How losing weight with strength training looks like?

narwhalpr

Alright, during week this question has been bugging me a lot. I have lost weight previously with a lot of cardio and doing strength training with not so heavy weights (5 -10 lbs; not increasing the weight). The body weight I was losing was steady throughout the week; between three to five pounds per week. I lost 40 pounds in two and half month. However, my diet was probably around 1,200 calories/day. In other words it was not a good diet. So I gained all back.

This time around I am using MFP, eating around 2,200 calories/day per MFP (that includes exercise calories and varies by calories burned). I am currently doing Insanity (Day 23) and decided to go back to the gym this week to continue strength training. I have increased my lifting weights up to 20 lbs (last time I went to the gym to lift weight I was lifting 15lbs).

In any way, I have lost 12 lbs in a month and 1 week (around 3lbs or so per week), but now the weight loss slowed down to maybe some ounces per week and so and such. I also keep losing inches and gaining some back it's just going back and forward. This process is driving me crazy! It is my first time focusing more in strength training and I feel I am lost in a new dimension! Does that even makes sense? I have been taking pictures like crazy and I keep seeing results, but omg... where my fat is going? Again, this is driving me crazy!

This week I was getting frustrated, but I am ok now with the fact that I keep seeing progress by measuring myself and clothes even dropping while exercising. And my body is more toned and fit and I am kicking *kitten* doing Insanity having in fact that I am 89lbs overweight!

At this point I just feel annoyed wondering what the heck is happening to my body; nothing calculating well in my brain! I know that muscle weight is increasing and fat weight is decreasing, but the heck, where are the numbers! I wish I had a way to measure body fat more accurate (not using Internet calculators!).

- May get your input on this?

- Am I going crazy or you understand me? Can you share you experience on this?

- Did/do your weight per week fluctuate/ed a lot?!!!

At the moment my goal weight is 140, but if things goes like this it might even be 150 lbs? :noway:

Thank you!

Ian_Stuart

I think that this article answers your questions way better than I could: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

I have since switched to more of a crossfit style of training, which mixes weights with cardio type activities, but back when I was just lifting heavy (Doing starting strength) I had to eat a CRAZY amount of food just to keep up with the demand.
If your weight loss has slowed, I would say that you have probably started to build some muscle mass. Muscle is more dense than fat, so it is possible to be smaller and weigh MORE when you have significant muscle mass. You will look lean and toned and be very strong, but the number on the scale will still stubbornly say that you weigh more than you want. The answer to this problem is to stop caring about the scale at that point. Just work on improving your lift numbers, decreasing your run times (if you run) and feeling better.

Jewlz280

Commenting to follow for info.

narwhalpr

Thank you Stuartian! That article basically answer all my questions! That is actually a very inspirational article! When I lost those 40lbs I mentioned, I started doing heavy lifting and I felt so obsessed with it! Now I get to enjoy it and at the same time I lose weight! It's just beautiful! The magic of educating yourself! Thank you!

Ian_Stuart

Absolutely! My pleasure! I think you are the first really positive response I have gotten to that article, despite sending it to every woman who mentions not being happy with themselves. Just go heavy and eat what you need to eat and the look will come on its own!

I can't wait to see your updates as you get into this more!

Jewlz280

Read the link and loved it! Now I need to get the ol' booty and gear and get back to what worked for me before and LIFT! :bigsmile:

Ian_Stuart

Here are some additional helpful links for information and motivation:

Helpful Links
Starting Strength Wiki: http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:The_Program

The Reddit Fitness FAQ (TONS of information):
http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/faq

The Reddit XXFitness FAQ (as above, but specific to women)
http://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/faq

The Reddit XXFitness Community:
http://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/

The Reddit Fitness Community:
http://www.reddit.com/r/fitness

Fitocracy (Like MFP, but much better at logging strength exercises. No nutrition component, but I like it to track my workouts more):
https://www.fitocracy.com

cafeaulait7

I'm eating just a little under maintenance, so I knew the weight loss part would be very slow, but I've been surprised by how quickly the inches go down! Definitely measure yourself with a tape measure.

I can't really figure out what the scale is doing, honestly. My fluctuations are pretty big. I don't log my 'low' weight in on here until I start seeing that number a whole lot, lol. My scale weight seems to like to go up and down by a few lbs for the most part (like a zigzag) without a lot of downward trend in, say, a month, but the inches charts have a clear trend downward through the same month.

I only care about the inches, really, so that works for me. Good luck!

Ian_Stuart

@cafeaulait7: Because muscle is more dense than fat you can look much thinner but actually weigh more. For me the most startling demonstration of this fact came from swimming during my heavy summer and then swimming again the following summer once I had lost 40lbs or so. When I was really heavy, I would float around in the pool and hang out in the deep end with no real effort. The following summer I jumped in and sank like a stone! Now I really have to tread water hard to stay afloat. Fat is less dense than water and muscle is more dense. My advice is, if you are seriously overweight, then focusing on the scale number might be ok, but once you get down to a more healthy weight, focus on how you feel, your fitness goals (run a 5k, lift your bodyweight, etc...) and then how you look. If you want to still track your weight number, try using a moving average of the last 10 days or so. That normalizes any daily water weight fluctuations and just gives the general trend, which is all we care about anyway!