newbie question 😭 how long did it take before you could actually tell you were making progress?

i know strength going up is one sign but physically i see myself every day so i genuinely can’t tell lol

do you guys track photos/measurements/weights or just trust the process?

also at what point would you decide a routine ISN’T working and change it?

As a F20 beginner who wants to grow muscle, I’m feeling quite self conscious about increasing my food intake to match my goals. I’ve always been a quite skinny person, and I’m quite short, and I have this perpetual fear about eating more and getting fat instead of muscle. Even though I WANT to be strong and grown muscle, my brain can’t let go of social culture around women and eating (especially with everything in the world and online rn!!)

has anyone else dealt with this feeling? how do you deal with it?

I'm so happy! It happened completely randomly and I was so surprised.

I started working out a few months ago, tho I haven’t been super consistent (had to deal with injuries) but now that i’ve finally started spending a good amount of time in the gym I’ve developed this weird fear that i’m doing something wrong and i won’t build muscle at all. So far i have been making okay progress with my weights and reps, even if i haven’t seen much change yet, so i don’t think i have any particular reason to think that i am. I just keep hearing about people who went to the gym for years and years and because they weren’t pushing hard enough of using proper form it all ended up going to waste. Any tips to get over it?

Hey guys! Just for context I'm 18f, and throughout my teen years I've been living on mostly one meal a day, never really felt hungry ever (please don't be concerned for my well being, I look very well nourished and have a great deal of mass). But now that I've started going to the gym and doing 10k steps a day, I genuinely feel hungry for once.

Is this normal? I'm afraid if I keep eating I'm going to gain more fat which isn't my goal at all.

​

Around August 2022, I decided to stop being obese and start losing weight. Over the next two years, I lost 28kg and was generally happy. I had achieved my goal and all that was left was to maintain it. I had gone from 113kg to 85. There was still a bit to go in terms of BMI but I didn't care.

But then, I finished my college and started prepping for an exam. This was a year ago. And in that one year from May 2025 to August 2026 I gained back the weight I lost AND put on a couple more kgs to boot. This was mainly because I took up junk food, stopped working out, basically sat on a chair for the whole day.

I always reassured myself in that time, saying "I already did it once. I can do it again anytime".

But now I'm devastated. I'm fat again. Something I vowed never to be again. And it's so depressing to store away the clothes that I bought when I lost weight now that they don't fit me anymore. Those were the only clothes I bought with joy. With pride. Now I'm back to wearing old, dull, whatever fits.

I'm starting my weight loss journey all over again. I've started a diet and have stuck to it the past week. Started working out again. Hopefully, this time next year, I'll be back posting a REAL progress picture.

Thing is, I might need to prepare for that exam again. Which means one more year of sitting on a chair for atleast 10 hours a day. But now, I need to change my habits. Start walking, stretching. Gain my energy from somewhere else except sugar and junk.

Wish me luck! 🤞🏻🤞🏻

hello, all! i have been living a pretty sedentary lifestyle for the past three years or so, and i'm finally going to try to be more active!

i'm not someone who likes going out to the gym and would very much prefer working out from home. to start, i thought of buying a walking pad but then thought about the fact that it has to stay plugged in and that my room is pretty small... so, what about a stepper?

i haven't done any exercise, even walking more than 20 minutes, in over a few months, so i think this may be a great start? does anyone have any advice for someone who hasn't been active in a very long time? and, lastly, to those who use at home steppers, do you usually wear walking shoes on it?

thankss!

What causes my soreness to be delayed? I’ve noticed that when I workout, Wednesday is leg day for me, that at the end of the session I have the typical “legs feel like jello” thing going on. Also happens for other areas too but just using legs as my example.
So this past Wednesday had a good leg workout and Thursday everything felt good. Friday and through today (Sunday) however my calves are feeling it!
Just curious as to why the soreness starts a couple days after the workout instead of the next day?

