Getting in shape quickly is a classic demand I hear as a personal trainer. Whether it's a last minute wedding invite, summer sneaking, or just a sudden urge to feel healthier, the reason are plenty of reasons people want to kick it into high gear.
Although I always recommend a more long term, sustainable approach, I understand that sometimes life throws us a curve ball and we need to whip our bums into gear asap.
In this post, we will look at what is feasible in a short period of time with the right approach. We will cover what you can do at home starting today to make visible changes, which diet approaches are best and what workouts you can do to to instantly feel healthier.
Realistic goals for quick fitness results
Getting in shape sounds exciting, and is feasible, but setting reachable goals is key to seeing fast fitness results without getting overwhelmed. First and foremost, let's take a look at what your body is capable of doing.
Building muscle
The accepted consensus on the speed at which your body builds lean muscle is around one pound per month. Beginners may see faster results (2-3 pounds per month) because of newbie gains.
Burning fat
Fat loss can be as fast as one to two pounds of fat per week. Faster weight loss results in non fat mass being lost, like muscle.
General weight loss
Seeing the weight go down on the scale can be a result of many factors including fat loss, muscle mass loss, water weight fluctuation and how much you eat.
Depending on how aggressively you choose to diet, you will lose more or less weight. I've seen anywhere from 2-4 pounds per week, with the higher number mainly due to water weight fluctuations.
Keep in mind that the more restrictive you are with your diet, the worse you'll feel, the worse you'll do in the gym and the more long term negative side effect. If you haven't guessed by the tone of this last sentence, I do not recommend losing weight too fast.
So what's actually possible if you're determined to get in shape quickly?
First of all, you'll have to define what "getting shape" means to you.
The clearer you can articulate it, the easier it will be to find the right workout plan to reach your goals quickly. For some, this could mean shredding off a few pounds in a couple of weeks, for others, it could be about toning up.
Second, it will depend on what you mean by quickly.
Is it two weeks? A month? For the sake of this article, I'll assume one month is the time frame.
If by in shape you mean losing weight, I've seen people lose 10 pounds over three weeks. Again, mainly due to water weight. Visually they did appear different.
It's worth mentioning that this weight did not stay off, they gained it back after their event.
If by in shape you mean feeling fitter, able to lift and run more, it'll depend on how long you've been inactive and what your prior fitness level was. It takes me roughly two weeks to lift decent weights in the gym after taking more than two months off. I'm not building any new muscle during this time, my body is just getting used to the gym again.
If you're starting from scratch you can make good progress on your technique over 2-4 weeks by practicing every day. Unless you are a complete beginner, you will not build much more than one pound of lean muscle mass which frankly, is not visible from the outside.
You can however become more endurant relatively quickly with HIIT workouts. These high intensity workouts help your body utilize pyruvate better for energy production. The effects of these workouts are very quick if you're not used to doing them.
Avoid common mistakes
When we're aiming to get fast fitness results, it's very tempting to overdo it, which can lead to falling off the wagon extra early. I'm guilty of this myself, last time I tried to get back into lifting and getting in shape after an extended break I jumped right into doing one HIIT workout, one gym workout and a hot yoga session PER DAY!
Needless to say, I was wiped out after 4 days, had to take 3 days of complete rest and then switched to a more sustainable training plan.
When operating on short time frames, we WANT to do more. Always thinking that more workouts equals more results. But if the intensity and frequency of our workout routine forces us to take many days off, that's not helpful for our short term goal of getting in shape quickly.
Another mistake is starving ourselves for rapid weight loss. Don't do it. It's not worth it. Trust me. I've done it, I've seen others do it, and the results are often the opposite of what we hope to achieve.
Instead of losing weight and slimming down, our body goes into starvation mode, will store whatever you feed it as fat, will decrease your energy drastically and will end up having as much energy as a centenarian chelonian.
