Recovery Week - lost more weight than workout week - why?

tnqnt
tnqnt Posts: 397 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
OK - so I have been working out diligently for 8 months ... about 10 hours a week in target heart rate zones (I don't slack, I am constantly keeping my heartrate at at least 60% - 80% of my maximum , which is about 115 BPM to 146 BPM).

My routine is 6 days, 3 cardio (roughly 1.5 hrs each) and 3 cardio and strength (mixture of free weights and body resistance), about 1.5 - 2 hours on these days.

This week, I am taking a rest week. Mainly because I have a head cold. I am still up and about, and I really need a recovery week, as I was getting very tight and achy.

So, this week, I have lost almost 2.5 lbs.

My question is this:

1) Why have I lost weight on a non-training week. My net calories are about the same as my other weeks.
NOTE: I use a HRM to estimate calories burned during my workout weeks, which averages about 350-500 per hour depending on activity.

2) Does the body hold water when you are on an intense workout regimen and could my body just be releasing that water, accounting for the 2.5 lb weight difference?

Any trainers out there? Knowledgeable responses appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Replies

  • __RANDY__
    __RANDY__ Posts: 1,036 Member
    2) Does the body hold water when you are on an intense workout regimen and could my body just be releasing that water, accounting for the 2.5 lb weight difference?

    Yep
  • Crankstr
    Crankstr Posts: 3,958 Member
    water

    yep
  • sjohnny
    sjohnny Posts: 56,142 Member
    2) Does the body hold water when you are on an intense workout regimen and could my body just be releasing that water, accounting for the 2.5 lb weight difference?

    Yes
  • tnqnt
    tnqnt Posts: 397 Member
    Hi! Thanks for your response :)

    I agree it's water, but my question is why - is it because I was holding water due to my intense workouts? And why does it do this? Will my weight go back up once I start working out again, next week?

    thanks again :)
  • DontStopB_Leakin
    DontStopB_Leakin Posts: 3,863 Member
    Hi! Thanks for your response :)

    I agree its water, but my question is why - is it because I was holding water due to my intense workouts?
    Your muscles hold onto water when repairing themselves.

    So yes.
  • danifo0811
    danifo0811 Posts: 544 Member
    In the past when I've had that, I regained less than half a pound if anything. Rest does your body good!
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
    When you workout your cells produce toxins such as lactic acid which is what causes your muscles to feel soooo sore after heavy weightlifting - these toxins are a byproduct of cell metabolism even if you don't feel sore...water is used via the circulatory and lymphatic systems to move these toxins out of the cells and eventually out of the body...so you do have a lot more water in circulation during post-workout recovery.
  • tnqnt
    tnqnt Posts: 397 Member
    What are the recommendations for recovery week... One week OFF after how many ON?
    I hit my first goal and am 10 lbs from my ultimate goal.

    i.e., once every _____ weeks?

    PS - I change my program every 8 weeks or so..... would that be a good time?

    thanks again :)
  • ILoveTheBrowns
    ILoveTheBrowns Posts: 661 Member
    interesting
  • mndamon
    mndamon Posts: 549 Member
    I typically do a recovery week about every 8 weeks. Sometimes it's earlier if I'm out of town for work after like 6 weeks but I never go more than 8 weeks without taking one off.
  • mdbs2004
    mdbs2004 Posts: 220 Member
    Happens to me when I stop working out for a week or 2. I lost 10 pounds when I stopped for 2 weeks. I gained 4 or 5 pounds back when I started working out again.
  • Abells
    Abells Posts: 756 Member
    I typically do a recovery week about every 8 weeks. Sometimes it's earlier if I'm out of town for work after like 6 weeks but I never go more than 8 weeks without taking one off.

    second this guy -- I like to do a de-load week as well that's where you see the loss as long as you don't go over your calories. I typically deload after about 6 weeks
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    What are the recommendations for recovery week... One week OFF after how many ON?
    I hit my first goal and am 10 lbs from my ultimate goal.

    i.e., once every _____ weeks?

    PS - I change my program every 8 weeks or so..... would that be a good time?

    thanks again :)

    It varies on the intensity of the program that you're on. I try to do one every 8 weeks but will do it in 6 if I'm doing something that leaves me more fatigued than usual.

    More than setting a schedule, try to listen to your body. If you're fatigued more than usual, can't stop aching, grumpy(ier), or having trouble sleeping, don't put rest of for 2 more weeks because of some random date on a calendar. When you start feeling like you need a rest week, you probably should have taken one 2 weeks prior
  • FITnFIRM4LIFE
    FITnFIRM4LIFE Posts: 818 Member
    What are the recommendations for recovery week... One week OFF after how many ON?
    I hit my first goal and am 10 lbs from my ultimate goal.

    i.e., once every _____ weeks?

    PS - I change my program every 8 weeks or so..... would that be a good time?

    thanks again :)

    It varies on the intensity of the program that you're on. I try to do one every 8 weeks but will do it in 6 if I'm doing something that leaves me more fatigued than usual.

    More than setting a schedule, try to listen to your body. If you're fatigued more than usual, can't stop aching, grumpy(ier), or having trouble sleeping, don't put rest of for 2 more weeks because of some random date on a calendar. When you start feeling like you need a rest week, you probably should have taken one 2 weeks prior

    Agree-Listen to your Body-It will tell you!
  • Mock_Turtle
    Mock_Turtle Posts: 354 Member
    1. it could be water fluctuation

    2. it's important to know that weight loss is non-linear

    here is a good article to read from an expert on this topic:

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
    What are the recommendations for recovery week... One week OFF after how many ON?
    I hit my first goal and am 10 lbs from my ultimate goal.

    i.e., once every _____ weeks?

