How long before you saw results

[Christie Warner]

It took me a couple of weeks to see an initial difference in my clothes. I was coming from a skinny, but soft frame and I gained muscle and lost body fat. I began seeing my abs at 6 months. Keep it up! It's a process. There will be days when you just get discouraged. But remember how good you feel, if you do in fact feel great, and look at how your lifts/times progress and let that propel you forward. It's a great lifestyle and I'd never go back! Good luck!

[Willis Holder]

Originally Posted by Jason Panicaro

Hi guys im now officially 2.5 weeks into crossfit. I have been doing it about a month or so but for the past 2.5 weeks I have really stuck with it. I love the workouts, and love the way I feel after them. I was just curious how long it took people to really start seeing results? Maybe some before and after pictures with dates would be cool. Thanks

Like everyone else has mentioned, diet and rest and everyone is different, yadda yadda yadda. But you aren't asking how to get the best results, you are simply asking me how soon I saw results, so I'll answer:

I saw the most dramatic results in the first 3 - 4 weeks. Since then, it has been very gradual.

[Rebecca Roth]

I'm just over a month in myself, as far as results -
1) Saw a dramatic reduction in recovery time around early week 3
2) Lost no lbs, but realized there is a significant difference in the way my clothes are fitting week 3-4.
3) Seeing strength improvements every day

Take as you will, I had also already been almost entirely paleo diet since a little over a month prior.

[Eric Montgomery]

Don't worry about counting calories or macronutrients until you hit a plateau--until then it's just an unnecessary headache in my opinion. Focus on eating quality food (i.e. unprocessed, minimal sugar/grains, lots of meat, eggs, vegetables) in enough quantity to keep you from being hungry and you'll be fine. Get enough protein to build muscle and recover from workouts, enough carbs to fuel your intense efforts, and enough fat to be your low-intensity fuel source. If you're coming from a high-carb diet you may feel like you're dragging for a few weeks but that's just your body dealing with withdrawal from having a constant stream of blood glucose as it transitions over to burning fat as a low-intensity fuel.

All the stuff you read in mainstream magazines about "cut 500 calories a day and you'll lose a pound a week!!" is misleading--your body has a way of maintaining homeostasis that it developed over a few million years of survival, so cutting calories drastically typically results in a compensatory reduction of your resting metabolical rate, NEAT, body temperature, etc. so you're not going to see a linear relationship.

[Jason Panicaro]

Like I said I do feel better on a daily basis, I have a ton more energy than I used to. I also have noticed a big increase in my endurance, just from the start of last week to this weekend, running a 400m was alot harder last week than it was this week. Like I said I havent repeated any workouts yet to see if theres an improvement yet. I would think there is. My main goal now is to just be healthier, feel better about myself, lose weight and really buckle down on eating better.

[Eric Montgomery]

Make sure you're logging every workout--you may not notice a huge difference in how you feel during or after a workout, because even when you're in amazing CF shape the workouts are still brutally painful if you're pushing hard. But you should see weights increasing and times decreasing within weeks.

[Jason Panicaro]

Yeah we log every workout, I printed a big sheet to log our workouts, we write down the date and what our time was with every workout. But like I said we havent yet repeated any workouts to compare our times.

[Shannon Mullens]

Even when I haven't seen full workouts repeated, you'll see elements within those workouts repeated. Compare your times or how you feel or your ability to move certain weights. Are you adding to the bar?

My biggest change so far came about 2 months in - I haven't been sore the next day unless I'm actually using the muscles I worked out the day before. That's a huge deal for me, so it was a really nice improvement.

[Jason Panicaro]

My big thing like I said that I have really noticed is stamina, Im no longer super tired from certain workouts and I have the energy to keep going. I do CF at my house, money is tight right now and paying for a 2 memberships monthly just isnt there. We have alot of equipment at home and are working on getting more. The only thing I really need to finish off my home gym is some more free weights, pull up bar and I would like to make some slosh pipes.

[Eric Montgomery]

Originally Posted by Jason Panicaro

My big thing like I said that I have really noticed is stamina, Im no longer super tired from certain workouts and I have the energy to keep going. I do CF at my house, money is tight right now and paying for a 2 memberships monthly just isnt there. We have alot of equipment at home and are working on getting more. The only thing I really need to finish off my home gym is some more free weights, pull up bar and I would like to make some slosh pipes.

Then your initial concerns about not seeing results would seem a little panicky, no?

Keep seeing performance gains and body composition improvement will follow. The reverse is rarely true.