Progressive overload - scale weight?

I am in the same boat as you. I am working out and lifting weights and the scale is not reflecting what I'm putting in for effort. I think it's muscle gain, and fat loss. Muscle weighs more than fat.

3.4lbs from a really hard workout week is definitely possible, especially if you are not used to this level of working out. It is water retention for muscle repair.

If you are in a deficit and are accurate in your logging and weighing, it will go away. Mine took about six weeks to level out.

And yes with lifting, you very well may see slower scale losses but an improvement in body composition as the trade off.

@CeeBeeSlim - I weighed daily and used Happy Scale to track my weight. I look at the overall trend, not the daily fluctuations. But yes, it IS alarming at first, but you just have to be patient and ride it out. I knew I was doing my body good by strength training so I didn't let the initial water weight gain scare me off. But yes, easier said than done for some people.

It will take 1 day to 2 weeks for the water retention to disappear. You could very well experience new water retention before you lose all of this, or more afterwards. Remember, the body is about 60% water, muscles are about 75% water. Just remind yourself to listen to the "intellectual" voice rather than the "emotional" one.

@CeeBeeSlim - you can track measurements on your progress (for sure on the web version you can) and occasionally, there are articles about Non-Scale Victories (NSVs) but I do realize it is not as highly emphasized as the scale progress.

The scale is an indicator of body weight at a moment in time, it's not an indicator of fitness at all. Many MFPers encourage others to take body measurements regularly because they "can" be a better indicator than the scale. This worked great for me when I had a trainer, but on my own I seem to have trouble getting consistent measurements in a row. But definitely you can and "should" do this!
I hope you track your lifting weights and reps-- this is where you will see the biggest progress given the program you follow. I advocate keeping many small goals in fitness, weight, nutrition, etc. That way when one area is disappointing, others are doing great! If you're familiar with linear equations, you know that we are always seeking that little triangle with the resolution. In real life it's very hard to come by so if you can get really close it's great. As soon as you loosen up even one of the lines just a bit, your solution area gets much larger.

Also remind your math brain of the standard deviation and p-value and why these parameters are important. Your water weight and fluctuations are the standard deviation but you are looking for p< 0.00001 which is nearly impossible to achieve. Relax up those standards a bit, you will still be mathematically sound, and much more satisfied. It takes awhile to retrain our "thinking" but this is part of our "job", to educate ourselves on reality as we progress through this journey.

I'm not saying to get sloppy and uncaring about your high standards, just relax a tiny bit to give yourself a tad bit of breathing room while still pushing ahead.

CeeBeeSlim wrote: »

@lorrpb Thanks! Just don't get myself. I'm a math geek, round my food when weighing and logging to two decimal places, suggested algebra problems for fun during high school and got bullied for it (nerd alert!!) - but that SCALE!! Even when my clothes fit better - THAT SCALE! Which makes me wonder - why isn't there much emphasis on measurements on mfp (unless I'm wrong) if the scale is not the end all? Unless while the scale is not the end all, it truly is the best indicator of fitness? Sigh!

Weight trending apps can be fun for math geeks - it helps if you understand the underlying statistics, too, as you'll better be able to understand & interpret what you're seeing. Maybe try daily weighing (first thing in the AM, after bathroom before food/water, if you're not doing that already, and put it in such an app.

Trendweight, Happy Scale, and Libra are common choices for different tech environments.

If you're pre-menopausal, don't forget that cycle-related water weight could be a factor in addition to workout-repair water weight; add in higher than usual sodium or carbs (even if healthy amounts, and within calorie goal), and maybe some extra-fibrous or other high-volume food in the digestive system, and weight bounces all over the place. If you're at a calorie deficit, fat loss will eventually out-pace any of the above that may temporarily mask it, and the scale will drop.