OP here. Thanks for the replies.

I definitely feel stronger and can lift more, so just waiting impatiently for my clothes to fit as they used to! Eating at a slight calorie deficit as of last week. I have a history of borderline ED so I have to be careful with calorie counting.

The women at my gym who are very very strong (they do Olympic barbell lifts) do not look "toned" because that's not what they care about, and getting "toned" is to some extent at odds with being strong. Really "firming yourself up" is much more a matter of diet than how much weight you're lifting.

There is also a group of male bodybuilders who look super-jacked but they are nowhere near as strong as the non-jacked powerlifters.

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t start really seeing results until a solid 4 months into consistent training, and I’m on the smaller side. Worth it though. I eat more, weigh less, and am happy with how I look.

Did your eating habits -- what you ate, not calories -- change or stay the same?

I didn’t start really seeing results until a solid 4 months into consistent training, and I’m on the smaller side. Worth it though. I eat more, weigh less, and am happy with how I look.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL....6 weeks..

It takes a LONG time to see results. Like years. Body fat percentage also impact how visible results will be.

This is not true. It does not take "years" to see results! WTH are you talking about. If that were the case no one would stick with it. I think I started seeing visible results after 2 months of 3xs a week of hard lifting with a trainer. I'm female over 50, slim build. Which brings me to your one point I do agree with. Body fat % plays a role here. The lower your % the sooner you'll see that tight, toned muscle look most woman seek. Until you shed fat however, muscle will appear bulky not tight and toned.

You can shed fat while gaining muscle, and that is all diet. Don't even think about cardio for this. You need a lot of protein, especially after your workout. try to get at least 20 grams soon after you work out.

and by your standard if everyone was getting incredible and visible results after a 6 weeks of lifting we'd all be walking around with hot toned bodies and people wouldn't give up on lifting so quickly before going back to the cardio area.

My point was mostly that people look at women who are toned/muscular and don't realize that it took most of them years of consistent lifting and dieting to get that way. Building muscle takes time. Seeing the muscle you already have takes less time if you lose weight. They also don't realize that there are women who don't lift but still looked toned simply because they have a low body fat percentage.

As we agree, body fat percentage play a role in how quickly you will see the results of lifting.

6:08 PP - to the bolded, the other option, as this PP seems to enjoy, is to have won the genetic body fat lottery. Less common, but I do think there are women like this who fundamentally don't appreciate how hard it is for the rest of us. As you describe, I've known many women who others describe as "ripped" who aren't very strong but just have low body fat (so any muscle mass is apparent very quickly).

This stuff is what it is, but I do think it's important to temper expectations and be realistic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL....6 weeks..

It takes a LONG time to see results. Like years. Body fat percentage also impact how visible results will be.

This is not true. It does not take "years" to see results! WTH are you talking about. If that were the case no one would stick with it. I think I started seeing visible results after 2 months of 3xs a week of hard lifting with a trainer. I'm female over 50, slim build. Which brings me to your one point I do agree with. Body fat % plays a role here. The lower your % the sooner you'll see that tight, toned muscle look most woman seek. Until you shed fat however, muscle will appear bulky not tight and toned.

You can shed fat while gaining muscle, and that is all diet. Don't even think about cardio for this. You need a lot of protein, especially after your workout. try to get at least 20 grams soon after you work out.

and by your standard if everyone was getting incredible and visible results after a 6 weeks of lifting we'd all be walking around with hot toned bodies and people wouldn't give up on lifting so quickly before going back to the cardio area.

My point was mostly that people look at women who are toned/muscular and don't realize that it took most of them years of consistent lifting and dieting to get that way. Building muscle takes time. Seeing the muscle you already have takes less time if you lose weight. They also don't realize that there are women who don't lift but still looked toned simply because they have a low body fat percentage.

As we agree, body fat percentage play a role in how quickly you will see the results of lifting.

Diet is a huge part of the equation. You can try to eat in maintenance and hope to slowly replace fat to muscle, but that is a slow process. Shedding the fat first is a more effective way to see results. I would go in a small deficit and keep lifting. Heavy is relative. You just need to make sure you are lifting close enough to failure, meaning you should not be able to do more than 1-2 extra reps (with good form) after you finish your set. This is hard for beginners to judge so i would suggest that you go to actual failure a few times to see what it actually feels like. On exercises that get very uncomfortable as reps accumulate, like the leg press, people tend to stop well short of failure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL....6 weeks..