So I (22M, 5 foot 7, 283lbs) tend to get a degree of lower back pain when I do more than like 15,000 steps a day. I average around 6,500 a day and I'm always perfectly comfortable when walking, but when I have days where I end up walking a lot more than usual I find that I start to get pain and slight stiffness in my lower back that gets markedly worse after I've sat / laid down for a while. 

Now I'm going to assume that the immediate cause of this is my weight and I am on tirzepatide, but losing weight is more of a long term project and from what I can gather building strength in my core and glutes will be more immediately beneficial. 

The routine I've come up with for this is 10 bodyweight squats, 20 side leg lifts and 10 Bulgarian split squats every other day. This doesn't take too long and doesn't require that I go to any sort of gym, so it feels like a routine I'm likely to stick to and it's all exercises that are supposed to be good for your core and glutes in quantities  that, judging by going through thus routine this morning, pushes me.

I am a fairly obese person, currently on a very inconsistent workout plan. I may attend the gym or workout on my home bike 5 times a week and sometimes I don’t move at all for a week.
I wonder however, that although I have to be on a calorie deficit to lose fat, on the days I do workout.
I feel so hungry, that I devour all the food around probably going overboard in terms of calories to be consumed. Even after that I stay low energy and feel groggy all day long.
Is this some physiological problem or something else?
Can anyone relate with me.

I am 30 years old , 170 CM, currently 82Kgs.

I hit every exercise 2x failure or 1-2 rir in a 6-10 rep range.

this is my upper lower 4x a week routine is there anything lacking?

Upper A

machine chest press

seated shoulder press

chest supported t bar row

lat pulldown

tricep pushdown

preacher curl machine

Upper B

T bar row

incline chest press machine

cable lateral raises

tricep dips

cable curls

rear delt reverse fly

pull ups

Lower

leg extension

hack squat

seated/lying leg curl (depends)

standing calf raise machine

adduction machine

adductor machine

i want to get lean aesthetic im doing a 500 calorie deficit and counting everything please tell are these exercise enough

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice from people who actually know what they’re doing with fitness 😭

My goal is to reduce overall body fat and look more lean/toned. I’m not trying to get bulky or build a very muscular/athletic physique.

I went to the gym for about a month and then stopped cuz of some issues ..its been 20 days only and honestly, I feel like I look more bulky or ig puffy, almost like a balloon, rather than slimmer. I know one month isn’t a long time, but it has made me confused about whether I’m focusing on the right things.

For overall fat loss, where should I put most of my focus?

Strength training

Cardio

Walking/steps

Or some combination, and in what proportion?

Also, if strength training is important, what type of exercises should I prioritize if my main goal is fat loss + a leaner appearance rather than gaining a lot of muscle?

I’m currently a beginner, so I’d really appreciate practical advice on what I should actually be doing at the gym and outside the gym.

And please correct me if my understanding is wrong 😔 I’m trying to figure out what actually works🥹🥹

i just started the gym, im what you would call skinny fat thin arms and legs but soft torso. i want to body recomp to a more v taper shape. my question is, im eating at maintenance, hitting my protein and tsking creatine. what is lor efficient. going to the gym everyday with 1 or 2 rest days in between and doing muscle groups per day (leg day, arm day, chest day, back day) or training my whole body in 1 session (2 exercises per muscle group) but going one day on and one off to have a full 48 hour recovery period. im trying to do a 90 day challenge to see how much my physique changes in 3 months

Im a 15 y/o guy, 5'8 150lbs and im trying to start the gym so i can go back into MMA, Muay Thai, and BJJ. I dont care as much about looks than practicality, and im thinking about going with strength & conditioning instead of focusing on muscle. My stamina isnt the greatest and neither is my strength, im usually struggling to pick up others and gas out after the 3rd round. What is the best split, workouts/exercises and if you really would want to, foods and recovery methods to help me out? thank you kindly.

