How to ignore your scale: 130lbs to 130lbs in just a year and a half!
- Thread starter john1277
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- female fitness
@john1277 Fantastic progress, congrats! This is like a poster for illustrating fitness principles.
Ever day there are a handful of posts from people trying to lift and lose weight on a deficit, wondering why their body composition is changing and they are getting stronger but the scale isn't budging.
This is a perfect example: the body is a master of recomping through homeostasis. Often the path of least resistance for beginners is to just lift, eat, and let your body do its recomp thing.
Once your gains stall, THEN cut if you aren't happy with your body fat percentage. You can progress so much faster with building muscle and letting go of fat when you aren't trying to starve yourself.
Bulking and cutting become essential for the intermediate to advanced lifter, but unless you have a whole lotta weight to lose, the concepts are overrated for beginners.
Congrats again, OP. Really great work.
Ever day there are a handful of posts from people trying to lift and lose weight on a deficit, wondering why their body composition is changing and they are getting stronger but the scale isn't budging.
This is a perfect example: the body is a master of recomping through homeostasis. Often the path of least resistance for beginners is to just lift, eat, and let your body do its recomp thing.
Once your gains stall, THEN cut if you aren't happy with your body fat percentage. You can progress so much faster with building muscle and letting go of fat when you aren't trying to starve yourself.
Bulking and cutting become essential for the intermediate to advanced lifter, but unless you have a whole lotta weight to lose, the concepts are overrated for beginners.
Congrats again, OP. Really great work.
@denice65 I've been doing exactly this and seeing slight progress eating at a deficit, 5'2 117lb 23%. So you think I would be better off at maintenance? My main goal is decreased body fat percentage. Do you think I would be better off allowing my body to change its composition (while lifting obviously) than cutting to decrease fat?
@dawn16 It really depends on a lot of things. What are your lifts and how long have you been lifting (how trained are you?). Are you still making progress on a linear progression, adding 5 lbs every time you go, or are you having difficulty progressing from one workout to the next? How many calories are you eating and how long have you been on your current deficit? How are you feeling physically and mentally? Exhausted and run down, or okay?
@denice65 Been lifting for about two months, mostly still adding weight every session. TDEE is 1700, eating about -25%. For the same two months. Physically not too tired, Just took a 1 week break and ate at maintenance since I felt like it would be nice (mentally. But feeling ready to go back to a definite again). Your thoughts are appreciated.
@dawn16 Slow progress is wonderful as long as it's steady progress. If you're going in the right direction, and if your body feels good and not stressed, don't change what isn't broken!
When your progress starts stalling or it starts feeling like a huge grind, look into reverse dieting. The danger is driving your metabolism into a hole through chronic undereating. As long as you're losing weight and feeling good physically, that's not a worry.
When your progress starts stalling or it starts feeling like a huge grind, look into reverse dieting. The danger is driving your metabolism into a hole through chronic undereating. As long as you're losing weight and feeling good physically, that's not a worry.
@denice65 Thank you! That was definitely a motivation for posting this. I've tried to start cutting and bulking cycles in the past, but I just couldn't stand how tired and weak I felt from decreasing my calorie intake. Recomp is super slow, but I'm really happy with the results and I've been able to slowly get stronger the whole time--not just when I'm bulking. 