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’ve done couch to 5K a few times and only started noticing a difference right near the end, when you’re running 25-30 minutes a few times a week. I didn’t do any other exercise alongside it though. Good luck!

It’s 90% diet, something to bear in mind. Keep training but also, have you amended your food intake?

5 weeks isn't enough to see change, even from nothing. Keep going.

At 89 kg you won't see much toning or definition but it doesn't mean it's not happening underneath. You need to lose weight and exercise if you want to see muscles, exercise alone won't be very effective at all. I guess you need to lose around 20kg to be in the healthy weight range and that's when you will see some toning, you are currently in the obese range.

I know bmi isn't 100% accurate but unless you are carrying 89kg of nearly pure muscle you are going to have to focus on losing some of that weight.

As others have said, you are expecting way too much too soon. It took me months of consistency and tracking to start seeing visible changes in my body. It sounds like your total exercise load is well balanced, assuming you are weight training for around an hour and are lifting to failure regularly so please ignore the comments saying to add more. Over training is bad news and is a real problem because you run the risk of injury and exhaustion, both of which make it hard for you to make good diet choices. Instead, focus on optimising the time that you have to make sure you're getting the most out of it. When you are weight training, the last two reps in every set should be a real struggle. If they're not, you're not lifting heavy enough.

Are you tracking your diet, including weighing foods? As the saying goes: if you're not assessing, you're guessing.

I’ve started weight training this year. How hard are you training? You should be weight training “to the point of failure”. Weight training is HARD, it hurts and it takes forever to actually see results but that doesn’t mean your health isn’t improving

I think you would need to weight train more than twice a week, and make sure you’re lifting weights of a decent size. You should be looking at 8-12 reps x 3 sets, and depending on the exercise, by the end of each set, you should be at near failure.

you said trying to cut calories’ what does this mean?

Take weekly photos front, side and back and take measurements. You’ll see progress sooner this way than you will on the scale.

Weigh yourself daily and use a tracking app "happy scale" is good as it shows trends rather than fixating on a number

Photograph's with same clothes/ lighting / distance from camera at front back and sides in underwear is best too

Regardless of any exercise - it's all dependant on your food intake and the impact it has on your non exercise movement

• so if you run 5k a day but are so knackered you then cabbage on the settee, and before you walked 5k and then also pottered about the house there would be little to no difference if you get me

An hour of weight training is quite a long time - you might find that you're better off really going for it for 20-30 mins 4x a week than an hour twice a week.

While PP aren't wrong that losing weight would help you see more definition faster, I am overweight and still saw some impact from weight training after 2-3 months. Some definition in shoulders, sleeker legs and better posture

From nothing at 56 and 3 stone overweight....it took 3 months for me to realise my jeans were looser. After 8 months of 3 times a week weight training I'd dropped from squeezing into a size 16 to a comfortable 14 and after a year I'm sometimes a 12..

But on top of that I'm a lot fitter and flexible. Hard to run for a plane for the other day and was fine jogging one end of Gatwick to the other.

Keep going,p...12 weeks is reasonable to expect to see some difference....

Agree it takes longer than 5 weeks to see body difference.

But psychologically I bet the change is amazing!

Agreed. It's hard to exercise away excess calories. It would take me an hour of weight training ('ve been lifting for decades) to burn about 350 kcals and I eat them back again immediately because it makes me hungry.

Weightlifting is actually really good for weight loss because muscle burns up energy even when you're resting. The more muscle you build the more energy you burn when you're not exercising. It also takes up less space on your body: there are lots of pictures showing you the difference in size between a pound of muscle and a pound of fat.

My tip is to make sure you're eating plenty of good quality protein and cut down on sugar.

It is the diet that is really going to make the difference. You are likely building and toning muscle from the weight training. But if it's still under a layer of fat, it won't show! The cardio will be improving your health but not necessarily doing much for your outward appearance.

I'm hoping you're not ending up too discouraged from this OP. If you keep this routine up, it's a massive improvement from nothing, and much better to keep up a routine that feels workable to you than to try to do too much and give up. You will see differences if you stick with what you're doing, but exercise and diet changes are a long game. You need to be a bit patient. And sadly showing real muscle definition always comes down to the iron law of reducing body fat enough. You'll see that competitive strength athletes actually rarely look like bodybuilders - they've got huge muscle mass, but they build for functionality, not looks. Looking like a bodybuilder requires intense diet control and also deliberately dehydrating yourself for competition.

I've started to eat 1600 kcals per day. Only in the last fortnight or so.I've lost a 2 kgs on the scales. I am definitely standing taller though and my abdominal area feels
Flatter.

Thanks. I dont feel discouraged but am delighted with all of this genuine knowledge . Reading that I am indeed obese was not a shock but it did strike me that this is all futile if I dont cut body fat. I'm doing this for my heart, bones and joints as I am 50 and menopausal for last six years.
I often think I am a lot slimmer than I actually am, in the mirror !!!

get the tape measure out and take lots of measurements and then check again in a month

I use the body fat scales at the gym and that has showed an increase in muscle and a reduction in body fat. That's been heartening as the scales haven't shifted that much. We've got some at home as well, not as fancy, but they do the job.

I've been told by the GP to lose another stone, which I was a bit 'oh' about, till he, who is very skinny, said he'd been told to lose a stone by the cardiologist....

That may be too little...keep your protein up, not with powders and things, but make sure you are eating protein rich food and lots of veg and brown carbs.

Be patient. Hard work does pay off. Also, as mentioned previously, take pictures and you’ll be amazed at your progress.

as muscle weighs more than fat

It doesn't. 1lb of muscle weighs the same as 1lb if fat. Muscle takes up less room.

For your height I'd say that's not enough calories. I am much shorter than you and have lost 3st and never went anywhere near that low.

Have you worked out your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)? There are calculators online to help you do this. I worked out mine and then subtracted 200 to get my calorie target. You need to be fuelling yourself properly otherwise your exercise is going to be ineffective at best and dangerous at worst.

I've lost and stone and half in 3 months, literally only started to notice a difference in myself the past couple of weeks!!

It's annoying how these things take time, I get it but stick with it, you're doing great!

While I get your frustration with people mindlessly repeating those five words, it is true, if you add 'by volume'.