In case it benefits anyone, I'll suggest that the common approach of long slow cardio and restricting calories may not be the most effective for being healthy and losing weight. The problem with long duration, low intensity cardio is that it slows metabolism and is catabolic meaning that it burns muscle. Perhaps a more beneficial strategy to consider is one that *builds* muscle and *increases* metabolism.
This is optimally achieved through strength training. The most optimal method of strength training is compound movements i.e. those that constitute 2 or more joints, with weights that make sets of 5 reps challenging. Building muscle is what "tones". Being able to visualize this "tone" comes from fat reduction. Fat reduction is only achieved through a caloric deficit.
So "toned" means building muscle and reducing fat. Don't worry...lifting weights won't make you bulky. Sitting on the couch eating donuts is what makes you bulky.
Some tips for how to achieve a caloric deficit.
1) Don't do things that slow your metabolism....like run slowly for a long time. Now your starving yourself with 1200 calories and still can't lose weight because your body is desperately clinging to every calorie it can get, and trying to store it as fat for the next time that your body is starving to death while running slowly for a long time. So that donut on the weekend is all stored as fat by your starving body.
2) Lift heavy weights to build muscle. (this might mean a 15 or 20 lb dumbell for over head press, for example, or pushup from the knees)
3) Do HIIT or high intensity interval training instead of long, slow cardio. It is over 4x more effective than LISS cardio for burning fat and calories. It is also extremely time efficient since it only takes 15 minutes(per session) to do 15 minutes of HITT 2-3x/week.
One of the BEST forms of HIIT that is super effective and cheap is to find a used Schwinne Airdyne on FB Marketplace or whatever for about $200. Follow this protocol:
Warmup for a couple of minutes, then sprint for 20 seconds. Rest for 1:40, which brings you to the 2:00 mark. Sprint for 20, rest 1:40. So sprint on the 2,4,6,8,etc minute mark. Work your way up to 7 rounds for a 15 minute HITT workout. This RAMPS your metabolism and keeps it there for an extended period. You become LESS efficient with the calories you consume, meaning you can eat more without gaining weight.
Why a 20 second sprint? The human body is actually incapable of truly sprinting for a full 20 seconds i.e. it's more than long enough. In fact, don't sprint at first, just pedal at a moderately hard pace. Push as your fitness level increases.
Trust me, time will warp; 20 seconds will turn into 2 minutes, and the 1:40 rest will turn into 20 seconds. It's hard, but short and it works.
I recommend HIIT on non training days. Resistance training will provide its own metabolism boost, so HIIT on non training days helps keep the metabolism ramped up nicely.
As far as eating, ultimately you have to find what works long term for you. An easy strategy that is nearly guaranteed to work without strict calorie counting or portion control, is to simply eat only single ingredient foods. Think healthy of course, so no fried foods, be reasonable with high calorie additives like butter(not a single ingredient food).
You can literally eat as much as you can stand every meal with grilled chicken, veggies, and rice, cutout sweetened drinks, and snacks and stick to only single ingredient foods, and it is literally almost impossible to not lose weight. Combine with strength training and HIIT, and your body will transform.
The added muscle mass will allow you to eat more calories. Strength training and HIIT will ramp up your metabolism and allow you to eat more calories. Eat single ingredient foods and you can eat until you're stuffed every meal.
When you fall off the wagon, which ALWAYS happens sometimes, your body won't be in starvation mode due to absurd calorie restriction and running slowly for a long time. So when you splurge some weekend on pizza and snacks at a party, your new, more muscular, high metabolism body will burn thought the calories with ease.
A possible routine would be strength training on MWF which allows for recovery, and HIIT on Tue/TR. Take the weekend off if you'd like.
Anyways, just some food for thought. Hope some people find this helpful.
