How Long Will It Take Before I see Results In My Transformation?

I've joined the site since 16 November and I'm coming up on my 4 week mark. I can see my body transfoming [slowly but surely] but the scale doesn't seem to be budging to much. I eat about 4-5 small meals a day and I work out 3 times a week. I run on treadmill or the elliptical for 60 minutes then I do weight training for another 45 minutes and sit in the sauna for 20 mintues. I will be increasing my workouts in the next week to 4-6 times a week. Am I missing anything something? Or do I need to give myself more time before I become concerned. Any advice will be greatly appreciated...

Honestly, it was 5-6 months before I saw a noticeable difference on the scale. I wasn't too terribly out of shape, and doing everything right--or so I thought. I lifted 3-5 times a week, did some cardio, and ate clean, healthy food. The problem was, I ate TOO MUCH clean, healthy food. It wasn't until I started calculating my calories/macros (see the stickies) that I really began losing weight. Are you counting your calories and tracking your macros?

[QUOTE=hunibrwn;796146583]I've joined the site since 16 November and I'm coming up on my 4 week mark. I can see my body transfoming [slowly but surely] but the scale doesn't seem to be budging to much. I eat about 4-5 small meals a day and I work out 3 times a week. I run on treadmill or the elliptical for 60 minutes then I do weight training for another 45 minutes and sit in the sauna for 20 mintues. I will be increasing my workouts in the next week to 4-6 times a week. Am I missing anything something? Or do I need to give myself more time before I become concerned. Any advice will be greatly appreciated...[/QUOTE]

Eating 4-5 small meals a day means nothing. You need to track your calories in order to make progress.

4 weeks is a drop in the bucket. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that "once I reach my goal I can stop", you will quickly revert back to step 1. Major changes in physique can take years. You have the rest of your life to make the changes you want, so don't rush it abd do it correctly and you'll have a better chance of not fallin back on only habits and losing all the hard work you've done.

[QUOTE=hunibrwn;796146583]I've joined the site since 16 November and I'm coming up on my 4 week mark. I can see my body transfoming [slowly but surely] but the scale doesn't seem to be budging to much. I eat about 4-5 small meals a day and I work out 3 times a week. I run on treadmill or the elliptical for 60 minutes then I do weight training for another 45 minutes and sit in the sauna for 20 mintues. I will be increasing my workouts in the next week to 4-6 times a week. Am I missing anything something? Or do I need to give myself more time before I become concerned. Any advice will be greatly appreciated...[/QUOTE]

what you're missing, or at least haven't mentioned, is your diet. as kim said, 4-5 meals means nothing. meal frequency is irrelevant. see the sticky on calculating cals and macro's in the nutrition section and find the right deficit. also, the sauna is irrelevant (not sure if you were just mentioning it or thought it mattered) and you didn't say what your lifting is like. you want to be on a professional prgm. see training basics in the training section. there are lots of programs to choose from. the impt thing is not to just pick exercises willy-nilly, although as a nood you'd still make gains, but not as good. wouldn't be as effective. also, you'd likely want to do cardio after lifting b/c lifting is more impt and where you wanna put your energy. and 60 min 3 x / week is too much. and esp if you were doing that before lifting, you're just not making the most of your gym time. try hiit 2 x / week or something. but also, 4 weeks isn't a long time. you said you've noticed some changes, and that's totally good and all you can expect at this point. patience and consistency. make sure your diet is spot on and you pick a workout prgm and you'll see more results.

What's a stickie and what's a macro? I'm new at all of this and I'm paying a lot of attention to my protein intake and what I'm eating but that counting calories makes me scratch my head.

I love to run and it's just a preference to run first, then lift weights. When I lift weights and then run, I don't feel like I've put my all into it. I don't lift non-chalantly. Every rep I do after the first set, whatever I'm working out is already burning. I just wanted some encouragement to know that I'm at least on the right track and that with some tweaking to my workout regime, that I will begin to see a difference. I gues I just don't understnad what's wrong with running before weight training and what's wrong with running a lot. I really want to get this right but I need to understand how everything is affecting my body so I can do it right. I appreciate all the comments.

[QUOTE=cheerleader0720;796151323]Honestly, it was 5-6 months before I saw a noticeable difference on the scale. I wasn't too terribly out of shape, and doing everything right--or so I thought. I lifted 3-5 times a week, did some cardio, and ate clean, healthy food. The problem was, I ate TOO MUCH clean, healthy food. It wasn't until I started calculating my calories/macros (see the stickies) that I really began losing weight. Are you counting your calories and tracking your macros?[/QUOTE]

I just saw the sticky on macros and I'm even more confused and frustrated. None of that is written where I can understand it. Maybe I should just get a personal trainer because doing this on my own is more complicated than I expected...

