How long does it take to lose weight in the gym?

How long does it take to lose weight in the gym? Direct answer: As long as the movements are up to standard, the intensity is up to standard, and the diet is not seriously exceeded, a single effective exercise of more than 25 minutes can produce fat consumption. If you insist on regular training 3-4 times a week for 40-60 minutes each time, you will see visible weight loss or circumference tightening in about 4 weeks.

A little while ago, a young girl I took care of who was engaged in Internet operations is the most typical example. She sat at the workstation for 10 hours every day and had a soft "office circle" around her waist. At the beginning, she could not even run for 5 minutes without gasping for breath and clutching her chest. The plan I arranged for her was nothing fancy. It was just to come three times a week. Each time, she would take 10 minutes to warm up and open her joints on the elliptical machine, 25 minutes to practice upper limbs, buttocks and legs with fixed equipment, and the last 15 minutes to walk uphill, which added up to exactly 50 minutes. She did not go on a diet blindly, so she replaced the full-sugar milk tea in the afternoon with iced American style, and replaced the white rice with a small bowl of multi-grain rice for dinner. In the third week, she came to me happily and said that the skirt that could not be zipped up at the hips could be zipped up easily. In the fourth week, she weighed herself and she had steadily lost 3.8 pounds, and the fat on her waist was obviously reduced.

There must be people who see this and want to refute: No, I see many bloggers on the Internet saying that 20 minutes of HIIT training is enough. How can it be necessary to practice HIIT for 40 or 50 minutes? This is actually the opinion of the two factions that have been arguing in the fitness circle for many years. There is no absolute right or wrong, but it just suits different people.

“"Short-term High-Efficiency Party" focuses on HIIT and circuit strength training. It relies on the high heart rate maintained during exercise to bring about the "afterburn effect". The body can continue to consume calories for more than ten hours after training. Indeed, many people rely on this method to lose weight quickly. There is a female programmer with good physical fitness around me. Every time she comes to the gym, she changes clothes and starts training immediately. She dances Tabata for 20 minutes until she is soaked all over. She wipes her sweat and rushes back to work overtime. She also strictly controls what she eats. Losing 5 pounds in a month is not a problem. But this method is really not suitable for ordinary novices. Many people have just started to exercise and cannot even do jumping jacks. They have to endure high intensity. They either collapse on the ground and gasp after two minutes of practice, or the movements are deformed and hurt their knees and ankles. In fact, the gain outweighs the gain.

The other group is the "long-term aerobics party", who feel that moving will consume them anyway. They spend two hours in the gym every time, doing slow walking, aerobics, and group classes. A retired aunt I met before was like this. She never stopped going to the gym and walked on the elliptical machine for two hours every day. She did lose almost 8 pounds in the first month, but in the second month she was stuck at a plateau and couldn't move. She still felt tired and lost her hair. Later, I advised her to do some light weight dumbbells and stationary equipment for 20 minutes each time. Within two weeks, she started to lose weight again. To put it bluntly, long-term pure aerobic exercise does consume fat, but it also causes muscle loss. When muscle mass is reduced, the basal metabolism will decrease. If you eat the same as before, the calorie deficit will disappear, and of course you will not lose weight. If you don’t return to a normal diet, it will easily rebound.

To be honest, when many people calculate the length of exercise, they include the time spent changing clothes, taking selfies in the mirror, standing chatting with friends, and sitting on the equipment to watch short videos. Will that be useful? I have seen too many people come to the gym for three hours after get off work, and the total time to actually move is less than half an hour. After training, they stop by to eat skewers and drink a glass of cold beer. Even if they practice for four months, let alone four weeks, they may not be able to lose weight.

Not everyone has to stick to the 40-60 minute standard. Individual differences are huge. Friends with a large base have a high basal metabolism, and it is easy to create a calorie gap as long as they move. I once had a 220-pound male student who had bad knee joints at the beginning. He even walked for 30 minutes every time and controlled his diet a little bit with high-fat and high-sugar foods. He lost 5 pounds in the first week. The effect was so fast that he could not believe it. If you have a small base and your body fat is not too high, you may need to practice for about 6 weeks to see obvious changes, and it is most likely that your circumference will decrease first and you will not lose much weight. Don’t panic, it is because your muscle mass has increased and your fat has been lost. A tighter figure will look much better than simply losing weight.

Oh, by the way, don’t forget the old saying “70% to eat, 30% to practice”, it’s really not just words. I have a buddy who used to train for an hour every day in order to lose weight for a wedding photo shoot. After training, he would go out with friends to have late-night snacks to reward himself. After three months, his arms and legs became stronger, his weight increased by 2 pounds, and the fat on his belly was not lost at all. Do you think it was unfair?

In fact, there is really no need to worry about the duration. Rather than how long you practice at a time, whether you can persist is the most critical. Don't set yourself an ambitious goal of "practice 2 hours a day" right from the beginning. If you practice for three days and then give up after half a month, you'd better practice steadily for 40 minutes each time, three or four times a week, slowly form a habit, and your body changes will naturally come naturally.