Burning Fat and calorie allowances

So what is the best way of going.about improving body fat percentage and toning (as a woman, if that makes any difference). Should I continue on a calorie deficit or up it to maintenance level to encourage muscle toning and burn more fat that way

Just to clarify, this is about body fat percentage, not lb's.

There is no difference between how a man should do it versus how a woman should do it.

Muscle "toning" is an old fashioned errant way of saying "building muscle." You can't just "tone" it, you apply resistance making it stronger which it turns causes muscle growth if you are eating enough.

That being said, to lose body fat you must eat at a calorie deficit. If you are eating at a deficit, cardio adds to the deficit but doesn't just magically burn fat (cardio just makes your deficit bigger and it's the deficit that gets rid of fat). If you weight train while on a deficit (and you should!), then you are preventing lean mass loss. People who do nothing but diet + cardio without the weight training lose body fat AND muscle in the process (the opposite of what you call "toning").

The majority of women on this website are satisfied with losing body fat while keeping the muscle mass they already have instead of building more. Weights + cardio + deficit does this for you.

If you are interested in gaining muscle, then you must eat a calorie surplus. (This is one of the reasons why a lot of people are WRONG when they think that women "bulk up" with weight training. It's impossible to do that without eating a surplus...and most women need extra help such as working out 2+ hours a day in the gym and steroids to "bulk up")

So basically, calorie deficit to lose fat + cardio to add to that deficit whilst giving you more endurance and a host of other awesome benefits + weight training to prevent muscle loss is what you need to do for a body recomp. when your main objective is fat loss.

This is what I'm currently doing and have dropped from 32% to 23% body fat so far with a goal of 16%. When I get there, I plan on eating more, cutting out most cardio, and attempting to grow some bigger muscles...but that's just my goal.

So what is the best way of going.about improving body fat percentage and toning (as a woman, if that makes any difference). Should I continue on a calorie deficit or up it to maintenance level to encourage muscle toning and burn more fat that way

Just to clarify, this is about body fat percentage, not lb's.

There is no difference between how a man should do it versus how a woman should do it.

Muscle "toning" is an old fashioned errant way of saying "building muscle." You can't just "tone" it, you apply resistance making it stronger which it turns causes muscle growth if you are eating enough.

That being said, to lose body fat you must eat at a calorie deficit. If you are eating at a deficit, cardio adds to the deficit but doesn't just magically burn fat (cardio just makes your deficit bigger and it's the deficit that gets rid of fat). If you weight train while on a deficit (and you should!), then you are preventing lean mass loss. People who do nothing but diet + cardio without the weight training lose body fat AND muscle in the process (the opposite of what you call "toning").

The majority of women on this website are satisfied with losing body fat while keeping the muscle mass they already have instead of building more. Weights + cardio + deficit does this for you.

If you are interested in gaining muscle, then you must eat a calorie surplus. (This is one of the reasons why a lot of people are WRONG when they think that women "bulk up" with weight training. It's impossible to do that without eating a surplus...and most women need extra help such as working out 2+ hours a day in the gym and steroids to "bulk up")

So basically, calorie deficit to lose fat + cardio to add to that deficit whilst giving you more endurance and a host of other awesome benefits + weight training to prevent muscle loss is what you need to do for a body recomp. when your main objective is fat loss.

This is what I'm currently doing and have dropped from 32% to 23% body fat so far with a goal of 16%. When I get there, I plan on eating more, cutting out most cardio, and attempting to grow some bigger muscles...but that's just my goal.

How do you find out your body fat %?