[QUOTE=hunibrwn;796376153]I just saw the sticky on macros and I'm even more confused and frustrated. None of that is written where I can understand it. Maybe I should just get a personal trainer because doing this on my own is more complicated than I expected...[/QUOTE]

It's as complicated as you want to make. Not being facetious but it's really easy to get caught up in the minutiae of it all - but that's not always necessary if you aren't looking to compete or drop to low body fat levels. Most of us are pretty average women wanting pretty exceptional bodies. Exceptional bodies take years of work and dedication. So as a starting point I'd pick a [I]reasonable[/I] goal to start with and go from there.

You could do something as easy as starting with ensuring you get approx. 120gr of protein a day & 1800 cals a day. Lift heavy full-body 3x/wk (pick a good solid program), run a couple times a week if you love it, get ample rest & recovery and then sit back and have patience. That's a really basic starting point. Then evaluate:

How do you feel?
How is your energy?
Are you progressing with weights?
Are you seeing the results you want?
How do your clothes fit?

i.e. How is it working FOR YOU?

Then you can start tweaking things like your macro levels i.e. do you feel better on low/mod/high carbs? How are your fats looking? You can adjust cals as need be etc.

Good luck - try not to get too overwhelmed by it all. :)

[QUOTE=toodlepip;796423071]It's as complicated as you want to make. Not being facetious but it's really easy to get caught up in the minutiae of it all - but that's not always necessary if you aren't looking to compete or drop to low body fat levels. Most of us are pretty average women wanting pretty exceptional bodies. Exceptional bodies take years of work and dedication. So as a starting point I'd pick a [I]reasonable[/I] goal to start with and go from there.

You could do something as easy as starting with ensuring you get approx. 120gr of protein a day & 1800 cals a day. Lift heavy full-body 3x/wk (pick a good solid program), run a couple times a week if you love it, get ample rest & recovery and then sit back and have patience. That's a really basic starting point. Then evaluate:

How do you feel?
How is your energy?
Are you progressing with weights?
Are you seeing the results you want?
How do your clothes fit?

i.e. How is it working FOR YOU?

Then you can start tweaking things like your macro levels i.e. do you feel better on low/mod/high carbs? How are your fats looking? You can adjust cals as need be etc.

Good luck - try not to get too overwhelmed by it all. :)[/QUOTE]

I appreciate the tips and I don't think you are being facetious. There's a lot of terminology and I know for a fact that the yo-yo dies is out the door for me. I would like t understand it all. Everything is a progression and wit more, time, understanding and patience, I'll get there. I have noticed in the last 2 weeks that my endurance has increased and I have added weights to my workouts. I know that I'm eating around 1200-1500 calories. I hate counting because it does something to me in my head. It's just one of those things I won't lost sleep over. I eat lots of fruits, vegetables, protein and eggs. I think your response was very nice and I appreciate it very much. :)

You mentioned that you can see your body changing but the scale isn't dropping. I was wondering, did you take a full set of measurements when you started? If not, I'd highly recommend that you do. Then take the measurements again every other week. If you're losing inches, even if you don't see a lot of movement on the scale, you're losing fat. My experience has been that while I haven't lost a TON of pounds, I have dropped a ton of inches, and I think that's made a bigger difference in how I look than seeing my fantasy number on the scale. Good luck, and try not to get discouraged.

When I started dieting/working out, apart from the initial drop on the scale (which I know was water), it took about 8 weeks before the scale started budging on a consistant basis. I was losing inches though. After that point, the declines on the scale (and the inches) became relatively constant.

Most important- don't give up.

[QUOTE=Shakenbakebaby8;797256611]Most important- don't give up.[/QUOTE]

Thank you. I'm not. I went to the gym tonight and I REALLY DIDN'T WANT TO GO. When I got there, it was a wrap. Thank you all for all of your insights and encouragement. I can endure this and I will get there. You ladies ROCK!

I know this is a super old thread, but I just found it and wanted to comment. It was all very insightful as I just started body building and I was wondering a lot about my food and my workouts. I've only been doing it for about 2 weeks. I realized a few days ago I need to up my calories to at least 1800. I'm lifting about 4 days a week and I'm doing 3 sets of 12 reps right now. Nothing to heavy...I'm at 10lb hand weights and at about 30-40lbs for my legs. I read that it's better to start light and do the worksouts correctly so I am. Then I usually hop on the treadmill and walk/job 1-2miles so I can get my 10k steps a day. I didn't realize macros were such a big deal, I will definitely start looking into that. Thanks for all the help ladies!