no more weight loss, Just toning and building muscle

CristinaCalifri

Hi all! I am 5ft 2 and weigh 106.2lbs. I'm not trying to lose weight anymore but now trying to lose inches and tone up. Do I have to eat at a deflict for this?

Please help! Thank you!

YorriaRaine

No, if you want to either switch to the maintaining portion of your myfitnesspal journey and focus on weight lifting (don't worry you won't "bulk up," you can only do that through serious dedication). Or you could a back and forth between bulking and cutting over periods of time to get your desired look then switch to maintenance.

psuLemon

You can start by eating at maintenance and having a workout program based around progressive compound lifts. If you are new to lifting you might gain a few lbs of muscle initially. If you already lift, you will probably see changes in your body. And if you want to add muscle, then up your calories by 100 - 200 and do a slow bulk.


If you need a structured program, you can pick up the new rules of lifting for women, the lean muscle diet or a program like Beachbody's Beast program.

CristinaCalifri

I just want to tone up and lose a few inches thank you

vismal

CristinaCalifri wrote: »

I just want to tone up and lose a few inches thank you

Most people do not lose inches without losing weight. Toning for the most part does not exist. You cannot "tone" a muscle. You can either make the muscle bigger by lifting weights and eating in a small surplus (and gaining weight), or you can reduce the fat around the muscle to make it more visable by eating in a deficit (and losing weight). The toned look comes from having spent time building muscles, then additional time losing enough fat to reveal the muscles you've built. At 5'2 106 you could probably focus on building muscle for a little while then switch back to a fat loss plan and reveal the muscles you've built.

CristinaCalifri

Okay thank you!

Murph1908

Thanks, Vismal and all. I am in the same boat now with Cristina.

CristinaCalifri

Murph1908 wrote: »

Thanks, Vismal and all. I am in the same boat now with Cristina.

I feel like the weight loss was the easy part and this is a pain in the butt!

vismal

CristinaCalifri wrote: »

Murph1908 wrote: »

Thanks, Vismal and all. I am in the same boat now with Cristina.

I feel like the weight loss was the easy part and this is a pain in the butt!

It is...When I was obese I used to think losing weight was next to impossible. Well you can lose 4-8 lbs a month pretty easily if you have a sound nutritional foundation. To gain just 2 lbs of muscle in the same time frame (1 lb for women) it takes the same sound nutritional foundation, plus busting your butt in the gym, plus a good exercise routine, just as much dedication and consistency and the margin for error is smaller. With weight loss, whether you lost 2 lbs in a month or 10, you lost so it's going in the right direction. With muscle gain, if you gain too slowly, you are hampering your progress and possible just spinning your wheels. If you gain to quickly, you are adding unneeded fat that you will just have to lose again anyways.

I'll try not to sound too negative because when you do finally accomplish the goal, its totally worth all the time and effort!

vismal

herrspoons wrote: »

Eating more and lifting is a pain in the butt?

Does not compute.

It's not that it's physically harder. It is obviously easy to eat more then to eat less for most people. It's that it's easier to screw up bulking. Weight loss is hard to screw up if you stick to your plan. It's more of a willpower/dedication issue. You can easily wreck a muscle building phase even if you are fairly diligent about following your plan. There is simply way more margin for error in a fat loss plan. Any loss is a good loss. Any gain is not necessarily a good thing in a muscle building phase.

I agree the fat loss phase makes you feel "worse" or it's less enjoyable. But as far as accomplishing it, it's easier to not screw up. And by screw up I don't even mean fat loss is easier to stick to, it's not. I mean that if you stick to your plan, you almost always see good results. With gaining, if you plan is even slightly flawed you run the risk of limiting your gains, or gaining unneeded fat.