How long do I need to exercise for before I start seeing a difference?
-
First off, if you’re looking for major changes you need to make this a lifestyle change, or you won’t last long enough.
The good news is that you found diet easy so far. That’s the biggest part. A few weeks is not long enough to get rid of a pot belly. Depending how much of a belly you got, probably looking at closer to 6 months for a really visible change. By 3 months you’ll probably notice a difference but might not be where you want to be yet.
Just stick with it, but try not to focus on it.
Its hard not to focus on! But I try not to dwell, and keep pushing through the exercise.
-
Just adding to „It will take a while“. It would be faster if you‘d been fit before because the body remembers. But you should feel strength improvements and you should feel better quite soon. And clothes might be less tight. But visible results take longer. And after a while you’ll hit a tableau and you’ll have to power through that without giving up. It will be best if you don’t focus on looks too much but rather on feeling good and fit.
Kudos for starting this path!Oh I was not fit before! Fitness was always tomorrows problem. I am definitely starting to feel changes in my shoulders, and my arms feel tighter.
-
I am going to the gym 1-2 times a week for about 2 years now. I think I started to see the first signs after about half a year.
I am not super well defined as I would need to go more often than 2 times a week, but you can see I am a bit more muscular than the average. However, my belly is still there, and if I am not cruel to myself it won't get away. If you want to lose weight, 90% is diet.I recommend to shoot some photos to track your progress. When you see yourself daily in the mirror, it's much harder to tell a difference.
But yeah as others said, especially in the beginning it's much more about feeling healthy than seeing a lot of difference.
But I want to be ripped now!
I do have a before photo which I will use as a bench mark.
-
Hell yeah, props for taking the first steps. I'm 23 right now and I started doing calisthenics about 3 years ago and I'm very happy with the results. When I first started I was skinny fat and spent most of my days behind a computer screen eating lots of snacks. Even with basic exercises like push-ups, squats, pull-ups, I started noticing a difference in strength after about two weeks. I felt much better, slept better and had no more back problems. During that time I also stopped snacking and started drinking protein shakes, which really showed after about a month. After 3 months I lost around 6 kg of fat.
What I love about calisthenics is that it builds functional strength and is very fun and dynamic. You also don't need a gym because YOU ARE THE GYM.
If you're interested, you can check out Yellow Dude on Youtube.
I am using a calisthenics app and I really like it to be fair, but augment with the resistance bands and some cardio.
-
Something to keep in mind is that after 30 male testosterone starts to decline and decreased testosterone can result in carrying more weight around the mid-section and may make it harder to lose.
Thanks, i had read some bits about it, but not how dramatically it can affect. Might be worth a test to see what my levels are.
-
Good work.
I dont eat a lot of meat anyway, but god damn I love beef. Maybe its time to start looking at vegetarian alternatives like Quorn, its great in a pasta sauce.
I wish you the best of luck, but be aware, many vegetarian/vegan "solutions" have more saturated fat (and other bad shit) than their animal counterparts. Vegan isn't necessarily the answer. The answer is: whole foods, minimal processing, mostly vegetarian.
-
I just turned 40, and for the past 5 or so years I have been unhappy with the way I look.
All my life my metabolism has been insane, I could literally eat anything all day and not gain a gram, which has its downsides as well, but not the point.
My weight went up to 80kg and I formed a pot belly which I didnt like. One night I decided enough was enough, started a diet and exercise routine.
I did look at gyms but they are stupid expensive where I live, so I bought a resistance band thing from InnStar. Its like a Gymproluxe if you have been bombarded with Facebook ads. I use it every day for bench press, preacher curls, and some other things I dont know the name of.
I also started using a body weight exercise app that claimed results in a month.
The diet I thought would be hardest, but I immediately stopped all snacks and moved onto a weightloss protein shake which are amazing and I cant believe it took this long to taste them.
Its been a week, and I feel better, Im not sleeping as much, I look forward to exercise, I am much more physically active than before, but I dont feel like I look any different. I am not expecting instant results and I havent booked myself into a Mr World contest this weekend, but I am curious to hear real experiences of when people started to notice their own changes.
Somewhat similar to my situation. Active job, a bit of bike riding and stable between 105-110kg. Fall one and a half years ago as the cycling season wound down I took the plunge on a black friday/week and got me some basic gym gear and got a rebated membership. Chose the one with the most classes because I knew myself, that without exterior pressure (having signed up to a class) I would drop off. Half a year later I was down 20kg by having many evenings taken up by fitness classes. Which made me get home later. Have dinner later. And didn't get time to get snacky before bedtime. That the snacking got cut out did the heavy weight loss and all the training have revitalised me.
Then the last year dropped another 5kg while getting stronger and more visibly fit. So the excess fat loss (which I'm more concerned about) is probably greater.