Quick ways to get in shape: Workouts
When you're looking for fast ways to get fit, nothing beats workouts that maximize every minute. Incorporate a good mix of HIIT sessions and strength training in your workout plan to get the best results
High intensity training over cardio
I'm a big fan of cardio. I think everyone should do at least one long steady cardio workout per week. However, the results from these workouts are very slow to appear. I would drop them in favour of a higher intensity workout.
The easiest (in my opinion) form of HIIT is the dreaded 30-30 method either running or on your favourite cardio machine.
After a good warm up, perform the exercise as quickly as possible for 30 seconds, keeping proper technique. Then rest for 30 seconds. Repeat 5 times then take a 2 minute breather and repeat the whole thing again.
Here's how you could progress it over a 4 week period:
Week 1
5 x 30 on 30 off
2 min break
5 x 30 on 30 0ff
Do this on canvas
You can also try any of the HIIT workouts that are on the YouTube channel.
Strength training
Including strength training in your routine will help build muscle. Now, don't get too excited, as I said earlier, you're not going to magically tone up your muscles or get bulging biceps in a month.
But it's a good way to supplement your HIIT workouts. You'll feel stronger and more energized.
I recommend starting with 2-3 full body strength workouts each week, depending on your schedule.
You can once again check out the YouTube channel for that or go to your local gym.
Sample full body workout at the gym:
Exercise 1: 3 sets of 8 squats, 2 min break between sets
Exercise 2: 3 sets of 8 chest presses, 2 min break between sets
Exercise 3: 3 sets of 10 lat pull down, 2 min break between sets
Exercise 4: 4 sets of 10 bicep curls, 1 min break between sets
Exercise 5: 4 sets of decline crunches: 1 min break between sets
Diet will play an essential role when trying to get in shape fast. It's the most direct way you can influence how you look in a short time, so let's take a look at it.
Diet to get in shape fast
Diet, in my opinion, plays a huge role in making us look fit quickly. There are a few important points to remember.
Less food equal less energy
Carbs are HIIT workout's primary sources
Protein takes a higher than usual importance
Starvation is absolutely not the correct answer
Let's dive in further.
Food and energy, finding the right balance
In order to lose weight and look more shredded/toned, we must be in a calorie deficit. The less food we eat, the less energy we have for our workouts. The less energy we have for our workouts, the less results we will get from them.
You see where I'm going with this?
When you are aiming for quick fitness results, you need to sacrifice something. Are you going to sacrifice your appearance or your performance?
Only you have the answer to this.
It will depend on your goal, fitness level, preferences and lifestyle.
You need carbs
Carbs are very useful for HIIT workouts. We predominantly use them during those intense, short bursts of exercises.
Cutting them out entirely may SEEM like a good idea, but trust me you will feel awful if you do. And yes I know you can convert fat into carbs if you don't eat enough carb but I would need another post to explain why that's a suboptimal strategy especially when time is of the essence.
Get your protein in
If there's one aspect that all get-fit-quick diets should have in common is their high protein content. Your muscles will need all the help they can get.
Eating sufficient protein will ensure that minimal muscle mass is lost during your calorie deficit period.
I usually recommend 1.6g of protein per kilogram of body weight but in this instance, I would bump it up to 2-2.5 and see how you feel with it.
Do not starve yourself
This is where personal experience will play a huge role. Starving yourself with an extreme calorie deficit is also tempting.
"I'll only do it for a few weeks and then eat normally again".
If you've heard of metabolic rebound before, you already might know why this is bad.
To put things simply, if you starve your body for a few weeks, it will crave food once you introduce it again. Your hunger hormones (Ghrelin and leptin) will go haywire and you may feel extra hungry after the extreme diet. This will lead you to eat more food than normal and will result in more unwanted weight gain.
This happened to me after my first and only bodybuilding competition. I aggressively dieted for 8 weeks and got extremely shred but felt horrendous. The day after the show I spent the whole day eating. My girlfriend and I literally went to all my favourite restaurants.
