Getting toned

Definitely takes a bit more.

If you are exercising as much as it seems you are, you may want to cut dairy (cheese, milk, etc) and pastas out of your diet. That will help trim out the little areas that may be hiding the tone you've built.

Also, at the gym: Lots of cardio with some weight training (12-15 reps with low weight)

Best of luck! Go get'em!

Welcome to MFP! For getting toned you'll mainly want to concentrate on weight training repetitions this will remove fat and give you a tone look w/out bulking up. Good luck!

Hi,
Im 22 yo, 5'3". I weight 129. My main goal for working out is getting toned as I only want to loose around 4 to 5 lbs. So im more focused about working out my whole body and muscles. Im in my 3 1/2 week of going to the gym Mon-Fri and i really dont see any weight change at all, or tonning. I know it might be a lil too early but a lil glimpse of progress would be a nice motivation. Does getting toned take more effort than just loosing fat?


I ussually do 30 mins at the gym everyday after work. What I do at the gym for example: Squats,/overhead lifting with 15 lbs dumbbells (3 sets of 5 repetitions). Sit ups, assisted pull ups, running, kettle weights (3 repetitions of 21)
And im controlling my intake of calories to around 1300. The only thing i have cut by a ton is pastas and sugars (including pop)
Ive heard protein shakes only make you fatter. Dont know ive never tried em myself.

Being "toned" is simply having a reasonable amount of muscle shown off by sufficiently low body fat. Without knowing your BF% it is hard to know exactly how far off your goal you are and how much fat you in fact need to lose before seeing definition.

I know from past experience that it wasn't until I got down to about 12% bf that I started to notice real changes but after that the changes were visible almost daily it seemed (I'm actually trying to get back to that stage right now!). As you are a woman you will have a naturaly higher amount of BF so if you get to about 18% and under you will REALLY notice.

As you are in a calorie deficit it is higly unlikely you will build any or any significant muscle so you won't get bulky by lifting heavy. Bearing this in mind:

1) keep your current deficit with a nutritionally balanced diet (I don't think increased protein is massively important but it can have an affect so do it of you can)
2) full body routine 3 times a week covering all major muscle groups is more than enough (unless you want to do splits but that is not necessary.)
3) lift heavy in a 4 - 8 rep range. 2 -3 sets is enough to ensure your muscles are fatigued (don't worry - you won't get bulky as I said. High reps at low weight over multiple sets won't get you where you want to be.)
4) Long steady state is unecessary and often counter productive (lifting heavy is anabolic, long cardio sessions are catabolic - essentially opposing goals. There are differing schools of thought on this. Some say do it, some say don't. I think it's inefficient and not neccessary. If you want to ensure a calorie deficit with cardio then consider HIIT on the days you aren't lifting.)
5) Give your body adequte time to rest between weight session so do them every other day, not two days in a row
6) Get plenty of sleep
7) make sure you are well hydrated

Errrr, that's it

Until I think of something else. There are some women lifters / trainers on here so I am sure they can point you in the right direction.

Thanks for the answer! Im not really sure how to measure body fat to get the BF%. How do you do it?

And whats "HIIT"?

Some gyms offer BF% testing where they use calipers or you can try to find a scale that has that feature. You can also do it by taking some measurements and putting it into a body fat calculator online, like this one: http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/body-fat-percentage-calculator

The gym is probably the most accurate though.

HIIT stands for high intensity internal training. You work as hard as you possibly can for a period of time, and then rest for an equal amount of time or shorter, and then work as hard as you can again. Repeat.