-
It’s going to be an uphill battle to get in shape without proper gym equipment. Even among those who start going to the gym, most end up quitting because it’s a lot of effort and the results don’t come fast enough. Trying to work out at home makes it even harder. To gain muscle mass, you need to be lifting at the absolute limits of your strength - and that’s really difficult to achieve outside of a gym setting. It can be done, but I generally advise against it, because the odds are stacked against you.
Also, keep in mind that you can’t effectively lose weight and build muscle at the same time.
I disagree on it being difficult to build muscles without a gym. Most exercises with your body weight will be more than enough for the first years of training.
For people who start at maybe being able to do 5 push-ups, hitting the point where push-ups wont train them for muscle growth will take a long while. Also what kind of muscles do you want? big packs that can do 10 reps at huge weight, but fail you while unloading a moving truck? Or muscles that are well trained for endurance and stamina? For being fit and healthy i recommend the second style.
-
I just turned 40, and for the past 5 or so years I have been unhappy with the way I look.
All my life my metabolism has been insane, I could literally eat anything all day and not gain a gram, which has its downsides as well, but not the point.
My weight went up to 80kg and I formed a pot belly which I didnt like. One night I decided enough was enough, started a diet and exercise routine.
I did look at gyms but they are stupid expensive where I live, so I bought a resistance band thing from InnStar. Its like a Gymproluxe if you have been bombarded with Facebook ads. I use it every day for bench press, preacher curls, and some other things I dont know the name of.
I also started using a body weight exercise app that claimed results in a month.
The diet I thought would be hardest, but I immediately stopped all snacks and moved onto a weightloss protein shake which are amazing and I cant believe it took this long to taste them.
Its been a week, and I feel better, Im not sleeping as much, I look forward to exercise, I am much more physically active than before, but I dont feel like I look any different. I am not expecting instant results and I havent booked myself into a Mr World contest this weekend, but I am curious to hear real experiences of when people started to notice their own changes.
I recommend you to try and ignore looking at your weight on the scale or how your belly circumference changes or the like for the first month or so. Your weight also is a rather broad metric. A kilo of muscles is not the same as a kilo of fat.
Just focus on doing your exercises well and feeling how they will get easier/you can do more reps week by week.
Another quick thing you will notice is your pulse going down. After a stamina exercise right when you stop, take your pulse on your neck. take it for 10 seconds and multiply by six to get your hearts bpm. Then after two minutes of rest take it again.
Do this every week and you will see a difference right away as your body adjust into moving.
Also i know most people want to build up big muscles and go with high weights. For getting fit i recommend looking for muscular endurance training first. This will help burn fat as you do many reps. It will improve your general endurance and it will help build muscles in a way that protects against injuries. Think of this like warming up your muscles before you enter into training to increase your max power. Alternate these two types of training over time.
-
I just turned 40, and for the past 5 or so years I have been unhappy with the way I look.
All my life my metabolism has been insane, I could literally eat anything all day and not gain a gram, which has its downsides as well, but not the point.
My weight went up to 80kg and I formed a pot belly which I didnt like. One night I decided enough was enough, started a diet and exercise routine.
I did look at gyms but they are stupid expensive where I live, so I bought a resistance band thing from InnStar. Its like a Gymproluxe if you have been bombarded with Facebook ads. I use it every day for bench press, preacher curls, and some other things I dont know the name of.
I also started using a body weight exercise app that claimed results in a month.
The diet I thought would be hardest, but I immediately stopped all snacks and moved onto a weightloss protein shake which are amazing and I cant believe it took this long to taste them.
Its been a week, and I feel better, Im not sleeping as much, I look forward to exercise, I am much more physically active than before, but I dont feel like I look any different. I am not expecting instant results and I havent booked myself into a Mr World contest this weekend, but I am curious to hear real experiences of when people started to notice their own changes.
That depends on a lot of varying factors, such as your metabolism, genetics, diet, physical activity, your daily routine such as work and what kind, and so forth. You may also initially gain weight when trying to lose it because muscles are more dense/heavier than fat, and working out for example obviously encourages muscle growth as well.
Overall you will probably start to notice some improvements within the first 3-4 weeks, although it helps a lot to do before/after pictures since the gradual changes are easily missed if you see yourself every day in the mirror.
-
It’s going to be an uphill battle to get in shape without proper gym equipment. Even among those who start going to the gym, most end up quitting because it’s a lot of effort and the results don’t come fast enough. Trying to work out at home makes it even harder. To gain muscle mass, you need to be lifting at the absolute limits of your strength - and that’s really difficult to achieve outside of a gym setting. It can be done, but I generally advise against it, because the odds are stacked against you.
Also, keep in mind that you can’t effectively lose weight and build muscle at the same time.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]I gained a reasonable amount of muscle mass from just doing pushups 100+ every day, no weights at all.
