diff --git a/stew/bitseqs.nim b/stew/bitseqs.nim
index 7ee6721..9fa0099 100644
--- a/stew/bitseqs.nim
+++ b/stew/bitseqs.nim
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ template loopOverWords(lhs, rhs: BitSeq,
     var lhsWord: WordType
     when hasRhs:
       var rhsWord: WordType
-    var firstByteOfLastWord, lastByteOfLastWord, markerPos: int
+    var firstByteOfLastWord, lastByteOfLastWord: int
 
     # TODO: Returing a `var` value from an iterator is always safe due to
     # the way inlining works, but currently the compiler reports an error
@@ -103,15 +103,14 @@ template loopOverWords(lhs, rhs: BitSeq,
     if lastWordSize == 0:
       firstByteOfLastWord = bytesCount - sizeof(WordType)
       lastByteOfLastWord  = bytesCount - 1
-      initBitsVars()
-      markerPos = sizeof(WordType) * 8 - 1
       dec fullWordsCount
     else:
       firstByteOfLastWord = bytesCount - lastWordSize
       lastByteOfLastWord  = bytesCount - 1
-      initBitsVars()
-      markerPos = log2trunc(lhsWord)
-      when hasRhs: doAssert log2trunc(rhsWord) == markerPos
+
+    initBitsVars()
+    let markerPos = log2trunc(lhsWord)
+    when hasRhs: doAssert log2trunc(rhsWord) == markerPos
 
     lhsWord.lowerBit markerPos
     when hasRhs: rhsWord.lowerBit markerPos
diff --git a/tests/test_bitseqs.nim b/tests/test_bitseqs.nim
index 3068f68..d141d8f 100644
--- a/tests/test_bitseqs.nim
+++ b/tests/test_bitseqs.nim
@@ -57,14 +57,18 @@ suite "Bit fields":
             check b[j] == (j == 1)
 
   test "overlaps":
-    for bitCount in [63, 62]:
+    for bitCount in [1, 62, 63, 64, 91, 127, 128, 129]:
       checkpoint &"trying bit count {bitCount}"
       var
         a = BitSeq.init(bitCount)
         b = BitSeq.init(bitCount)
-      a.raiseBit(4)
-      b.raiseBit(5)
+
+      for pos in [4, 8, 9, 12, 29, 32, 63, 64, 67]:
+        if pos + 2 < bitCount:
+          a.raiseBit(pos)
+          b.raiseBit(pos + 2)
 
       check:
         not a.overlaps(b)
         not b.overlaps(a)
+