Getting strong if not eating enough?

saltedcaramel86

So, I'm a few weeks into You Are Your Own Gym and am starting to see results. Not really sure what my goals are, just want to tone up (getting there slowly) and get strong. My problem area is my stomach so also doing an ab workout app on my iPod most days. Also started kickboxing lessons, and walk the dog for half hour most days. Don't want to gain serious muscle, just look lean/toned I suppose.

Anyway, because of stress and other stuff, I keep losing my appetite so know I'm not eating enough. Really trying to focus on this though and eat as healthy/enough as possible (I'm vegetarian and limit dairy for health reasons). Even if I'm still not taking in enough, can I still achieve the "toned" look?

phjorg1

Your post is..unclear... I don't think you have a handle on what your goals are, or what results are possible. I'll try to give you a general guideline that will hopefully cover everything...

1) toning is a BS word. Don't use it.

2) By tone, are you referring to your desire to lose bodyfat, or your desire to gain muscle mass, or both??? pick one and use that instead. From the statement of yours saying you don't want to gain muscle mass, I'm assuming you mean you want your fat areas of your body to be less fat while keeping existing muscle amounts. so that is your goal i'm assuming and will refer to tone as this goal in mind for rest of post.

3) With this in mind, you cannot target fat loss. So your ab workouts are a waste of time. To lose fat you need to eat less calories than you burn. So your goal of exercise should be to burn calories. the best way to do this is to forget about low impact isolation exercises like crunches, and instead focus on full body compound movements with resistance like squats, deads, bench, press, dips, etc. They work all muscles and include your core.

4) In addition to the above. The other goal of exercise should be to stress the muscles. When you eat in deficit, you don't just lose fat. You lose everything. And it very much is a case of you don't use it, you lose it. So your exercise program should include a template to work all muscles somewhat. Then the body will be like, zomg, these muscles are all in use, I can't shed this muscle mass. I better instead shed more fat to make up for this calorie deficit. One of the actual ironies to people trying to spot reduce fat areas by doing tons of say crunches while eating in deficit is it actually hurts more than helps. The areas not being worked will shed muscle mass, and the abs will stay. Meaning they will potentially look bigger as the rest of the body looks smaller...

5) if you're not eating enough, as in eating too far under your calorie needs, you will not ever look "toned". When too far in deficit, the body will shed muscle mass as a priority to keep energy balance. No muscle means no athletic toned look.

6) Keep doing you are your own gym. Do some cardio. (your classes you started doing are fine for this as well) You don't need to add in ab exercises. And eat a calorie total thats high enough that you're not starving yourself, but low enough that you lose 1-2lbs a week.

TavistockToad

Your post is..unclear... I don't think you have a handle on what your goals are, or what results are possible. I'll try to give you a general guideline that will hopefully cover everything...

1) toning is a BS word. Don't use it.

2) By tone, are you referring to your desire to lose bodyfat, or your desire to gain muscle mass, or both??? pick one and use that instead. From the statement of yours saying you don't want to gain muscle mass, I'm assuming you mean you want your fat areas of your body to be less fat while keeping existing muscle amounts. so that is your goal i'm assuming and will refer to tone as this goal in mind for rest of post.

3) With this in mind, you cannot target fat loss. So your ab workouts are a waste of time. To lose fat you need to eat less calories than you burn. So your goal of exercise should be to burn calories. the best way to do this is to forget about low impact isolation exercises like crunches, and instead focus on full body compound movements with resistance like squats, deads, bench, press, dips, etc. They work all muscles and include your core.

4) In addition to the above. The other goal of exercise should be to stress the muscles. When you eat in deficit, you don't just lose fat. You lose everything. And it very much is a case of you don't use it, you lose it. So your exercise program should include a template to work all muscles somewhat. Then the body will be like, zomg, these muscles are all in use, I can't shed this muscle mass. I better instead shed more fat to make up for this calorie deficit. One of the actual ironies to people trying to spot reduce fat areas by doing tons of say crunches while eating in deficit is it actually hurts more than helps. The areas not being worked will shed muscle mass, and the abs will stay. Meaning they will potentially look bigger as the rest of the body looks smaller...

5) if you're not eating enough, as in eating too far under your calorie needs, you will not ever look "toned". When too far in deficit, the body will shed muscle mass as a priority to keep energy balance. No muscle means no athletic toned look.

