I have been extremely consistent for about 11 months, however no ever looks at me and says ‘Oh he probably goes to the gym’

Several reasons

1)Poor starting point

Had a lot of fat and almost no muscle, overweight

2)Trash program

The coach in the gym directly put me on machines without squat bench etc, 20sets per muscle group

  1. (Probably) poor genetics

Barely saw any ‘rapid’ progression on my lifts in the start, took me weeks to increase weight

4)Obsessed with losing fat/fatigue from cut

Ended up cutting way too long, I wanted to get ‘lean’, but since I had no muscle, never lost my gut, just looked even worse ‘skinny fat’

However I seem to have fixed all the issues on my end, and am seeing slow but steady increase in reps and weights, it’s still kinda demotivating when my friends say that they can’t see progress but ofc they don’t know how bad I fucked up and ngl I am actually getting a little excited with everything coming together, and was wondering how long did it take y’all to start looking good

  • grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I tell you what my personal trainer told me about weight loss: When it comes to losing fat, you have to view it as you would see a puddle drying up. The areas of water on the edges will be the first to go, then slowly it will dry up until the center is left, that being the deepest part of the puddle. That’s how fat loss goes. The area with the most fat will be the last to go. You cannot target special areas for fat loss, so if you think doing more sit-ups will make your gut magically disappear, sorry, it’s doesn’t work that way.

    • fastandcurious@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      …but if i put some ab musculature on there, shouldn’t the fat be less visible, I know you can’t spot reduce, but I thought if you had low muscle, the fat is just gonna be more visible

      • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        To summarise, musculature won’t hide fat because the fat layer of the belly is on top of the abs, fat hides abs.

        I’ve been a rower in the past and some of my colleagues were able to show abs easily. Others like me, literally had to follow a very harsh routine for a 17 yo kid to even be able to. I was plenty healthy, I just wanted to get abs because of course a 17yo wants to.

        The issue? Genetics. Some people accumulate fat in the belly first, so it will be the literal last place where it will go away. This means that even though I was the strongest of the club, with best times on competitions, I had a (very minimal) fat layer on top of the abs I obviously had given the competition results, and it covered the abs themselves.

        Now, this is an extreme example, but I think that it shows why sometimes we must accept that “taking out the belly” is a marathon, not a sprint. And it does not really matter which part of your body you exercise in regards to weight loss, since your body moves fat around to compensate for it. Yeah, you will build muscle and volume in the places you exercise, sure, but that won’t make belly fat go away by itself.

        For example, I recently started exercising and dieting and went down from 128kg to 114kg, aiming to be back at 95ish. My belly has reduced a lot, fat too, all around my body. All I did was some intense static bike and dieting, no lifting until a while because I felt embarrassed with my body. In any case, it worked, literally anything works IF you keep up with both diet and exercise.

        • fastandcurious@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          Thanks a lot! I think maybe not just abs but just generally having bigger muscles will still make your belly look better, you see dudes with a high amount of body fat but they still have some abs poking through and in general look way better than your average fat guy

          Anyways, good luck on your journey!

          • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Thank you too! About the feel you have that you “wasted” your time, don’t think like that, you created a habit of exercising and conscious eating, in the long run that’s the hardest part. As others have said, maintaining those habits and slowly increasing the intensity as you feel comfortable with it will always yield results, albeit slowly. For faster results you should go to trainers for sure though. Best wishes with your journey!

  • Carnelian@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    For me it was about 2 months to start seeing subtle changes. After like 8 months I think I was starting to look somewhat “fit”, then after like 1.5 years I think I started to have that “muscular” look

    It sounds like you pretty much figured out what was holding you back. It’s frustrating to feel like you have wasted time, but good on you for pushing through! This stuff is genuinely hard to learn, lots of conflicting advice out there

    • fastandcurious@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Its less frustrating and more disheartening tbh, so much effort for nothing, but I try not to think about it and focus on the present

      • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        It’s not for nothing.

        You are piloting a wildly more able, and healthy body now. Fitness health and mobility are a gift. Looking a certain way is just the bow on top.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    What?

    You “cut” after you “bulk”…

    If you start out and immediately “cut” you’re just trying to lose weight.

    “Bulk” is where you just build muscles. It’s hard to do because muscles are ridiculously inefficient which is why we need to lift weights to get a lot. We have to trick our body into thinking it needs huge inefficient muscles.

    Once you have them, losing fat is easier because every small movement wastes a shit ton of fuel. And fat is fuel.

    Like, it sounds like you picked up some buzzwords, but don’t understand them.

    What/who is your “coach”? Like, are you in a CrossFit gym? Are you a kid doing school weightlifting? Is it an employee at a gym you go to?

    Either way, your best advice is probably whatever you coach says, start listening to them.

    You didn’t even give people your age. No one is going to give as good and relevant advice as the coach who’s already helping. You say you’re really out of shape, which is why the coach put you on machines rather than stuff like bench/squat. You need to build support muscles and get technique down on machines before you hurt yourself on weights.

    If it was fast and/or easy, everyone would be jacked. It’s going to take a while and be difficult

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Good Intel here but a super negative vibe. Dude is just asking some questions and he doesn’t need this heat.