Enough that my t shirts felt a lot tighter anyway, and friends noticed too.
-
I just turned 40, and for the past 5 or so years I have been unhappy with the way I look.
All my life my metabolism has been insane, I could literally eat anything all day and not gain a gram, which has its downsides as well, but not the point.
My weight went up to 80kg and I formed a pot belly which I didnt like. One night I decided enough was enough, started a diet and exercise routine.
I did look at gyms but they are stupid expensive where I live, so I bought a resistance band thing from InnStar. Its like a Gymproluxe if you have been bombarded with Facebook ads. I use it every day for bench press, preacher curls, and some other things I dont know the name of.
I also started using a body weight exercise app that claimed results in a month.
The diet I thought would be hardest, but I immediately stopped all snacks and moved onto a weightloss protein shake which are amazing and I cant believe it took this long to taste them.
Its been a week, and I feel better, Im not sleeping as much, I look forward to exercise, I am much more physically active than before, but I dont feel like I look any different. I am not expecting instant results and I havent booked myself into a Mr World contest this weekend, but I am curious to hear real experiences of when people started to notice their own changes.
Take a photo; check back 30 days later. Rinse and repeat.
Progress can seem slow, that if you look at yourself day-to-day you’ll not notice it.
Scale isn’t the best judge either, because even if you weigh at the same time every day (first thing post BM is good) - your weight can fluctuate due to hydration and quality of sleep.
Consider measuring your waist as an alternative, seeing as that’s what was your initial motivation.
If you aren’t already, add walking to your daily routine - or even consider programs like Couch to 5K or ZombieRun if you want some motivation and a tougher goal. It’s great for your heart health, and will help contribute a small amount of additional burned calories.
Lastly, diet is the most important facet of weight loss. I highly recommend logging everything you eat (at least for the first week or two to get your bearings) using an app like Cronometer.
-
I just turned 40, and for the past 5 or so years I have been unhappy with the way I look.
All my life my metabolism has been insane, I could literally eat anything all day and not gain a gram, which has its downsides as well, but not the point.
My weight went up to 80kg and I formed a pot belly which I didnt like. One night I decided enough was enough, started a diet and exercise routine.
I did look at gyms but they are stupid expensive where I live, so I bought a resistance band thing from InnStar. Its like a Gymproluxe if you have been bombarded with Facebook ads. I use it every day for bench press, preacher curls, and some other things I dont know the name of.
I also started using a body weight exercise app that claimed results in a month.
The diet I thought would be hardest, but I immediately stopped all snacks and moved onto a weightloss protein shake which are amazing and I cant believe it took this long to taste them.
Its been a week, and I feel better, Im not sleeping as much, I look forward to exercise, I am much more physically active than before, but I dont feel like I look any different. I am not expecting instant results and I havent booked myself into a Mr World contest this weekend, but I am curious to hear real experiences of when people started to notice their own changes.
It takes a long time to lose weight, and it's about 80% diet and 20% exercise. But after a few weeks your heart/breathing should already be better. I'm 55 and wen I started jogging I was without breath and heart in top after 400 yards. Now I can run 2 or 3 miles non stop without too much suffering
-
I just turned 40, and for the past 5 or so years I have been unhappy with the way I look.
All my life my metabolism has been insane, I could literally eat anything all day and not gain a gram, which has its downsides as well, but not the point.
My weight went up to 80kg and I formed a pot belly which I didnt like. One night I decided enough was enough, started a diet and exercise routine.
I did look at gyms but they are stupid expensive where I live, so I bought a resistance band thing from InnStar. Its like a Gymproluxe if you have been bombarded with Facebook ads. I use it every day for bench press, preacher curls, and some other things I dont know the name of.
I also started using a body weight exercise app that claimed results in a month.
The diet I thought would be hardest, but I immediately stopped all snacks and moved onto a weightloss protein shake which are amazing and I cant believe it took this long to taste them.
Its been a week, and I feel better, Im not sleeping as much, I look forward to exercise, I am much more physically active than before, but I dont feel like I look any different. I am not expecting instant results and I havent booked myself into a Mr World contest this weekend, but I am curious to hear real experiences of when people started to notice their own changes.
6 to 8 weeks for others to notice and 12 for you to really notice.
But you have to be consistent.
You can easily undo a week's work with a day of binging
-
I am currently in the honeymoon phase and enjoying it. Apart from cardio on the exercise bike, because the daily squats turn my legs to jelly.
Squatting daily is too often. Your body needs time to recover. The older we get, the more recovery time we need.
-
I just turned 40, and for the past 5 or so years I have been unhappy with the way I look.
All my life my metabolism has been insane, I could literally eat anything all day and not gain a gram, which has its downsides as well, but not the point.
My weight went up to 80kg and I formed a pot belly which I didnt like. One night I decided enough was enough, started a diet and exercise routine.
