WEIGHT GAIN?

Has any one else gained weight on this program? Yes I have seen my biceps and lats get bigger, but my waistline is getting a little bigger too. My oblique definiton is starting to disappear. :( My diet hasn't changed any since I started this rotation. Before STS, I was doing the monthly rotations with full body cardio circuit training days alternating with all cardio workoouts. My average weekly calorie burn was 3000- 3600 calories, but now its about 2200 max. I averaged out my weight gain to be about .6 lbs per week since I started STS.

I would like to finish this program and see if the results will show up hopefully sooner than later, but I can't afford to gain back anymore of the 38 lbs that I worked so hard to lose since last year. I might just have to cut this rotation short at the end of Mesocycle 2 and go back to the more cardio based rotations. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks.
 
oh no!

OMG, that is not something I want to hear... I just did my 1RM testing today, starting the program tomorrow, and weighed in today at 210.4 lbs, about 72 lbs above my goal. Had planned to do cardio on my off days anyway, but now I'm wondering if I should do doubles on my STS days, cardio in the morning and STS in the evening?
 
I wouldn't push yourself too hard too quick with doing doubles. That could lead to an injury rather than results. Take the program as is first and then adjust as needed. Don't want to burn yourself out

As to the OP it sounds like maybe you do need to add in some extra cardio to get your calorie burn back to the same amount you were burning before you started STS. Yes, muscle weighs more than fat, but you are burning less calories and taking in the same amount as before. So maybe you had your body at the right happy medium before STS and just need to find it again on STS. I wouldn't give up on STS, but I would definitely add in some extra cardio of some sort to get that extra burn. Just my 2 cents.
Shelby
 
I started STS after about 18 mos. of not working out. My experience is that it took 6 weeks to drop on the scale even though my clothes were getting looser. I lost 18 pounds at the end of the rotation went from a size 12 to a loose 10. Since then I stopped working out regularly for about 6 weeks. I thought for sure I would gain weight since my clothes were getting tight again. But after getting on the scale I saw no weight gain, even lost a pound. For me, I'm sure it is about the muscle weight vs. fat weight.

Sonja.
 
Are you doing just STS or are you also doing cardio on alternate days? Sorry, I just couldn't tell from reading your post if you were still doing any form of cardio. I have a hard time burning my calories on days when I do STS and no form of cardio. I follow Cathe's Cardio Rotation Suggestions in the beginning of this forum for days when not doing STS. I also have started to do short 20-30 minute cardio workouts on STS days, with the exception of the days I do legs. In fact, I had started a thread asking if it was okay to do additional cardio on STS workout days, but got no response so I just started to do the 20-30 minute extras on my own. Hope this helps. Good luck.
 
Has any one else gained weight on this program? Yes I have seen my biceps and lats get bigger, but my waistline is getting a little bigger too. My oblique definiton is starting to disappear. :( My diet hasn't changed any since I started this rotation. Before STS, I was doing the monthly rotations with full body cardio circuit training days alternating with all cardio workoouts. My average weekly calorie burn was 3000- 3600 calories, but now its about 2200 max. I averaged out my weight gain to be about .6 lbs per week since I started STS.

I would like to finish this program and see if the results will show up hopefully sooner than later, but I can't afford to gain back anymore of the 38 lbs that I worked so hard to lose since last year. I might just have to cut this rotation short at the end of Mesocycle 2 and go back to the more cardio based rotations. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks.

What is your cardio like? When I did STS, I lost 20lbs. I only did cardio on days that I didn't lift. I would run or do Beachbody's Insanity on those days only. Now I have a tranier and I am trying to reduce bodyfat. She recommends 6 days a week cardio between 45mins to 60 mins. NOthing over 60, because you will start tapping into the muscle. NOt knowing your cardio, I would reccomend upping cardio. STS made me really strong and more toned. Love the program. I think it is a very unique program. Good Luck.

