exercise ~ sets versus repetitions?

arek

Hello ya'll!
I hve been at it for 50-days now, so it's about time I say hi... I have been diligent in tracking my food intake (not always within my 'prescribed' goal, but always honest about my entires!). I am also slowly getting into a morning exercise routine, quite frankly to offset my caloric indiscressions, and it is going okay (when I sum up calories intake and calories burned through exercise I almost never exceede my "goal allowance"); but, I don't see results I expected - as most of you know, it is hard work...
So, here is a question for some of the more accomplished "stint desciples": to get toned (I don't care to build muscle) is it better to do few sets (by set I mean sit-ups immediately followed by same number of push-ups) of many repetitions, or, many sets of fewer repetitions? I appreciate any insights you are willing to share.
~ junior "stint desciple".

ltlhmom

Welcome!

stroutman81

You can't answer your question. There's no blanket way of resistance training that's "better" in all instances. Context is everything. Intensity and volume is very dependent on your training experience, your stats, your goals, etc.

And I wouldn't sweat building muscle while dieting. Hypertrophy (muscle growth) is a very energetically costly process. Your body, already not getting enough energy to maintain itself, isn't going to make matters worse by adding loads of a metabolically costly tissue like muscle.

Oh, and welcome aboard.