How long did you stall after starting strength training?

artsycella
artsycella Posts: 121 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone! I'd love to hear from those who started weight lifting--especially while on a calorie deficit or even, like me, while obese/overweight. How long did it take you to start seeing the scale numbers drop again?

I started lifting weights about 5 weeks ago, and then upped the intensity with a new program starting this week. Prior to lifting, I was losing weight at a fair clip. Since I started lifting, I lost a couple of pounds the first week and since then scale has pretty much stalled--I've been bouncing between the same three pounds for the last month.

I know all about newbie gains in muscle, and stored water/glycogen, and I'm not in a panic about it--just wondering how long I should wait before I consider adjusting my intake. I'm a little worried that using NEAT+exercise, I'm overestimating my exercise calories and not maintaining enough of a deficit. But the same system was working well for me before, so I'm hesitant to change things up until I can confidently identify whether there's even a problem

I do measure myself once per month, and I lost a lot of inches in the 30 days that ended after 1 week of lifting. After that I saw a small loss (.5" at navel and hips, nothing at "natural" waist) when I measured a couple of weeks ago. I'm not due to measure again for another couple of weeks.

So, again, just wondering for those out there who started strength training while also losing weight--did it take 4-8 weeks for your weight loss to be noticeable on the scale again? Or was it much faster? Or slower?

Replies

  • ahmadfahmy
    ahmadfahmy Posts: 214 Member
    Hi everyone! I'd love to hear from those who started weight lifting--especially while on a calorie deficit or even, like me, while obese/overweight. How long did it take you to start seeing the scale numbers drop again?

    I started lifting weights about 5 weeks ago, and then upped the intensity with a new program starting this week. Prior to lifting, I was losing weight at a fair clip. Since I started lifting, I lost a couple of pounds the first week and since then scale has pretty much stalled--I've been bouncing between the same three pounds for the last month.

    I know all about newbie gains in muscle, and stored water/glycogen, and I'm not in a panic about it--just wondering how long I should wait before I consider adjusting my intake. I'm a little worried that using NEAT+exercise, I'm overestimating my exercise calories and not maintaining enough of a deficit. But the same system was working well for me before, so I'm hesitant to change things up until I can confidently identify whether there's even a problem

    I do measure myself once per month, and I lost a lot of inches in the 30 days that ended after 1 week of lifting. After that I saw a small loss (.5" at navel and hips, nothing at "natural" waist) when I measured a couple of weeks ago. I'm not due to measure again for another couple of weeks.

    So, again, just wondering for those out there who started strength training while also losing weight--did it take 4-8 weeks for your weight loss to be noticeable on the scale again? Or was it much faster? Or slower?

    measure your body fat% and track it on a weekly basis...this will give you a better idea if your exercise program and diet are actually working.
  • artsycella
    artsycella Posts: 121 Member

    measure your body fat% and track it on a weekly basis...this will give you a better idea if your exercise program and diet are actually working.

    Thanks! I'm actually really interested right now in learning about the experiences of other people.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    My scale weight really slowed down a lot...I was losing about 1 - 1.5 Lbs per week pretty consistently before. From there it took me about 4 months to lose an additional 8 Lbs or so on the scale. In reality I was still losing fat, but that number on the scale was masked by a lot of water retention in my muscles. It was really difficult to see anything on the scale week to week or even after a month..it was more apparent after a couple/few months that I was still losing but the water was masking that.

    Also, I currently weigh 180-183 (my maintenance range)...when I take my rest week I drop a lot of water and am usually around 175-178 depending...just to give you an idea of how much water you can hold onto. When you're talking about a Lb per week or whatever...but holding onto 5 Lbs of water, it can be pretty impossible to see on the scale in short amounts of time.

    Honestly, I still weigh myself but really don't pay a whole lot of attention to that number. Slowly but surely I continue to lean out so I'm really not worried about that scale value much anymore.
  • LJSmith1989
    LJSmith1989 Posts: 650
    I did SL 5X5 and for the first week I dropped 3llb and then stalled. I stopped after a few weeks due to over estimating a weight haha.
  • artsycella
    artsycella Posts: 121 Member
    Thanks, cowlfman and LJSmith! It's nice to know that this is pretty typical. I don't plan to give up, but I still have a lot left to lose to get closer towards goal weight/bf%. I hope that eventually the loss will start to show more on the scale and I don't have to rely on monthly measurements to see progress.

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