Jennifer
 
Sorry I didn't elaborate, but I'm doing the 6 month rotation where you repeat each week twice. For week one , I do Shock Cardio 3x per week between weight days. On week 2, I do the cardio suggestions from the original STS rotation 3x per week, 45- 60 minutes depending on the length of the DVD. My past experience has been that I lose fat and maintain weight loss best on a cardio scehdule of 6 days per week, 45- 60 minutes. I think I'll go back to that schedule and see what happens. Thanks for all of your advice.
 
I did STS for 3 weeks and got so frustrated that I quit. I gained about 5 pounds, lost my flat belly and ab definition and felt like I was going to split my once loose fitting pants. :(

From most accounts on this forum, STS is an awesome program that yields awesome results if you stick to it BUT by the same token, I posted about my issue and no one that responded had the problems I had to the extent that I had them. Didn't make me feel hopeful. Cathe also responded though and seemed to think that what I was experiencing was still only temporary and would pass over time which gives me hope enough to consider re-starting the program in the fall...but in the meantime...

I stopped doing STS a couple weeks ago and am now finally feeling like myself again. I am still up 2# according to the scale but I look and feel like I used to and I am no longer busting out of my pants either! :)

After giving it much consideration, if I DO re-start STS I think that I will be lightening up on the weights I was using. I don't need to be super strong. I just want to be fit with good lean muscle definition. I don't need to lift quite so heavy to attain that. I am also hopeful that lightening up on the weight loads will help me avoid the issues that drove me to quit the first time.

Good luck to you! Let us know what happens!
 
STS and weight loss

Excluding temporary weight gain from water retention, the only way to gain weight is to consume more calories than you burn. Lifting heavy weights will burn calories, it does not add them to your body and thus it is impossible to gain weight from just lifting heavy weights. If you burn more calories than you consume you will lose weight regardless of whatever exercise program you are participating in. Even if you’re a Power Lifter you will lose weight if your calories consumed are less than your TDEE. This is true 100% of the time.

In "Part A" of Cathe's weight loss article that was just released today she explains how your BMR is important because it accounts for 60% to 70% of calories you burn each day. She further explains the best way to increase your BMR is through heavy weightlifting as this will increase your lean body mass and decrease your Body Fat%. Increased leg size comes from water retention and fat, not lean muscle that takes up one third the space that fat does. Cathe will have an article in two more weeks about weightlifting myths concerning weight gain and loss that will explain things in a lot more detail than I have here.

In your case most of your weight gain is probably water retention. When you begin any new weightlifting program your body will retain water in the beginning. This is because your body’s muscles will temporarily store more glycogen when you start a new program and this attracts more water to your muscles. This is one reason why your muscles swell. After your body adapts to the new program your body will stop storing excess glycogen and the water retention will decrease.

Besides intense exercise, water retention may also come from eating a high sodium diet (Chinese food for example) or your monthly cycle. Water retention also comes from glycogen that is stored in your body. At your peak during the day you have about 1 pound of Glycogen in your body. Glycogen holds onto about 3 times its weight in water. As you deplete your glycogen stores throughout the day your weight will drop as less water will be stored in your muscles. As you replenish your glycogen in your body by eating your water weight will increase. This is a major reason why you are lighter in the morning than in the evening.

Cardio exercise is a better calorie burner in the short term, but it has very little long term affect on calories burned. On the other hand, lifting heavy weights builds lean muscle mass that will continue to burn extra calories all day long even when you're sleeping.

We see a lot of people in our health club that have the same concerns as you do. We have had thirty years of experience helping people just like you reach your fitness goals and we have always found the best solution for a person wanting to lose weight is to combine cardio exercise with a strength training program like STS. Then all they have to do is consume less calories than they burn.

