Need some advice on getting more toned

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lostfan22

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Hey everyone. I have been lurking around the community for a few days and have finally decided to post to get some advice. Keep in mind that im 6'1.

Basically, when I was in high school, I began to gain a lot of weight, and ended up weighing almost 220 as a freshman in college. Over the last 3 years I have started eating less and trying to eat better food at least, and I am now currently 170. I do not really exercise much besides brisk walking a few times a week for 20-30 minutes.

I feel great now, but I want to build some muscle in my upper body, as it is now pretty skinny compared to my legs and thigh. When I first started gaining, it all started in my lower half, so Im assuming that this is also the last place it is going to leave.

I would first like some advice on how I can get rid of some of the fat on my legs and thighs without losing too much more weight overall, as im currently at a healthy weight according to my BMI.

I would also then like to get some advice as far as bulking up my chest, arms and shoulders without getting my legs and calves to be much bigger. Is it possible for me to bulk up and lose the weight on my legs without radically changing my diet?

Thanks in advance.
 
lostfan22 said:
When I first started gaining, it all started in my lower half, so Im assuming that this is also the last place it is going to leave.
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While its more likely that you'll lose the fat last at the places where you first started gaining it, it doesn't have to be the case.

lostfan22 said:
I would first like some advice on how I can get rid of some of the fat on my legs and thighs without losing too much more weight overall, as im currently at a healthy weight according to my BMI.
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If you want to lose fat, and not change your weight, means you have to put on some muscle. You sure can do this, but there's no way to predict if your fat will come off your legs and thighs, or from somewhere else (I'm sure you've read before at least 100 times that you can't spot-reduce fat). So, there's no advice anyone can give you there --- you have to work towards losing the fat, and you may have to lose it from all through out your body before its starts disappearing from your legs. Oh, and BMI alone is not a very accurate way to see if your weight is healthy or not. Healthy weight depends on a lot more things than your weight and height alone.

lostfan22 said:
I would also then like to get some advice as far as bulking up my chest, arms and shoulders without getting my legs and calves to be much bigger. Is it possible for me to bulk up and lose the weight on my legs without radically changing my diet?
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Of course you can bulk up your chest, arms and shoulders without bulking up your legs --- just do strength training on your upper body and ignore your legs and this will happen. This doesn't mean however its the right approach towards achieving your goal. You can't ignore any part of the body. Maybe if you don't want to grow your legs any further, workout enough to maintain them, but you sure don't want to start losing leg muscle, as it will slow down the fat burn as well.

As far as your diet goes, we don't even know what your diet is, so no clue if you will need to change it radically or not. Chances are, if you do more weight training in future, you'll need more protein, but none of this is applicable until you post your diet.

Anyway, it all boils down to, whatever you do, you can't target the fat on your legs. It will come off with continuous (hard) work and whenever your body decides it should. Period.

Cheers!
 
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I would highly recommend you do weight training with some cardio as well. Build muscle with weight training while burning fat through cardio exercise. As soon as you start to do weight training, I suggest you increase your protein intake, as your muscles will be hungry for it. A simple way to lose fat and build muscle is to do what I like to call the zig zag approach to muscle building and fat loss. Basically, on your exercise days, take in an extra 2 calories for each pound of LEAN body mass. So for example, if you weigh 170 pounds with 15% body fat your lean body mass is around 145, So for your exercise days, increase your caloric intake by 2 X 145 = 290.

Now this is important, on non-exercise days, you decrease your caloric intake by 2 calories for every pound of body mass. By doing this you are restricting the calories your body needs, thus causing it to burn fat for maintenance and energy. Hope this helps!
 
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