Any 5x5 Success Stories?

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  • Markdjones83
    Markdjones83 Posts: 852 Member
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    Question about eating enough, as the above poster mentioned. At 5'10" with about 50ish pounds to lose, lifting 3x a week and cardio 4 times a week....desk job otherwise, should I be eating more than 1350 calories? All calculators say yes, by way more, but MFP gave the 1350 number. I do eat back some exercise cals, but never all, and rarely half. And yes, I am tired all the damn time. The scale has not moved either direction in a bit....

    I would definitely suggest eating more and for sure eat back ALL of your exercise cals. What do you have the weight lost setting to? I do SL 5x5 and Insanity MAX:30 cardio in between. I am only 5'4 guy and I'm eating around 2000-2500 calories set at .5 lb gain. Even at maintenance I am eating like 1750 and I was dropping weight at that number.
  • IamUndrCnstruction
    IamUndrCnstruction Posts: 691 Member
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    I have it set to 1.5lb a week loss. I am female, 207lbs. Been seeing visual changes for the better, not much scale movement.
  • ar9179
    ar9179 Posts: 374 Member
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    Question about eating enough, as the above poster mentioned. At 5'10" with about 50ish pounds to lose, lifting 3x a week and cardio 4 times a week....desk job otherwise, should I be eating more than 1350 calories? All calculators say yes, by way more, but MFP gave the 1350 number. I do eat back some exercise cals, but never all, and rarely half. And yes, I am tired all the damn time. The scale has not moved either direction in a bit....

    MFP gave you the 1350 in expectation that you would eat back a portion of your exercise calories that you burned. If I were you, I'd eat back at least half to 75% on hungry days. Also, are you weighing your food? Accuracy is a benefit when the scale is stuck. That said, I don't see scale progress for 2-3 weeks at a time. It's no biggie as long as there is eventually progress, somewhere (ex. measurements).

    My workouts are regular except for an extra walk here and there, so I used the TDEE method. It takes into account ALL of your activity. Reduce it by about 20% for losing weight and you have your daily number.

    Both versions work, it just a matter of preference.
  • IamUndrCnstruction
    IamUndrCnstruction Posts: 691 Member
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    I do weigh my food, even condiments, unless it is a packaged thing I can scan the barcode on, like a quest bar or something. I do see *some* scale movement, and downward direction, just not as much as I want. I also see and feel definition where there wasn't any, and looser pants even right out of the dryer! So I guess something is working and my scale might be drunk. I am just tired and hungry all the time.
  • McCloud33
    McCloud33 Posts: 959 Member
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    I do weigh my food, even condiments, unless it is a packaged thing I can scan the barcode on, like a quest bar or something. I do see *some* scale movement, and downward direction, just not as much as I want. I also see and feel definition where there wasn't any, and looser pants even right out of the dryer! So I guess something is working and my scale might be drunk. I am just tired and hungry all the time.

    I agree that you need to eat more as well. I'm 5'-8" and 175 and I'm still losing on 1500/day (plus exercise cals back) and so I'm eating close to 1800-2000 a day. I'd look at your protein to as that can help with energy levels.
  • LaarainNYC
    LaarainNYC Posts: 90 Member
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    Not quite 8 weeks on SL; loving it.

    Started:
    Squat 60
    DL 50
    OHP 45 (5x5)
    BP 45 (5x5)
    Row 45 (5x5)

    Now:
    Squat 155
    DL 145
    OHP 50 (3x5)
    BP 60 (3x5)
    Row 70 (3x5)

    5'8" and 186. Have lost a couple of pounds, eating at a small deficit most days. Have lost inches and am much firmer.