    • fastandcurious@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Sry, yeah I was trying to lose weight, but tbh I have always heard people use the term ‘cut’ when giving advice to people who are starting fat

      That being said, if I get literally close to 0 results in 8 months despite working hard and eating well, then I can be sure something is wrong with my training

      Also I had to start on ground zero anyway when I started those compound movements, my form was shit, I might have had the strength (spoiler alert I didn’t) but it didn’t transfer over

      • KillerTofu@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        IMHO stick with the compound movements. Read mark riptoes book, pretty much the standard on terms of beginning weightlifting. 5x5 strong lifts is a watered down version and easy to understand and stick to. Take progress pictures for yourself.

      • Aquila@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Sounds like you haven’t been very clear with your goals.

        What results are you going for? What have you been tracking? What’s your diet look like? What’s your workout routine like? What’s your base caloric needs?

        • fastandcurious@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          Honestly my goal is to just get in better shape, yeah getting ripped might be cool but its just too far off, I atleast wanna look fit, the reason I use my strength as an example is because you can be sure that someone who cant bench 60lbs (about 5 months in iirc) confidently isn’t gonna be very good looking, and I am a male

  • Delphia@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    There’s a lot of really good advice here, even the stuff that seems a little mean. Mine is this… Go full nerd on this shit for 5 months.

    Calculate your macros, weigh your food and track your weight, take a month to figure out your maintenance calories. Then do a 2 month bulk cycle, drop back to maintenance for a few weeks, then a 2 month cut cycle. Take pictures too.

    Supplements in general are a waste of money. The notable exceptions are Creatine, its one of the few ones that show tangible benefits and a good preworkout (I’m up for work at 4am, gym is at 4pm… I need that serious jolt or I’m dogshit) I will say Ive fucked with some PEDs (not steriods but still… I couldnt pass an olympic piss test) but I’m not going to endorse them. Ill give you some candid advice on it if you want to reach out for more info privately.

  • anarchyrabbit@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It depends on your goals. 5x5 is a pretty good program for muscle gain. Nutrition is super important to take in enough and the right stuff.

  • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    <1 month to notice changes but i was underweight when i started and was going daily and developed a schedule with my best friend who is a professional body builder so i think i had an advantage in that regard. Its been roughly 6 months now with some breaks here and there, i look significantly better than i did but realized i wasnt trying to look like my roommate and slowed down to a more reasonable pace for my goals. I started with a massive head start so i’d say you’re probably doing fucking solid for where you are at.

    Dont let other peoples perspectives get to you so much. With consistency you will make it to where you want. Its just a slow process especiially if you’re over weight

  • daddyjones@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I have a weird body where most of my fat is on my torso/face and my limbs are very lean. This means that I see results in my arms quite quickly - they start to develop nicely after not too long. It also means I can train for a long time and see very little benefit in my chest/back/abs because they are covered in stubborn fat.

    I’ve seen significant results in terms of strength gain, without those muscles appearing very different at all.

  • Buglefingers@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It took me about 18-24 months from where I started. I was extremely thin and it took 30lbs to get me to an average weight/build as a guy. I always had issues with eating enough due to trouble feeling hunger but even lifting hard and eating more with a workout partner it still took almost 2 years.

    Now I look average, nobody would see me and think “he works out” but that’s my goal eventually! You’re doing well and changing your body takes time, cudos for sticking to it! GL&HF

  • Krudler@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    My personal experience:

    I just took a look at my “Before & After” pictures that span May-Nov 2019. I lost 57Kg of fat and put on about 13Kg of muscle. It was interesting to look back at the slideshow just now!

    Although it is difficult to distinguish the muscles growing vs. the fat shrinking, it looks to me like my increase in muscle mass started to be noticeable from around the 3 month point. By “noticeable” I mean that the “definition lines” started to be visible although major increase in mass isn’t apparent.

    The increase in mass looks like it started around the 4-5 month point, at which point I had progressed past the “do my best” beginner workouts, and had established the required strength, endurance and range of motion to take the next steps, so to speak.

    So I first noticed my strength, endurance, range, and muscular definition increasing, and later noticed the size increase.

    I would like to encourage you to keep at it, and don’t chase results. Do what you’re doing with the goal of being happier, having fewer health complications and pains, a little bit of vanity which is totally fine, and let the rest take care of itself.

    One of the things that can be very defeating is to assume you will have reached an arbitrary goal by an arbitrary time-frame. Try to shift your perspective to realize that you’re doing all the right things, perhaps there’s some efficiency tweaks but that’s another story. Keep going and don’t measure your progress against anybody else but you!

    (I want to acknowledge that my story is not normal. Nobody should ever lose 10Kg+ a month. I’m one of these a__holes that has to do 50% of what most people need to get the same results though and that’s a blessing. I also have digestive and nutrient-absorption issues but I’m not sure how much that plays in.)

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I know I’m gonna sound like a dick for saying this, but I’ve got the opposite problem and I wish I had yours.

    My muscles tend to expand in size faster than they expand in strength. Like one workout and I’m jacked. But I’m not stronger.

    Trouble with being jacked is other jacked dudes start eyeballing me, playing boundary games, pissing contests. Just makes me nervous.

    I wish I could lift and get hella strong and still look non-threatening to the fragile ego muscle dicks around me.