diff --git a/fast_llm/engine/multi_stage/fsdp.py b/fast_llm/engine/multi_stage/fsdp.py
index fbe6d3297..ae37410ae 100644
--- a/fast_llm/engine/multi_stage/fsdp.py
+++ b/fast_llm/engine/multi_stage/fsdp.py
@@ -270,7 +270,9 @@ def reset_shard_pad(self, shard: torch.Tensor, shard_name: str) -> int:
         # Also ensures a correct parameter count in loading context.
         shard_meta = self._weight_shard_meta if shard_name == ShardName.weights else self._grad_shard_meta
         shard_meta.validate(shard)
-        if self._shard_pad > 0:
+        # Only count padding for non-empty shards. Frozen FSDPs have empty optimizer shards
+        # (numel()==0) but non-zero shard_pad, which would incorrectly inflate the count.
+        if self._shard_pad > 0 and shard.numel() > 0:
             shard[-self._shard_pad :].zero_()
             return self._shard_pad
         return 0