Full body muscle toning will get your body in its best shape ever! You don’t have to bulk up. Just shape and tone muscle on your body using full body strength training.
Keep body fat off your body by building and maintaining your muscles. Your muscles will shrink (atrophy) if you don’t continue to do strength training (muscle does not ever change into fat). And, the body fat will come back with a vengeance. Fat cells will shrink but they will fill up again when you are inactive for a long period of time.
If you are not exercising, you could be hit with a double dose of likely bad news. First, you will probably gain weight and fat. Also, your metabolism begins to slow down in your thirties. Your metabolism will slow down even more because you are also losing muscle mass. Muscle mass speeds up your metabolism because your body has to work harder to maintain it.
In your early thirties, you can begin to lose as much as one-half pound of muscle each year. Inactivity will make this problem even worse.
Muscle mass can be maintained/increased (and body fat decreased) throughout your life with regular weight training (includes bodyweight exercises). Weight training also helps to keep your bones strong (preventing osteoporosis).
Eat enough to build muscle and burn fat. You do this by following your healthy, managed meal plan based on your basal metabolic rate and level of daily activity.
What about your body weight? What role does it play when you’re trying to shape and tone your body? Your weight and body fat are both important. But, too many people put too much emphasis on “pounds on the weigh scale.” Many become “weigh scale junkies” which is a person who is so worried about losing weight that she loses sight of the fact that fat loss and inches loss are much more important. So, she is apt to try every new quick weight loss diet.
Permanent fat loss takes longer and you have to really work hard and smart to shape and tone your body. Pills, powders and patches won’t get the job done when it comes to permanent fat loss/weight loss.
Credible personal trainers want health, injury prevention and permanent fat loss/weight loss for you. Doctors, health professionals and personal trainers agree that the only safe and surefire way to good health and fitness is through good nutrition and regular exercise.
Burn fat, build muscle and shape and tone the body you want!
Download your Free Curves, Abs and Upper Body Fat Burn Manual and start shaping your body faster!
Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Her Fitness Hut
Remember, any routine that results in muscle and/or water loss is not leading you towards the ultimate goal, which is to strip ugly, unwanted body fat. This includes programs that focus on calorie restriction, as when withholding calories from the body for as little as several hours, you naturally revert to “starvation mode”, which reduces the rate at which you burn fat. You’ll not only suffer from very low energy levels on such diet plans, but your body fat percentage will actually increase when you return to a reasonable food intake (sound familiar?)! Your weight will drop, but muscle and water will comprise a portion of the weight loss, and reverting to “normal” quantities of food yields rapid body fat increase, thus beginning the infamous “yo-yo syndrome”. Don’t ever forget this!