I have noticed that Jynus tends to make rather sweeping statements ... and that can confuse a lot of people.
I agree with what he says, but that's because I know where he's coming from and I can interpret past the sweeping generalization. So let me see if I can elaborate on what he says.
Here's the deal:
I have lost 9lbs in the last 2.5 weeks thanks to cutting out rubbish and eating fresh and healthy food, and yes this is a drop from my usual calorie intake.
That's GOOD. Most people eat too many calories. In fact, if you are overweight, you're eating too many calories. Ultimately the only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than you burn. Bottom line.
Where Jynus' comment comes in is that a lot of people who start a diet, do so by DRASTICALLY cutting their calories and going on a "low calorie diet". They read somewhere that 1500 or 1200 calories is a good "diet" number and so they cut back on their intake drastically. They also don't consider WHAT they're eating, instead just dropping back to that calorie number.
So from that perspective, Jynus is right. Ditch the "low calorie diet". However, he fails to elaborate on the RIGHT way to reduce calories and lose weight.
Which is where your confusion and frustration come in.
Your confusion and frustration also probably come in because your first post is kind of contradictory. You say you want to "tone" (and we'll talk about that myth in a minute) and that you're doing it with a low calorie diet. Those two things are contradictory.
First of all you don't "tone" muscle. Either you are building and strengthening your muscles or you're not. Period. "Tone" is a myth created by trainers who are trying to reassure clients that they won't look like Arnold on steroids if they lift weights. Most of the time in order to build muscle, you cannot be in a calorie deficit. Think about it logicially .. how you can you BUILD something when you're not eating enough to support your current weight? Doesn't make sense, right?
Now, there's kind of a trick answer there ... because if you are already overweight, you can still build muscle while losing weight. The thing is though, that you can't eat too few calories and you must eat enough protein to support muscle growth. So if you are overweight, and you change your diet to eat fewer calories (but not a super low calorie diet) AND you eat enough protein, you can build muscle while losing weight. People do it all the time. But you can't do it while on a "low calorie diet" using the typical definition of that, because you won't be eating enough to support the muscle mass you have.
Make sense so far?
Ok, so now ... I'm interpreting your post to read that you want to have a more defined stomach and chest, right? But you can't just isolate parts of your body and build them and neglect the rest. You need to work on your WHOLE body - both with diet and exercise. Complex exercises will help you build muscle evenly and will give you the definition you want (when combined with a healthy diet high in protein and veggies and complex carbs) and it will give it to you in a way that won't make you look or feel unbalanced (i.e. all shoulders and arms on top of stick skinny legs).
Does that help clarify things any?
