Stopped training, how long to get back to where I was?

milhous

I've gotten quite busy over the last 6 weeks, before that and since September I have been training 4-5 days a week (weights) and was keeping my diet fairly clean.

However I've done nothing since, I've being eating everything and drinking a fair bit, gained 6kg and feel like ****. I'd imagine any progress I made with lifting heavier has pretty much returned to what I started out at.

I suppose my question is, if it took 6 weeks to reverse my progress will it just take the same amount of time to get back to where I was? Or is this just one of them things, get back in there and see what happens, I'd love to set a goal but don't know what's realisti?

Alf Veedersane

The 6kg weight gain could be reversed in 12 weeks relatively easy.

Strength-wise, you could potentially get back in 6 weeks.

milhous

Finding it relatively hard to motivate myself to get back, took pictures this morning to compare against where I left off and it's pretty depressing! But hey, back at it... 12 weeks 😔 I was hoping a lot of the weight was just like bloating etc. And would disappear quite quickly. I'll post progress in a few weeks.

Alf Veedersane

milhous wrote: »

Finding it relatively hard to motivate myself to get back, took pictures this morning to compare against where I left off and it's pretty depressing! But hey, back at it... 12 weeks 😔 I was hoping a lot of the weight was just like bloating etc. And would disappear quite quickly. I'll post progress in a few weeks.

It doesn't have to be 12 weeks. It could well take less.

New Goat

In terms of strength I've heard of a notion called "muscle memory" where any strength you have lost can be gained back twice as fast as it did to gain it in the first place.

I guess you just have to get back to it, stick to a meal plan and trust the process. I'm kinda talking to myself here too.

milhous

Yeah it's tough starting back again, have my meal plan for the week and the big shop done for it. Back in the gym tmo morning and ready for a few weeks of hell. I know I'll feel better once I get back to it, even by this time next week.

KhyrieLiam

It depends on how motivated you are with your goal and your workouts. Discipline is essential specially with your diet and your exercise routine. You can certainly get back in shape in no time.

KhyrieLiam

It depends on how motivated you are with your goal and your workouts. Discipline is essential specially with your diet and your exercise routine. You can certainly get back in shape in no time.

MysticMonk

Age plays a part too,as does sleep levels and adequate hydration.

But not wanting to complicate things *most* people should be to where they were (or very close to it) in three months.

I would add benching as an exception..in my experience if you quit benching your strength drops off very quickly and can take a long time to get back up.

That's just me though,everybody is different.

Alf Veedersane

New Goat wrote: »

In terms of strength I've heard of a notion called "muscle memory" where any strength you have lost can be gained back twice as fast as it did to gain it in the first place.

Training increases the number of myonuclei in muscle fibres. When you don't train, you lose muscle mass but the loss of myonuclei is much slower so you return to training with a higher level of myonuclei.

That means things like protein synthesis will happen more quickly than before and you'll regain that muscle more quickly than it til to build it.

milhous

Training and diet going strong but only five days in. Body looks much better already, significant difference (I think) but nowhere near the weights I was lifting (which wasn't impressive anyway tbf). I don't mind as I'm doing this simply for aesthetics.

I was a bit on the extreme side this week so looking forward to eating slightly more next week. As in a bit of porridge and rice the odd day.

Took a photo at the start and I'll take one every week for comparison. Not so sure about sharing though, unless I'm completely ripped at the end (unlikely)

Mellor

milhous wrote: »

Training and diet going strong but only five days in. Body looks much better already, significant difference (I think) but nowhere near the weights I was lifting (which wasn't impressive anyway tbf).

Maybe not as heavy as you were lifting, but I'd guess they didn't fall all the way back to the start as you feared

milhous

Mellor wrote: »

Maybe not as heavy as you were lifting, but I'd guess they didn't fall all the way back to the start as you feared

Nope actually not too bad, bench is prob the most drastically changed but I would've had a spotter previously so could really push it out. On my own now. Still, all going well.