Shouldn't I see a change in body shape now?

[scentsareout]

Doing a couch to 5k and weight training twice each per week for the last five weeks and a leisurely walk or
Two per week .
Shouldn't I see some toning by now ? Trying to cut calories but am
Still 5'7' , proportioned at 89 kg.
Thanks

I started similar about 2 years ago. Took about 12 weeks to really notice a difference in tone visually and it was mainly the weight training that did it. I felt better more quickly than that though. 6 months in I was so much stronger and fitter. Haven’t lost any weight as all the exercise makes me hungry 😆 but am happy with the changes. Keep going!

Are you taking photos or just looking at yourself in the mirror? I think it's really hard to see change unless you have something to compare to, like an older photo.

Probably not if you're only doing it twice a week. Did you take your photos at the start so you can track your progress? It didn't take 5 weeks to get to the point you're at and it takes a while to build muscle and burn fat and your diet has to be on point. Give it 6 months and compare photos.

Just
Looking in mirror . Raised my
Arms today and saw a little change under my arms, if that makes sense! There was a decent hollow and a tiny bi t of definition but gosh it's slow !

I'd get into the habit of taking a photo at the same time each week, in the same clothes (obs not baggy ones).

You'll start to see a difference as you compare those, I suspect.

So@gamerchick 2 sessions of one hour weight training and three couch to 5k training and some
Walks on beach won't show much in five weeks ? Just to be clear as I'm brand new to all of this! I went from nothing..

Its not going to be instant satisfacton OP. It's taken me 5 years of consistency to get the body I wanted. I don't pound the streets though.

Take your photos at regular intervals Use a tape measure and stay off the scales and fuel your body properly. It'll happen if you stick at it.

I've been cutting calories to slightly below maintenance and doing:

30 min hiit x 2 per week
30 min weight training x 2 per week
30 min run (5k) x 1 per week

First week I've lost 1lb and noticed a slight change in my body shape. But it's tiny, blink and I miss it.

I'm hoping for a bigger change in the coming weeks if I keep this up, but 5 x a week feels a lot.

For reference I'm 5' 8" and 147lb, bmi 22.5 ish.

5 weeks isn't enough to see visible change. The idea that you can get visible results in a month is purely marketing.
3 months to start to see some change that you can see, six months for it to be noticeable to other people is fairly standard

Can you up to three weight sessions a week?
Get a step tracker to track how many steps you are doing, around 8000 or 9000 a day will be great. And of course, calories! You might be toning your muscle structure but perhaps it is hidden. It will show more once you lose weight. I’m the same height as you and went from 97kg to 80kg with the above (steps, weight sessions and calorie tracking)

Are you losing fat? In a calorie deficit? Because if not then all the toning in the world will make very little difference to your shape. And no, sorry to be harsh but 5 weeks of running won't make any difference to your muscles.

Well a leisurely walk isn't going to do anything really. And two sessions a week of weights for five weeks is not that much.

Muscle definition is quite hard to see when it is covered by fat; it'll hold the flesh in place a bit better but you won't see the muscles themselves until body fat is low enough. I don't know what you are starting at body-fat-percentage-wise. You need to stick with this for longer for real change.

What sort of weight training are you doing? To get the most bang for your buck you need to be doing big compound exercises with heavy (for you) weights. Obviously if you are totally new to it you need to get used to it and make sure you have good form, but that should be the aim!

The amount of running you do in the first five weeks of C25K isn't enough to have any visible effect on your body shape, or to make you lose weight. The weight training will have more impact, but again 5 weeks is not very long to see a difference, although you should start to feel it sooner.

5 weeks is not much. I noticed obvious changes after three months of more intense training. But I definitely started to feel better mentally and more energetic already after a few weeks.

Take into account that the fitness trainers we normally see have this as their main job. They eat differently and train much more than an average human being with a non-fitness related job, so the look of a Les Mills trainer is not attainable without completely changing your career. You can still be nicely toned with visible muscle definition though :-)

Well done OP! A lot of the previous posts have a tone of 'pfft is that all?!' but that is a huge achievement to go from nothing to exercising 5 times a week. I'm on week 8 of couch to 5k (but it's taken me longer than 8 weeks to get here) and it's not been easy! Unfortunately five weeks isn't that long in the grand scheme of things. I've not lost any weight, but I'm only 59kg so don't have a lot to lose. I've noticed definition in my abs (although still carry weight bellow my belly button). Even if you can't see the difference, you're making a huge difference to your health.

I have had great results following Caroline Girvan on YouTube, no other exercise has ever made a difference to my shape and I feel great now.

Also don’t use weight as your goal unless you are genuinely overweight now. Use either an exercise goal (5km in x time, x push ups), or fitting into an old pair of jeans or similar. When I started weight training I put on weight but went down a dress size so tracking weight can be a bit misleading.

The transformation program that my pt does is usually for 12 weeks to be able to see a visual difference.

Take pictures and also measurements. You can track the inches going down and well as your weight

I started a health kick/diet/2-3 miles walk a day in late May (4.5 months ago.) The 5:2 diet. Only started to notice a change in my body about a month ago. Have dropped a stone and a half and 2 dress sizes now. People are starting to notice now, and being 2 sizes smaller feels amazing.

Well done on changes. Exercise is great for physical and mental health.

Sadly it will take much longer to see changes, but it’ll be worth it! Remember there is no such thing as ‘toning’. You can grow muscle and reduce fat which gives the toned look. High protein diet is the way forward for this.

Make sure your weights techniques are right. Poor technique will not get results and may cause injury! Videos through sm are readily available and free for that.

Good luck xx

It's good that you've made a start but you are expecting too much too quickly.

You are still quite overweight. C size 16???

Any toning won't show beneath the fat.

You need a calorie deficit and much more and higher intensity workouts.

Do you do 150 minutes of out of breath exercise per week? This is an absolute minimum.

On top of that you need weights. The heaviest you can, 3x10 sets 5 days a week.

In 3-6 months you will see a difference.

I think these rapid body transformations involve a lot of diet control and weight loss alongside the exercise

@scentsareout That sounds like a fantastic start to your fitness goals. I disagree with some other posters saying that 5 weeks isn’t enough time to see any results - this is especially the case if you have never worked out before and/or have some weight to lose. How is your diet? It can be really easy to accidentally make up the calories lost via exercise by eating extra!

As others have said, don’t focus on the scales as muscle weighs more than fat. Do your clothes feel looser? I usually go by how things feel as the scale can just be demotivating. After baby number two, I did a month of exercise and careful eating and didn’t lose a single pound but had actually turned fat into muscle and was much smaller.

Keep it up and you will feel and see the difference in no time!

Don't feel disheartened, you're laying the ground work, as others have said visible changes will relate to both fat loss and muscle increase.
In the past I trained for a run doing 3/4 x 5k runs and 3/4 swim sessions a week and found that after about 3 months there was a sudden change in how I looked. It just has to come together.
Good luck, you're doing great!