL, but I've been doing SS (3x5 instead of 5x5) for just about 8 weeks now and I love it! I've gone from 210-195, which might not sound like alot, but the visual difference has been pretty big.
Started:
Squat: 85
Bench: 60
Deadlift: 95
OHP: 50
Clean: 55
Now:
Squat: 135
Bench: 85
DL: 185
OHP: 70
Clean: 90
why is overhead press so hard to up? Im having a hard time too going up with that
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giannigreco83 wrote: »why is overhead press so hard to up? Im having a hard time too going up with that
OHP is harder to progress in because it's the smallest of the muscles in the SL program. Some people drop down to micro loading doing less than the 5 lbs increment per workout.0 -
IamUndrCnstruction wrote: »I do weigh my food, even condiments, unless it is a packaged thing I can scan the barcode on, like a quest bar or something. I do see *some* scale movement, and downward direction, just not as much as I want. I also see and feel definition where there wasn't any, and looser pants even right out of the dryer! So I guess something is working and my scale might be drunk. I am just tired and hungry all the time.
@IamUndrCnstruction just curious how often you weigh yourself? Doing it everyday you might not see much of a change. I prefer to do it weekly. I was doing it Saturday morning but found if I ate "bad" on Friday night it would throw everything off. Lately I've switched to Friday morning and see a steady decline. Granted some weeks show more loss than others but it's moving in the right direction.0 -
arabianhorselover wrote: »
Calorie deficit...that's about it.0 -
@MikeDee_ny I weigh weekly, sometimes bi-weekly (if it's that ToM, I just call that week f*%$ed and move on) ..... I am coming off of several months of very low calorie dieting, like 800 cal a day stupidity, so maybe my metabolism is trying to catch up? I have no idea anymore. I do love the lifting, and have seen positive changes in size and definition....but I am tired of being tired, and the scale is still a drunk.0
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IamUndrCnstruction wrote: »@MikeDee_ny I weigh weekly, sometimes bi-weekly (if it's that ToM, I just call that week f*%$ed and move on) ..... I am coming off of several months of very low calorie dieting, like 800 cal a day stupidity, so maybe my metabolism is trying to catch up? I have no idea anymore. I do love the lifting, and have seen positive changes in size and definition....but I am tired of being tired, and the scale is still a drunk.
You definitely need to up the calories and that should help with being tired. dont worry about the scale. If you are working out and feel good and see changes then that's all that matters.0 -
IamUndrCnstruction wrote: »I am coming off of several months of very low calorie dieting, like 800 cal a day stupidity.
I don't even think that is enough calories to provide proper nutrition to the body. You should google the side effects of eating so little, as it is scary.0 -
@jasonraygagnon I know. It was scary, my hair started to fall out. I am under a lot of pressure to lose weight by the transplant center, so I went a little nuts. I am trying to do this the right way now!!0
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IamUndrCnstruction wrote: »@jasonraygagnon I know. It was scary, my hair started to fall out. I am under a lot of pressure to lose weight by the transplant center, so I went a little nuts. I am trying to do this the right way now!!
and that is all that's important now!
I have been there with you.(Meaning low cal diets)
I wanna be strong AND full
LOL I am team no hunger
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I love everyone's progress so I figured I will share mine. I started Stronglifts in June of last year and I took 3 month long breaks between cycles where I just did other things.
Starting
Squat 5x5 60lb
Deadlift 5x5 95lb
Row 5x5 65lb
Press 5x5 45lb
Current
Squat PR 195lb ; 5x5 155lb
Deadlift PR 225lb ; 5x5 185lb
Row 5x5 95lb
Press 5x5 65lb, I did 4x5 with 70lb this week but only got 4 reps on my last set
During my last cycle I added a pull-ups training program and accessorie lifts because that's very important to me so I backed off the row to accommodate for that.
My biggest mistake was starting the OHP with 45lb. I should have started much lighter.
Calorie intake went from 1600 to 2200, increased with each cycle.
Weight went from 225lb to 188lb.
Body fat % went from 43% to 30%.
This program will work great as long as you stay dedicated to it, give it at least 3,4 months before you actually begin to evaluate it. Also, once the weights go up and you're not willing to also up your calories, its resonable to scale the program to two days a week.
Now go grab a barbell and beast out!0 -
@danelutza19 seems like you've made great progress. Congrats!!! Can I ask how long before you started increasing your calorie intake?0
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@MikeDee_ny I started to feel fatigue after the first 2,3 weeks on Stronglifts so I upped my calories to 1850 and then after another month I went to 1930. Over the winter I went to 2050, then 2150 I just took a break for two weeks and ate around 2700 calories daily. Starting today I'm experimenting with 2200 for the next two weeks.
Hope this helps0 -
danelutza19 wrote: »This program will work great as long as you stay dedicated to it, give it at least 3,4 months before you actually begin to evaluate it. Also, once the weights go up and you're not willing to also up your calories, its resonable to scale the program to two days a week.
Now go grab a barbell and beast out!
Yes! This is mainly a strength/muscle building program and is MEANT to be done on a calorie surplus in order to continue to build muscle and gain strength. It can be done on a calorie deficit, but you have to realize that as you move into heavier weights without more calories, the body has a harder time recovering. A lot of people that I've talked to on MFP that have done SL beyond the initial 12 weeks and have been on a deficit, will drop it to twice a week and also drop it to 3x5. Listen to your body and if you're repeatedly failing lifts, a decrease in days/reps might be in order to go with the programmed deload.0 -
danelutza19 wrote: »@MikeDee_ny I started to feel fatigue after the first 2,3 weeks on Stronglifts so I upped my calories to 1850 and then after another month I went to 1930. Over the winter I went to 2050, then 2150 I just took a break for two weeks and ate around 2700 calories daily. Starting today I'm experimenting with 2200 for the next two weeks.
Hope this helps
Excellent. Thank you.0 -
Bump0
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I'm 7 weeks into strong lifts and I love it. The only thing I struggle with is OHP. I have decided to increase the weight by 2.5lb on everything else and 5lb on the deadlift. It seems more doable for me and keeps me motivated.0
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Graceious1 wrote: »I'm 7 weeks into strong lifts and I love it. The only thing I struggle with is OHP. I have decided to increase the weight by 2.5lb on everything else and 5lb on the deadlift. It seems more doable for me and keeps me motivated.
That's great! Even small progress is still progress 0 -
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Great thread. My wife and I have been doing SL 5x5 since January. We got a power cage at home and some cheap weights & bar from Canadian Tire. We both started with just the 15 pound bar and worked up from there. I got up to Squats 5x5 at 175pounds before I tweaked my back and deloaded by half after a week off to rest. I am now working my way back up (haven't reached failure on any of my lifts yet) and am at the following weights again as of now:
Squat 5x5: 155
DL 1x5: 155
OHP 5x5: 85
BP 5x5: 110
Row 5x5: 110
I've gone from 261.8 on Jan 10th to 246.9 as of this week. I track my food religiously and use a fitbit to estimate my TDEE. I don't enter weight lifting activity to gain extra calories, but I do eat a good portion of the calories I earn back based on what the fitbit tracks from my motion. I also run on the treadmill 3 days a week when possible, I've been working up to a 20 minute continuous run.
My wife has lost a similar amount of weight and we're both very happy with the program.0 -
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