How long will it take?

How long will it take to look like me? I get this question a lot and it's very difficult to answer. So I will break it down and explain what I can here.

First off, your mentality has a big effect on your results. People that doubt themselves have already failed. It's a big mental thing. I said to myself I would get big no matter what. So it was pretty much eat, sleep, work, and work out. I spent almost all my paychecks on food and supplements. My entire day was thinking about eating and working out. By the time I got to the gym it was turning on my ipod and I let nothing stop me from finishing my workout.

I see the same people at the gym for years that have little or no changes at all. Most of the time they spend talking to other people, joking around, or playing around on their phones. It's called a work out! So get to work! 
I see people who always doubt others because they think they're taking "steroids" and that's the only way to get big. These people have very little knowledge on the subject and just guess based on things they see on TV. ( You can read the article I wrote here if you want to be educated on the subject ) Then they blame others for the lack of results they get. They lack the mental capability to visualize themselves as successful.

On the other hand, I meet people who tell me they take a 3000mg of testosterone and deca a week and it doesn't even look like they've worked out more than a month. They think a peanut butter jelly sandwich counts as a meal, and a 23gram protein shake counts as a snack. They have very little knowledge on nutrition, go to the gym, but they don't really work out. They have no clue on how to push themselves at the gym.

So knowledge is power. Educate yourself on nutrition. Eating is most important part of it. No one is going to eat the food for you. Being able to buy your food and prepare your food is a part of eating. If you rely on your parents to buy you food make sure you are able to get what you need. Otherwise if you have no income to buy the food you need then your progress will be little to nothing. Looking good isn't cheap! The bigger you get the more expensive it's going to get. Yes you can count your macro-nutrients and eat out, but in the end it will cost you more than making your own food. My body does not react well to eating out with oily foods. It gives me bad acne.

That brings another point about knowing your body. Everybody is different as I've stated so many times. Someone else's diet & workout routine may not work for you. You have to figure out what your body responds to. For me, lifting heavy gave me the best results which is pretty common with ectomorph body types. This is the body type that retains low body fat and hard to gain weight. Someone that gains fat easily may need to add in cardio along with weight training.

Your lifestyle really has a big effect on how fast your results will come. I've had 9 to 5 jobs where my schedule was very consistent and I was able to eat whenever I wanted. I made really fast gains the first few months to a year. I've also managed jobs where I was constantly working all day everyday. Even when I wasn't at work I was still working mentally. It was very stressful mentally and physically. I was only able to maintain some of my gains but I didn't make any progress at all.

So there's going to be a big difference between someone working an office job vs someone working manual labor all day vs a full time college student. Your recovery time will take a lot longer the more active you are. So you may need to throw in more rest days. For example two workout days then 1 rest day and repeat.

Last off, your height makes a big difference on how you look in pictures. If you're 5' 4" at 150lbs you would look bigger in a picture by yourself than someone 6'1" at 170lbs. The taller you are the more you have to fill out your frame. So yes it does take you longer to look like you have more muscle mass if you're tall. The good thing is if you're tall and big, you will make everyone look tiny standing next to them. Also your skin tone makes a huge difference on how you look. If you're tanned you appear as if you're bigger than someone with the same stats but have a light skin tone.


So the short answer to the question:  It really depends on you.