Should I Tone Up Or Lose Weight First

If you've been struggling to transform your body and you're not sure what type of training you should do this is for you!

Now before I jump into the training aspect, I want to be completely clear that no training will outperform a focus on healthy nutrition habits (like protein every meal, drinking half of your body weight in ounces of water per day, and eating 4 servings of fruit/veggies per day) that most importantly allows you to get in a calorie deficit (eating less food then your body needs to maintain its current weight).

Most people usually are compelled to start a weight loss journey by doing vast amounts of cardio and that recipe is a disaster for long-term success and actually achieving the look you’re striving for.

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When it comes to doing more cardio as the sole way to lose weight, the body will adjust the hormones Ghrelin and Leptin to tick up your appetite and make losing fat much harder.

What tends to happen is when weight loss is taking with just a cardio approach 75% of the weight loss is from muscle tissue and water, while only 25% is from fat.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do any cardio because I personally enjoy running and playing flag football—and I do them regularly—but that doesn’t mean it’s efficient or should be a top priority if your goal is to lose fat.

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Now if you want to completely flip those ratios and not only look the part but reap all of the internal changes, you must take a different approach.

First we would recommend working with a personal training who can take the guess work away. We know some great ones ;)

What we would do next is set a schedule and we recommend dedicated at least 2x/wk for your strength work and if you have more time you can add another strength day or start implementing some cardio training (which in combo with resistance training works great).

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Now you’ve got your schedule, it’s time to overview your training split which is what you’re going to focus on during each workout.

We think a full-body approach is usually best because it’s going to allow you to use more muscles during the week (releasing more hormones to elicit change) and maximize your time spent.

As you can see a lot of different variations are possible. Now that you know the 5 categories, let’s talk about how to use them to create a workout.

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You can set up your workout any way you like, but we know how important your time and efforts are so we think starting with 2 tri-sets is a great choice. You’ll do all of the exercises in A1-A3 before you move to the B exercises.

The structure of your workout doesn’t have to necessarily be exactly like the one above, but it should have as much balance and practicality as possible.

Below is an example of two workouts you can create and follow for 6 weeks before you change out the exercises to more advanced versions.

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When it comes to sets or rounds, doing about 2-3 is ideal and time-efficient. Most beginners might start with two sets for the first couple of weeks then move into three.

I hope this gives you an idea of what you could do and allows you to create your own workout that gets you to your goals in the safest and sexiest way possible.

If you feel like you need a little more support, we would love for you to come try us out with no strings attached.If you’re wondering “Where do you lose weight first?” it’s probably because there’s a part of your body you want to change fast.

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And if you look online for answers, you’ll usually find something to the effect of, “The best way to tone up your [problem area] is this or that exercise, supplement, superfood, and so forth.”

That is, if you know how to eat and exercise properly, you will lose fat each and every day. That said, there aren’t clearly defined stages of fat loss that allow you to forecast exactly where you’ll lose fat first.

In other words, the best way to burn belly fat isn’t doing more crunches; no amount of exercises to lose thigh fat will give you the legs you want; and no superfoods or supplements will automagically disapparate tone or tighten certain parts of your body.

Is It Possible To Target Fat Loss To Specific Body Parts?

Luckily, there are some general patterns to fat loss that can give you an indication of how and when you’ll lose fat, mainly depending on your body fat percentage, sex, and genetics.

Table of ContentsWhere Do Women Lose Weight First?Arms & ShouldersBackHips & ThighsWhere Do Men Lose Weight First?Arms & ShouldersStomachLegsWhy Is Stubborn Fat so Stubborn?What Affects Where You Lose Weight First?Body fat percentageSexGeneticsCan Exercise or Diet Help You Lose Weight in Certain Areas?What’s the Best Way to Lose Weight Fast

Most women store very little fat in their arms and shoulders, which is why these areas are the first to get leaner when ladies lose weight. As your body fat levels drop, you’ll start to see veins in your forearms become more prominent and muscle definition in your upper arms and shoulders.

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Thus, as they get leaner, the shoulder blades and the muscles that run vertically along either side of the spine (the erector spinae ) become significantly more visible. Depending on how much fat a woman needs to lose, they’ll often be able to see all edges of their shoulder blades and a clearly defined “valley” directly above the spine (especially in the lower back). 

This is because the hip and thigh region is the first place women gain fat when their weight increases, and it’s where they store a disproportionately large amount of their total body fat.

What’s more, once they get lean, most women find that a small amount of stubborn fat clings to their hips and thighs (and only disappears once they get to 20% body fat or below).

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The good news is the hips and thighs are one of the first places to slim down when women start to lose weight, which is why you’ll probably find your pants start to fit better as soon as you lose a few pounds.

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Like women, men tend to store very little fat in their arms or shoulders, which is why these areas become vascular and defined before any other body part as you lose weight (many men have veiny forearms even when they’re quite overweight). As you lose weight, you’ll notice your forearms, biceps, and triceps will become more defined, and you’ll begin to see more separation between your shoulders and upper arms.

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One the one hand, it’s the first place most men accumulate fat as they gain weight and the first place they lose it when they lose weight (easy come, easy go). On the other hand, something weird happens as men get very lean. 

Once most get down to about 10-to-15% body fat, belly fat becomes very, very stubborn. Suddenly, you’re measuring progress in millimeters instead of inches (more on why this is in a moment).

As you lose stomach fat, you’ll notice that your stomach looks flatter from the side, a faint outline of your abs becomes visible, and your pants will become much looser.

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Unlike women, men tend not to store much fat in their legs. Thus, as your body composition changes for the better, your thighs will be one of the first areas to lean out. You’ll quickly begin to see some separation between your quadriceps muscles and notice that your thighs don’t rub against one another as much while walking.

At bottom, stubborn fat is stubborn because it’s stuck in your fat cells and doesn’t want to come out and be burned for energy.

While some fat cells disgorge their stored energy readily (a process is referred to as fat mobilization ), other areas are more stingy, or “stubborn.”

Lose Body Fat, Inches And Tone Up

These molecules travel through your blood and “attach” to receptors on fat cells, and then trigger the release of the fat stored within the cells to be burned for energy. You can think of catecholamines like little letters your body sends to your fat cells with instructions to dump their cargo, ASAP. 

Fat cells have two types of receptors for catecholamines: alpha- and beta- receptors. You can think of alpha-receptors as bitter, cantankerous mailmen who throw your body’s “letters” in the trash, and beta-receptors as the sweet secretaries that rush your missive through to the cell. 

Fat that disappears quickly, like the stuff covering your arms and shoulders, has more beta-receptors than alpha-receptors. And stubborn fat, like the stuff covering the butt and thighs of women and the stomach and lower back of men, has more alpha-receptors than beta-receptors. 

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You may have noticed that fat in areas like your butt, hips, and thighs (for women) or stomach, low-back, and butt (for men) is slightly colder to the touch