How Your Body Changes Once You Start Exercising

Whether you’re a complete beginner or a “re-starter”, you must be wondering how physical activity will impact you and your health. Well, I have some good news for you. Exercising will not only change your lifestyle but will also have some interesting health benefits that you’ll see and feel on your body from head to toe.

The next question is usually ‘how long does it take to see changes in body from working out?’. You might get surprised, but the benefits of exercising will actually knock on the door from day one. But don’t be disappointed if not all of them come at once. There are definitely some changes that will only arrive after a while.

Let’s look at the timeline of your body will change once you start exercising!

Exercising makes the body pump more blood to the muscles. This will increases the blood flow, which is beneficial for your brain.

The minute you start exercising, your brain cells will function at a higher level. The increased blood flow to your brain will make you more alert and awake during exercising and more focused after.

When you start moving, your body’s energy expenditure increases. The energy it burns comes primarily from glucose, which is stored in the body as glycogen [1]. Glycogen is generated by your liver when it processes carbs. With decreased glycogen levels your body will then start turning fat and protein into glucose to help meet your increasing energy demands.

Therefore, your fat storage will be better mobilized once you start exercising and you’ll start losing body fat. But remember that if you want to maintain that body fat loss, you’ll have to keep your calories in below your calories out. So let’s make sure that no one expects to lose fat after 3 In-N-Out burgers just because they hit the gym for half an hour before.

Changes in your skeleton will become measurable after about half a year. And after 12 months of exercising, your bone density will start increasing too. The higher your bone density, the lower the chances of fracture.

We usually don’t think about this, but exercising doesn’t only have physical, but also mental benefits. First of all, working out is an amazing way of stress relief. After a year of “gym-therapy”, your body will learn how to deal with mental stress in a more effective way. And as we all know, less stress means better mental health.