How long...

Christismylife · September 2018

I have increased my exercise and am seeing the scale go up some. I have read that this can be from inflammation or the body healing itself, so it’s temporary weight gain. I get that and am ok with that. I am wondering if anyone knows or has experience to know about how long before my body might adjust and start to lose weight again?

cathipa · September 2018

DOMS creates temporary weight gain (usually only a few days). How long have you been at your current deficit and not losing?

quiksylver296 · September 2018

The longest I've seen anybody in these threads say was six weeks.

NovusDies · September 2018

If you stay in a deficit you won't stop losing fat weight you just won't be able to see it until it either surpasses the additional water retention or the water returns to "normal".

collectingblues · September 2018

Six weeks is my norm with new exercises or routines.

hesn92 · September 2018

Well for me when I started lifting weights from doing nothing, it took about 3 weeks for the weight to go down again. It probably depends what type of exercise and how strenuous it was?

AnnPT77 · September 2018

While not disagreeing with folks' estimates above, I'd add this: Generally, we tend to gain a limited number of pounds for muscle repair with new exercise - it doesn't keep increasing and increasing indefinitely.

How fast fat loss will show up on the scale will depend that leveling out via reduced muscle repair needs, but also will depend on at least two additional factors:

1. How fast you were and are losing fat: The water weight is hiding ongoing fat loss from you, not preventing fat loss, so someone with a faster fat loss rate will see the scale start dropping again a little sooner than someone with a slower fat loss rate, all other things equal.

2. What else is going on with you that affects water weight fluctuations. For example, most premenopausal women see some water weight gain related to hormonal cycles, the exact timing of which varies by individual. If you happen to start working out a couple of weeks before that hormonal gain, and your muscle-repair water retention drops off at around that same time, you'll still not be seeing the scale move until after the hormonal water weight drops off. Same deal for any other confounding water weight fluctuation for any reason (infection, minor injury, unusual amount of carb or sodium intake (even if a healthy amount of either), etc.).

Don't worry, if you're still keeping a calorie deficit, you are losing fat. It's just being hidden by the water retention. Eventually, fat loss will show up on the scale as weight loss. Hang in there, and don't let the deluding scale stall make you panic.

P.S. I usually weight train only in my rowing off season. When I was losing and tracking carefully, I saw about a 2-pound gain when I started training progressively in the Fall, and seemed to hold onto it until I saw an equally otherwise-unexplained 2-pound drop in Spring when I stopped weight training again. Not everyone is the same. But I saw the scale keep dropping again as soon as I'd lost around 2 pounds of fat - 2-3 weeks, at that point. The fat loss outpaced the water weight.

Seffell · September 2018

For me all three times during the last couple of years when I started a new strength training routine my weight got stuck for 6 weeks despite eating at my usual deficit. Very annoying.
In all cases my weight dropped by a lot immediately after I stopped working out.

JorrunFulhelm · September 2018

I think it depends. How often are you weighing yourself or taking measurements?

Christismylife · September 2018

JorrunFulhelm wrote: »

I think it depends. How often are you weighing yourself or taking measurements?

I pretty much weigh daily. I know weight fluctuates and that weight loss isn’t linear. But sometimes knowing that in your head doesn’t translate to not feeling frustration at that number going up despite eating at a deficit and working out hard.

nutmegoreo · September 2018

When I started lifting, it took at least 4 weeks (might have been 6, I don't remember anymore, it's been a while). The only thing that kept me going was knowing that I was doing everything else right (logging accurate with a food scale for all solids and semi solids, and checking the accuracy of the database items I chose). I had to just trust the process. It was a relief to see the scale moving again though.

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