Simple Toning Weight Loss Work Out Plans

Two types of exercises will help you lose weight: aerobics and strength training. You need not worry about "bulking up" from strength training -- this will only happen if you combine a professional bodybuilding program with enough calories to support the weight gain required to add large amounts of muscle mass. Intense aerobics and strength training of light to moderate intensity should both tone your body and encourage weight loss.

Biology of Weight Loss

At the most basic level, weight loss is a simple concept -- you lose weight when your body uses more calories than you supply it with. Your body burns calories by generating heat, beating your heart and exercising. Even sitting down and playing cards burns over 100 calories per hour, according to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Exercise. Although instituting a workout routine will burn more calories, it will not result in weight loss if you increase your calorie intake in response. Your metabolic rate determines how may calories it takes to fuel various types of exercise, and your metabolic rate is determined largely by your individual biology.

Body Composition

Most people want to lose weight in order to look better, feel better and be healthier. These goals are related to body composition more than they are to body weight. Body composition is the ratio of muscle to fat in your body. According to the the University of New Mexico, healthy men have 10 to 25 percent fat, while healthy women have 18 to 30 percent fat. To improve your body composition, your workout routine should build muscle and burn fat at the same time.

Weight Training

A toned muscle is a bigger, stronger muscle -- you cannot tone your muscles without at least a small gain in muscle size and strength. Building muscle encourages your body to lose weight by raising your metabolic rate to support your new muscles, according to MayoClinic.com. A strength training program of 20 to 30 minutes per workout two or three times a week will tone your muscles and build small amounts of muscle mass to support your weight loss goals.

Targeting Specific Body Parts

You can tone your muscles, but you can't tone fat. That is why you can focus on sit-ups and still not lose significant amounts of belly fat. Exercises that focus on a specific body part will tone the muscles in that area, but will not cause weight loss in that particular area faster than any other exercise that burns the same amount of calories, according to the American Council on Exercise.

Aerobics

Aerobics exercise will tone your muscles, although less so than strength training. However, aerobics generally burns more calories during the time you are exercising than strength training, without raising your metabolism. You must burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound, and even an intense aerobic workout only burns a few hundred calories per hour. The advantage of aerobics is that any exercise that sufficiently raises your heartbeat is aerobic, allowing you to choose an activity you enjoy.