How long to see the impact?

[Frenchcremefraiche]

I know everyone is different, and it's down to a huge amount of factors. But assuming no changes to my diet, how long will it take to look more toned? I'm 46.

Walking 1hr 5x a week (I've been doing this for a month and my cankles are visibly improving)
and
Swimming 1hr 2x a week (one is a swimming lesson to improve my technique so a bit stop start but leaves me out of breath. The other is a mix of strokes and also leaves me out of breath)
and
Weights 30min-1hr x 2 a week. (I've been doing once a week inconsistently but do plan to get better at this)

Walking and swimming is great but if you want quick results you need some cardio/abs workouts in with your weights - not sure if you’re doing this?

Isn't walking and swimming cardio?
TBH I cant fit anything else in.

I've been told to focus on weights for bone health.

Probably 12 months? 12 months of being really consistent.

Take pics now so you can compare, otherwise you’ll never notice the changes because they’ll be so incremental.

I mean 12 months of lifting BTW. Walking and swimming will be great for your fitness and heart health but aesthetic changes will come from building muscle.

It's taken me about two years, but I was losing weight at the same time. Weights and Pilates.

It is cardio but lower impact. I walk daily (dog) and with arm weights in the summer and also swim. But the most radical changes come from intense cardio combined with strength and ab workouts. Pilates is great for body shaping too.

So, yes you will see changes but more likely over a good number of months rather than weeks.

My body changed visibly in 3 months with a personal trainer x2 a week. I've maintained this for 10 yrs.

I have home weights and every now and then I invest in some heavier weights which helps. I do a mix of Bodyfit by Amy and Caroline Girvan and sometimes Joe Wicks if I need a ten minute quickie. I did a 20minute bodyfit by amy today plus an abs workout using a foam roller and pilates ring.

With swimming I use paddles which makes my arms work harder with the pull, massive improvement to shoulders. Swimming does nothing for legs though imo.

You’ll ‘look more toned’ if you build muscle and lose fat. The best way to do the former is to lift heavy weight, and the only way to do the latter is to be in a calorie deficit.

You can sequence those things though - build the muscle, then lose fat to reveal it.

It's impossible to tell.

But it depends on how hard you're working in those exercise hours. When I started really hard serious training, PLUS taking control of my nutrition and tracking what I was eating, I dropped about 10 kilos in 9 months.

I've now been doing this training for 8 years: a mix of heavy weightlifting (I'm now deadlifting almost 1.5 times my body weight) and HIIT/metcon style functional fitness training 4 times a week, and I have visible muscular development, although I'm never going to be lean or shredded (too old, don't care that much).

But even if I don't have obvious abs, I am very very strong for my age (I'm nearer 70 than 60), have very high energy levels, still work in a high pressure high standards job, have excellent balance and mobility, and I'm strong enough to manage my suitcases when I'm travelling. The benefits are evident in my life every single day. I'm starting not to care too much about aesthetics. I'm the fittest & strongest I've ever been in my life, and I've always done some sort of exercise (dance trained).

So it'll depend on your age, your previous fitness, your nutrition & calories, and things like mobility.

ETA: it's really hard for women to build muscle. So "toning" is simply dropping body fat in areas where the muscles are underlying eg biceps, abs. Toning is not building muscle. To build muscle you need to train much harder than you think you can!

Bluntly, it depends how much fat you’re carrying. I don’t think you’ll see much difference in muscle tone if you’re very overweight, even if the muscle is there underneath.