does the "hip-hop" workout routines on youtube really work?

oh yeah i was moving lol. I am good at picking up routines so i danced right along with them ! My heart rate was deff going, i know it is good cardio, but they try to incorporate moves to target mid sections and butts & guts, was just curious if it is effective in toning these areas if it is something to stick with!

There is no such thing as "toning". There is only fat loss, which you cannot target, and muscle gain...which you can target but requires that you eat at a caloric surplus which I assume you aren't doing.

If you burn 500 calories doing ab crunches or burn 500 calories going for a run it is pretty much equivalent in terms of weight loss.

What is your ultimate goal here?

I do a hip hop dance class at the gym, and it burns 550 calories an hour according to my heart rate monitor

Today, at home, I did Billy Blanks Jr's Dance Party Bootcamp, and according to my HRM, I burned 320 calories in a half hour... So then I did it a second time

I haven't done the exact routine you are talking about though

oh yeah i was moving lol. I am good at picking up routines so i danced right along with them ! My heart rate was deff going, i know it is good cardio, but they try to incorporate moves to target mid sections and butts & guts, was just curious if it is effective in toning these areas if it is something to stick with!

There is no such thing as "toning". There is only fat loss, which you cannot target, and muscle gain...which you can target but requires that you eat at a caloric surplus which I assume you aren't doing.

If you burn 500 calories doing ab crunches or burn 500 calories going for a run it is pretty much equivalent in terms of weight loss.

What is your ultimate goal here?

I have understood for a while now that there is no such thing as "target toning" but over all i have lost 25 lbs and several inches, two pants sizes, but i still have a gut and flabby legs and butt so just trying to continue to tone and condition while getting in shape. I do lift and i am on a strict diet and trying to stay in my calorie range, which has been a struggle...

Oh I didn't mean to imply you were doing anything wrong you sound like you are on the right track. Here is what I meant.

All you need is a calorie deficit to lose fat. As you lose fat you will slowly uncover your underlying muscle which is what gives you that "toned" or fit look. You cannot control where the fat comes off so circumstances can happen where you will have "toned" arms and flabby legs, you just need to keep losing fat. Hip hop abs versus running versus anything else doesn't really matter here in terms of getting that "toned" look it is just about losing the fat.

Now, if you do not have very much muscle when you lose the fat you won't really uncover much because (to be blunt) in that case there really isn't much to uncover. In that circumstance you get what is called "skinny fat" where you have lost much of your fat but since your muscle mass is low you still don't appear "toned".

In that circumstance what is required to appear "toned" is to actually build muscle. That requires heavy lifting but not just lifting, heavy lifting while at caloric surplus. You cannot build muscle and diet to lose weight simultaneously unfortunately.

Okay i hope i dont sound like a total dumb @$$ when i ask this... but here it goes..... SO Overall if i first need to lose excess fat (which in all reality is NOT That much) and uncover muscle i need to burn the calories/fat by cadrio and strength exersize and dieting keeping a deficit in mind, THEN to tone and strengthen muscle eat more of a caloric deficit and heavy lift? Im still trying to figure it all out even though i do realize i MUST be doing something right, if you look in my profile pic, that is only a 3 month difference. I am already seeing defined muscles in my arms and calves. This has been obtained by pretty much a combination of lifting, strength excersizes, kickboxing, butts and guts class, and before i start any exersize i run atleast 5-10 mins just to warm up...i have been trying to meet my calorie goal daily, but i recently cut out all grains, and soda's that is when i started seeing DRASTIC results....

Okay so I am going to make up some numbers just to have something to reference, I don't actually know what your caloric intake should be so don't take these numbers as anything other than an example. I will use numbers that apply to me.

So right now I am at about 21% bodyfat which is not that overweight but I am a little flabby. I want to drop my bodyfat down to the 12-15% range. To do that I am currently eating about 2200 calories a day since I maintain at about 2900 calories per day. That is enough of a deficit that I am losing about 1.3 pounds per week currently. I do cardio and lift weights but not to build muscle because that isn't going to happen, I do those things to improve my fitness and maintain my muscle so I don't lose muscle while dieting.

Once I get the fat off and get down to my desired percent bodyfat I will likely see the underlying muscle but it might not really be large or firm enough to have my desired "look". At that point I may choose to try to build muscle to increase my "toned" look and my strength. To do that I want to increase my calories ABOVE my maintenance level while doing heavy lifting. Most likely this means I will be eating about 3,200 calories per day while heavy lifting. That would allow me to put on maybe a pound of muscle a month while keeping my bodyfat low.

So, to summarize. Eat at a calorie deficit while strength training to lose fat and keep your muscle while your weight goes down, eat at a caloric surplus while strength training to build muscle and gain weight while looking more toned from the added bulk.m