Weight Gain when Lifting Myths or Facts

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aimeetu
aimeetu Posts: 139 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I know that typically if I'm building muscle I may see little or no change on the scale. I may even gain a bit even though I stay the same size. Can you all help me separate fact from fiction - I'm only a week in to a new lifting program (LIIFT4 from Beachbody). I want to trust the process but seeing the scale go up again will start to mess with my psyche. What is real about water retention and inflammation and those sorts of things as it relates to lifting. Just hoping to stay the course :-)

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  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    It can vary from person to person. Water retention is real, but it's not a true weight management problem. Your body is 60% water and it's perfectly normal for it to fluctuate a few pounds. When adding muscle mass, it takes awhile for a female to build up even a couple of pounds, so that's why you don't see much change on the scale. It is a good idea to set a 5 lb maintenance range and allow yourself to fluctuate within that range without getting stressed. The best way to deal with our "psyche" issues is to educate our brains, which is exactly what you're trying to do.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    My weight loss stalled for at least 4 weeks (may have been 6, I don't remember anymore, it's been a couple years) when I started lifting. I knew that my logging was accurate, and that based on results prior to that, that I was in a calorie deficit. That knowledge and the awareness that muscle retains water as part of the healing process was the only thing that kept me moving.

    It was disheartening to suddenly not see the scale moving anymore. But my confidence in the science behind what I was doing kept me moving forward. One day I woke up and whoosh, nice drop on the scale. If you are confident in everything else you are doing, promise yourself that you will hold on for up to 6 weeks. It can be frustrating, but keep the end game in mind.

    Another idea would be to keep some additional metrics to measure progress. I suggest measurements and pictures. I don't see the physical changes in the mirror, but when I hold a current picture up against the starting picture, I can definitely see the difference.

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