    Moving from 5x5 to 3x5 really helped the upper body stuff. I'm an extremely pear-shaped person so figured my progress on upper body would be slow.
  • kjm3579
    kjm3579 Posts: 3,974 Member
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    I don't have pictures but I can tell you that when I first started SL 5x5 I thought the bar itself was heavy -- then I got up to squatting with a 25 lb. plate on each side and thought that was heavy but then I got up to 45 lb. plates, etc. -- currently I am doing warm-up squats at 2x5 @45, 1x3 @95, 1x3 @135 and they all feel light so that tells me I am making strength progress if nothing else -- yet my 5x5 squats feel heavy but they are going up 5 lb. each time and I am able to complete all 5x5 in each session.
  • Emilia777
    Emilia777 Posts: 978 Member
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    arditarose wrote: »
    ar9179 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    ar9179 wrote: »

    Again, doing stronglifts but not eating enough. I was stuck with the "5 lbs. a week" progression and I let my form suffer instead of deloading or upping my calories.

    So basically I chalk those up to poor decision making on my part. Listen to your body, make sure you're eating enough to match your work output. You'll be astounded.

    This! I was trying to keep a significant deficit to keep losing quickly, but was soooo tired and my lifts were suffering. Upped the calories a bit to what I should have been eating, ~1500, and everything improved. Well, except the scale. It's not moving down too much. It's not reliable, anyway. If I can continue to go down in sizes, that's all I want.

    How long did it take you after upping your calories for you lifts to improve?


    The next workout. Seriously. I had been struggling with 55 lbs on OHP for a while. I went ahead and tried 60 and failed on the second set. Took loooooong rests and got through the rest, but I should have de-loaded.
    April 2 - not a good feeling while lifting and tired all the time
    April 5 - upped calories after doing some reading
    April 7 - had a great work out. S=85 Bench=75 Row=75
    April 9 - felt so strong. S=90 OHP=60 DL=155 It was hard, but I didn't fail on anything and had more energy overall. Take THAT OHP!

    Ugh. I'm so upping my calories this week. Screw 130 lbs. Tired of feeling like a wimp with my lifts. Thanks for that time line :)

    Preach! We keep converging on this, lol. Thanks for sharing your experience @ar9179 . Very motivating to me for following suit and upping my caloric intake too. :smile:
  • Sweet_Heresy
    Sweet_Heresy Posts: 411 Member
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    Not exactly on SL, but I've been doing SS (3x5 instead of 5x5) for just about 8 weeks now and I love it! I've gone from 210-195, which might not sound like alot, but the visual difference has been pretty big.

    Started:
    Squat: 85
    Bench: 60
    Deadlift: 95
    OHP: 50
    Clean: 55

    Now:
    Squat: 135
    Bench: 85
    DL: 185
    OHP: 70
    Clean: 90
  • Sweet_Heresy
    Sweet_Heresy Posts: 411 Member
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    Not exactly on SL, but I've been doing SS (3x5 instead of 5x5) for just about 8 weeks now and I love it! I've gone from 210-195, which might not sound like alot, but the visual difference has been pretty big.

    Started:
    Squat: 85
    Bench: 60
    Deadlift: 95
    OHP: 50
    Clean: 55

    Now:
    Squat: 135
    Bench: 85
    DL: 185
    OHP: 70
    Clean: 90
  • giannigreco83
    giannigreco83 Posts: 282 Member
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    Ryudori wrote: »
    Not exactly on SL, but I've been doing SS (3x5 instead of 5x5) for just about 8 weeks now and I love it! I've gone from 210-195, which might not sound like alot, but the visual difference has been pretty big.

    Started:
    Squat: 85
    Bench: 60
    Deadlift: 95
    OHP: 50
    Clean: 55

    Now:
    Squat: 135
    Bench: 85
    DL: 185
    OHP: 70
    Clean: 90

    why is overhead press so hard to up? Im having a hard time too going up with that
  • McCloud33
    McCloud33 Posts: 959 Member
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    why is overhead press so hard to up? Im having a hard time too going up with that

    OHP is harder to progress in because it's the smallest of the muscles in the SL program. Some people drop down to micro loading doing less than the 5 lbs increment per workout.
  • BklynFitGuy
    BklynFitGuy Posts: 712 Member
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    I do weigh my food, even condiments, unless it is a packaged thing I can scan the barcode on, like a quest bar or something. I do see *some* scale movement, and downward direction, just not as much as I want. I also see and feel definition where there wasn't any, and looser pants even right out of the dryer! So I guess something is working and my scale might be drunk. I am just tired and hungry all the time.

