After how long of hitting the gym should you expect results?

I've been hitting the gym for a complete month now, 4 days a week throughout my breaks. Personally I see some differences but not as much as I expected.

I used to have a large sum of weight last year but I lost most of it, was wondering should I first cut then lift or right away lift to see the best and fastest results.

<3

 

If your fat/skinny fat:

- Lift heavy or lift medium with a lot of reps, find what works for you, but push yourself and get that pump
- Eat clean - consistent small meals - I can't stress enough diet is 80% of the work in the gym
- Do some high intensity cardio in your workouts also to get the metabolism going (this will help you burn fat post workouts while you sit and browse sythe )

You will see results. It's hard to see them at first because you get glued to the mirror and look at yourself multiple times everyday - when you look back over the months/years you will see the progress. I suggest take a picture now. Then take one a month later, keep doing this for progress instead.

If you want to see serious progress and change in physique, then make sure your diet is 99% perfect and you will see major results within 1 month. This means no cheating/cheat days. Lift 4-5 days a week - don't be a pussy and kill yourself lifting and training.

In order to look aesthetically good, you need to have a good foundation of muscle which it sounds like you are building. The only way to then reveal it is to cut the fat.

Follow the above and start building the solid foundations, then decide to drastically cut your diet and up the cardio to shed fat.

I have been in a similar position, don't give up, the gains will come and over time you will get more and more addicted to it because of the positive changes you and others see in your body and the ambience that you give in result of it.

All in all, your body is a machine, you need to feed it calories to burn, if you are burning more calories than you are taking in then you will lose fat. e.g. 2500 calories a day, if you cut this to 2000. 1 pound of fat is 3000 calories, it will take you 6 days (500 cals x 6 days) to theoretically lose 1 pound of fat (3000 calories). Bear in mind this is not accounting the weights and cardio. This is for demonstration purposes only.

This was just my 2 cents. Best of luck. Feel free to pm me if you have anymore questions. I am not a personal trainer and by no means do I know everything, I just built up knowledge over experience and I started at the beginning just like everyone else

 

Good advice above. Regarding how long it takes, assuming you're working hard and lifting/dieting properly, my friend gave me the following advice:

- It takes 4 weeks for you to notice results.
- It takes 8 weeks for your mum to notice results.
- It takes 12 weeks for the rest of the world to notice results.

As someone who starts/stops hitting the gym quite neurotically, I'm inclined to agree.

 

I cannot agree enough with the above statement. It is the first time I have heard that out loud.

Also bear in mind people/friends (even ones I trained with..)/family will get jealous around you when they see the gains, some will not say anything for this reason. Again this is from my past experience. Keep your head down and plough on bud.

*EDIT* Vlad, I just realised your based in LDN like me

 

I highly suggest taking before and after pictures. It's hard to see your results if you're looking in the mirror everyday but if you have pictures to compare, it's easier to see your results.

 

Pictures are great, as Hahanerd suggested.

Generally, to see a big difference it takes about 6 months of work to make a very noticeable difference.

Goodluck!

 

All this wasted time on a pleb that gets banned LOL.

gg Sythe,

 

Completely overlooked this lol... Either way I'm sure someone else finds it useful.

 

Consistency is key. Just make fitness part of your life and daily routine, eat well and the gains will come. Different for everyone though (genetics), but mainly it's your diet. Don't eat shit and you will see gains much faster

 

If you're not seeing results then you gotta hit that shit harder. You're not working your body to it's breaking point

 

Until failure baby

 

Rule of thumb being, you will not make any progress if you are not lifting at-least 60% of your 1 rep max, so if u can bench 100kg for 1 rep you need to be lifting at-least 60kg to make any progress

Then depending on hm sets and reps you do find a good weight for it, i.e 5x5 You can lift up to 80% of your 1rm. For 4x8 up to 70% works very well, etc.

edit: the guy im giving advice is banned, well whatever someone might randomly see this

 

As stated depends of the size you start weather you're skinny or fat and to many components as every individual is different as genetics play a role, also diet is huge and also training schedule plays a significant impact, just keep going week by week man