How to tone?

silverberg

Hi, I'm a 20 year old female. Never had any weight problems until now, i'm 5'2 about aproximatly 9stone 3. My BMI is 23.63 which is healthy but I need to tone. I haven't exercised in a long time and plan on using the college gym., and also dieting. Can anyone tell me what I could do to get rid of fat around the ribs, a pot belly and to make my thighs smaller? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm going travelling in June and I would really love to feel confident in my body.

squod

Do you play any sports? Tag, racket ball or basketball for example.

The_Kew_Tour

Ok first off you need to look at your diet and what you eat. Start eating more vegtables also have your 3 meals a day and dont avoid breakfast but stay away from cereal that high in sugar etc and go for Porridge.

Also eat more fruit, apples, oranges, grapes I know they sound obvious but with a bit of disclipine you be surprised how you look in a month or so with few simple changes.

As for stomach the way get rid of belly is by eating healthy. Excerises on stomach help but only if your eating right I say 80% eating healthy and 20% excersie on stomach.

As for gym it should have cross trainer and it works much of body and good for the core area like you hips etc. Also the bike is helpful but make sure when you go to gym your putting in a sweat. When you do start off go easy for first few days to get yourself into routine and you can work up from there.

You said you were going on diet. Whatever you do make sure you dont start starving yourself this might help in short run but within few weeks you go back to old habbits. Eat you 3 meals and have snack in between the thing is to make sure what you eat is the right food and with excerise within 4-5 weeks you will really notice the difference.

miss5

Take advantage of your college gym, fill up on foods like
fruit, veg,chicken,fish drink 2l of water a day.
take a class or find a sport you enjoy.

rccaulfield

cycling/running-dont starve yourself and do some high rep weights in good form.

Gaz

adrian280582 wrote: »

Excerises on stomach help but only if your eating right I say 80% eating healthy and 20% excersie on stomach.

Sorry but this is not great advice .... agreed diet is very important but instead of doing endless crunches get yourself a good full body weights program, do this 3-4 times a week and finish it with cardio, HIIT is great for stipping the fat.

corkcomp

Gaz wrote: »

Sorry but this is not great advice .... agreed diet is very important but instead of doing endless crunches get yourself a good full body weights program, do this 3-4 times a week and finish it with cardio, HIIT is great for stipping the fat.

the advice given by adrian280582 was sound overall (if a little vague) - nothing to be gained by quoting a couple of lines of the overall post out of context. and if you are doing a full body workout with correct form, it wont be possible to do it four times a week, trust me!

to the op, if you could post a full days diet it would help .. on the exercise front, do something every day even if its only a brisk walk. aim for hard cardio at least four times a week and a tough weights workout twice a week.

Transform

Gaz wrote: »

Sorry but this is not great advice .... agreed diet is very important but instead of doing endless crunches get yourself a good full body weights program, do this 3-4 times a week and finish it with cardio, HIIT is great for stipping the fat.

agreed and doing cardio only is possibly the slowest way to looking your best.

Hit the weights or forget about it

silverberg

Thank you so much for the advice it's hard to know where to start when you're a complete fitness phobe!

My typical days food intake would be,

While at college
Breakfast: Two slices of toast or an apple and Granola bar and Tea.

Lunch: Is always on the go, usually chicken, cheese and sweetcorn and lettuce roll, or Panini

Dinner: Pizza or a pasta dish or sometimes nothing

My vice is Fizzy drinks.

writing it down really makes me realise how much carbs I eat!

At the weekend I would eat considerably better at home as my mam makes great healthy meals. Always has fruit and veg in the house but also always has the bad stuff!! I know my portion sizes are too big and I will have to work on this.

I don't play any sport but have done in the past, I think I'll look into joining ultimate frisbee :cool:

corkcomp

I have no doubt some posters will tear that diet apart, so i wont bother! the only thing i would say is to TOTALLY cut out all fizzy drinks, apart from ocasional diet drinks. think meat / fish and lots of veg for finner along with small ammounts of sweet potato or whole grains, think porridge and fruit for breakfast.

Bugnug

corkcomp wrote: »

I have no doubt some posters will tear that diet apart, so i wont bother! the only thing i would say is to TOTALLY cut out all fizzy drinks, apart from ocasional diet drinks. think meat / fish and lots of veg for finner along with small ammounts of sweet potato or whole grains, think porridge and fruit for breakfast.

Good advice. The one thing I have found over the years that is important to remember is variety. I run a few times during the week and every now and then I will through in a circuit class or pilates class down at the gym and for toning and challenging muscles its great. Not a big fan of weights and unless you are doing high reps with great intensity they wont do much for you. So just mix it up and its keeps things from getting boring. Good luck.

metamorphosis

You know that diet is ****.

Create the change you want to be - sort the diet. Move more.

Assets Model

You'll notice a big difference in your pot belly if you give up fizzy drinks. It is hard I was completely addicted to diet coke but it's so bloating.

mloc

silverberg wrote: »

I need to tone.

Just to follow on from what other posters have said, be careful with the word "tone". In general when people say they want to tone, they mean they want lower body fat and more muscularity.

A good diet and a solid weights program together with a sensible amount of good, intense cardio will deliver results. Without sorting the diet and sticking to cardio alone, success is unlikely.