In business you quite often have to lose money before you make it. You can't panic and quit just because things don't go well the first few weeks. You have to think more long term and have the patience and determination to stick with you business plan. The same is true of a weight loss or exercise program. The fat burning benefits of STS will take some time to take hold. It takes a long time to develop lean muscle mass, but once you do you will transform your body into a fat burning machine.

In your case, it is impossible to have added any significant lean muscle mass to your body in just three weeks. At best you could have only added a few ounces of lean muscle in just such a short time. This only leaves fat and water weight gain (scale error can also come into play) as the reason you gained 5 lbs.

If you embrace and follow a strength training program like STS you will see significant results by the end of the program. You can certainly become thin by just doing cardio, but quite often you will become a thin fat person and as you age this will not only affect your appearance, but also your health. Your BMR will continue to slow down every decade and you will age beyond your years. Developing lean muscle mass will reverse the effects of a decreasing BMR and you will not only look great, but will also be much healthier and happier.

I hope you and everyone reads Cathe's articles on Weight Loss and Myths concerning lifting heavy weight over the next few weeks as they will really help you to understand weight loss better and why you should embrace heavy weights, not fear them.
 
Last edited:
Weight loss is proportional to your calorie deficit: deficit of 3500 calories = 1 lb. There is no Person alive that can defy Physics. Science is so Pesky!

I have not gained weight from the program but I also have not lost the weight I expected from the extra calories burned. I am probably (must be) compensating by consuming a few more calories. Unless you weigh your food (and know the caloric value of it) you can't say for sure. (I did this on a paid for weight loss program and my weight loss was predicted to the pound over the 22 week program. )

Personally I am sticking with STS with a long term outlook. Despite my disappointment in my diet, I can see the gains in strength and muscle tone.

I have no problem dieting and losing weight, I do have trouble keeping it off. Long term muscle will burn more calories than fat: ~50 calories per day per pound of fat. So 5lbs extra muscle gained will require the equivalent of 26 lbs of fat of energy to maintain.

It's also true that you cannot gain muscle mass without a caloric surplus. You don't have to be in constant deficit or constant surplus...I think this is the secret the clean eaters and fitness experts and body builders have solved. You have to cycle. And STS is all about that.
 
hungrier?

I did STS for 3 weeks and got so frustrated that I quit. I gained about 5 pounds, lost my flat belly and ab definition and felt like I was going to split my once loose fitting pants. :(

From most accounts on this forum, STS is an awesome program that yields awesome results if you stick to it BUT by the same token, I posted about my issue and no one that responded had the problems I had to the extent that I had them. Didn't make me feel hopeful. Cathe also responded though and seemed to think that what I was experiencing was still only temporary and would pass over time which gives me hope enough to consider re-starting the program in the fall...but in the meantime...

I stopped doing STS a couple weeks ago and am now finally feeling like myself again. I am still up 2# according to the scale but I look and feel like I used to and I am no longer busting out of my pants either! :)

After giving it much consideration, if I DO re-start STS I think that I will be lightening up on the weights I was using. I don't need to be super strong. I just want to be fit with good lean muscle definition. I don't need to lift quite so heavy to attain that. I am also hopeful that lightening up on the weight loads will help me avoid the issues that drove me to quit the first time.

Good luck to you! Let us know what happens!

Wendy, just curious: do you have a feeling for why your body responded this way to the heavy weights? Did you find that you got ravenously hungry and tended to overeat while you were on STS? I have had that problem on some workout programs in the past, but I just started STS last week and so far I seem to be okay.
 
Wendy, just curious: do you have a feeling for why your body responded this way to the heavy weights? Did you find that you got ravenously hungry and tended to overeat while you were on STS? I have had that problem on some workout programs in the past, but I just started STS last week and so far I seem to be okay.

Hi there. I really don't believe it was due to over eating. I was actually often left feeling a little hungry at various times through out the day. Water weight gain seems to be the culprit.

You said you are okay with STS so far but had this problem with programs in the past? What program(s) did this to you before? I ask because I have lifted heavy many times prior to this (with Cathe as well as others) and never had such an extreme reaction to it (if any at all!).

