How Long Does It Take To Get In Shape?

The Metabolic Matrix: Why “Getting in Shape” is a Multi-Variable Equation

Every New Year’s “resolutionary” wonders how long it will take them to get in shape. The same question comes up with most new members at X Gym. As a functional medicine biohacker and anti-aging researcher, I have to explain that your body is not a simple calculator; it is a complex biological system. If you get any estimate from any fitness professional, they are either lying to you to take your money, or they are ignorant of the countless variables making it impossible to predict (have them read this post to learn what they don’t know).

The feature image for this post is our best example of what could happen at X Gym in a year. That gives you a good idea of the kind of results possible if someone did everything I told them to do with 100% diligence and discipline. Others only add the X Gym, but make no other changes, and they certainly get stronger, fitter, and healthier, but they do not have the visual changes of those who follow our coaching more closely.

To understand your timeline for getting in shape, we must look at the main variables currently at play in your body. I could easily write an entire book on this subject, but to condense it down as much as possible, here is the extremely abbreviated version.

1. The Biological Starting Line

  • Mitochondrial Health: Your mitochondria are the “engines” of your cells. If your mitochondrial coupling is inefficient, you aren’t burning fuel effectively. We use high-intensity training to force mitochondrial biogenesis (the creation of new engines) and improve the mitochondrial health of the mitochondria you already have.

  • Genetic and Epigenetic Expression: Your DNA is not your destiny, but it is a factor. Genes like ACTN3 determine your muscle fiber type distribution, while your current biological age (vs. chronological age) dictates how fast your tissues can repair.

  • Metabolic Setpoint Theory: Your body has a homeostatic weight it wants to defend. Breaking this setpoint requires consistent signaling over months, not days.

  • Hormonal Profile: Your levels of testosterone, growth hormone, and cortisol determine if you are in an anabolic (building) or catabolic (wasting) state.

2. The Nuances of Training and History

  • Muscle Memory: This is a massive “fast-forward” button for past athletes. Once you have built myonuclei, they stay with you. Beginners, however, must first undergo neurological adaptation to learn how to recruit motor units.

  • Intensity vs. Volume: The X Gym method uses a 21-minute, twice-weekly protocol. This high-intensity stimulus triggers a massive EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption) effect without the inflammatory cortisol spike of long-duration cardio, or Traditional weight training which causes microtears in the muscle fibers.

  • The Type of Stimulus: Are you training for muscle bulk, or tone and definition? Our unique methods are designed to avoid the “bulky” look while maximizing functional strength.

  • Comfort Zone Stretch: how far you are willing to push yourself and step outside your comfort zone will determine how quickly you can expand it and achieve even better results. No one gets results by staying inside their comfort zone. People who go outside their comfort zone get results, and the further they go outside, the more results they get. Every time someone goes outside their comfort zone, it stretches bigger, so it’s a snowball effect as well.

3. Nutritional Biohacking

  • Protein Intake and the Leucine Threshold: You must consume enough protein to trigger the mTOR pathway. Without hitting the “leucine threshold” in a meal, you aren’t signaling the body to build muscle, regardless of your workout.

  • The Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): Protein is metabolically “expensive” to digest, burning up to 30% of its own calories just through the act of digestion.

  • Nutrient Timing and Eating Patterns: When you eat is as important as what you eat. Intermittent fasting can improve insulin sensitivity and trigger autophagy, clearing out cellular junk that slows down your metabolism.

  • Calorie Quality: We prioritize nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory foods. 100 calories of seed oils signal “storage” to the body, while 100 calories of grass-fed beef signal “repair.” The CICO theory is wrong. It’s all about the type and timing of calories.

4. The Daily Variables (NEAT and Hydration)

  • NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): This includes every movement outside of the gym—fidgeting, walking, standing. It often accounts for more daily energy expenditure than the actual workout.

  • Hydration: Water is the medium for every chemical reaction in your body. A 2% drop in hydration can stall your metabolism and decrease muscle contractile force.

5. Recovery and Lifestyle

  • Sleep Architecture: Deep sleep is when your glymphatic system flushes the brain and your growth hormone peaks. Without it, you cannot lower your biological age.

  • Stress and Allostatic Load: High stress keeps you in a sympathetic “fight or flight” state, which causes the body to cling to visceral fat as a survival mechanism.

6. Brain Training and Habit formation

  • Rewiring the Brain: Your brain is wired a certain way, and your body and health reflect that wiring. If you want your body and health to change, you have to change your brain wiring. There are many ways to do that, and it can be challenging to figure out, but this is why I have developed a brain type test that will determine which of the 16 brain types you are and then give you custom brain training exercises to rewire your brain. Once your brain is rewired, it will be much easier to break old habits and form new ones. It will help you program your brain to think and act differently, so you’ll need much less willpower.

  • Breaking Old Habits: How you look and feel right now is the direct result of your current habits. If you don’t look and feel the way you want to, you need to break those habits, because if you keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results, you will be severely disappointed. It’s not just enough to add exercise to a stack of bad habits. Adding new habits without deleting old ones results in extremely slow progress at best and usually ends in discouragement, leading to the complete abandonment of the whole project.

  • Forming New Habits: Forming new habits requires creating new neural pathways in the brain. You can choose to do this the hard way, and possibly succeed in spite of yourself, or choose the easy way based on science and the custom techniques you will learn in my brain type test.
  • Discipline Vs Motivation: Motivation quickly wanes. It’s a great starter, but a lousy finisher. Discipline is the finisher and the reason you are able to keep going. Once you have rewired the brain, broken old habits, and formed new habits, discipline is easy. Without the three prior steps, however, it’s a much harder road, and the main reason over 95% of people fail their New Year’s resolutions.

Bottom Line: If you really want to change your health and your body significantly, commit to a year of consistent training, strict nutrition, and bio hacking (running experiments on yourself and trying different things to see what works best for your unique metabolism and body). This is the only way. If anyone tells you different, and you use them to help you. You will just be flushing lots of time and money down the toilet, and you will say, “Gosh, I sure wish I had listened to PJ.” If this feels overwhelming, and you would like me to figure it out for you and help you through it, just join the X Gym either through our Kirkland Washington club, or as an online member anywhere in the world.

References

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