How long will it take to see results?
It is common that when individuals start a healthier lifestyle that they are not completely familiar with it could cause many doubts to arise, and one of the most common usually is... “When will I begin to see changes or results?”
The rush of getting in the habit of a different lifestyle...
We live in a society where we want everything immediately, and hopefully without the slightest effort. We tend to want to rush into a lifestyle and to every type of there are various aspects that come with it… That is why questions such as:
Sadly, many of us have fallen into that game, we focus more on external results than internal changes, and there are moments where when focusing on just external results people abandon everything. There are some individuals that pay for gym memberships for 1 year of the gym and never return. They are so focused on physical changes they do not value or notice that they are able to achieve discipline, improve their health, and prevent diseases.
I can tell you that I know countless people who have improved their health, well-being, discipline but who also may not immediately see those results that would have their mind directly goes to in the beginning and it leads to them abandoning everything and has returned to previous habits. But on top of that, even if you get to achieve the physical results in the time you wanted, if you haven't built motivation and a lifestyle, those results will go away just as quickly as you got them.
With that being said the question appears of so, "when will change start?"
My intention is to you bring you a different perspective so you are able to measure your progress from many different angles, not only focus on the physical (and much less with the only reference to the pounds lost) but also be able to pay attention to how much time you will see results with your change of habits:
Day 1 and 2 after starting new habits:
Although you may not believe it from day 1, you are generating an important change in your life, you may feel more alert and with more energy.
1 to 2 weeks after starting new habits:
During this time, you may begin to feel more motivated and energetic, you will also begin to adapt to being more active. You will also feel that it will become less difficult for you to do certain exercises.
4 to 12 weeks after starting habits:
Generally, it may take between 4 and 12 weeks to start seeing changes in your body, in terms of physical changes, it varies a lot in each person and will depend on the following factors:
First of all, the person's initial weight, their BMI, their initial percentage of body fat, their percentage of muscle mass. These are all important because if the person's goal is to lose weight and they have enough "extra pounds", the first pounds could be easier to lose than someone who has little to no "extra pounds".
Another important point to keep in mind is the intensity and frequency in which we exercise, someone who only seeks to exercise to improve their health is different from someone with intentions to improve their performance in competitions.
As you can see, maybe the question is not ... when will I see the changes? The question should be what are the parameters in which I can use to measure my results. Remember that it is never too late to start but think of how far along you could be if you take that first step!
