STS & Weight Gain?

horsing around

horsing around

Cathlete
Good morning. I'm almost through week 1 of M2 and so far love the program. However, I have gained ~3 pounds since starting the program. I know that isn't much and plan to stick with the program. Just wondering if anyone else is seeing similar results? I haven't really changed my eating habits. Hopefully the scale will soon start to go in the other direction. On a plus size, I'm definitely lifting heavier weights!

Thanks, Lisa
 
First time I tried STS I gained alot of weight fast and looked and felt horrible-lost my ab definition, belly got bigger, pants were way too tight,etc. I quit the rotation after 3 weeks and worked hard for 2 months to get back to "normal".

Fast forward several months and I am in the last 2 weeks of Meso 1 for the 5.5/6.5 month rotation. I may have gained a few pounds but I feel/look great! My body is responding beautifully. My clothes all still fit-legs might be a little tighter in my pants but I am okay with it, my abs are defined, my belly is flat, my legs are starting to get some definition in them that they never had before and my upper body muscles are popping! :D This being said the few pounds on the scale are not bothering me like they did the first time.

The first time I did this I was lifting way too heavy. I did my 1RM's and apparently did them WRONG so I was killing myself to lift the weights that the w/o card was telling me I should be able to lift for each exercise. I also wasn't doing enough cardio for my body.

This time I've set up the rotation in such a way that I am able to do more cardio. I dropped the weight loads considerably to a comfortable but challenging lift and am able to increase often by a pound or 2 and I am thrilled! I must add here that I did not redo my 1RM's. When I started STS for the second time I picked weights I thought would work and adjusted from there. I love the longer rotation because it gives you a second chance to find that perfect weight! This being said I may not be on target with doing the exact percentages of my 1 rep max but I don't care. I am enjoying the work outs and the results! It's awesome! :D

I guess after all of that babble, my point is, if your clothes fit and you are happy with how you look and feel, then pay no attn to the scale. If you can see/feel the weight gain and are not happy with it, then add more cardio, lighten the weights...do whatever you think you need to do to stop the cycle and start a new one that works for you. It's not worth it IMO if you are not happy with the results you are getting but don't let the scale alone make that decision for you. :)
 
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That is such an excellent reply!

Lisa, from my own experience, I always gain a half a pound or more the next day after lifting (including long rounds of kettlebells). I've done STS several times already and my first end result was measurable strength gain. I didn't lose weight, but that wasn't my goal and was also doing nearly zip on cardio. However, the second time I added the Shock Cardio dvd's and the third time normal winter skiing and lost quite a bit of weight without the sacrifice of muscle, at least not that I can tell. (To me a lot of weight is over 12 pounds.) What I have noticed when I'm really paying attention to my weight, and watching everything that I'm eating (i.e., writing it down) its really perplexing to gain weight when I know I just burned over 1,000 calories that day on skiing AND lifting and barely had 1800 calories! I still can't get a grip on the fact that I'm supposed to be consuming over 2,400 a days just to maintain and I know if I ate that much, I'd be in trouble. So I started to watch what I was doing, and sure enough if I lift heavy...the next day my scale (which is very accurate) always registers a gain. I don't even blink at it anymore. Its muscle pump, water swelling the muscle fibers for repair...especially if you had too much sodium that day. Plus if you carb-load like I do for races, the body stores those carbs as glycogen which needs water for that process. That's why if you are on a low-carb diet you seem to lose more weight up front, which is the water necessary to store the sugars (glycogen). Its way more technical, but that's as bare bones as I can write it. I bought this scale a few months ago that measures body fat, body water, muscle, and tracks them on a graph with percentages and sure enough it does register the water weight increase the next day and increased muscle percentage so I know I'm not going crazy.
 
Excellent replies! Yes, I gain weight too on STS...I've gained over FIVE pounds...but then again I've been eating enough to support muscle hypotrophy with an emphasis on lots of quality lean protein. Most of the gain is in my legs, shoulders, and back. Yes, most of this is water right now, but over time hopefully I'll gain muscle mass.
 
Thanks!

Thanks for the replies. At least I know I'm not alone. For M2, I changed what I'm doing for cardio. I was going to do Shock Cardio for the entire rotation, but decided that maybe I need to do intervals on my treadmill. Today starts week 2 of M2 and I am seeing a difference in my upper body. I hope the intervals help my lower body lean out a little which is where I tend to bulk up.

Lisa
 
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