Muscle

R

Radieuse

New member
Hi all,

This is my first post on here, not sure if this is the right section, but here goes anyway.

I'm a 20 year old female looking to lose about 30-40 lbs (I'm 5'8 and 180lbs right now). I think I have a pretty good idea on how to do that, but my main question is about muscle.

Can you tone muscle while you lose weight? Because I've heard you can't because weight loss is catabolic while muscle gain is anabolic. I want to tone my arms and lift and add to my butt. Help?
 
Radieuse said:
Hi all,

This is my first post on here, not sure if this is the right section, but here goes anyway.

I'm a 20 year old female looking to lose about 30-40 lbs (I'm 5'8 and 180lbs right now). I think I have a pretty good idea on how to do that, but my main question is about muscle.

Can you tone muscle while you lose weight? Because I've heard you can't because weight loss is catabolic while muscle gain is anabolic. I want to tone my arms and lift and add to my butt. Help?
Click to expand...

While you won't increase muscle mass while shedding fat, you can maintain what you currently have. It's a matter of ensuring the macronutrients in your diet are at appropriate ratios. What I would suggest is once you determine the number of calories you will need to consume, design your diet with a ratio of 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat, all of good, clean quality of course.

The appearance of your muscles will improve if you can maintain muscle mass while shedding fat since the leaner you become the more 'toned' you look. So while, the size doesn't increase, the appearance is more 'ripped'.

I hope that makes sense. It's always a little difficult to explain things like this on a forum.
 
Sesha you are right but wat you forgot to say is when lifting or working the muscle work it from the inside try keeping your reps high like 15,20 or even 30 with warmup sets
 
First of all ... remove the word "tone" from your vocabulary. :) Tone is a myth that bad trainers and bad advertising have promoted to quell fears of women who think they'll get "all bulky" if they lift weights. There's no such thing as "tone" in the sense that you're talking about.

What you're talking about is building strength and muscles, so you get that shapely, fit, defined look, right? And the only way you do that is by building muscle. Period. The *real* toning, in the medical sense, has to do with the contraction of the muscle and has NOTHING to do with becoming fit and healthy looking.

Yes, this is one of my pet peeves. :)

Ok, now having moved past that, here's the thing: For someone who is already at a healthy weight, building muscle and losing fat are somewhat contradictory. You are correct in what you said in your first post.

However, it is possible, when you are already overweight to both build muscle while burning fat. That is, it's possible as long as you're not burning fat by eating TOO FEW calories. A lot of people try to ramp up their weight loss by dropping their calories as low as possible to lose the most weight in the shortest amount of time. They don't realize that they are losing lean muscle as well as fat by doing so.

If you eat more calories, add more protein to your diet, and do some serious strength training combined with high intensity intervals, it is possible to build muscle while burning fat. You don't do either as fast as if you focused on one or the other, but I truly believe that the healthier way to work is to reach a middle ground.

I know because I've done it.

And the nice thing is that if you do it in this balanced way, as the fat starts to go away, the muscles that you're developing begin to show more, so you get more of that fit, healthy look that most people refer to as "toned".

:)
 
isn't muscle heavier than fat?
Click to expand...
Kiiiinda ... :D

That's kinda the whole is pound of lead heavier than a pound of feathers riddle. No. A pound is a pound is a pound. Muscle is, however, DENSER than fat, which means pound for pound, muscle takes up less space than fat.

So a pound of muscle might be |... this big ...|

And a pound of fat might be |.................. this big ................|

I seem to recall reading somewhere that there's a 5 to 1 difference, but that *might* not be correct. I'm too lazy right now to Google it. ;)
 
haha fair enough. the same goes for bone doesn't it? bone density's a good thing (especially for women), and this weighs more as well right?
 
A few ways to reduce your muscle stress after dancing is to properly warm up. If your teacher doesn't warm you up (they should!) then do a thorough warm up yourself. Starting with a jog type pattern and then moving to stretches. Generally you start from the head down.

Also, make sure your hydrated for the entire time. After you exercise your body uses up your fluids, and you need to replace these at some point, preferably quickly. Have you ever had any head aches after dancing?

Also make sure you breathe. You might have noticed when you've been jogging for a bit that you might get a cramp or a stitch in your side. It's because your not properly breathing or out of breath, the lactic acid in your body sets in. If you ever feel exhausted or puffed during dancing just take a breather.


Most importantly is probably a cool down. You have to work the muscles you used while dancing but in a much slower, relaxed way. I generally slow down the dance I've doing. You also have to stretch. If its particularly in your leg, do your standard reach for your toe stretches.

Afterwards you might want to try having a bath. If you wake up with pains try and stretch them.
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