It takes a LONG time to see results. Like years. Body fat percentage also impact how visible results will be.

This is not true. It does not take "years" to see results! WTH are you talking about. If that were the case no one would stick with it. I think I started seeing visible results after 2 months of 3xs a week of hard lifting with a trainer. I'm female over 50, slim build. Which brings me to your one point I do agree with. Body fat % plays a role here. The lower your % the sooner you'll see that tight, toned muscle look most woman seek. Until you shed fat however, muscle will appear bulky not tight and toned.

You can shed fat while gaining muscle, and that is all diet. Don't even think about cardio for this. You need a lot of protein, especially after your workout. try to get at least 20 grams soon after you work out.

DP - first, that you're slim plays a huge role in seeing results so quickly, as you acknowledge. So people should take your advice with a massive grain of salt. (Also, the PP you're disagreeing with said that body fat percentage plays a role)

Second, shedding fat while gaining muscle requires scrupulous attention to diet, more than many people want to give or might be considered healthy. So, yeah. Not trivial.

If you want to see results, eat at a deficit. What you’re doing is building muscle under fat which can make you seem bulkier.

Anonymous wrote:LOL....6 weeks..

It takes a LONG time to see results. Like years. Body fat percentage also impact how visible results will be.

This is not true. It does not take "years" to see results! WTH are you talking about. If that were the case no one would stick with it. I think I started seeing visible results after 2 months of 3xs a week of hard lifting with a trainer. I'm female over 50, slim build. Which brings me to your one point I do agree with. Body fat % plays a role here. The lower your % the sooner you'll see that tight, toned muscle look most woman seek. Until you shed fat however, muscle will appear bulky not tight and toned.

You can shed fat while gaining muscle, and that is all diet. Don't even think about cardio for this. You need a lot of protein, especially after your workout. try to get at least 20 grams soon after you work out.

It sounds like you have a great consistent routine OP! Congrats on working it into your schedule. As others said, it takes a looooong time to see results. It really catches up though - I’ve been putting in the work for 2 years and I’m seeing massive change in body composition just in the last few months. Stay the course, be patient, don’t get frustrated! This is something to stick with for the long haul to keep up your mobility and bone density.

Anonymous wrote:Started lifting weights about 6 or so weeks ago after a 2-year hiatus. I feel a bit stronger, but I look exactly the same.

I don't know if I am "living heavy"... but, for example, I do 180-200lbs 3x/wk on the leg press and 90lb hip thrusts, but can only do small weights ~ 5 - 8lbs for arms due to old shoulder and elbow injury.

I am 51 y.o., 5'8", and 155lbs, so a bit soft/chubby but not really "overweight". I would like to firm things up, but am not eating at a deficit.

When would you expect to see a difference in body and how clothes fit? I don't know how to know if what I am doing will be effective in reaching my goals of firming things up, and can't currently splurge on a personal trainer for feedback.

If you are lifting heavy you will know. My rule of thumb if you are not making an ugly face and struggling the last couple of reps then you are not lifting heavy enough.

If you can't lift more than 5-8 lbs for upper body work with a trainer or PT to figure out what you can do/how to modify moves or do moves you may not know about. There are almost always work around injuries.

LOL....6 weeks..

It takes a LONG time to see results. Like years. Body fat percentage also impact how visible results will be.

Not anywhere near enough time to see definition. You will notice strength gains very rapidly, but it will take at least 14-18 weeks to start seeing any real definition. Keep progressively overloading and lifting heavy. Mix a week in every so often where you pullback on the weight and lift for more reps. Make sure to mix in new exercises, because your body will just get used to it if you keep doing the same routine.

Try squats, romanian deadlifts, Bulgarian split squats, and lunges before a leg press machine.

Started lifting weights about 6 or so weeks ago after a 2-year hiatus. I feel a bit stronger, but I look exactly the same.

I don't know if I am "living heavy"... but, for example, I do 180-200lbs 3x/wk on the leg press and 90lb hip thrusts, but can only do small weights ~ 5 - 8lbs for arms due to old shoulder and elbow injury.

I am 51 y.o., 5'8", and 155lbs, so a bit soft/chubby but not really "overweight". I would like to firm things up, but am not eating at a deficit.

When would you expect to see a difference in body and how clothes fit? I don't know how to know if what I am doing will be effective in reaching my goals of firming things up, and can't currently splurge on a personal trainer for feedback.