Arm toning

SteampunkSongbird

If what I've been reading is correct, working out a lot before you've lost a lot of the fat you want to lose can result in muscle building under fat, is that correct or have I totally misinterpreted the (conflicting) opinions online?

I ask because I have very podgy upper arms which I hate, and I really want to tone them up by starting to work them and get some light lifting going on at home (I've bought a shake weight and I'm going to buy some slightly heavier dumbbells too) but I want to slim them down as well as tone them. If I start working on them now while they're still fat, will they possibly just bulk up rather than get thinner? As much as I want the flab toned, the last thing I want is for them to get bigger at the same time. Please advise, as I have no idea what I'm talking about, lol.

AmyRhubarb

As long as you're in a calorie deficit, you're not going to "bulk up" or build muscle. It's actually very difficult for women to build muscle - generally a calorie surplus and dedicated, heavy lifting for long periods of time.

As far as toning - I think generally what people mean by toning is they want to see some shape or definition in their arms (or legs, or abs or whatever). Everyone has muscle, it's just often covered by a layer of fat, disguising the shape and definition of the muscle underneath.

So fat loss is what you want to focus on, which is achieved by a calorie deficit. At the same time, you want to maintain as much lean muscle as possible, and this is achieved by not slashing cals too drastically, and by doing some form of strength/resistance work as exercise. Dumbbells are great, so are bodyweight exercises, and if you have access to barbells and the instruction to use them properly, that's even better.

Great info in the following links:
http://www.livestrong.com/blog/lose-fat-without-losing-muscle/
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/752778-how-wrong-i-was-600-days-of-mfp-lotsa-pics
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13

lizziebeth1028

As long as you're in a calorie deficit, you're not going to "bulk up" or build muscle. It's actually very difficult for women to build muscle - generally a calorie surplus and dedicated, heavy lifting for long periods of time.

As far as toning - I think generally what people mean by toning is they want to see some shape or definition in their arms (or legs, or abs or whatever). Everyone has muscle, it's just often covered by a layer of fat, disguising the shape and definition of the muscle underneath.

So fat loss is what you want to focus on, which is achieved by a calorie deficit. At the same time, you want to maintain as much lean muscle as possible, and this is achieved by not slashing cals too drastically, and by doing some form of strength/resistance work as exercise. Dumbbells are great, so are bodyweight exercises, and if you have access to barbells and the instruction to use them properly, that's even better.

Great info in the following links:
http://www.livestrong.com/blog/lose-fat-without-losing-muscle/
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/752778-how-wrong-i-was-600-days-of-mfp-lotsa-pics
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13

^^This exactly!!!!!!!

CitizenXVIII

+1 for bodyweight exercises. hundredpushups.com has a killer pushup program.

SteampunkSongbird

Thanks very much for the info, that's all good to know; I think you're right about the term toning, I'm not actually overly fussed for major definition in my arms, I just mainly want them to be thinner. I'll get myself some wee dumbbells that won't be impossible for me to lift lol (I have crap upper body strength) and obviously keep eating at a defecit, and hopefully I'll start losing fat from my arms soon, it's only really come off my face and neck so far that I can tell.

CallMeCupcakeDammit

There's a lot of great information in here regarding resistance training. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/724405-resistance-training-tidbits

from HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO YOU

For starters, complete novices who have never touched a weight before as well as people who are carrying around a lot of extra fat benefit from the ability to gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously. This depends a good bit on genetics too, but in general, simultaneous muscle gain and fat loss (hereafter referred to as recomposition) is next to impossible to achieve outside the realm of novices, overweight individuals and drug users. The reason being, keeping this simplistic, is that muscle building (hypertrophy) is a very intensive process, energetically speaking. Put differently, you need a surplus of calories (more energy in than out) to facilitate recovery and growth of new muscle. While dieting for fat loss, you don’t have adequate calories to maintain your current tissue (hence the loss in weight accompanying a caloric deficit). So adding something as metabolically active as muscle tissue probably isn’t going to happen in the face of an energy deficit. As I’m typing this it seems a bit wordy but suffice it to say, unless you're fat and/or untrained… don’t expect to gain an appreciable amount of muscle while dieting.

skinnyinnotime

Trust me on this, your arms will not bulk up with shake weights no matter how many reps you do.

The fat will come off where it wants to, we can't control that.

rejectuf

One: Your focus on toning a specific part of your body is really not the right idea. You cannot spot reduce, spot tone, whatever. You can build muscle in a certain spot (but not in a deficit). You will build strength, but your overall mass will not increase unless you are eating more than you're expending.

Two: When you first start lifting weights, it is very normal to notice a slight increase in size of your muscles and a slight uptick on the scale. This is normal. When you start exercise, they start to retain a little more water. This will normalize very quickly and shouldn't be taken as some kind of silly idea that you've become magically bulky.

SteampunkSongbird

Sorry if I wasn't entirely clear with my first post, I do know I can't spot reduce fat, I wasn't really asking about spot reducing my arms, I just wanted to be sure that if I started doing a bit of lifting while they're still fat that my arms wouldn't get bigger, that's all. I do so wish spot reduction was possible, though don't we all, lol.