    @IamUndrCnstruction just curious how often you weigh yourself? Doing it everyday you might not see much of a change. I prefer to do it weekly. I was doing it Saturday morning but found if I ate "bad" on Friday night it would throw everything off. Lately I've switched to Friday morning and see a steady decline. Granted some weeks show more loss than others but it's moving in the right direction.
  • kshadows
    kshadows Posts: 1,315 Member
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    kshadows wrote: »
    One year difference. SL 5x5 on and off (mostly off due to injury and surgery) but all together probably about 4 months of it.

    7kvv21ofx2gl.jpg


    I'd say you did something more than just Stronglifts.

    Calorie deficit...that's about it.
  • IamUndrCnstruction
    IamUndrCnstruction Posts: 691 Member
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    @MikeDee_ny I weigh weekly, sometimes bi-weekly (if it's that ToM, I just call that week f*%$ed and move on) ..... I am coming off of several months of very low calorie dieting, like 800 cal a day stupidity, so maybe my metabolism is trying to catch up? I have no idea anymore. I do love the lifting, and have seen positive changes in size and definition....but I am tired of being tired, and the scale is still a drunk.
  • BklynFitGuy
    BklynFitGuy Posts: 712 Member
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    @MikeDee_ny I weigh weekly, sometimes bi-weekly (if it's that ToM, I just call that week f*%$ed and move on) ..... I am coming off of several months of very low calorie dieting, like 800 cal a day stupidity, so maybe my metabolism is trying to catch up? I have no idea anymore. I do love the lifting, and have seen positive changes in size and definition....but I am tired of being tired, and the scale is still a drunk.

    You definitely need to up the calories and that should help with being tired. dont worry about the scale. If you are working out and feel good and see changes then that's all that matters.
  • jasonraygagnon
    jasonraygagnon Posts: 86 Member
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    I am coming off of several months of very low calorie dieting, like 800 cal a day stupidity.

    I don't even think that is enough calories to provide proper nutrition to the body. You should google the side effects of eating so little, as it is scary.
  • IamUndrCnstruction
    IamUndrCnstruction Posts: 691 Member
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    @jasonraygagnon I know. It was scary, my hair started to fall out. I am under a lot of pressure to lose weight by the transplant center, so I went a little nuts. I am trying to do this the right way now!!
  • mizzzc
    mizzzc Posts: 346 Member
    edited April 2015
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    @jasonraygagnon I know. It was scary, my hair started to fall out. I am under a lot of pressure to lose weight by the transplant center, so I went a little nuts. I am trying to do this the right way now!!

    and that is all that's important now!

    I have been there with you.(Meaning low cal diets)

    I wanna be strong AND full ;) LOL I am team no hunger

  • danelutza19
    danelutza19 Posts: 2,025 Member
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    I love everyone's progress so I figured I will share mine. I started Stronglifts in June of last year and I took 3 month long breaks between cycles where I just did other things.

    Starting
    Squat 5x5 60lb
    Deadlift 5x5 95lb
    Row 5x5 65lb
    Press 5x5 45lb

    Current
    Squat PR 195lb ; 5x5 155lb
    Deadlift PR 225lb ; 5x5 185lb
    Row 5x5 95lb
    Press 5x5 65lb, I did 4x5 with 70lb this week but only got 4 reps on my last set :(
    During my last cycle I added a pull-ups training program and accessorie lifts because that's very important to me so I backed off the row to accommodate for that.
    My biggest mistake was starting the OHP with 45lb. I should have started much lighter.

    Calorie intake went from 1600 to 2200, increased with each cycle.
    Weight went from 225lb to 188lb.
    Body fat % went from 43% to 30%.
    This program will work great as long as you stay dedicated to it, give it at least 3,4 months before you actually begin to evaluate it. Also, once the weights go up and you're not willing to also up your calories, its resonable to scale the program to two days a week.
    Now go grab a barbell and beast out!
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