Toning Up

[Sammi555]

Hi guys,

I've had my Fitbit now for about three months! I'm hitting 14k+ more or less every day and am nearing my lightest weight of the year (the previous being at the height of my unhealthy, crash dieting) and have taken up running. I'm happier, more energetic and more motivated than I can ever remember and am slowly beginning to like my body for the first time in years and years. 

What I'm looking to start working on now is toning up and I want to make sure I'm doing it right. Does anyone have any exercise suggestions? My main focus is my tummy - I'd like to get rid of a bit of a tummy and get to a stage where I have some definition. I'd also like to start working on my "bingo wings".

Thanks,

Sam

[Dominique]

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@Sammi555 wrote:

What I'm looking to start working on now is toning up and I want to make sure I'm doing it right.

[...]

My main focus is my tummy - I'd like to get rid of a bit of a tummy and get to a stage where I have some definition. I'd also like to start working on my "bingo wings".

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"Toning up" is really lowering your body fat %, so that your muscles become visible. This is done primarily through nutrition.

You can't "spot reduce" your body fat: you'll just have to reduce it overall and hope the reduction will come from the desired places. The reduction could just as well occur in your breasts and your buttocks, rather than in your tummy and bingo wings...

[Heybales]

You'll need muscle mass under the fat to be revealed then when what Dominique describes happens.

And if you did crash dieting - you lost muscle mass, no way around that.

Running won't do anything for arms or stomach.

Only way to add it back is start a heavy for you progressive lifting routine to actually build muscle.

At this point with likely reduced muscle mass, you'll tap out what you've got quickly, and if you still have enough fat on your body, you may gain 1-2 lbs in 6-8 week if your deficit is not only reasonable, but minor.

Once you get past that though, you'll only be able to gain if you eat in surplus, or very very slower change of losing fat while gaining muscle eating at maintenance.

So go for strengthening what you got now, so when fat is gone there is some muscle to see, and do that from weight lifting and taking small deficit.

If you have access to gym and lifting equipment, research StrongLifts 5 x 5 as a progressive overload routine. 

[Teal]

I did Shawn Phillips' Strength For Life program with phenomenal results. Check that out. It is free, unless you buy his shakes which I did not, although I don't think it would be bad to do so. I just got the book at the library. I had never lifted before, started heavier than I thought I could do, and made some impressive gains over the 12 weeks course.  

[Scottwilliam017]

Why don't you go for a walk every morning when you wake up