Toning Up/Losing Body Fat

gshoemaker06

I'm looking for tips on really taking fitness to the next level. Right now I'm fit and I'm happy where I am, but I would love to gain some more muscle and really tone up. I'm about 171 lbs, 6'1", about 12% body fat. I'd like to really focus on gaining muscle, but definitely not bulk at all. Do you guys have any tips or recommendations, as I've plateaued a little bit. My main area of concern is my stomach (where I hold most of my fat)

I have a desk job but I do strength training during my lunch break (about 40 minutes of lifting) 4-5 days a week. I typically do cardio (running, swimming, biking) in the evening 2/3 nights during the week and climb on Friday. The weekend varies but I usually swim, do circuit training, and/or have a long run on sunday. I'm training for a half-marathon and a tough mudder (both in October).

As far as nutrition I watch my overall calories, but I don't focus on specific nutrients. I am vegetarian, but I've tracked my protein for awhile and I get plenty. I use titan protein mix after workouts and have a love for peanut butter.

cjc166

Since you're vegetarian, check out 'Eat to Live' by Dr Fuhrman. It might give you some ideas.

missy20703

Change up your workouts and you may need to add some different supplements. Check our bodybuilding.com they have a great section on the top left called “find a plan” you can find some new workouts that will have you build the muscle your looking for…. Also if you look up Y3T training by Neil Hill, its also great…. Good Luck!!!

ninerbuff

Very tough to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, especially if you're already fit and been working out for an extended period of time. To gain muscle you are adding tissue, which means you are gaining weight. To gain weight you will be in surplus and there's NO GUARANTEE that some of that won't be fat gain.
Studies have indicated that reps between 8-12 and sets of 4-5 seem with 85% of RM to result in muscle building because of the volume. Protein consensus is between 1g to 2.5g per pound of lean body weight. That's not scientifically backed, however anecdotally it's what I've personally experienced along with training clients who try to do the same.
Stick to compound movements, make sure your form is spot on and get plenty of rest. Also look into body recomposition from articles by Lyle McDonald, Alan Aragon, etc.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

mcrowe1016

I'd like to really focus on gaining muscle, but definitely not bulk at all.

???

gshoemaker06

Thanks for all the tips so far.

@cjc I'll check out Eat to live. I read some reviews and it looks like it will definitely help
@Missy I'll did a quick search through the plans and looks like there might be something good in there. I'll keep looking at what they have.
@niner I think that's one of my issues is that I want to stay lean, but I didn't actually start working out till college so it's been a challenge building the muscle I have now. Seems like you're saying the best bet for gaining muscle is to stop restricting my calories to a weight loss and bump it up a little bit? I've been typically doing 8-10 reps of 3 sets, so I'll bump it up to 4 and see if anything improves.

gshoemaker06

I'd like to really focus on gaining muscle, but definitely not bulk at all.

???

tone muscle, not bulk.

Yay:


Nay:

3laine75

Your diary's private, so its hard to say but generally you need to up your calories to build muscle.

Starting Strength and Stronglifts are good programmes IMO.

mcrowe1016

I'm looking for tips on really taking fitness to the next level. Right now I'm fit and I'm happy where I am, but I would love to gain some more muscle and really tone up. I'm about 171 lbs, 6'1", about 12% body fat. I'd like to really focus on gaining muscle, but definitely not bulk at all. Do you guys have any tips or recommendations, as I've plateaued a little bit. My main area of concern is my stomach (where I hold most of my fat)

I have a desk job but I do strength training during my lunch break (about 40 minutes of lifting) 4-5 days a week. I typically do cardio (running, swimming, biking) in the evening 2/3 nights during the week and climb on Friday. The weekend varies but I usually swim, do circuit training, and/or have a long run on sunday. I'm training for a half-marathon and a tough mudder (both in October).

As far as nutrition I watch my overall calories, but I don't focus on specific nutrients. I am vegetarian, but I've tracked my protein for awhile and I get plenty. I use titan protein mix after workouts and have a love for peanut butter.

I feel bad...I usually try to offer advice with my snark. :-( My point is that bulking is gaining muscle. It takes A LOT of work to look like Arnold or Sylvester, so don't worry about beeing too muscular.

The best plateau buster if just shaking up your diet. Try eating cleaner, get 5 servings of veggies in a day. Re evaluate calorie intake to see if it needs to be increased or decreased. I recently decreased mine by about 200 and broke through my plateau. Good luck and don't be afraid to gain too much muscle!

