Probably one of the top 10 questions I get asked by new clients is,
“How long will it take before I start to see some results?”
Well, the answer to that question is a tough one, because a great deal of it relies on the client. It depends on:
- How motivated you are to create changes in your body
- How well you will adhere to nutritional and lifestyle changes
- Your age
- Your sex
- The amount of stress you have in your life
- Consistency
…and so on and so forth. Now, assuming that you follow my instructions and advice reasonably well (you strength train consistently, you eat mostly correctly, you get semi-adequate recovery) then you can expect to see real, tangible results at about the 4-6 week mark, maybe later if you aren’t particularly good with nutrition or if you miss workouts, etc.
This answer usually is met with some surprise. In this world of Hydroxycut and Trimspa, people are used to hearing things like, “Lose 40 lbs of fat in just 3 weeks!” and the like. But the reality is that real, lasting results take time. Programs that work don’t involve crash dieting or 4 hour long workouts that are unsustainable for prolonged periods of time. Programs that work involve lifestyle changes that force the body to adapt – this takes time. It takes time to get into the habit of eating for optimal leanness. It takes time to condition your body for truly beneficial (read: truly hard) exercise. It takes time to lose fat without sacrificing precious muscle along the way.
John Stone has a website that shows what a dedicated, young, out-of-shape person can achieve given the proper training, nutrition, and (most importantly) application. He has been kind enough to chronicle his transformation day by day. The pictures tell the story!
Note that the greatest amount of change occurred in the first 4-5 months of his program, when he went from fat to lean. Note also that in the day-to-day pictures, you don’t start to see visible changes until…
…about 4-6 weeks.
Of course, if he had just taken Trimspa…(he would probably have washed out after 3 weeks).
