Toning up muscle, not bulking up

dandynick

Okay, so since last fall, I have been walking a lot every day and eating the Canada Food Guide. I've lost almost all of my target weight. (32 out of 35) But I've noticed that my arms and legs are thinner. I want to start working out with weights, but keep the weight light with lots of reps just to tone up. How should I be changing my diet to help with that? Or is the Canada Food Guide supplying all the stuff that I need?

wmartin8

I don't know what the Canada Food Guide is about because I follow my own diet. But as a man that has some amount of muscle I can tell you for sure, that protein is the most important nutrient when trying to build muscle. Because, bulking up essentially follows the reverse principals of loosing weight (meaning you eat more rather than less) don't worry about ever getting bulky if you never seriously make an effort to eat more than you burn, as this is absolutely necessary. So, my advice to you would be this, take a look at your diary and notice how much protein you are consuming during the day and try and substitute some of the food you eat for a little bit of extra chicken, fish, eggs or whatever protein you consume aiming to eat about 1 gram of protein per pound of weight. So if you weigh 165 for example shoot to eat 165g of protein or something close to that. Protein is mainly in charge of rebuilding muscle after you break it down at the gym, so if you get enough of it, you will be making sure to give your muscles the nutrient they need to rebuild making them stronger, and hence a little bigger, and hence your body more "tone".

hroush

Read this thread:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/113609-relatively-light-people-trying-to-get-leaner

It will help you understand that you actually should lift heavier weights with low reps. If you do light weights with a bunch of reps, it is essentially cardio, which is not what you want. The starter of that thread is very good about answering questions, so if you have any, feel free to ask them.

mlb929

Here is a thread that talked about using weights.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/182977-weights-question

I would say your diet would depend on your weight routine. If you are doing something intense like P90X or CrossFit. You will need to change your diet. Have you considered a kettlebell routine, areobic and weights at the same time? If you are just adding strength training, you shouldn't need to modify your diet too much, I think you will find the results will be really pleasing, IMO weights are so often missed in weight loss. I went down another size upon doing heavier weight training.

madamelaporte

Not sure on changing your diet but with the toning I use resistance bands, the fitness instructor I do buggy fitness with recommended them for toning plus you can do them where you want to at home/work/at the park etc as you can just pop them in your bag