6) Keep doing you are your own gym. Do some cardio. (your classes you started doing are fine for this as well) You don't need to add in ab exercises. And eat a calorie total thats high enough that you're not starving yourself, but low enough that you lose 1-2lbs a week.

i agree with most of this, though i woul dhave thought tht to target fat loss, as opposed to weight loss, you would want a smaller deficit, 0.5lb - 1lb per week? for someone at a healthy weight already, there is no need for a 1000 calorie deficit just to lose a little bodyfat.

jimmmer

Your post is..unclear... I don't think you have a handle on what your goals are, or what results are possible. I'll try to give you a general guideline that will hopefully cover everything...

1) toning is a BS word. Don't use it.

2) By tone, are you referring to your desire to lose bodyfat, or your desire to gain muscle mass, or both??? pick one and use that instead. From the statement of yours saying you don't want to gain muscle mass, I'm assuming you mean you want your fat areas of your body to be less fat while keeping existing muscle amounts. so that is your goal i'm assuming and will refer to tone as this goal in mind for rest of post.

3) With this in mind, you cannot target fat loss. So your ab workouts are a waste of time. To lose fat you need to eat less calories than you burn. So your goal of exercise should be to burn calories. the best way to do this is to forget about low impact isolation exercises like crunches, and instead focus on full body compound movements with resistance like squats, deads, bench, press, dips, etc. They work all muscles and include your core.

4) In addition to the above. The other goal of exercise should be to stress the muscles. When you eat in deficit, you don't just lose fat. You lose everything. And it very much is a case of you don't use it, you lose it. So your exercise program should include a template to work all muscles somewhat. Then the body will be like, zomg, these muscles are all in use, I can't shed this muscle mass. I better instead shed more fat to make up for this calorie deficit. One of the actual ironies to people trying to spot reduce fat areas by doing tons of say crunches while eating in deficit is it actually hurts more than helps. The areas not being worked will shed muscle mass, and the abs will stay. Meaning they will potentially look bigger as the rest of the body looks smaller...

5) if you're not eating enough, as in eating too far under your calorie needs, you will not ever look "toned". When too far in deficit, the body will shed muscle mass as a priority to keep energy balance. No muscle means no athletic toned look.

6) Keep doing you are your own gym. Do some cardio. (your classes you started doing are fine for this as well) You don't need to add in ab exercises. And eat a calorie total thats high enough that you're not starving yourself, but low enough that you lose 1-2lbs a week.

QFT

Make sure you don't have too great a calorie deficit.

You'll never achieve the "look" you want unless you train properly and eat to support it.

Slow and steady wins the race.....

SusanB148

If you don't have enough appetite to eat enough, try drinking a nutrition shake at least once a day so you won't be depleting your body of vitamins and minerals. If your appetite doesn't improve, you might want to check with a doctor to make sure a medical problem isn't causing your loss of appetite.

reach4thestar

Your post is..unclear... I don't think you have a handle on what your goals are, or what results are possible. I'll try to give you a general guideline that will hopefully cover everything...

1) toning is a BS word. Don't use it.

2) By tone, are you referring to your desire to lose bodyfat, or your desire to gain muscle mass, or both??? pick one and use that instead. From the statement of yours saying you don't want to gain muscle mass, I'm assuming you mean you want your fat areas of your body to be less fat while keeping existing muscle amounts. so that is your goal i'm assuming and will refer to tone as this goal in mind for rest of post.

3) With this in mind, you cannot target fat loss. So your ab workouts are a waste of time. To lose fat you need to eat less calories than you burn. So your goal of exercise should be to burn calories. the best way to do this is to forget about low impact isolation exercises like crunches, and instead focus on full body compound movements with resistance like squats, deads, bench, press, dips, etc. They work all muscles and include your core.

4) In addition to the above. The other goal of exercise should be to stress the muscles. When you eat in deficit, you don't just lose fat. You lose everything. And it very much is a case of you don't use it, you lose it. So your exercise program should include a template to work all muscles somewhat. Then the body will be like, zomg, these muscles are all in use, I can't shed this muscle mass. I better instead shed more fat to make up for this calorie deficit. One of the actual ironies to people trying to spot reduce fat areas by doing tons of say crunches while eating in deficit is it actually hurts more than helps. The areas not being worked will shed muscle mass, and the abs will stay. Meaning they will potentially look bigger as the rest of the body looks smaller...

5) if you're not eating enough, as in eating too far under your calorie needs, you will not ever look "toned". When too far in deficit, the body will shed muscle mass as a priority to keep energy balance. No muscle means no athletic toned look.

6) Keep doing you are your own gym. Do some cardio. (your classes you started doing are fine for this as well) You don't need to add in ab exercises. And eat a calorie total thats high enough that you're not starving yourself, but low enough that you lose 1-2lbs a week.

Informative thx