The men's 56 kg weightlifting competitions at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London took place on 9 August at the Empress Hall of the Earls Court Exhibition Centre.

This was the first change in weight classes since their introduction in the 1920 Summer Olympics.

The best score for each lift was summed to give a total.

If two or more weightlifters finished with the same total, the competitors' body weights were used as the tie-breaker (lighter athlete wins).

[3] Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.