Eric Roberts explains why the scale doesn't budge when you start lifting weights during weight loss. Muscle glycogen pulls water into muscles, inflammation causes temporary water retention, and simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain cancel each other out. After 3 to 6 weeks, the scale catches up.
If you started lifting weights and you're trying to lose weight, but the scale isn't going down, here's why. And here's how long it will take before it goes down. The first reason is when you start lifting weights, your muscles store more of something called glycogen. Just think of glycogen as energy for your muscles. When you store more glycogen, you are also going to store more short-term water weight. The second reason is when you lift weights, You break down your muscle fibers, which causes inflammation inside of your muscles, and more inflammation leads to more short-term water weight. And number three, one pound of muscle weighs the same as one pound of fat. So if you're losing fat and building muscle at the same time, the scale is not going to change much at first. But after you lose the short-term water weight and after you lose a couple of pounds of body fat, which usually takes About 3 to 6 weeks, that is when you will start seeing the scale go down. Just don't quit before then.
