How to Lose Fat, Get Stronger, and Be More Toned

The burning questions that many of my clients want to know:

How to lose fat?

Unfortunately, there is no magic pill (at least no healthy one) that will make you lose weight and get in better shape. The short and unfortunately obvious answer is:

Eat smaller portions - the size of your fist five times a day. Do not skip meals! Starvation will throw your metabolism into lockdown.

And... burn more calories.

At the end of the day (and your workout), what determines your calorie loss is how hard you’ve pushed yourself, and for how long.

How to get stronger?

The solution is again straightforward:

Lift heavier weights.

More precisely, favor heavier weights with fewer repetitions per set. And rest longer between sets. The repetition range should be roughly 3 to 6.

How to grow your muscles?

If you want to focus on growing a particular muscle (or muscle group) – for instance, your quadriceps (upper leg muscles) - the key is to shoot for a lot of sets on that muscle group, with minimal rest between sets. Shoot for 12 repetitions divided into 4 sets each of 3 different exercises. (This type of muscle development, incidentally, is called hypertrophy.)

How to get toned?

Refer back to how to lose fat. Most of us already have a six-pack hiding somewhere under a layer of fat. From a health perspective, a little bit of belly fat is a good thing. However, if you want to see your abs, you’ll get closer by performing interval training and resistance training on major muscle groups than you will by doing specific abdominal training. That’s because the interval and resistance training will burn the fat that’s hiding the six-pack you already have.

Lark Miller
email: lark@coachlark.com
web: coachlark.com
phone: 415.250.5236