Starting Gym - how long till you see results?

dsab

Hi Guys,

I just started to go to the gym. Never was a big fan of it, but want to give it a serious try now.

My intentions are to shed about 8 to 10 kilos, to improve my fitness, and to get rid of my belly (as much as possible).

How long would it realistically take to see results, when I go about 5 times a week?

I know everyone is different, but would just a ballpark figure.

Any other suggestions what to do in additon (Vitamins, Supplements etc.)?

Cheers,
DSAB

Mr E

Depends...

What age are you?
What weight are you?

If you're starting off, 5 days a week is seriously overtraining. You'll be p***ed off with it after a week or two. Cut back to 3 days with a rest day in between (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for example). After a month or two, you can increase it to 5 days because your body will be used to it.

dsab

I am end twenty, and about 87 kilos at the moment. Want to get slightly under 80 kilos.

I don`t smoke and don`t drink, if that`s any help. :-)

Corksham

well if i were you i wouldnt start off with 5 times a week as you wont last long (unless you have above average motivation and recovery abilities) - 3 / 4 is plenty

Everyone is different but within a short time (given you dont drink) you will start people saying you lost a few lbs (3/4 weeks or less depends on what you do).

Keep plugging away, we all fall down in out diet (well most normal people).

Aerobic is best for body fat loss, no doubt about it and tone with weights. Seek some advice on training - there are some very knowledgable and helpful people here both for running, diet, lifting weights etc... but remember its only advice and you have to be willing to try it out yourself

One more thing - best of luck with it (get a good mp3 player with some good jingles so ya dont get bored in gym )

Eoghan-psych

Also, be prepared to see your weight go *up* before it goes down - if you put on muscle faster than you burn off fat, your weight will increase. You might not see any visible change in that time either.

Supercell

dsab, I'm around the same weight you are now (which is over 10K lighter than a couple of months ago btw , yay me!!) and to be honest dont expect to see anything different until you have lost about 5kg min if even then...

However, you WILL notice massive changes in your stamina if you are doing lots of cardio, and have noticed, if you intend on lifing iron rather than much cardio, that there is a nice initial jump for most peopl in the first few weeks in the amount they can lift..progreess does slow down as you loose the puppy fat though!!, but it is a nice early reward. Doing cardio I find roughly that I can go about 10% faster /longer per week on average, what I am doing now would have killed me literally just a month or so ago, but was extremely unfit.
A side effect i've noticed is that I find getting to sleep a lot more easy than when i was very unfit, have always been a light sleeper but on gym nights its out in mins, whereas before i often found it hard to sleep if there was ANY noise at all..but i digress..

As everyone else has pointed out ..don't do 5 days a week starting out, you will only run your body down and will stop making gains and will feel like shííte..I did the same starting out, these days I try my best to go every second day which seems to give my body the perfect recuperation time and often find the same routine I tried only a couple of days ago is already easier!!

So expect some results within a week or two, but keep your goals realistic..and stick to whatever plan you make if at all possible and you will loose the 10kg, and overall improve your total health along the way!! Good luck

revo

hey guys i am in westwood and use the threadmill program weight loss which basically is i walk for an hour speed 5.5 and incline changes from 0 - 2 am i waisting my time or should i run ?

Supercell

revo wrote:

hey guys i am in westwood and use the threadmill program weight loss which basically is i walk for an hour speed 5.5 and incline changes from 0 - 2 am i waisting my time or should i run ?

You are not wasting time, 5.5 is a brisk walk, however why not hit the cardio button and let it speed up , incline/decline though the course of the programme and is more interesting, you will get results faster..try doing the cardio on level 6 for 20 mins if you are using the Westwood Loughlinstown gym (imagine the other Westwood's use the same equipment so this setting should be grand).

This will give you a nice jog which varies between 8.8 flat and 8.0 inclined over 20 mins and isnt too hard , if you are able for 1 hour @5.5 this should definately be doable, then build up time as your stamina/fitness improves

revo

cheers longifeld. i have been doing the walk program for fat burn and have lost 2 pound and .5 off my BMI which im very pleased with i have stepped it up to stage 2 which is inclin 0 - 3 and speed 5.8 every day i go i step it up a program. i see loads of ppl running but i think id get fed up really quickly doing that?

shoegirl

I have to admit that I found walking even at 5.5km useless even though I'm on a fairly harsh diet. After a couple of weeks of 60-120 minutes a day I went back to more traditional cardio and its been much better. Go up to 6.5km and you'll see more results and keep increasing by .5 km once it starts to feel comfortable, or else move between different speeds.

Unfortunately I'm stuck at 8.5km at the moment on a jog as any faster triggers off my asthma.

Recon

I think I'd go mad at that speed for that much time. I found a hardish run for 20 or minutes pretty good. Can't do that anymore with my kness :mad: . Start off trying to run a mile in 12 or so minutes, 5 mph or 8 kmph. Then a mile in 10 minutes, 6 mph. Then 2 miles in 20 minutes.
The best I got to was 5 miles in 40 minutes, it's nothing to shout about but I was pretty proud of it.