which are the best supplements for toning and definition?

Xellercin wrote: »

I'm a little confused. What exactly are your goals and how do you think these products can help you?

You are spending a lot on products that aren't necessary just for normal exercise, health, fitness, and looking good.

Even the creams, they only work if you lose fat at the same time, so it's impossible to say if the cream helps or just losing that fat is helping.

You say you are in financial trouble, but all of these things are expensive and won't help you get any kind of significant improvement in your results unless you are hardcore into fitness and trying to push your body to produce maximum performance.

If you are just trying to be a normal person with a nice looking, healthy body, then start with an excellent diet, and do consistent, challenging exercise.

No supplement will ever make you look "toned". That look comes from a combo of big enough muscles under little enough fat for them to be visible.

Back in my body building days, I had a ton of muscle, but if I let my fat build up too much, I looked kind of "chunky", not "toned", because the muscle just made me look bigger, not muscular when it couldn't be seen under the fat. But when I cut the fat, the muscles popped and I looked super "toned".

Then I got injured and lost a lot of muscle, but still had fat and looked "curvy". Then I got sick and lost a lot of fat, and without muscle I looked "skinny".

So "toned" is just a balance of fat and muscle.

FTR, I never took any supplements other than protein to get that "toned" look. I took a high calorie protein supplement, mostly just to get extra calories in because it was hard to eat the extra thousands of calories a day I needed to make gains. Otherwise I didn't bother with anything, I just put in hours and hours into the gym.

Still, I never looked overly muscular. I never cut my fat too low because I never got around to competing, so despite being crazy strong, I never looked anything beyond just a fit "toned" woman.

So narrow down your goals a little more. Decide how little fat you want to aim for, and device how much muscle and strength you want to aim for. It's the combo of those two that will result in you looking "toned".

Be warned though, it's very difficult for most women to put on a lot of muscle. I'm lucky, I gain muscle bulk very easily for a woman, so as long as I have low fat and I'm exercising, I always look super "toned" and fit. But my sister works out so much more than I do now, and she always just looks "thin". She's twice as strong as I am, but she'll never look "toned" or strong, she's total ectomorph, and looks like someone who could be snapped in half. Ballerinas look sturdier than she does.

If she carried more fat, she wouldn't look "toned" at all. Her mighty, but small muscles would disappear underneath it. Meanwhile I can carry a decent amount of body fat and still look like I have athletic arms and shoulders because of the visible cuts of my larger but weaker delts and biceps.

For women, genetics will largely decide for you how muscular you can get (without steroids), which will largely determine how "toned" you can look and how much fat you can pull off carrying while still having your muscles visible.

You kind of have to work with what you've got. My sister will never look like a "toned", curvy, j-lo type like me, and I'll never look like a lean, willowy, Gwenyth Paltrow type like her. No matter how we diet or exercise.

So don't let a bunch of BS marketing confuse you, and stop wasting your precious money on products that won't make much of a difference even if they do work. Even a single session with a good trainer is worth more than all of those products, and will cost you less.

Try to gain muscle and try to lose fat if you want to look more "toned", and accept that at a certain point, your genetics will have a major say about the limits of what you can control about your body composition.

psuLemon wrote: »

Beccalouise09 wrote: »

@psuLemon, @Xellercin and @kshama2001, you three have helped me the most in figuring out what it is i am in need to do so i thank you. Please reply to this message and not the other two replies from myself, I would like to put this discussion to a close for I feel I have been helped plenty. ^_^

Hope you all have a lovely week and stay safe. take care.

If you are tight on finances, then drop the supplements. They support the 1% in terms of goals.

Focus on total protein (.8-1g/lb of lbm or weight). Look at bulk buying eggs, chicken, ground beef,etc.. if you can offer whey, then great. And then get on a structured lifting routine, like one of the free ones posted earlier.

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

i didnt read all the replies cause its 3am. im sure what im about to say has been said but....

you can take every supplement in the world and it is not going to strengthen and tone you. those are buzz words.

if adding protein powder was all it took, most of us would look a lot different. LMAO

lift heavy. eat more protein. increase cardio to help burn off extra fat that may be covering up the muscle you do have. from what i did read, money is an issue. If you do not have a gym membership or access to weights, look up bodyweight exercises and how to use 'every day' items to increase strength.