For most people that are looking to lose a little weight, they want to slim down and get into shape. However, they don’t want to build too much muscle mass, which can be a difficult balance to strike. Exercise is key to losing weight, but if you are doing the wrong type of exercises, you will replace the fat with muscle. Here are some of the ways you can swap those muscle building exercises for something that will tone instead.
Your Diet
To create a toned body, your muscles need to be visible, which mean you need to lose the fat that covers them. To achieve this, you need to think about what you’re eating and how often you eat. The best thing to do is to stick to a low fat, high protein diet that will give you the energy you need to exercise effectively. For protein, you need to be eating fish, chicken and nuts, you can eat other meats as long as they are lean and unprocessed. You also need to choose your carbohydrates wisely, but don’t choose the simple carbohydrates such as flour and sugar, instead go for whole grains.
Weight Training
As soon as you have started to slim, you can concentrate on doing some weight exercises. It might sound like an odd thing to do if you aren’t looking to build muscle, but you need to start your muscles burning your fat. The best way to achieve this is to start using free weights and dumbbells to do many reps over an extended period. That will encourage your muscles to burn fat without bulking up your muscles.
Adding Intensity
Once you have started to get used to the weight-bearing exercise, you can start to increase your repetitions a little more. If you are currently doing 20 repetitions, then start to increase it to 25 and then 30. The additional effort will help your body to work harder, and that will encourage more toning of the muscles. You can also think about doing other types of exercises such as a treadmill or rowing machine such as those on Work Out Box. For women, there is not such as worry about bulking up, as their testosterone levels are so low compared to men. Because of this, it is hard to bulk up, so there is no need to worry.
Yoga or Pilates
If you are looking to do other things to tone up apart from just weights, then you can also consider things such as yoga or Pilates. They are both good at getting your heart rate up and getting your muscles working, but it won’t lead to bulking up the muscles. These exercises are also a good way to strengthen your core muscles which are essential for toning your back and front.
After a while of doing these types of exercise and looking after your diet, you should start to see some amazing results that will help you look toned without being muscular.