LOSING weight on 5x5

[pgsam]

im about to enter my 4th week of madcows 5x5(volume phase) and ive made great strenth gains, ramping up 5-10 lbs every week succesfully. my back and legs especially have gained the most size, but somehow, I've LOST a pound over these 4 weeks! ive been running for 20 minutes on tuesday and thursday, but could it really be cutting that much? anyone else have this problem? i don't suspect my diet either, i usually hit around 4000 calories a day, and shoot for 200g of protein. i hope its just some weird waterweight thing. thanks for the input!

-sam

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

whats your weight and height? if you are gaining strength then why worry about the scale? the stronger you are without gaining considerable weight, the more impressive to me. then its all density baby!

make sure you use the scale at the same time every day. my bodyweight goes 10 pounds up and down throughout the day.

 

[WalkingBeast]

There are many factors involved. I can say that even when I incorporated 5x5 into my chest routine (with added volume) I didnt gain much size at all. It helped to regain some lost strength after an injury though. But for me to gain size and get stronger then I was before I went back to my old training style. High volume/high intensity, most sets to failure and alot of 12-15 rep sets. Though I mix up the rep ranges alot. 5x5 just didnt bring back my chest size, even with the added volume.

 

[blut wump]

im about to enter my 4th week of madcows 5x5(volume phase) and ive made great strenth gains, ramping up 5-10 lbs every week succesfully. my back and legs especially have gained the most size, but somehow, I've LOST a pound over these 4 weeks! ive been running for 20 minutes on tuesday and thursday, but could it really be cutting that much? anyone else have this problem? i don't suspect my diet either, i usually hit around 4000 calories a day, and shoot for 200g of protein. i hope its just some weird waterweight thing. thanks for the input!

-sam

The first four weeks are mostly about tearing your body down and accumulating fatigue to stimulate an ensuing growth response. It's great that you've had noticable strength gains over the volume phase but the major benefits should be coming in during and after the deloading phase in weeks 5-7. When I did the program I also had a big strength spurt going into week 8.
Good luck with it.

 

[pgsam]

thanks for the input guys. john- im 6'0, 175, about 8% BF, so being as lean as i am its pretty mysterious as to where the pounds are going. but yeah youre right, i hear the gains come hard in the intensity phase. hopefully ill keep climbing... thanks bros!

 

[Madcow2]

my back and legs especially have gained the most size, but somehow, I've LOST a pound over these 4 weeks!

If you are gaining size in your legs and back - that's muscle. I'm assuming your chest and shoulders haven't attrophied into nothing and you are getting stronger here too. If you are getting stronger and more muscular I wouldn't worry about the scale.

Most gains generally come post-loading but if your actual weight is really important to you, I'd re examine your calories and intake. I don't see how your legs and back can get bigger with you staying the same weight or dropping a pound unless you don't have as much caloric excess as you believe. The body will not maximize muscular gains when it isn't confident that it is holding adequat fat stores (i.e. to survive a famine/shortage as muscle is calorically expensive).

Just some thoughts but in general if you are getting bigger and stronger, something is working. If you want, eat more.