Question about weight training
How long until I notice a weight gain (through muscle, i hope?) after I start weight training regularly? And how much? I don't do much weight training. Just a few light machine reps.
Depends. There are multiple factors that could contribute.
Your genetic make up will largely determine this. If your body is prone to add muscle quickly you should see results quickly. If it is not then it may take awhile.
You will need to eat more to gain weight (even if your goal is muscle). Protien, protien, protien. You also want to time your eating with your workouts properly to get the most bang for your effort. Do some searches within this forum on that and I think you will find some good discusions.
It also depends on the type of weight lifting you are doing. You have to be lifting heavy less reps, more weight. A bunch of reps with low weight is about as useless as it can get. Especially for gaining muscle. It may help build endurance, but that is about it.
Original Post by oatmeallover:
How long until I notice a weight gain (through muscle, i hope?) after I start weight training regularly? And how much? I don't do much weight training. Just a few light machine reps.
Never, and I highlighted the exact reason why. I don't mean to be snarky, it's just the cold, ugly truth 
Just to expand on this. My personal experience was that I noticed a difference very quickly within the first 3-4 weeks. To do this I was on a program that was focused. Lifting 4 days a week. Two upper body and two lower body.
It involved lots of squats, deadlifts, lunges, shoulder presses, cable rows, cable pushdowns, arm curls, chest presses, etc... All at weights where it was a stretch to do more than 10 reps in a set on my first set. I've since pushed up to going more at weights where it is a stretch to get 8 reps in my first set.
I upped my protien intake to .8 grams per pound of body weight. I have alternated between eating in a surplus to gain weight (muscle mass) and eating in a deficit to cut body fat. Roughly estimate that in my first year of lifting that I put on about 10 lbs of muscle. I would say though that as a man, my body is geared to do that. Most women will not see results where they will put on a lot of muscle. However, they still can benefit from this training as they can get stronger and leaner (less body fat) by doing this kind of training.
