Toning advice?

E

ephexx

0
Well, first a little about myself.. I am a male, 17 years old, 5'9, weigh about 155 lb. I currently workout when I can, usually every other day, one day doing chest / upper body, the other day doing legs.. I stopped playing sports a couple years ago, and don't have the definition I'd like to have. I am not fat, but I need to just tone up and lose a little body fat around the mid-section. The thing is, I am not sure how to do that.. I'm assuming cardio workouts will certainly be necessary, but I know muscle burns fat quicker and raises your metabolism. A couple months ago, I was doing cardio everyday for a bout a week straight, and by the end of one month I saw results that I was loving.. But I got burnt out, and stopped doing that.. During that month I didn't really do any upper-body or lower-body workouts, just cardio (running, eliptical, abs). If I started running now, after having gone about almost a month of working out upper body and lower body, putting on more muscle, would I see results faster? I ask that because I know muscle burns calories faster, and put cardio on top of that.. Would that bring results faster?

For what it's worth, I am currently taking Creatine and Whey Protein powder regularly.

Thanks.
 
muscle doesn't burn fat. muscle just requires energy.

and weight training definitely doesn't burn fat because you need oxygen to convert fat to energy and weight training is largely anaerobic (cardio is mainly aerobic, but you can push yourself into anaerobic states, especially with HIIT).

but i digress...

you do need/want cardio for lowering bodyfat, so that you look more "toned" and defined.

but if you lack good muscle size, "toned" quickly just becomes "scrawny".

I would encourage you to lift heavy, for lower reps (5-8 reps per set) when trying to get lean. You won't really gain much muscle mass/size, but it does give your body a reason to hold on to muscle mass while you're doing all that cardio to burn fat. those who do a lot of marathons don't want lots of muscle so they will either not lift, or they'll do lots of really light reps for endurance and joint strength, while avoiding triggering muscle tears and thus muscle growth during repair.

Also, watch your diet. eating crappy food can ruin the toned look due to water retention from a lot of sodium.
 
Well, my logic behind 'muscle burning fat' was having muscle burns more calories than you would if you didnt have muscle, or had fat instead.

As I train to tone, will I see myself getting stronger? I don't want to be big and bulky, I'd just like to look lean, I know looking 'cut' takes a LOT of conditioning and time, mostly. I would mostly like to be strong for my weight and look lean.

Also, what kind of cardio routine should I be looking at?
 
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