How long to get FIT.....and how long to get UNFIT??
From this to this takes HOW long??!?!
Everyone who starts training wants to know HOW LONG WILL THIS TAKE?!?!?! When will I see results? How quickly will I lose weight? When will I get a 6 pack???
So, to start with the good news: your body starts getting stronger and healthier just hours after you start working out (yes, for the first time) but....to actually get a 6 pack takes ALOT of hard work, patience, correct nutrition and the correct training.
Fitness Programme
So.....to put the question into practice, 25 sedentary volunteers were put through a 6-week exercise program at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. At the end of the program, a panel of 6 judges were asked what differences they could see. Unfortunately, the answer was 'none.' Disappointing. HOWEVER, inside things are starting to happen: after just a few strength training sessions, your brain learns to recruit more muscle fibres and make them contract all at once to produce a greater force which means you start to get stronger almost immediately (long before your muscles get bigger). Further strength then comes as individual muscle fibres within your muscles get bigger (this can start within 2 weeks if you're training intently) Notable changes in changes in fat and muscle composition aren't usually visible for at least 9 weeks though and the biggest increase in strength generally comes after 2 months, and in muscle size after 3 months. (NB this was based on 4 very hard workouts a week)
For the average gym-going person this takes about 6 months to see significant sculpting of the body even though strength has been increasing since day 1.
MUST....WORK....HARDER....WANT....TO...LOSE....WEIGHT MUST....WORK....HARDER....WANT....TO...LOSE....WEIGHT
So, that's strength, what about weight loss? This is more difficult to predict because it depends on many factors: starting point, health history, genetics, diet, workout routine etc. However, rest assured that the effects of aerobic exercise are happening long before you can see them in the mirror: The number of mitochondria (the powerhouse of your muscular cells which use oxygen to produce energy) increases with exercise and so the more mitochondria you have, the more energy you have and the more energy you have, the farther and faster you can run, therefore the more fat your muscles will burn.
6 weeks of training will boost mitochondria levels by 50 - 100 %! Worth starting!!! After a single bout of exercise however, health benefits are already kicking in: for about 48 hours after a workout, your muscles will be consuming more glucose than usual which helps to bring down blood sugar levels and after just a few workouts, your insulin sensing will being to improve offering further control of blood sugar.
At the end of the day, 'Getting Fit' is a journey, not a day trip. It can take months or years but DO NOT unpack your bags, remember the benefits start on day one so don't feel demoralised if you don't see any changes after a week or a month, stay motivated by knowing that your strength and endurance are increasing every day.
SO, NOW YOU'RE FIT, HOW LONG TO UNDO ALL THAT HARD WORK??? How long does it take to SEE my exercise efforts? How long does it take to SEE my exercise efforts?
The good news is that it takes less work to maintain your levels of fitness than it did to get there in the first place....which is good because life gets in the way of good intentions to work out. You can scale back your workout regimen without losing your hard-earned fitness BUT the clock is ticking.
Keep fit regularly
Danish researchers found that after just TWO - THREE weeks, subjects who reduced their physical activity showed worse insulin sensitivity and a decreased ability to burn fat. You gain more weight when you stop exercising than you lose when you subsequently resume the identical exercise program ie. if you stop, you don't get to start when you left off - you've got to work back up to it. As a rule of thumb, evidence suggests that you retain endurance for about 2 weeks without training but by the time you've taken 4 weeks off....you're back to square 1 where you started. This happens sooner if you're new to exercising as opposed to those who've trained for a long time because they have developed structural adaptations that will endure for several months like a larger heart and more capillaries to take oxygen to their muscles. To get around this, you can perform High-Intensity workouts - studies on subjects who were used to training 6 times a week were able to maintain key fitness indicators by doing just 2 high-intensity workouts a week so all is not lost!
Baseline - keep up what you can, something is better than nothing!