When Can You Expect to See Results from Working Out? If you have made the decision to start a fitness routine, you probably want to see the results of all of your hard work.
Whether it’s in the form bigger muscles, pounds lost, or improved endurance, everyone wants evidence that their effort is paying off.
Instant gratification is hard to come by in fitness, and patience is often necessary when it comes to getting the biggest results.
But, exactly how much time do you need before you can start to see at least some small glimmer of hope that you are on your way to your dream body?
There are lots of factors that play a role in answering that question, and the following are just a few things to consider to make sure you’re getting the most of your routine.
Duration and Frequency of Sessions
One major factor to consider when it comes to seeing results is how long and how often you are working out. When implementing a new training routine, it can be tempting to want to head into the gym daily for hours and hours of suffering in hopes of reaching your fitness goals quicker.
However, most workouts should be accomplished in about 45 minutes. As you continue to train longer than that, testosterone levels began to level out and the fitness gains begin to diminish. You also don’t need to be in the gym every single day. Taking days between workouts allows your body to have time to recover and adapt to the demands of the previous workout.
By training hard every day, you’re disrupting your body’s ability to make gains and just setting back the progress. Working out 4 to 5 days a week is more than enough for most people to meet their goals and allows for ample recovery days between workouts.
Type of Workout
To see results the quickest, you also need to make sure you’re doing the kind of exercises that are in line with your fitness goals.
If you want to lose weight, a larger percentage of your workout should be dedicated to cardio training like running, cycling, or high intensity intervals. These types of exercises keep your heart rate elevated for the entirety of the workout, causing high caloric burn. If you want to gain muscle mass, more of your time should be geared towards weight training.
While your heart rate may not be as elevated, the muscular demands of the workout are high. For the best overall results, use a combination of several different kinds of workouts and switch it up every few weeks. By doing the same routine too often, your body will begin to adapt to the demands and eventually your progress will plateau.
Mix Up Your Intensity
If you try to go at 100% all the time you are not only more likely to get injured, but you’re also disrupting your body’s ability to adapt to the demands you’re placing on it.
Mix up the intensity of your workouts to change up the physical stimulus. Alternating longer workouts of lower intensity with shorter workouts of higher intensity will help you get the best results. By placing varying training loads on your body, you cover all of the fitness bases while also ensuring that you’re not overdoing one kind of workout that could potentially lead to an injury or training stagnation.
Eat Right
To quickly see results from working out, training can’t stop when you leave the gym. It’s also important to make sure you are eating and drinking things that will be productive to your fitness goals.
While decreasing caloric intake assists with weight loss, too much of a deficit can lead to fat-retention and have the opposite effect. So, it’s important to monitor what you’re eating and the way it is impacting your body.
It’s also crucial to increase protein intake, particularly when you’re doing a lot of high intensity training. Get some protein powder from GNC if you struggle to get enough in your diet.
Training Experience
Another factor that can have an impact on how long it takes to see results is your previous training experience. If you are a beginner and have never had a serious and consistent training routine, you’ll likely see results in as little as 3 to 4 weeks.
If you work out consistently, it will take longer to see even more improvements in fitness. If you have been working out for awhile and the results have started to slow, change up and alter your workouts to something you haven’t done before. The new physical challenge being placed on your body will initiate adaptations and fitness improvements. Even under this scenario, results may take 6 to 8 weeks so be patient.
There are a lot of factors that can impact how long it will take to see major and noticeable results from working out. We’ve pointed out just a few ways to make sure you’re getting the most out of your training so that you can see results even sooner.
Try implementing several, if not all, of these tips into your current training plan and see if you notice any improvements. Keep in mind that even when following these guidelines, it can potentially take up to 6 months to see substantial results. Be patient, stick to your plan, and the results will come.
