How Long Does it Take to Get Fit?

How long does it take to get fit?

It’s both a complex and easy question. Let’s start with the good news.

Within hours of your first workout, your body actually starts to get stronger. Even better, just a single workout improves your mental clarity and reduces anxiety.

How is it possible that I get stronger after one workout? For the first few weeks of strength training, your brain gets better at stimulating the muscles you already have. This neural activation is powerful and exciting because it happens so quickly. It’s like realizing you already have money in a bank account you forgot about. The next magic of strength training happens in as little as 2 weeks of regular strength training. That’s when you start to build NEW muscle. Why do you want more muscle? Besides the obvious ability to do everything (climb stairs, hoist a child/grandchild up, etc.) with more ease, increased muscle helps you handle your blood sugar better, reducing risk of diabetes and chronic inflammation. Even better, more muscle is about as close to the fountain of youth as we’ve ever come. You are REVERSING aging by adding muscle back to your body.

What about weight loss? The last bit of good news on strength training is that adding muscle to your body actually raises your metabolism. It has been long debated exactly how much your metabolism goes up, but it is widely agreed that muscle uses more energy than fat. Weight loss results from a combination of burning calories AND eating fewer calories. We’ve learned it’s even more complicated that that though. As a dietitian, I can tell you that it only takes a few days to start losing body fat if you follow a great plan customized to you. The first pounds are easiest; the last bit of body fat can be really tough to lose. The most important part of a weight loss plan is that you think about long-term success, rather than instant results. We all love a quick hack, right? For lasting fat loss, there isn’t one. You have to be prepared to put in the lifestyle work and stick with it. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has some great diets. https://www.eatright.org/ For a custom plan, contact a Better Living dietitian.

Finally, how long does it take to feel good? Within 6 weeks of starting a fitness program, you can have 50-100% more cellular mitochondria! Mitochondria are your tiny power plants in each cell in your body. They produce energy and exercise builds more of them.

How long does it take to get fit?

• 2 hours to start getting stronger
• 2 weeks to start building muscle (training 4 days a week)
• 2-4 days to start losing weight given the right nutrition/strength plans
• 6 weeks to potentially double your energy-producing mitochondria

Get started today.