lose weight and tone up OR lose weight and then one up??????

I am trying to lose weigh but more importantly i am trying to get into shape. I have been lifting weights with my legs because i want them to be "cut" My friends say i need to loose the weight first but then from my sister i get the opposite response. My sister lost a lot of weight by just running and eating healthy but she still has plenty of the excess skin. Do i listen to my friend who says i will look like a buff gorilla instead of lean and tone or do i listen to my sister who knows this from personal experience? if anyone has an answer please let me know!!!!

I'm trying to lose weight and tone up so I'm doing it at the same time. It's working for me so far! Down 6 lbs in 1 week and clothes starting to feel better. Good luck!

Hi Susan
I have the same concern. I need to lose 30+ pounds. I have a trainer and she told me to not worry so much about the weight as putting on the muscle. She said that if I cut my calories to 1200 and kept with my strength and cardio workout the weight would start "flying" off. Right now I am 170 and I feel like I look like a body builder because I build muscle quickly. I am hoping that once I'm able to cut the calories, the weight will come 'flying off' as she said.

Strength training is always on the list of things to do to prevent/minimize loose skin.

You're a woman. You won't get super buff unless you take steroids or really workout hard and eat a lot of excess calories. Definitely strength train throughout. It will help you in many, many ways.

On the advice of some nice folks here (verified by some Googling around), I've been strength training as I lose and I found that once I added the weights, my weight loss actually sped up considerably. The changes in my body (pants size, etc.) have been pretty dramatic, as opposed to when I lost with just cardio last spring, when my body changed less and less quickly. So in my personal experience, why not do both at the same time? Toning burns calories and builds definition, so it seems like a win-win. But that's just me.

One thing a trainer told me, is for a woman, if you want to get tone (rathar than big) is to do more reps in your set, with lighter weights. So if you want to do curls, rather than picking up the 25 pounds dumbell and doing 3 sets of 10, get a 15 pound dumbell and do 3 sets of 15. I'm not an expert, but thats what the trainer (and my husband) told me.

That's partially true...and partially wrong. Like k8yk said, women won't get "bulky" unless they take steroids or are on an extreme bulking diet. If you're on a calorie deficit, you don't have to worry about bulking up. You might gain "some" definition, but the results will taper off very quickly unless you go on a bulking diet.

As a tad bit of extra information, for anybody that cares, there are 3 types of muscle fibers your body can build:

Type 1 - These are the thing strandy unimpressive looking muscle fibers that runners get. These aren't very strong or explosive and they are built for endurance. If you work out with very low weights and do tons of reps, these are the types of muscles your body will make.

Type 2a - These are the most impressive looking types of muscles. Thick strands and the strongest. They fatigue easily and are more explosive than Type 1. If you work out with heavy weights (ones that will make you reach failure within a 8-12 rep range), these are the muscles your body will focus on building. (These are the "attractive" looking muscles)

Type 2b - These are the most explosive muscles. They tire the quickest and can be made by working out with heavy weights doing "explosive" workouts. Super fast contraction. (plyometrics and isometrics). They are very similar in look to the Type 2a muscle fibers.

Genetically speaking, there are limits to the proportion of type 1 and 2 muscle fibers somebody can be composed of, which is why some people will always be better sprinters, while other will always be better long distance runners.

There is no such thing as "toning" your muscles and even though it is true that you'll get "less bulky" muscles by working out with lower weights and more reps, these are NOT the muscles you want. Even for women, these muscles look very unimpressive and DO NOT SHAPE you the way you want to be shaped. For aesthetics, Type 2a is the way to go, whether you're a guy or girl, because they will shape you to look better. Don't worry about getting bulky if you're on a calorie deficit (unless you're a genetic freak, take steroids, or are on a carb cycling diet) and especially do not worry if you're a woman. You do not have the testosterone and other growth hormones required for it.

On another side note, I think that lifting weights is a much better way of losing weight. You get the right shape and have a lower chance of looking "skinny fat". Cardio is important too, but I would never run for more than 20 min at a time (and even that would be HIIT), because I know that my body will have to burn off muscle for the extra needed energy shortly after that point. And I do not want that. It is hard enough keeping muscle while on a calorie deficit without doing something like jogging for an hour.

What do you think of HIIT? Is 20 minutes the norm? I typically do 10 on the elliptical and then lift for the rest of my workout time. I do this, again, on advice from "experts" but I get so overwhelmed with competing opinions I'm not sure what to believe. I understand that HIIT is as much about "toning" muscles as it is about cardio, is that right?

Yeah, it's basically a way to do cardio without telling your body that it should make Type 1 muscle fibers. If you just jog for a long time, you're telling your body "hey, I need muscles for endurance." And on top of that, a lengthy cardio workout is impossible to sustain on yor body's lefover energy from food and fat, which means that it will have to get that energy by breaking down muscle.

10-20 min is the norm. I started with 10 min 3 times a week and i'm up to 20 min now. I've just been stepping it up whenever I've hit a plateau.

I've also read studies that say HIIT burns more calories than regular running. Appearantly, after doing hit your body will burn calories even after you stop. I agree that doing HIIT on the elliptical is the easiest and best. Bike is good too.

WHAT IS HIIT?

High intensity interval training.
You basically alternate periods of very intense cardio with moderate cardio.

I do this on the elliptical, which has a program for it. 15 seconds of as hard as you can all out pushing yourself followed by 45 seconds of moderate intensity. I do it for 20-25 minutes. If you can do it longer than that, you need to push yourself harder during the high intensity intervals. You should be utterly exhausted after 20 min of this. It is very effective. Definitely recommend it.

I've always wondered why people from say Jamaica were good sprinters and people from Kenya were good long distance runners. I mean, apart from resources of coaching etc. and interest in the sport. Thanks, Kokusho. I guess I'll see which one I'm made of as I complete my training. For me it was easy to have a six pack and muscular legs just from bodyweight exercise. My upper body only got toned after rowing and other boating sports and doesn't build muscle as quickly without the weights.

To the original poster, I'm doing bodyweight exercises, Tabatas (4 minutes of: 20 sec high intensity/10 sec rest/recover), plyometrics (45 sec high, 15 recover), circuits (with weights) and some cardio (for less than an hour at a time) and heavier weight training too. I'm mixing it up as I want to get back into dancing and martial arts.

I want muscle endurance, but also strength, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility and body awareness. Oh yeah, and I want to lose weight, burn fat and build muscle.

So far, I've built only a small amount of muscle (approx 3 pounds), and have lost a lot of body fat. I'm seeing and feeling definition. However, genetics seem to have a lot to do wtih how things work out for each person (or maybe group of people) so do it and see how it goes. You can always stop building muscle later if you don't like the results.

I agree that the number on the scale is not all it's cracked up to be. So don't use that as the only measurement of results. Measurements of inches and shape are better in my opinion. When I was slim and toned I was much heavier scale wise, than my friends who were fat and out of shape. I say work out and get in shape as you lose weight. Do it!!! I dare ya!