I did look at gyms but they are stupid expensive where I live, so I bought a resistance band thing from InnStar. Its like a Gymproluxe if you have been bombarded with Facebook ads. I use it every day for bench press, preacher curls, and some other things I dont know the name of.
I also started using a body weight exercise app that claimed results in a month.
The diet I thought would be hardest, but I immediately stopped all snacks and moved onto a weightloss protein shake which are amazing and I cant believe it took this long to taste them.
Its been a week, and I feel better, Im not sleeping as much, I look forward to exercise, I am much more physically active than before, but I dont feel like I look any different. I am not expecting instant results and I havent booked myself into a Mr World contest this weekend, but I am curious to hear real experiences of when people started to notice their own changes.
At least 5 minutes.
-
I just turned 40, and for the past 5 or so years I have been unhappy with the way I look.
All my life my metabolism has been insane, I could literally eat anything all day and not gain a gram, which has its downsides as well, but not the point.
My weight went up to 80kg and I formed a pot belly which I didnt like. One night I decided enough was enough, started a diet and exercise routine.
I did look at gyms but they are stupid expensive where I live, so I bought a resistance band thing from InnStar. Its like a Gymproluxe if you have been bombarded with Facebook ads. I use it every day for bench press, preacher curls, and some other things I dont know the name of.
I also started using a body weight exercise app that claimed results in a month.
The diet I thought would be hardest, but I immediately stopped all snacks and moved onto a weightloss protein shake which are amazing and I cant believe it took this long to taste them.
Its been a week, and I feel better, Im not sleeping as much, I look forward to exercise, I am much more physically active than before, but I dont feel like I look any different. I am not expecting instant results and I havent booked myself into a Mr World contest this weekend, but I am curious to hear real experiences of when people started to notice their own changes.
Measure your waist monthly. Yep just your waist. For me, I generally see weight loss over a few months of increased exercise. You will get better results with strength training, less weight loss but more lean, so just as much change in volume. Bodyweight will get you there but at some point you may want to pick up weights.
Remember that physical activity does a lot more than keeping your size where you want it. It's good for your mental health, your bones, your heart, digestion, it's an important part of a healthy life, be glad you are able.
-
I disagree on it being difficult to build muscles without a gym. Most exercises with your body weight will be more than enough for the first years of training.
For people who start at maybe being able to do 5 push-ups, hitting the point where push-ups wont train them for muscle growth will take a long while. Also what kind of muscles do you want? big packs that can do 10 reps at huge weight, but fail you while unloading a moving truck? Or muscles that are well trained for endurance and stamina? For being fit and healthy i recommend the second style.
The issue isn’t that you can’t get a proper workout without gym equipment - it’s that most people simply don’t stick with it. They start training at home, but it becomes more and more infrequent until they stop altogether. Getting a gym membership tends to create more accountability, and I think going to the gym is actually an easier habit to build than working out at home.
Even for me, with a gym membership, I’ve noticed that if I go home between work and the gym, I’m much more likely to skip the workout. But if I go straight to the gym - having already decided to do so and with my gym bag packed - then I might as well do the workout since I’m already there.
-
I just turned 40, and for the past 5 or so years I have been unhappy with the way I look.
All my life my metabolism has been insane, I could literally eat anything all day and not gain a gram, which has its downsides as well, but not the point.
My weight went up to 80kg and I formed a pot belly which I didnt like. One night I decided enough was enough, started a diet and exercise routine.
I did look at gyms but they are stupid expensive where I live, so I bought a resistance band thing from InnStar. Its like a Gymproluxe if you have been bombarded with Facebook ads. I use it every day for bench press, preacher curls, and some other things I dont know the name of.
I also started using a body weight exercise app that claimed results in a month.
The diet I thought would be hardest, but I immediately stopped all snacks and moved onto a weightloss protein shake which are amazing and I cant believe it took this long to taste them.
Its been a week, and I feel better, Im not sleeping as much, I look forward to exercise, I am much more physically active than before, but I dont feel like I look any different. I am not expecting instant results and I havent booked myself into a Mr World contest this weekend, but I am curious to hear real experiences of when people started to notice their own changes.
Make it to a month, and it will be come a new habit. After three months of dedication, you'll probably be able to look at yourself in the mirror and see real changes.
-
Squatting daily is too often. Your body needs time to recover. The older we get, the more recovery time we need.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Basically 48 hrs between muscle groups. Mon - Wed - Friday is a reasonable pace if you do an "all in one" routine. If you want to do daily lifting workouts, you need to rotate arms/legs/core then repeat.
OP, it seems counter-intuitive to workout less to improve, but you have to realize that you gain muscle by straining and overworking current muscle. To build and repair, the muscles need rest, nutrients and time. If you don't give it to them, they can't build up.
Sleep, time and food are all as important as how much and how often you lift weights.