Thanks! :)
 
Last edited:
"Long term muscle will burn more calories than fat: ~50 calories per day per pound of fat. So 5lbs extra muscle gained will require the equivalent of 26 lbs of fat of energy to maintain."

Unfortunately, I think this myth was debunked not too long ago. If I recall correctly, the number of calories a pound of muscle burns daily is more like 6 and not 50. Did I read that right?
 
My experience

Last year, I did two rounds of STS. I lost 12 lbs total without chaning my diet at all and I do not eat clean.

This type of training just seems to work for me.
 
In your case most of your weight gain is probably water retention. When you begin any new weightlifting program your body will retain water in the beginning. This is because your body’s muscles will temporarily store more glycogen when you start a new program and this attracts more water to your muscles. This is one reason why your muscles swell. After your body adapts to the new program your body will stop storing excess glycogen and the water retention will decrease.

This is too true. When I started STS, I found myself gaining weight too. I figured it was temporary and just ignored it but it kept creeping on even 5 weeks into the program. I had just read an article about keeping your body hydrated and how it helps with weight loss so I decided to give it a go. In a couple of weeks, the pounds started to come off. I know I wasn't drinking enough water before; I had maybe 1.5 liters of water a day which is clearly not enough, especially when you're working out. So don't give up entirely on the program. Try to clean up your diet and hydrate as often as you can!
 
This is too true. When I started STS, I found myself gaining weight too. I figured it was temporary and just ignored it but it kept creeping on even 5 weeks into the program. I had just read an article about keeping your body hydrated and how it helps with weight loss so I decided to give it a go. In a couple of weeks, the pounds started to come off. I know I wasn't drinking enough water before; I had maybe 1.5 liters of water a day which is clearly not enough, especially when you're working out. So don't give up entirely on the program. Try to clean up your diet and hydrate as often as you can!


I'm glad to hear it's not just me. When I posted about my weight gain/bloat in OD no one could relate to me. No one seemed to have it to the extreme that I did. To hear that I am not alone makes me a feel a bit better.

That being said, I do not regret stopping the program when I did if for no other reason then the fact that I was going on a beach vacation less then a week later and was NOT going to be happy putting on a bathing suit looking/feeling the way I did. Fortunately my body had time to recover enough that I was OK w/putting on the suit even though I still had more to bloat to shed.

I am going to give STS another try in the future. Definitely waiting until the cooler weather comes though. I don't want ANY chance of having to wear a bathing suit while I do it! :p
 
I appreciate everyone's advice and encouragement to stick out STS. I will finish the program, but I'm going to focus more on cleaning up my diet. I know that some of this gain is muscle, but I'm up 10 lbs since starting STS in April, and now my waistbands are tight and about to go the next size up. That is not muscle! :mad: I'm glad others have been successful in using this program to lose weight, but I think my sluggish metabolism isn't having it. Like I said, I'll finish the program and hope cleaning up my diet will get me the results I want.
 
I appreciate everyone's advice and encouragement to stick out STS. I will finish the program, but I'm going to focus more on cleaning up my diet. I know that some of this gain is muscle, but I'm up 10 lbs since starting STS in April, and now my waistbands are tight and about to go the next size up. That is not muscle! :mad: I'm glad others have been successful in using this program to lose weight, but I think my sluggish metabolism isn't having it. Like I said, I'll finish the program and hope cleaning up my diet will get me the results I want.


Please come back when you are done with the program and let us know what the final results are! I'd love to hear about it! :)
 
This was a great post. I have only done meso 1 of sts as when I went into meso 2 the scale would increase and i would feel "bulkier" so it scared me and i quite. I think for me, i need more cardio each week as i'm more of an endo body type. After reading cathe's blog about lifting heavy i need to get over my fear of bulking. I know it comes down to diet in the end.
 

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top