How long does it take to tone up? Realistically!

[HighlandCow78]

AIBU to think that 4 (consistent) months of exercise, strengthening and eating well should be enough time?

I’m 5ft 6 and 68kg - Not massively overweight but I could do with losing about 5kg, that seems to be my ‘sweet spot’ weight wise. The real issue is that I really need to tone up - I’ve let myself go so my bum is basically non existent, same with my core and thighs. Too much wobble and little muscle! I’m very self conscious about this and want to feel good in bikinis, shorts etc again as we have a big family trip to Australia planned in February.

Planning to do 2 gym sessions (weights + resistance) and 2 reformer Pilates classes per week. I’m not massively into cardio, tried running and can’t manage it due to back problems so I’m hoping to up my steps via walking the dog and doing my commute to work by foot instead of driving. Trying to cut out processed foods + snacking and concentrate more on ‘real’ food, plus I’m going to up my protein intake which is probably lacking.

Is this enough or am I being delusional? Be honest!! 😬

I did just one month of the 90 day Joe Wicks program which is 5 x week HIIT and a higher protein, lower carb diet, and noticed a difference In my abs, bum and arms in just those weeks.

I do weigh less than you though (55kg) - diet is really key. Intermittent fasting and low carb work for me.

Tbh you could make inroads on toning in 4 months with just the following IMO, will take you just 10 mins at home but do it every day:

1. Planks / side planks - every day, hold for are long as you can, then increase how long you hold for

1. Squats - work up to doing 30 every day, then start adding weights which you hold while you do then.

1. Press ups - work up to 30, start with doing them on your knees if it's too hard...

Why not try that for a month? Watch YouTube videos to check your form.

There are also loads of simple kettle bell workouts online.

I used to swim for an hour 4 x week and looked very toned after one month. I should start swimming again...

@coxesorangepippin Because of the ambiguity of the term, people struggle to take action. You can see by the variety of responses that people suggest completely different things. Some people suggest weight loss, others suggest muscle gain.. In order to take action, you need to have clarity of your goals. It's either lose fat or build muscles or both.
Losing fat is achieved through diet. Building muscle is achieved through resistance training. Clarity of terms helps with action plan.
A lot of people lose fat and they are not happy because they don't look "toned". That's because their goal wasn't actually what they thought it was. Their goal was to build muscle while maintaining relatively lean physique. In fact, building muscle alone would probably get them where they wanted to go faster but they wouldn't know that because of setting an ambiguous goal of "toning up".
"Muscle tone" is a medical term which refers to resistance to passive stretch but fitness industry hijacked it because women felt uncomfortable with the term "building muscle". It doesn't mean what people think it means.

I have been doing Caroline Girvan ou tube programmes for just over a year combined with healthy low sugar whole foods diet. In first 6 months I noticed abs (largely from fat loss from diet), then biceps and more recently at around a year triceps and shoulder muscles. I am only just starting to see definition in my legs although they now feel solid. Glutes still feel quite wobbly, I suspect my 30kg weights at home are insufficient to grow them much.

If you can't tone fat (which I understand)

Then what do you do if you've lost the weight but still have significant wobbly bits?

Asking for a friend who's 5 stone down and jiggles like jelly... 😂

I think it depends on your build. I am very overweight (not just because I lift weights, sadly, I'm fat) but I build muscle very quickly. I'd say three months of that level of exercise would be enough to make a difference to my frame. I more wonder whether that amount of exercise sessions is realistically manageable in your week (I do 2 x gym and 1 x floor Pilates and it is just not possible for me to get any more in). But it's worth a go if you think it is!

What you eat is key but if you want to tone up I highly recommend Sydney Cummings. Free on YouTube and brilliant for toning, she does programs that you can follow that last 3 months. I am currently doing Summertime Fine 2024 and it’s great. Get yourself some weights and go for it.
Also walking. If you can afford it get a walking pad and rather than sitting down to watch TV, walk whilst you watch. It’s an easy way to get to 15-20k steps. You will definitely see a difference in 4 months.

During a recent visit to my GP, he explained that when it comes to cardio and strength training 1 + 1 = 3!

Good luck OP! 🙌

You need to build muscle with heavy resistance training.
You may still have some skin laxity which isn't anything you can do about but, overall you should still feel much better with extra muscle mass (and not just for aesthetic reasons)

4 months, if you genuinely stick to the diet and workout plans, and keep it appropriately challenging, is absolutely enough time to make a difference

You mentioned a PT previously - if you can afford this yes you should absolutely go for it

I just finished a round of the shred. I'm already at a healthy weight so was going more for the visible gains. I was thinking I had little, to no improvement, but then I tried on a sweater I'd accidentally shrunk and it was loose.

No abs yet sadly, so I think tightening up the diet is going to be the next step.

A year of consistent 2-3 times per week weight training for me and I’m starting to see quite a difference. I was already a runnner. I don’t lift as heavy as I could as I don’t recover for runs lifting heavy. I’m 45 yo though. It you’re younger and lift heavier you will likely see a difference quicker. I am 5’9” and weigh 68kg. No change in body weight over the year but lost quite a lot of fat and look more “toned”. Increased protein in my diet considerably. Good luck!

Building muscle and losing fat are separate things. Fat and muscle are different types of tissue. Weight Is either fat or muscle.

You can recomposition where you turn fat into muscle if you eat in a calorie maintenance or slight deficit. The end result depends on what you started with.

Do you have scales that measure body fat? They give you a guide to know roughly alongside taking photos.

It's a slow process . I did this last year.

March - April - started from nothing, swimming, body pump classes then 6 weeks twice a week in the gym just a few machines
May - PT created a programme and lifted 3 times a week. Was doing quite heavy from the start
Through to end of August - ate in Calorie surplus and lifted heavy. Walking and a bit of running.
Sept - Oct - calorie deficit. Hated this part!

