What's your bodyfat percentage?

[ICB]

No, definitely not overweight. If anything a little bit too skinny. Certainly not very muscular.

Yeah, could defo use some weight training. My arms are very skinny. Might be a good idea to start doing a few situps every day too. I alway start exercise with good intentions but then I get lazy again. It's hard to stay focussed when it comes to health and I see why Ricky Hatton has all but given up on it in his quest for pleasure. I doubt I will ever end up like him though.

Your probably skinny/fat then Miles, that means you don't weigh much. But your body fat percentage is high or higher than it should be for your weight. Or your not carrying much muscle.

Easiest way to cure this, is put on a bit of weight while doing weight training so basically bulking up. When you feel you've seen some good gains. Then do a cut thats what most people do mate.

What do you mean when you say do a cut, Ice?

Tone up medium weight with dumbbells ETC, do more cardio, eat healthly/dieting ETC.

[Gandalf]

Your probably skinny/fat then Miles, that means you don't weigh much. But your body fat percentage is high or higher than it should be for your weight. Or your not carrying much muscle.

Easiest way to cure this, is put on a bit of weight while doing weight training so basically bulking up. When you feel you've seen some good gains. Then do a cut thats what most people do mate.

What do you mean when you say do a cut, Ice?

Tone up medium weight with dumbbells ETC, do more cardio, eat healthly/dieting ETC.

Ah I see. I'm afraid I'm not the most clued up when it comes to the workout lingo. I've been lifting dumbbells for a bit now, but nothing strenuous. Just that and my trusty exercise bike.

I don't think I have an ounce of fat on me, but my belly isn't the most toned of places. If I am sitting down I can feel it's a little wobbly. Must be some fat in there methinks.

I also like some of that equipment Bilbo was flashing about earlier (not that kind of equipment! ). Pretty cool.

I'm quite serious about doing more situps along with my casual other stuff, because I could probably work at the tummy a bit. Actually, I see on wiki that the 'crunch' has become the safer option. Never knew that. You learn something everyday.

[ono]

Your probably skinny/fat then Miles, that means you don't weigh much. But your body fat percentage is high or higher than it should be for your weight. Or your not carrying much muscle.

Easiest way to cure this, is put on a bit of weight while doing weight training so basically bulking up. When you feel you've seen some good gains. Then do a cut thats what most people do mate.

What do you mean when you say do a cut, Ice?

Tone up medium weight with dumbbells ETC, do more cardio, eat healthly/dieting ETC.

Toning up has nothing to do with the weight of the dumbbell being used. Toning up is a direct result of stripping away body-fat to bring out muscle tone. So providing the person doesn't have much body fat, muscle tone will be on show. If the person lifts heavier weights and eats and recovers properly, providing he has maintained a low body fat level, he is likely to have more muscle 'tone' than a person who has just lifted 'medium' dumbbells as he should have gained more muscle. The lower weight, higher rep myth is just that....a myth.

[ICB]

What do you mean when you say do a cut, Ice?

Tone up medium weight with dumbbells ETC, do more cardio, eat healthly/dieting ETC.

Toning up has nothing to do with the weight of the dumbbell being used. Toning up is a direct result of stripping away body-fat to bring out muscle tone. So providing the person doesn't have much body fat, muscle tone will be on show. If the person lifts heavier weights and eats and recovers properly, providing he has maintained a low body fat level, he is likely to have more muscle 'tone' than a person who has just lifted 'medium' dumbbells as he should have gained more muscle. The lower weight, higher rep myth is just that....a myth.

When i say Medium weights i mean decreasing the weight, by about 5 kilos or ETC. Just to maintain your strength. When i was toning up/losing weight, i couldn't lift as much when i was seriously working with barbells doing bench pressing and ETC.

You will obviously in my experience, not be able to keep lifting real heavyweights when your losing weight/toning. Especially when you've lost over a stone which i've done in the past. And especially since when your working with real heavyweights trying to bulk, you have to constantly over a period of a week, have to keep adding atleast 2.5/5.0 kilos each time to add strength.

The key in my experience is too slightly lower the weight, where you can atleast do 10 to 12 reps. Which is the key for toning and muscle edurance, where as if you want gain strength and put on bulk. You lift heavy weights where you can only do 6 reps.

And considering Miles isn't a seasoned lifter, medium weights doing between 10 and 12 reps would do him wonders.

[ono]

Tone up medium weight with dumbbells ETC, do more cardio, eat healthly/dieting ETC.

Toning up has nothing to do with the weight of the dumbbell being used. Toning up is a direct result of stripping away body-fat to bring out muscle tone. So providing the person doesn't have much body fat, muscle tone will be on show. If the person lifts heavier weights and eats and recovers properly, providing he has maintained a low body fat level, he is likely to have more muscle 'tone' than a person who has just lifted 'medium' dumbbells as he should have gained more muscle. The lower weight, higher rep myth is just that....a myth.

When i say Medium weights i mean decreasing the weight, by about 5 kilos or ETC. Just to maintain your strength. When i was toning up/losing weight, i couldn't lift as much when i was seriously working with barbells doing bench pressing and ETC.

You will obviously in my experience, not be able to keep lifting real heavyweights when your losing weight/toning. Especially when you've lost over a stone which i've done in the past. And especially since when your working with real heavyweights trying to bulk, you have to constantly over a period of a week, have to keep adding atleast 2.5/5.0 kilos each time to add strength.

The key in my experience is too slightly lower the weight, where you can atleast do 10 to 12 reps. Which is the key for toning and muscle edurance, where as if you want gain strength and put on bulk. You lift heavy weights where you can only do 6 reps.

And considering Miles isn't a seasoned lifter, medium weights doing between 10 and 12 reps would do him wonders.

Toning isn't really related to muscle endurance to be honest. Toning can be achieved through most rep ranges, as it is a direct result of having low body fat thus having visible muscle. That's why if you have low body fat i'd personally go pretty heavy, given that it's key to hypertrophy, wheras endurance training is less effective in terms of building muscle. So the muscle to fat ratio will be even greater as the heavier weights (with proper technique) should lead to greater muscle devolopment over a period of time.

I've been working with a diet plan over the last 6 weeks. I've put it together myself and it's not really anything too special but i've lost half a stone, lowered my bodyfat by 3% and increased the size of my arms and shoulders. Strength has improved aswell.

The key has been my carbohydrate consumption. It's still been fairly high considering i'm cutting. Around 300g per day, mostly consumed at breakfast and post workout.

[JazMerkin]

I'm 5'10 & when I weighed in at the gym the other day, I was bang on 153lbs. Using one of those calculators, it's got me at 10% at the moment, which is probably about right as I'm pretty muscular for my weight.