Havent lost weight? Full body training

elfin168

I have heard of this happening but haven't experienced this myself before. So I am weight training full body 3 times a week at 5-8 reps. In my 2nd or 3rd week now. I am eating at a deficit with a reasonable amount of protein. I weighed myself this morning and weigh EXACTLY the same as I did about 4 weeks ago and yet am pretty sure I have lost fat. My waist is definetely smaller and more defined, my legs are slimmer. Any ideas of what is happening here? Could I be retaining water from the weight training?

heybales

For sure you would be, as that's what is going to happen after a good workout.

But it would not keep increasing to keep masking fat loss weight on the scale.
That sort of retained water is going to max out.

For a woman whose BMR literally changes through the month, 2-3 weeks also isn't long enough to discern anything through known water weight fluctuations.
So if the timing there is just right it could add on a few more lbs at just the right time to appear like no progress.


The only other thing that can keep piling on water weight to mask fat loss on the scale - elevated cortisol levels.
Those can slowly keep increasing as stress keeps increasing on the body, upwards of 20 lbs can slowly be added that way.
That could mask fat loss on the scale for a long time.
And then stressing about it keeps it going to that higher level.

If that latter reason is part of it - it could be your deficit is too steep for the amount to lose and body is fighting it.
Bad state to be in - because it also means your workouts aren't really as good as they could be.
Oh - it may feel like a hard workout and giving it your all, but compared to what could be - not as much.

How much do you have to lose, and how much deficit are you doing?
You pick honest activity level, log your workouts, eat the adjusted goal?

Good job proving the fat is going away, scales can't tell the whole store like measurements can.
And since people see measurements (in a sense), but not your scale weight - good attitude.

BuffTheatreNerd

Sounds like you have plateaued or recomping. You said you are noticing more definition so I am going to lean more towards the latter which is good! I would say make a slight adjustment. Either bump off another 200 calories from the diet or add a little more cardio to on top of what you are doing