End result went from 27% Body fat to 22% body fat. Starting weight was 9st 4 and end weight was 9st 7. Much more toned.

Anything below 25% body fat usually looks fit/athletic/slim. I prefer being around 26/27% but cellulite loves me. The tipping point is to build enough muscle as muscle is metabolically more active and needs more calories, and just generally a better tissue for hormone synthesis etc., so that you can eat enough calories to get enough nutrition that you need and not gain weight.

My ideal is around 2000 cals but I have to walk at least 7.5k steps a day to maintain it, plus lifting/cardio for maintaining the muscle. Walking is by far most effective form of fat loss if you do enough, burns more than exercise, as long as you don't eat the calories back.

Also to stop caring what the weight says on scales - composition is more important, weight is just data.

And eat more protein from food sources as it uses more energy to break down and keeps you fuller. If you have specific results to achieve in a time frame then tracking everything you eat is ideal.

This is inspirational as a 55 year old coming out of 4 years immobility post covid march 20, still pretty incapacitated and unsure where to start.

I think the other thing this thread has illustrated is that genetics plays a huge part in all of this. Plus age and hormones. I know lean people who do far less than me and chunky people who do far more. You can't pick a random woman and say "I want to look like her and if I folllow her exact program then I will."

So you did that on such little calories? I’ve done the fast 800 to lose a lot of weight. Got a bit more to go but wanting to start working out. Never stepped foot in a gym though, so just yesterday booked a personal trainer. Really hoping I tone up also.

Absolutely get a PT, but look around and do your research. It costs peanuts and takes a matter of weeks to get a basic PT qualification. I am very sceptical of the majority of the fitness industry.

Like the PT up thread who has obviously never done reformer pilates if she thinks that you'll grow out of it from a strength pov. I do agree that it won't be the exercise to noticeably build the size of the your glutes. But you mention back issues and having a strong core is so important for protecting your back. I think you'd really benefit.

As an aside, I have visible abs (not a six pack, but you can see definition) simply from a lifetime of horse riding and pilates/yoga (I flip flop between the two) although I used to swim a lot too. Genetically, my family stores fat on our thighs rather than stomach which helps. But it does show that consistency and using your muscles properly is very effective for toning. (Not building)

I work out with a PT and you definitely progress much faster. They have a much better idea of how heavy you can go and I am definitely happier to take risks when there's someone spotting me who can catch the bar if I drop it.

Hi, stay at home gardener.
im sorry that you’ve suffered so much from covid, but hopefully are starting to see the wood from the trees.
The fact you are even thinking about exercise is such a good start because it’s coming from you, and that’s your motivation.
I feel loathe to advise anyone, let alone someone recovering from.four years of illness.
I know I was completely inactive for three and a half, but that was coz of mental issues, you were physically impaired.
if you don’t know where to start (as I didn’t), just go for one thing at a time, build that up til you feel confident, then take a second exercise, (if you want to) and slowly add that to the first exercise you got confident in.
Another thing that very much helped me was to write in a notepad (or back of an envelope!) the number of (for instance) squats I had achieved in that days session.
even if it was only ten… then seeing it written down for say a week to ten days, and then being able to record that I’d upped it to fifteen, was so gratifying for me, as I could see evidence that I was increasing the amount of reps, and once I’d achieved my target amount of reps per day, even if it took a month or two. It made me feel excited to see it written down, encouraging me to keep it up.
IF on one day you do less, still record it, as then you can see when it goes back up again, and you can feel pride in your achievement.
it doesn’t matter if someone else (a friend or a you tuber) did more, or they did it quicker…. you stick to what you feel comfortable with.
i don’t tell hardly anyone about my routine… I fear (maybe irrationally) that I’m going to be criticised or judged… I’m a pretty private person, and I exercise for my own satisfaction and health.
I feel it’s so important that you only do what YOU feel comfortable with.
I think that once you’ve achieved one exercise, that will motivate and excite you enough to increase and try to add different strength building moves.
The rebounder I bought was excellent too.
I used to enjoy jogging/running, but I found that to be too jarring on my back, so the gentle nature of rebounding suited me better.
it’s portable, do you can use it indoors or out. …. Again start off small, you arnt aiming to bounce like a kid on a trampoline, you only need to keep your toes on the surface and lift your heels of your feet up and down.
start with one minute, and build.that up (gradually) to twenty mins.. I do it to the radio as for me the music is enjoyable.
I then graduated to forty mins, as I was informed that although the twenty minutes was beneficial, the extra minutes you do, means your body continues to “burn up” after you’ve come off the rebounder… so in effect my extra twenty minutes rebounding was an extra forty, if you see what I mean.
Sorry this has turned out a long post, but I could “feel” your struggle, and wanted to respond to your kind post.
Best wishes to you, hope you continue to feel better.

I do Kung fu twice a week. It's fun, and the combination of warm up and class is a great strength and cardio combo.

Depends on what the jiggly stuff is.

If it's loose skin from losing a lot of weight after being obese, nothing but surgery will get rid of it.
Depending on how much she lost, building muscle mass might help to fill it in a bit and possibly improve the appearance to some degree, but if she was extremely obese for a long time I'm afraid it's quite hopeless. The skin will continue to sag and jiggle around.

If it's just a bit of extra fat in certain areas, only losing more fat will shift it.
If she is at a healthy weight now, it's not worth being underweight for. Where we store fat has a genetic component. Some people can get down to a healthy weight and still carry more fat in certain areas while being perhaps thinner than they like in other areas. For example, an apple shaped person who has stick like legs but a round belly.