If you’re in search of the best and most effective tips on how to get a lean and toned body, you came to the right place! We’re here to help you understand how to achieve this in the fastest and most efficient way.
Getting a lean and toned body may sound like a daunting task, but it really doesn’t have to be. All you need to do to simplify this task is know what exercises to do and what diet to incorporate into your routine. That way, you will be able to get the results you dream of in no time! Take a look below to find all the important details.
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Top 5 Best Tips on How To Get a Lean and Toned Body
1. Maintain a Healthy Diet
Eating well is the first step to accomplishing any fitness goal because your diet may account for up to 80% of your results. That is why the saying ”you are what you eat” can prove true. Having a protein-rich meal, such as boiled eggs, sprout salad, and the like, might give you the jumpstart you need to get in shape.
After all, protein may really aid in muscle growth and maintenance, which is clearly crucial for toning. Refined carbohydrates are not only highly processed and bad for your health, but they are also simple to digest. That implies that shortly after eating them, you’ll probably feel hungry again.
Additionally, they are obviously heavy in calories and have even been shown to increase food cravings. So switch to wholewheat and multigrain alternatives instead of maida pasta, white bread, and white rice. Unsaturated fats are unhealthy, yet meals and packaged goods are filled with them.
The solution? Healthy saturated fats, which are included in foods like avocados, almonds, cheese, eggs, and fish, can help you achieve your goal of having a flat tummy.
2. Stay Hydrated
Everyone should have at least eight glasses of water each day, as you may have already heard. Although the suggestion is legitimate, it does not take into account each person’s unique demands, including their health, intensity of exercise, surroundings, and other aspects.
Our bodies are up to 60% made of water. Through our skin, urine, waste, sweat, and even breathing, we continuously lose water. In some cases, losing a lot of water and not drinking enough fluids can lead to dehydration.
Dehydration can, in turn, cause your muscles to break down. While trying to become in shape, you really don’t want it to happen. Furthermore, when you don’t drink enough water, your body swells up.
The solution is to make sure that your daily water intake is appropriate. We get around 20% of the fluid we need each day from our food and the remainder from the liquids we drink. Your gender is the main factor that determines how much water you need to consume.
Men should consume 3.7 liters (or 16 cups) of water per day, while women should consume 2.7 liters (or 11 cups) per day. If you work out, sweat a lot, or are ill, you should consume even more water.
3. Choose the Right Exercises
Reaching your goals and building lean mass (muscle) requires having a progressive training routine. An essential component of an adult fitness regimen is strength training. It should be difficult enough to increase muscle mass while also enhancing physical strength and endurance.
Incorporating cardio into your routine is equally significant for leaning out (and improving heart health), particularly if you still have some initial weight to drop. You’ll have the best results when you combine the two forms of training for both muscle growth and leanness.
It’s crucial to choose the appropriate fitness regimen for your unique requirements and objectives. Appreciate the process of learning how to physically push your body while allowing yourself to be a newbie. Take a look at the list below to find out more about these two exercises:
1. Strength Training
Strength training is the ideal element to incorporate into your general fitness program if you want to become lean and toned. You must include more than one weight-bearing training session if you want to gain lean muscle. Adding it for a total of three days per week, even including one or two extra days, will have a great impact.
Before you start fretting about your biceps getting too bulky, remember that women often don’t bulk up like men do since they don’t have the same levels of testosterone necessary to become huge. Nevertheless, ladies are capable of gaining substantial size and muscle if they engage in strength training several times a week using heavy weights.
Concentrate on compound exercises throughout your full-body workouts and try to do strength training three days a week (exercises that target multiple muscles at once, rather than just single movement lifts). Examples include pushups, planks with one-arm rows, deadlifts with bent-over rows (not as difficult as they sound, lunges with lateral raises, and squats with shoulder presses.
2. Cardio
Starting with very minimal recommendations is a wise idea if you are new to exercising. However, if you’ve been doing this for some time, you might need to step it up and increase the amount of time you work out each week. In fact, it’s advised that you up your cardio workouts to 150 minutes of intense exercise or 300 minutes of moderate exercise every week for further advantages.
Try to incorporate high-intensity interval training (HIIT) one to two days per week in addition to steady-state cardio (HIIT). With this type of cardio, the intensity of an exercise is increased without the volume. You may really reduce the amount of time you spend training by incorporating HIIT exercises at least twice a week.
4. Don’t Compare and Be Consistent
Because every one of us has a unique genetic makeup, we do not all grow muscle or burn calories in the same ways. Some people find it to be easier than others.
We can now more easily compare our accomplishments to those of strangers thanks to social media, which is demoralizing. Instead of improving ourselves, we find ourselves striving to appear like someone else, comparing ourselves to people with very different genetic codes who are utter strangers.
It’s essential to maintain consistency in your workout and eating, but you should also have patience and avoid obsessing about a certain weight on the scale. We are merely given a number by the scale. The meaning of the number is not explained. The way your clothes fit may be a better measure of progress and how much leaner your body is getting. Regardless of what the scale shows, if your clothing is getting looser, you are leaning out.
5. Avoid Workouts That Make You Bulky
There are certain exercises that should be avoided if you want to have a lean and toned body instead of a bulky one. Consult the list below to find out what these exercises are:
- Chin-ups and Heavy Squats
Yes, these workouts work a ton of different muscles and are healthy for your body. Squats, though, merely make legs larger, while chin-ups make the back wider, which is bad for individuals who want to get lean and toned. These transform the form in a way that you won’t like while building SO much muscle.
- CrossFit
If CrossFit is your preferred form of exercise and you appreciate heavy lifting, do it. However, you should be aware that this kind of workout involves a LOT of squats and squat variants, burpees, deadlifts, chin-ups, and overhead pressing activities that might bulk your muscles more than you want.
- Sprints
Because of the recruited muscle fibers and the energy system your body employs, any brief surges of energy will result in your legs becoming larger and thicker. By brief surges, we mean roughly 30 seconds. When performing sprints, many individuals run as fast as they can for 30 seconds, take a 30- to 60-second break, and then repeat.
Sadly, sprinting like this will make you bulky. Instead of sprinting, you may run at a quicker speed for two minutes and then take a minute to recover. You ought to be exhausted at the end of the two minutes and have to stop. This can still help you get fit rapidly without making your legs bulky.
Conclusion
Now that you’re acquainted with everything you need to know about getting a lean and toned body, all that’s left is to start including the tips we provided in your daily routine. You should, however, make sure to consult your doctor first in case you have any type of medical condition so that he or she approves the diet and exercises.
Other than that, if you notice that anything makes you feel worse instead of better and more energetic, adjust the diet plan and workout routine so that it fits your need perfectly, and you’re all set!
Lazar Sretenović, an IFBB and REPs Level 3 certified trainer, specializes in personalized fitness programs encompassing weight lifting, EMS, and endurance training. With a focus on tailored nutrition and holistic well-being, Lazar Sretenović guides clients through transformative health journeys, emphasizing safety and individual goals.