I gained 10 pounds in two days.
When you're trying to get fit fast, please, please, think of the medium to long term consequences of your strategy.
A moderate to aggressive caloric restriction can help you lose enough weight without resulting in a metabolic rebound afterwards. This amount will vary from person to person and there's no one size fits all.
I tell my clients to start with a 250 calorie deficit and see how they feel after a few weeks. The conundrum here is that we don't have a few weeks to evaluate how you feel.
In this situation, I would still start with a 250 calorie deficit and evaluate every five days how I feel.
Nutrient timing
Eating around your workouts can be beneficial to boost energy for them. Eat at least two hours before your workout so you don't hurl everything back up though. And then eat right after it.
This will ensure you are also eating as much nutrients as possible right after your workouts which will help your recovery.
Sample two week program to get in shape fast
If I had to get in shape quickly, here is how I would set up my workout plan.
Week 1
Monday: HIIT
Tuesday: Strength workout
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday HIIT
Friday: Strength
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
Week 2
Monday: HIIT
Tuesday: Strength workout
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday HIIT
Friday: Strength
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
I would keep my HIIT workouts under 30 min and my strength workout under an hour. With a calorie restriction, I would have to lower my workout volume which is why I'd only do five workouts per week.
Depending on how I felt after these two weeks I would potentially add another short HIIT workout on the Sundays.
Lifestyle changes to stay in shape
Attempting. to get in shape fast forces to make tough decisions. What do we want to sacrifice? How big of a calorie deficit can we handle? How well do we handle fatigue and stress?
These are all going to get answered during the short time we have before our results are due.
Like I said earlier, I do not recommend this approach, but it can be quite instructive. We could learn lessons to apply to our lifestyle going forward.
The first lesson I'd try to learn is why did I find myself in this pinch and how can I avoid it in the future.
Maybe I discovered a food that was low calorie and delicious. Maybe a style of workout I really liked.
Being mindful of these things can help me be in even better shape in the future.
Staying motivated to see results
I always say motivation is a sh*t thing to rely on in the long term. But here, we are strictly talking short term, right?
So yea, why not rely on motivation to get us through hungry workouts. Having a very clear and logical goal is the best approach.
If I know I need to look as fit as possible in 4 weeks for my best friend's wedding, I can use that as a daily reminder to stick to my hard routine.
I could perhaps have a calendar on my fridge counting down the days to the event. With a picture of my friend giving me stern look just as a bonus.
Setting unrealistic goals is the surest way to lose motivation. Motivation needs to be nurtured like a delicate plant. That's why it sucks in the long term: it's tedious to maintain and very hard to hang on when we don't see results.
The way to set clear goals is to ask yourself why you want a certain goal three times in a row.
Why do I want to be fit for my friend's wedding?
To look good
Why do I want to look good?
Maybe he looked good for mine. Or I want to look good in my suit?
Why do you want to look good if he looked good for my wedding?
I see that as a sign of respect and care for someone I love.
This is important because when things get tough in the gym, a clear goal will help me stay focused. If my goal is simply "to look good", I can guarantee you right here that I will not push myself very hard or stick to my workouts even when I'm tired.
But if I suddenly feel tired and think about skipping a workout and think to myself "My friend did this for my wedding, and I want to show he means as much to me than I do to him", that's more of an incentive to stick to my workout plan.
Final thoughts
Getting in shape fast is a suboptimal fitness goal. We have to make sacrifices which makes this a lose-lose endeavour.
In the event that we find ourselves in such a situation, there are a few things we can do to maximize results in a short period of time.
Finding a sustainable calorie deficit to help us lose weight but still give us energy for our workout
A workout plan that prioritizes HIIT and strength workouts to build muscle while burning calories
Having a crystal clear goal to help us stay on track
Eating enough protein to help maintain our muscle mass and recover quickly
Eating carbs and not starving ourselves
Eating our meals closer to our workouts (at least two hours prior and immediately after)
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