I tell you what my personal trainer told me about weight loss: When it comes to losing fat, you have to view it as you would see a puddle drying up. The areas of water on the edges will be the first to go, then slowly it will dry up until the center is left, that being the deepest part of the puddle. That's how fat loss goes. The area with the most fat will be the last to go. You cannot target special areas for fat loss, so if you think doing more sit-ups will make your gut magically disappear, sorry, it's doesn't work that way.

What?

You "cut" after you "bulk"...

If you start out and immediately "cut" you're just trying to lose weight.

"Bulk" is where you just build muscles. It's hard to do because muscles are ridiculously inefficient which is why we need to lift weights to get a lot. We have to trick our body into thinking it needs huge inefficient muscles.

Once you have them, losing fat is easier because every small movement wastes a shit ton of fuel. And fat is fuel.

Like, it sounds like you picked up some buzzwords, but don't understand them.

What/who is your "coach"? Like, are you in a CrossFit gym? Are you a kid doing school weightlifting? Is it an employee at a gym you go to?

Either way, your best advice is probably whatever you coach says, start listening to them.

You didn't even give people your age. No one is going to give as good and relevant advice as the coach who's already helping. You say you're really out of shape, which is why the coach put you on machines rather than stuff like bench/squat. You need to build support muscles and get technique down on machines before you hurt yourself on weights.

If it was fast and/or easy, everyone would be jacked. It's going to take a while and be difficult

For me it was about 2 months to start seeing subtle changes. After like 8 months I think I was starting to look somewhat “fit”, then after like 1.5 years I think I started to have that “muscular” look

It sounds like you pretty much figured out what was holding you back. It’s frustrating to feel like you have wasted time, but good on you for pushing through! This stuff is genuinely hard to learn, lots of conflicting advice out there

There's a lot of really good advice here, even the stuff that seems a little mean. Mine is this... Go full nerd on this shit for 5 months.

Calculate your macros, weigh your food and track your weight, take a month to figure out your maintenance calories. Then do a 2 month bulk cycle, drop back to maintenance for a few weeks, then a 2 month cut cycle. Take pictures too.

Supplements in general are a waste of money. The notable exceptions are Creatine, its one of the few ones that show tangible benefits and a good preworkout (I'm up for work at 4am, gym is at 4pm... I need that serious jolt or I'm dogshit) I will say Ive fucked with some PEDs (not steriods but still... I couldnt pass an olympic piss test) but I'm not going to endorse them. Ill give you some candid advice on it if you want to reach out for more info privately.

It depends on your goals. 5x5 is a pretty good program for muscle gain. Nutrition is super important to take in enough and the right stuff.

<1 month to notice changes but i was underweight when i started and was going daily and developed a schedule with my best friend who is a professional body builder so i think i had an advantage in that regard. Its been roughly 6 months now with some breaks here and there, i look significantly better than i did but realized i wasnt trying to look like my roommate and slowed down to a more reasonable pace for my goals. I started with a massive head start so i'd say you're probably doing fucking solid for where you are at.

Dont let other peoples perspectives get to you so much. With consistency you will make it to where you want. Its just a slow process especiially if you're over weight

I don't know when I started to look good. It was tricky for me because I had a long history of on again, off again anorexia and bulimia. In practice that meant my default state was quite overweight, and whenever I tried to diet, even if I started out sustainable and steady with the progress, I'd always succumb to the toxicity of my brain. I think in hindsight, the reason why I was never happy with my body when I did lose the weight was because of lack of muscle.

So that means that when I did actually start lifting, my only goal was to get stronger. Eventually I found myself losing weight because I was in a better headspace and able to improve my eating habits, but that was probably at least a year after I started. I was never able to cope with the bulk/cut cycle, that feels like a fairly advanced "technique" to get right. the weight loss I experienced was in part due to increased muscle mass and activity levels increasing my needed calories and my actual intake being fairly stable, combined with trying to eat more home cooked foods.

Another thing that delayed my actual strength was that I had a lot of weaknesses in various supporting muscles. It's probably something you've experienced too, if you were on machines for a while. I think I loosely followed strong lifts, but I'm not sure. I had help from the powerlifting society. I had to put a lot of work into flexibility and stability, because it was like I was starting from the plateau, but once I started making proper progress and I understood good form, I improved quickly.

If I had to give advice to anyone wanting to get strong, I'd say to be stern with yourself about form. Yes, it's satisfying as hell to see the number go up as you get stronger, but doing it properly is way more efficient in time and effort than letting oneself off with half reps or bad form. It's one reason why I liked barbell exercises so much, it was much easier to make adjustments to target different muscle groups - little things like having a wider stance for squats, for example.

It take around 1 year to see any noticeable results. I'm not talking night and day results, just some growth. The result is going to vary depending on where you start and also depends on genetics. Some people build muscles faster than others.

Results also do not need to be strictly physical, they can be mental as well. As change can be the mentality of managing your health, feeling like moving around is much easier, less pain, etc. The end goal really depends on the program that is set.

Since your starting point was "a lot of fat" it may be hard to notice physical changes (muscle growth) within that time span. The most obvious changes will be fat lost if dieting and exercising consistently. You may also feel moving around seems much easier. Just keep at it and the results will come as long as your body is being pushed.

Machines are not a bad starting place, especially if you do not have form. They restrict movement to just focus on the targeted muscle. This can help teach and show you the forms for training each muscle. Form it very important in lifting, more so than weight. This will prevent injury and make training more efficient. Once you are comfortable with the forms then free weights can be an option. Free weights will use more supporting muscles to maintain form, not always the most targeted for specific muscle.