    PS - I change my program every 8 weeks or so..... would that be a good time?

    thanks again :)
    Unless you are vastly overextending yourself and overtraining you never need to take a full week off. A day off once in a while is enough.

    If your program does have a heavy workload then you can reduce that workload by 20 to 30% every third week for recovery.
  • AverageUkDude
    AverageUkDude Posts: 371 Member
    Thanks for asking this OP, had a recovery week last week and lost 2lb and was confused like hell.
  • tnqnt
    tnqnt Posts: 397 Member
    1. it could be water fluctuation

    2. it's important to know that weight loss is non-linear

    here is a good article to read from an expert on this topic:

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html

    This is interesting and makes sense - thank you for sharing :)
  • tnqnt
    tnqnt Posts: 397 Member
    What are the recommendations for recovery week... One week OFF after how many ON?
    I hit my first goal and am 10 lbs from my ultimate goal.

    i.e., once every _____ weeks?

    PS - I change my program every 8 weeks or so..... would that be a good time?

    thanks again :)
    Unless you are vastly overextending yourself and overtraining you never need to take a full week off. A day off once in a while is enough.

    If your program does have a heavy workload then you can reduce that workload by 20 to 30% every third week for recovery.

    Interesting... I was always told to be sure to do a recovery week. Actually my body is thanking me bigtime - I was very stiff and sore and now feel much better, feel I will be stronger when I return to my routine on Monday... do you feel it is damaging to take a recovery week? If so, why? thanks in advance :)
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
    What are the recommendations for recovery week... One week OFF after how many ON?
    I hit my first goal and am 10 lbs from my ultimate goal.

    i.e., once every _____ weeks?

    PS - I change my program every 8 weeks or so..... would that be a good time?

    thanks again :)
    Unless you are vastly overextending yourself and overtraining you never need to take a full week off. A day off once in a while is enough.

    If your program does have a heavy workload then you can reduce that workload by 20 to 30% every third week for recovery.

    Interesting... I was always told to be sure to do a recovery week. Actually my body is thanking me bigtime - I was very stiff and sore and now feel much better, feel I will be stronger when I return to my routine on Monday... do you feel it is damaging to take a recovery week? If so, why? thanks in advance :)
    Just to clarify, I was mainly talking about the cardio portion such as for people training for performance. I'll leave the advice for intense weight training to someone more knowledgable than me.

    But for endurance training the total oonsistent workload is of primary importance. If someone has to start taking extended or repeated time off then that points to a training error, usually too high or intense a training load for a person's current fitness level. That also points to the fact that the training is harder than it needs to be and is overloading the body's ability to recover from training sessions making much of the training time less productive than it otherwise could be.
  • tnqnt
    tnqnt Posts: 397 Member
    Just to clarify, I was mainly talking about the cardio portion such as for people training for performance. I'll leave the advice for intense weight training to someone more knowledgable than me.

    But for endurance training the total oonsistent workload is of primary importance. If someone has to start taking extended or repeated time off then that points to a training error, usually too high or intense a training load for a person's current fitness level. That also points to the fact that the training is harder than it needs to be and is overloading the body's ability to recover from training sessions making much of the training time less productive than it otherwise could be.

    I do both Cardio and Weight/Resistance training. I had been going 8 months straight 6 days a week, intense workouts without any true recovery week. I feel better so I am guessing it is a good thing to do :) I will go back Monday and am thinking of reducing my workout time as I am very close to my goal weight. I do want to tone my core, so will try to focus on resistance to accomplish this for the next 8 weeks ... I think I need to reduce my cardio a bit as I was doing LOTS of it.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    The weight loss is almost certainly due to fluid shifts. There are some short-term training adaptations that start to reverse fairly quickly.

    I also agree that, unless you have symptoms of overtraining, there is no need to automatically take a week off at set intervals. You can build "active recovery" into a routine without actually stopping your program.

    As someone said, both training stimulus and results are not linear--they follow more of a sawtooth pattern.
  • ken_ferry77
    ken_ferry77 Posts: 4
    To be honest from my research over the past 5 years on different forms of training from cardio, interval, body resistance, weight training, power lifting ect.... I think you are working out way too much. Working out any more than an 1 hour a day for 2-3 days a week should be your max, anything else you are just causing way too much inflammation and muscle damage in your body. I think cardio is a waste because it is not efficient enough. Once you get into those higher level zones of cardio your body stops burning fat and starts burning glucose to fuel your muscles. Your muscles and liver together only hold 500-600 grams of glycogen at any given time. Doing 6 days straight of cardio\weight training would mean that you should be eating at least 500-600 grams of carbs a day which I would be curious if you are actually doing. This kind of training (and diet) raises cortisol levels, increases oxidative damage, systemic inflammation, depresses the immune system and decreases fat metabolism. So if you are even eating that much to recover the glycogen your really not doing your body good at all. For optimal workout efficiency you body needs at least a day to recover, taking a whole week for recovery doesn't make that much sense to me. I do agree with the rest on the water suggestion however. I do mean this as constructive criticism, I would offer you a few names of people that has studied the research of what I am talking about above in further detail but I think that would be considered advertising.
  • oeagleo
    oeagleo Posts: 70 Member
    Thank you for that link, within it, I found what I believe is the answer to a question I posed in another forum, "Why does my body fat percentage increase after a workout, when my weight may stay the same, or even go up or down a tad?", The answer is given in that link:

    "Somewhat circumstantially, people using Bioimpedance body fat scales (which use hydration to estimate body fat levels) have noted that body fat appears to go up right before a big drop. This implicates water balance as the issue here."

    I'm using a Withings (Biometric) scale, and this apparently explains it all, (with the supporting discussion found in the article itself)
    Thanks!
  • tnqnt
    tnqnt Posts: 397 Member
    Ha! First day back at the gym today in a week and I weigh more than I did on my week off.....

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