How long does it take to tone up your body?

How long will it take me to tone my body...?

• With this workout plan and a healthy diet; Monday; Run outside (for as long as possible - up to 20 mins) and Swimming (also for as long as possible) Tuesday; Gym - 5k on the treadmill, 10 mins arm workouts, 1.5k on mountain climber) and a 30min dog walk. Wednesday; Morning run and dog walk. Thursday; Gym (same as tuesday) and dog walk. Friday; Morning walk (1hr10mins) and gym routine (again - the same as before). Saturday; morning walk and gym (5k treadmill, 1000m rowing, 1.5k mountain climber, arm workouts) Sunday; Rest. I am 5ft 1, 106lbs(ish) with body fat roughly at 24%. I have already started training, and i feel i can do the exercise I have put above. - I dont want anyone to tell me the 106lbs is a great weight, because i'm short and I definitely want to tone up! I'm a surfer and i need to get my strength up ready for my surfing holiday. I'm aiming for a body fat percentage of at least 12-15% and preferably a weight of 100lbs (which is the weight I was last year and is definitely not 'too thin'. Please understand that my height does make me look a bit chubbier at this weight than some one at 5ft 5-9 etc! :D

• Answer:

  Well you have made a good start. However your gym work out is not nearly sufficient enough to tone down to 12% body fat. You must understand that diet, food portion size, food types and weight training is ten times more important than the cardio regime you do. Here are some pointers for diet: 1) Small portions 5 to 6 times a day, little carbs at night; 2) High protein low simple carbs and bad fats foods such as eggs, chicken, fish, nuts in very small portions and low fat milk products. Eating high simple carb foods such as breads, sugars, diet chocolates, cereals etc will ensure that you have no chance at all in achieving your 12% goal; 3) Heavy weight training is essential as you need muscle to keep burning fat. You will not bulk up or even look anything like a man, but it will tone your muscles so do not worry about doing weights; 4) You need increase your cardio if you want to see results faster. Walking the dog does nothing more than get your heart racing. If you draw up a weekly goal list, keep adding a few extra minutes to your run, or make sure you run a bit faster each week. To give you an idea how little you really burn when doing cardio, if you eat half a chocolate bar after doing an intense workout for a full hour, you will waste that full hour for nothing. And finally if you keep your diet healthy, make sure that you change your lifestyle, keep improving your workout, you will see results slowly. Yes slowly. The first few weeks you will lose water in your body. Then you will feel like you hit a wall. If getting into shape was a quick and easy solution, then everyone would be in shape. Ditch the scale, and stop weighing yourself every day ( i know u do..) rather check yourself once every two weeks in the mirror and see how you feel about your body.