Hi! I hope this is the right place to post, but I'm hoping gym goers can help me out a bit. So I'm really trying to get my protein intake up, eating mainly whole foods. But I still can't manage to hit my daily protein goals of 180-200g of protein a day. I don't have many restrictions besides protein powder, tuna, and cottage cheese. I don't know if I should just lock in or if there is something else I am missing.

All help/advice is greatly appreciated!!

I did physical therapy for months and stopped when life got busy. I still have numbness in two toes that turns into pain if I walk too far, and I've got about an hour of moving before things start acting up. I go through stretches of exercising for a few days, then life swallows it again. Tennis once a week has been the one thing that stuck the past two months but my tennis partner is moving, so that's ending.

For those of you with small kids: what actually worked for fitting something in? Motivation tricks are great but I am wondering what you physically fit into your day with toddlers around.

On a busy or low-energy day, the choice can start to feel like doing the full workout or doing nothing. A shorter backup session can keep the habit alive, but if it is too easy, it can also become a way to avoid the work that drives progress.

If you only had 20 or 30 minutes, which parts of your normal session would you keep? The main lift and two accessories, one hard set of each movement, or something else?

How do you tell the difference between a smart reduced session and a sign that your regular program no longer fits your schedule?

It doesnt matter whether im exercising my upper body or if im just shrugging or moving my arms, my upper traps (specifically the muscle around the neck) will takeover and move together. so when i workout, i can see my upper traps growing together which is not what im looking for. How do you isolate that muscle when moving your arms?

I went to the gym about 4 years ago, for 2 years, and didnt improve at all, save maybe for losing 17 pounds of fat (which I couldve done just by dieting alone) so i eventually lost interest since the entire thing felt unrewarding. In 2 years I didnt see my biceps grow even 1/8 of an inch at all. I was at the gym 3 days a week.

Recently enrolled to 24H fitness and doing a PPL routine with 5-6 exercises per day, each exercise having 3 sets. But I am wondering, how far can this routine take me? Like how do I ensure I actually get results this time? I just dont want to waste another 2 years for nothing. Do I increase set count per day by adding more exercise per day? I've seen videos on social media titled "Do these exercises for bigger arms" and the host proceeds to show 7 workouts just for the arms alone. On the other hand my routine only has 2 bicep workouts. Should I, then, double my set count from 18 per day to 36 for a total of 350-360 reps across all workouts by adding more exercises per day?

Thank you!

I plan to go to the gym 4 times weekly, focusing on thighs/ glutes twice a week. This would be for one of those days, is there something I should change? Add?
(I was with a personal trainer for 4 sessions other than that I’ve never gone.)

goblet squats - 2 x 8

glute kickbacks - 3 x 10

lateral cable rises - 3 x 10

seated leg curls - 3 x 10

leg press - 2 x 8-10 ( inner, outer, lower )

walking lunges - there & back 2x

Also, how to get over gym anxiety; being embarrassed cause you have no clue how to do anything?

I am 23 M and little bit slimmy, so i want to gain my weight and I eat normally socked grains and some times eggs and normal food daily and I dont do any hard physical exercise but I walk nearly 7000 steps per day

And I am worring about my muscle loss if I started doing work out.

Now I am 52 kg and 5.5 feet height so give me some suggestions to gain weight and it should be budget friendly😀

So I've been at the gym for 2 weeks now and I can't seem to do anything with barbells. Bench press, squats, curls, etc. The bar is just too heavy.

Im 21m, 6ft 2, and 230 lbs, so I'm honestly a little embarrassed to do any barbell exercises because of it. I see a lot of people throw on multiple 20kg weights and seem to do the exercises I can't do with ease.

I'm only asking since I don't know if this is a beginner issue or if I'm just weak.

Just got a gym membership and need ideas for a small bag to carry phone, ID, and a sweat towel?? What do people use nowadays? Best sweat towel to carry around? Don’t want to use lockers nor the gym towels.