Hi Scott,

 

I wanted a suggestion from you. I am 30 years old, height 167 cms and weighing 84 Kgs. I want to reduce fat with a toned body. I am not interested in gaining more muscles. I want to be as lean with cuts around the main body parts. I am working on my diet and have been training also. But I think I am not doing it properly. My gym trainer is also not always available. My questions from you is to just verify his sayings:

 

1) One body part workout once a week. Example, Chest on Mondays.

2) Reps of 10-12 with 4 sets. Though I don't know about weight. Should it be decreasing with the consecutive sets or should it be increasing? Please reply.

3) Only 3 days of Abs workout. (P.S. I have got 36 inch waist line.) Should I be working all of the abs workout on the same day or should I alternate them? Example, Upper abs on first day of abs and then lower on 2nd day of abs. This way, Upper abs also becomes weekly. Please reply.

4) He suggested me brisk walking in place of jogging/running.

 

Please help.

 

Thanks for your time.

 

Hey man, thought I would give you my input.

 

1. You don't necessarily have to stick to training each body part once a week. It all depends on how your body best responds to training. Some people have good recovery ability, and can train their muscles twice or even three times a week. So you may need to try some different methods to see what works best for you to build muscle. You could get yourself a Muscle Genes kit where they will study your DNA and give you guidelines on the best way to go about training for your goals: https://musclegenes.com/buy/

 

2. Generally for muscle gain, you want to stick to reps of between 8-12. Sets of 4 for each exercise can be the best way to go about it, but really your main focus should be on total sets in your entire workout. Volume builds muscle, so you should aim for between 15-20 reps for small muscle groups and 20-30 sets for bigger muscles. It doesn't matter how those sets are split up, just so long as you get them done.

 

You want to try and increase the weight if possible. This is called progressive overload and is what helps your muscles to grow.

 

3. Your waistline will get smaller as you lose body fat. Doing ab exercises won't alone trim your waistline. 3-4 days is a good target for ab work. Splitting them up as you have suggested is a good way to go about it. If you were to do 4 days, you could go upper/lower abs on the first day, then obliques on the second and repeat that on two other days during the week.

 

4. Walking might be a good place to start, but as you get fitter you should aim to get into jogging, running and then High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). HIIT means you do 1 minute of intense work, then 1 minute of active rest. It doesn't have to be done for long but it will burn a lot of fat in a short amount of time. But you should work up to that. You could even start with power walking fro a minute, then walking briskly or completely resting for a minute.

 

Your diet is going to be really important for losing fat. What are your current macros?

 

Hope this helps! #HTH

 

Jordan

 

 

Hey Jordan. Thanks man for the inputs.

 

#2: I didn't understand this point. My primary concern is to tone up the body parts and not to gain muscles like hulk.

 

#3: You said that ab exercise won't alone trim the waistline. Then what else needs to be done? Right now, the biggest flaw in my body seems the spherical tummy. I also have fat thighs and hips. Overall, sadly, I look very fat.

 

#4: I was doing jogging for 15 mins. but then started to brisk walking becuase I was directed that jogging/running looses muscles also. Whereas brisk walking helps us loose fat.

 

I am new in body building field and am not so much acquainted with the terminologies. what is a macro? I think it is a measurement of protein/carb/etc. Honestly, I don't know how to calculate this. but i have given a gist of my fooding habits.

 

As for the diet which I consume largely depends on Indian food from where I belong. They are:

 

Breakfast: Without oil/butter breads stuffed with cauliflower or cheese or onions and sometimes without stuffing. Ommelettes. One cup of tea with minimal sugar but has milk.

 

Snack: Whole grain sandwitches/sub with only veggies inside. juice sometimes.

 

Lunch: Since I have them mostly in office, if cafe is having a) veggies that very day then: bread, veggies, pulses.

 

Snak: High fibre Nutrichoice biscuits/wholegrain subs or sandwitches/ or any other food but not junk food. One cup of tea same as in morning.

 

Dinner: Bread with vegetable.

 

P.S. Bread as in chapati (known as roti/chapati in India)

 

Was I descriptive?

Well in terms of point #2, it takes a lot of hard work to build muscles, let alone muscles like the hulk! :)

 

What I meant was that building muscle requires higher sets and reps. Even for toning up, you need to work with higher reps and sets. The more you work your muscles, the more visible and prominent they will be once you lose body fat. To have muscle tone, losing body fat is going to be your main focus. Without the body fat, your muscles will stand out, and with a bit of size they will stand out even more.

 

As for your waistline, that also comes down to body fat. Genetics will play a part too. Some people just have naturally bigger hips than others, but once you start losing body fat you will notice that your waistline will begin to shrink.

 

HIIT cardio is a form of cardio which actually promotes muscle retention. It normally dips into your fat stores first for energy. When you do long bouts of cardio, that can eat away at muscle. Your diet is also important as to what sort of weight loss you will see with cardio.

 

Yes, you are right, macros are your protein, carbs and fat. That is a great description. Your meal plan looks OK, but if you can figure out how much protein, carbs and fat they give you it will give a better view of just how good it is.

 

Watch this video to get a better understanding of how to sort out your macros:

Jordan

Thank you so much Jordan. So by now you have got a fair idea of my problems, can you please refer any exercise plan for me. Or may be share any video link? the primary concern being tummy.

 

Thanks much Jordan. It was really helpful talking you.

Hi Scott,

 

I wanted a suggestion from you. I am 30 years old, height 167 cms and weighing 84 Kgs. I want to reduce fat with a toned body. I am not interested in gaining more muscles. I want to be as lean with cuts around the main body parts. I am working on my diet and have been training also. But I think I am not doing it properly. My gym trainer is also not always available. My questions from you is to just verify his sayings:

 

1) One body part workout once a week. Example, Chest on Mondays.

2) Reps of 10-12 with 4 sets. Though I don't know about weight. Should it be decreasing with the consecutive sets or should it be increasing? Please reply.

3) Only 3 days of Abs workout. (P.S. I have got 36 inch waist line.) Should I be working all of the abs workout on the same day or should I alternate them? Example, Upper abs on first day of abs and then lower on 2nd day of abs. This way, Upper abs also becomes weekly. Please reply.

4) He suggested me brisk walking in place of jogging/running.

 

Please help.

 

Thanks for your time.