As for weight lost. Slow and stead is much better in the long run than rapid weight lost. This usually equates to changing how you eat and your habits. Doing so will help you keep the weight off in the long run. A rate of 1 or 2 pounds a week is pretty good.

Cutting is more so for leaning out fat to make muscles more definitive. You need to build muscles first before you cut. Right now it seems like you are more in the state of getting to a sustainable body weight and forming muscles as you go.

Growth is always must slower than people make it seem. Its the consistency and hard work long periods later that tends to get notices. Keep it up and before you know it you will get to a more noticeable "he goes to the gym" look. More importantly is you improving your overall health. Best of luck.

Honestly the best thing you can do for yourself is cooking and eating a ton of protein and veggies. Every period I've made significant progress it's when I'm cooking stir frys for dinner every night and drinking a ton of milk and eggs and regular protein shakes. Once you gain some muscle, it's pretty easy to just switch to intermittent fasting or something and shed weight since you have so much base muscle burning calories, but eating enough good, nutrition filled, food to gain that muscle in the first place is the hardest part and the biggest limiting factor to overall progress in my experience / I think that's probably true for most casual lifters.

My personal experience:

I just took a look at my "Before & After" pictures that span May-Nov 2019. I lost 57Kg of fat and put on about 13Kg of muscle. It was interesting to look back at the slideshow just now!

Although it is difficult to distinguish the muscles growing vs. the fat shrinking, it looks to me like my increase in muscle mass started to be noticeable from around the 3 month point. By "noticeable" I mean that the "definition lines" started to be visible although major increase in mass isn't apparent.

The increase in mass looks like it started around the 4-5 month point, at which point I had progressed past the "do my best" beginner workouts, and had established the required strength, endurance and range of motion to take the next steps, so to speak.

So I first noticed my strength, endurance, range, and muscular definition increasing, and later noticed the size increase.

I would like to encourage you to keep at it, and don't chase results. Do what you're doing with the goal of being happier, having fewer health complications and pains, a little bit of vanity which is totally fine, and let the rest take care of itself.

One of the things that can be very defeating is to assume you will have reached an arbitrary goal by an arbitrary time-frame. Try to shift your perspective to realize that you're doing all the right things, perhaps there's some efficiency tweaks but that's another story. Keep going and don't measure your progress against anybody else but you!

(I want to acknowledge that my story is not normal. Nobody should ever lose 10Kg+ a month. I'm one of these a__holes that has to do 50% of what most people need to get the same results though and that's a blessing. I also have digestive and nutrient-absorption issues but I'm not sure how much that plays in.)

What helped for me was to just focus on consistency of activity first and foremost. Making sure I have a consistent 1hr a day fitness plan that I don't hate, and use a fitness watch to look at streaks over time so you don't want to break them. For me upper/lower splits every other day helped make sure I get enough core/legs in because I was always skipping leg day. I try to do the major compound movements and supplement with additional stuff if there is time... Pushups, pullups, squats, deadlifts. I've also been doing intervals on the exercise bike so 3 min of bike for every 7 minutes of lifting

I started to see results after a few months, but it's only recently that I've started to pay more attention to what I'm eating. I think it's good to get the consistent activity down first before you worry about cutting and calorie deficits. That way whatever you're doing, mentally you know you can do it even if you feel more physically fatigued.

I also didn't realize just how much protein I really needed, didn't see much in the way of results until I started to eat around .8g protein per pound of body weight. Chicken, salmon, low-fat Greek yogurt, egg whites, and some protein bars/shakes... I found it wasn't that hard to stay around 2000 calories and still eat 160+ g of protein.

I'm probably going to eventually get a fitness and nutrition coach because my health insurance will likely cover it, just to have additional confidence in what I'm doing.

I have a weird body where most of my fat is on my torso/face and my limbs are very lean. This means that I see results in my arms quite quickly - they start to develop nicely after not too long. It also means I can train for a long time and see very little benefit in my chest/back/abs because they are covered in stubborn fat.

I've seen significant results in terms of strength gain, without those muscles appearing very different at all.

After about six weeks I was noticably happier and more energetic. That's all I needed from it.

Base body shape plays a part, I'm exceptionally tall with a somewhat bell shape to the ribs so unless I was to go full roid monster I'll probably never look 'big'.

More important though is if you carry yourself with a level of self assurance. When I was much more consistent there may not have been the big striated muscles, but I simply felt sure of things. That sense of 'it may not have happened today, but that next PR target WILL happen'.

Getting a bit older now has mandated backing off some, things popping that really shouldn't be, but just personally knowing you've put in the effort has a notable impact on other people's perceptions.

I think part of the equation for "seeing results" has to do with body type. Some info here: https://www.setforset.com/blogs/news/3-body-types

I don't think there is any relationship whatsoever between body type and "psychological traits" or criminal behavior. But I do think different bodies react differently to exercise.

I am a small person and can see results very quickly (1-2 months) simply because the muscle shows through more quickly with less fat. Sounds like you’re doing the right things, refining technique, etc. and will see change with time.

It took me about 18-24 months from where I started. I was extremely thin and it took 30lbs to get me to an average weight/build as a guy. I always had issues with eating enough due to trouble feeling hunger but even lifting hard and eating more with a workout partner it still took almost 2 years.

Now I look average, nobody would see me and think "he works out" but that's my goal eventually! You're doing well and changing your body takes time, cudos for sticking to it! GL&HF

I'm a climber so I mainly focus on strength, where I got some gains pretty quickly when I started lifting. In terms of looking fitter, probably after six months to a year my muscles were looking noticeably more defined, I'd say, but I was starting from a point of being pretty thin.