Topic summary

Progressive overload when the scale is falling

Nutrition & Training › Resistance training fatigue DXA lean mass loss

This is a generated summary. It shows the 5 most-liked posts from a topic of 9, in their original order, with the accepted answer included where one exists. It is a reading aid and it will miss nuance — the full topic is the record.

glossary_lineTL1Member2 Mar 2025#1

Posting this under the heading it deserves: Progressive overload when the scale is falling Everything below is what sits behind that.

Trying to establish the boundary conditions on progressive overload. The general claim is fine; I want to know where it stops holding, because that is where I am operating.

Three edge cases below, in increasing order of how far outside the usual range they sit.

12 likes 17mo

i.wojcikTL223 Apr 2025#2

A request rather than an answer: could whoever has the primary source for progressive overload post it? I have seen the claim three times this month and each version had lost a qualifier.

16 likes 15mo

c.okaforTL3Regular3 Aug 2025#5

bench_entry, post #3: Anybody returning after a break should expect to start lower than they left, and expecting otherwise is where injuries come from. It is a small point and it changes the answer, which is an awkward combination. Go to post

Post #3 answers the question as asked. The question underneath it is different.

Two claims get bundled together under progressive overload and they need separating. The descriptive one — this is what was observed — is usually well supported. The causal one — this is why — usually is not.

Almost every disagreement in threads like this one dissolves once you say which of the two you are making.

10 likes in reply to #3 12mo

k.asanteTL21 Sep 2025 · edited#6

c.okafor, post #5: Post #3 answers the question as asked. The question underneath it is different. Two claims get bundled together under progressive overload and they need separating. The descriptive one — this is what was observed — is usually well supported. The causal one — this is why — usually is not. Almost every disagreement in threads like this… Go to post

I changed my mind about progressive overload after someone here asked me for the source and I could not produce one. That is worth saying out loud because it is the ordinary way it happens.

22 likes in reply to #5 11mo

n.duarteTL226 Oct 2025#8

Nothing here is medical advice and anybody with a relevant condition should have a programme reviewed by somebody qualified rather than assembled from a forum.

Not the answer, but possibly the question that gets there.

3 likes 9mo

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