Sidesteal

I'd like to really focus on gaining muscle, but definitely not bulk at all.

???

tone muscle, not bulk.

Yay:

Natural.

Nay:

Roids. Lots of them.

gshoemaker06

I feel bad...I usually try to offer advice with my snark. :-( My point is that bulking is gaining muscle. It takes A LOT of work to look like Arnold or Sylvester, so don't worry about beeing too muscular.

The best plateau buster if just shaking up your diet. Try eating cleaner, get 5 servings of veggies in a day. Re evaluate calorie intake to see if it needs to be increased or decreased. I recently decreased mine by about 200 and broke through my plateau. Good luck and don't be afraid to gain too much muscle!

Ha, thanks, snark or no snark, I'll pick out the advice. I just have a hard time mentally gaining weight again. But I think I've been at a happy weight long enough that after my half and tough mudder, I'll start to increase my calories and really focus on gaining muscle (albeit the fat that comes with it) hopefully with enough time to start to cut it after the holidays.

Jynus

I'd like to really focus on gaining muscle, but definitely not bulk at all.

???

tone muscle, not bulk.

Yay:


Nay:

The only difference between the 2 aside from roids is one kept bulking for far longer than the other. You have some very misconceived notions on how gaining muscle works. You train and eat to get bigger. When you reach the size you want, you stop... You're making it far more complicated than it really is. there is no way to accidently look like the second person.

astrampe

Second one is utterly ...well, not sexy...:noway: - first one is as sexy as they come.....And I don't think the second one was achieve by purely eating right and lifting - a little chemical help is suspected....

gshoemaker06

The only difference between the 2 aside from roids is one kept bulking for far longer than the other. You have some very misconceived notions on how gaining muscle works. You train and eat to get bigger. When you reach the size you want, you stop... You're making it far more complicated than it really is. there is no way to accidently look like the second person.

1) I'm a sarcastic person and the pictures posted were obviously a joke. I know that I wont end up like the 2nd person. I was just giving a blatant visual example for the person who asked what I meant by putting on tone muscle (lean) as opposed to bulk muscle.

2) I don't have misconceptions on how "gaining muscle works". I'm just trying to avoid putting on as much fat as possible. I'm still a strong very athletic person who is very much in shape. I have some excess fat that I would still like to lose, but I would also like to gain strength. That's not impossible, but I believe it might be harder for my situation.

geekyjock76

Gaining an acceptable amount of fat while pursuing gains in lean muscle is just a reality. What you need to do is set an upper limit to body fat percentage and assume a small surplus. Once your body fat reaches that acceptable upper limit, end the bulk and slowly work back calories to maintenance and prepare for a pre-cut transition leading to the cutting phase. The pros of a small surplus is minimization of increased body fat; however, with that comes the con which is minimal lean muscle accretion.

I, too, like to stay very lean. Though, I need a larger surplus over 20% as an ectomorph. I'd rather accept a favorable partitioning of 1:1, gaining approximately the same amount of fat as muscle then just cut the excess after. Btw, unless you jack yourself with roids, you can only expect 2 lbs of lean muscle accretion per month.

AnvilHead

...Also look into body recomposition from articles by Lyle McDonald, Alan Aragon, etc.

Both of the above authors offer excellent advice (backed by research, not broscience) for body recomposition, and both have websites with plenty of free articles available. Another excellent source (although it's not free) is Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle by Tom Venuto. He also has a website with a lot of free articles, but the meat of his program is in the book.

As Ninerbuff said, your two goals (losing fat while gaining muscle) are contradictory and it's difficult to do both at the same time. A solid weight training program while in a caloric excess will help greatly in partitioning the nutrients toward muscle gain as opposed to fat, but some fat gain is pretty much inevitable. Conventional advice is to cut until you reach 10% bodyfat, bulk until you're up to 15%, then repeat as many times as necessary to achieve the results you want. I've seen references to Alan Aragon discussing "culking" (cutting while bulking), but I haven't actually read his take on it. I'm sure he recommends something similar to Tom Venuto's method, which is basically calorie cycling.

Achieving the degree of muscularity you desire without going overboard is simple (not *easy*, but simple) - you keep going until you get where you want to be, then shift into a maintenance mode. You won't suddenly wake up one morning to discover you've become a muscular, hulking freak. Like Sidesteal said, unless you're hammering 'roids, that kind of physique doesn't just "accidentally" happen.