I’ve been in SSBMV1 whilst trying to drop a bit of weight.
All gone pretty well with 4.6kgs off in 5 weeks. 77kgs down to 72.4kgs
During the rest week, I’ve maintained the caloric deficit of 500 calories per day, but have put 0.75kg back on.
I’m not bothered by this, as have some concern about losing weight during a rest week anyway and hadn’t expected to lose quite as much this quickly, but I am curious to know what’s causing it?
I’ve been fuelling the rides, so this week I’ve eaten less calories than the previous 5 weeks, but put weight on, just a little, each day.
I was expecting to lose a bit and was thinking if I did, I might eat a bit more to keep my weight level during the recovery week, or at least slow down the rate I was losing it at, but the exact opposite has happened and I’ve put a bit back on.
Just curious if anybody has had a similar experience or suggestions to why this could happen?
The only thing I can think of is I might be burning more calories during my training than is being calculated by TR
Hey there!
My first thought would be water retention. Glycogen is stored in the muscles along with a fair bit of water, so I tend to go up in weight slightly and look a bit “puffier” during rest weeks- not necessarily a change in body composition, but I get used to looking a bit leaner towards the end of a training block. (kind of like when bodybuilders drop a bunch of water weight to go into a competition looking super shredded, but less extreme)
It’s not necessarily a bad thing, either- restocking glycogen is actually an intended function of rest weeks (particularly during higher training volumes when you might not be able to “catch up” in between workouts) and will serve you well heading into harder weeks.
Given you’re in a deficit anyway, and it seems like you’ve reduced your intake to match your energy expenditure during the recovery week, I doubt you would have been in a big enough surplus to gain anything significant over that time period- and certainly not enough to see a noticeable difference each day. In any case, I wouldn’t stress about one data point- keep an eye on the general trend, and even if it turns out you overshot a bit you’ll be able to adjust as needed next time. Sounds like what you’ve been doing is working so far, so congratulations on that!
I use to put on weight after a marathon - it is water retention as the muscles are being repaired…should fall again after about 10 days…if it doesn’t then there is something wrong with your calorie counting!
Finished the first week of SSBMVII, so thought I’d report back to round this post off.
As suggested the extra 0.75kgs I’d put on during the rest week came back off quite quickly once I returned to training and I ended the week losing 1.5kgs in total, so just a blip in the road.
Sounds like what you’ve been doing is working so far, so congratulations on that!