From Butt Blasters to Thigh Masters, to 10-minute workouts, we are constantly being promised the quick fix to fitness!   This fast-twitch, always on the run, texting and twittering society leads to the desire for instant gratification — an extremely unfortunate byproduct of our increasingly impatient lives!

Can you really become slender AND get rock hard abs in just 10 minutes a day?   For most people the honest answer is NO.   Achieving optimal fitness like they show in these promotions (ideal body weight, body fat percentage, and a six-pack) is going to take a lot more than that.

In my experience, people can work out for an hour 5 times a week, and still not come close to that picture, and that’s even with the help of a good trainer who has designed a good program.  Do these trainers selling exercise devices/programs know something I don’t?  No they do not.  

Look at the fine print — all of these programs come with a diet you need to follow, and they also state that the results they show on TV are “not typical.”  That means the vast majority of people will not look like the people on TV at the end of the 6 or 12 weeks, or whatever it is.

The truth is, genuine fitness, good health, and weight regulation require good, old-fashioned time and effort.  Certainly short-bout exercise does have some benefits as many Total Health Breakthroughs articles have discussed, and we have learned that high intensity interval training is MUCH more effective for weight loss than those hours and hours we used to spend doing aerobics.

But what is a realistic amount of time to spend on your fitness program? What will accomplish your goals, but not make you have to “live in the gym?”

To be quite honest, the answer is it will be different for everyone.  Numerous studies have identified that the amount of time needed to achieve fitness was anywhere from a few months to a year, depending upon several factors like how de-conditioned you are when starting out, your age, whether you eat a healthy diet or not, and the amount of time you are willing to devote to exercise.¹ 

Even your gender heavily influences how long it will take you to get fit.²  And let’s not forget genetics — this too plays a role.

These factors are why each and every person, conditioned or not, progresses at a different rate even if they are doing the same workout with the same effort!

One of the most interesting studies to date evaluated a program based on a claim seen on TV that people could get fit in just 6 weeks, exercising 3 times a week.³  This study had unfit sedentary people try to do just that.   One group did cardiovascular exercise and the other did strength training. 

In six weeks, the cardio exercisers lost almost one pound and a little body fat.  The strength-training group actually gained a little weight, but did lose a little body fat — but very little, .05%.  So exercise, even at that moderate level, was effective, and that was without any dietary changes.  The control group who did no exercise, gained both weight and body fat.  

This study is spot on with what I see with my clients — by six weeks into a program we start to see some muscle building and some fat loss, and by the end of the year, we see about 8 or 10 pounds of weight loss, with moderate exercise only. 

If you step up your exercise intensity and frequency and you cut out refined carbs, the weight loss and fitness achieved is even greater.  (If people are NOT seeing at least modest results by 12 or 16 weeks, most likely they have some sort of metabolic disruption, as Jim’s article discussed.)

So in looking at the promises behind many of these programs and products, just be realistic, because if you are expecting optimal fitness in a just a few weeks, you could get discouraged and want to quit.  

If you are very overweight, haven’t worked out in a while, if ever, and your diet still leaves a lot to be desired, you are probably looking at about a year of dieting and exercise to achieve something close to that “optimal” picture.  That’s realistic, and it would be a great accomplishment. 

So really, the headlines should say, Just Think, in Only One Year You Can Reverse Years of Bad Diet and No Exercise!

References

1. Geraro, Jim (2009), Fitness Ace Matters.15, 4, 11-12.
2. Tarnopolsky, Mark A. Med Sci Sports & Exerc. 40(4):648-654, April 2008.
3. Anderson ML, et al. J Strength and Cond Res. 2004:18(2), 255-59.

[Ed. Note: Melissa Hawthorne, RN, BSN, CSCS is the owner of Priority Fitness Personal Training and Wellness.  She is a Master Trainer for the Resist-a-ball Company, ISCA Personal Training, Kick-boxing, and Beamfit.   Melissa serves as a fitness consultant for the LaValle Metabolic Institute.  To learn more, click here.]

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