How long does it take to get in shape?

[fleshconsumed]

Wanted to ask it. I'm sort of in a similar situation as barfo in a neighboring thread, just a little further along exercise path. I was lean and mean when I was 18, but being a stupid teenager I stopped being active and let myself go.

I'm not terribly overweight, I have broad shoulders, about 6'0" at 210-215 pounds. When I wear casual clothes at work whatever gut I have it's almost unnoticeable. Still, I reckon I could lose about 20 pounds. I do not want to be obsessed with lifting, etc, I just want to get my 6 pack back, and be healthy. So about 6 month ago I decided to change and started exercising again. I do not go to gym, instead I exercise at home. I also must admit I do not exercise every single day, but I exercise at least 4-5 days a week unless I'm sick. I went from doing 60-75 sit ups up to 500 (I usually do 5 sets of 100). I alternate doing sit ups with cycling my exercise bike. One day sit ups, another cycling. I usually cycle at a moderate pace for at least 45 minutes, sometimes if I feel like it for 60 minutes. I do occasionally eat junk food, drink soda when I have the craving, but not too much. I do not drink coffee/liquor, do not smoke at all. Meat and potatoes, spaghetti, deli sandwiches, occasionally home made salads, natural orange/apple juice with mineral water are my daily diet. So while I do not try to eat super healthy food, I avoid unhealthy one.

Bottom line is I try to eat healthier foods, I do not have any bad habits and I have been exercising 6 months so far 4-5 days a week, and yet, I see very little progress. I do see some results, but to be honest they are very small. I do realize it's a long process and it will take time, but I expected more by this point. I'm a little disheartened. Should I increase workload, do something differently, maybe cut out orange/apple juices which are typically rich in sugar? How long is it supposed to take to get back in shape?

 

[zebano]

Track your calories consumed (there are websites out there to help with this) and calculate maintenance calories - 500 and aim to eat that many calories per day.

 

[MotF Bane]

You can do 10,000 situps per day, and if there's a layer of fat over the abs, you'll never see a six pack. If that's your real goal, cut your calorie intake. If you are expecting to become stronger, cycling and situps are not going to get you there, and you will need to take up lifting for that.

 

[KingGheedora]

Read the fat loss sticky thread.

 

[KoolDrew]

If you're not losing any weight, you're eating too much. It's as simple as that. I would highly suggest following zebano's suggestion using a site like thedailyplate. Even if you only track for a week, it'll give you a better idea of how much you are actually eating. People generally suck at estimating calorie intake, and measuring and tracking their food even for a week is a big wake up call.

As for your training, you can't spot reduce. Doing an endless amount of sit-ups is not going to make your gut disappear. It's really not going to do much of anything except allow you to do more sit-ups by building endurance. You would be much better off working your whole body with more resistance. If you can't go to the gym you can still do bodyweight routines that are much more productive than you're doing now. Check out RossTraining.com for some examples.

 

[TallBill]

The rest of your life. It's a non stop process. Well worth it though.

 

[brikis98]

Was going to write a long reply, but KingGheedora, KoolDrew and TallBill are all spot on.