Are you tired of hearing about "toning" workouts that promise results but never deliver? You're not alone! In this episode of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast, I dive deep into the misconception surrounding muscle toning, particularly for women over 40. The fitness industry's portrayal of 'toning' is, quite frankly, misleading. Muscles can only grow, shrink, or maintain their size—there's no magical exercise that will tone them. So, how do we achieve that lean, defined look we desire? It all comes down to building muscle and reducing body fat.
Are you tired of hearing about "toning" workouts that promise results but never deliver? You're not alone! In this episode of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast, I dive deep into the misconception surrounding muscle toning, particularly for women over 40. The fitness industry's portrayal of 'toning' is, quite frankly, misleading. Muscles can only grow, shrink, or maintain their size—there's no magical exercise that will tone them. So, how do we achieve that lean, defined look we desire? It all comes down to building muscle and reducing body fat.
Join me as I share my personal journey of struggling with body image and fitness in my 20s and 30s. I only found the athletic look I desired after turning 40, and I want to help you do the same! I’ll provide you with practical advice on how to build muscle effectively through strength training, emphasizing the importance of compound movements and progressive overload. Remember, it's not just about lifting weights; it’s about understanding how to eat for muscle growth and recovery.
Nutrition plays a pivotal role in our fitness journey, especially for midlife women. I stress the importance of adequate protein intake and a balanced diet for muscle recovery and growth. Whether you’re navigating menopause workouts or looking for clean eating tips, I've got you covered! Let's shift our focus from weight loss to building strength and muscle, leading to long-term body composition changes that boost our confidence and health.
Are you ready to embrace your strength and redefine your approach to fitness? Tune in to discover how you can become 'strong over 40' and thrive in this vibrant stage of life. Together, we can break free from outdated notions of muscle toning and empower ourselves with knowledge and motivation for women. This episode is packed with fitness motivation, workout tips, and insights into women’s health trends that will inspire you to take action and improve your energy levels.
Let’s embark on this journey together—because health after 50 is not just a dream; it’s a reality waiting for you to seize! Don’t miss out on the valuable information that can transform your approach to fitness and wellness. Listen now and start your journey toward a stronger, more confident you!
Are you training to build muscle? For a limited time, you can learn exactly what I teach my most successful clients to strategically add 5 pounds of lean muscle in the next 5 months.
I'll walk you through the precise adjustments to your training, nutrition, and cardio so your body is primed and positioned to build lean, strong muscle - the kind that lasts. And you can get this live-recorded workshop for FREE (a $20 value). It’s called Optimized for Muscle Lab.
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You want to get toned. But what if I told you that muscle toning doesn't really exist? There are no really truly toning exercises, no magical rep range, and no secret workout class that holds the answer to everything you've been looking for. And if you've spent years chasing muscle tone without getting the results that you want, It may not. be because you're doing something wrong. It's because you've been taught the wrong goal all along. So in this episode, I'm going to explain what muscle toning really is, why most women never achieve the lean, defined, athletic look that they want, and exactly what you should do to get it. So keep listening. Hello and welcome, truly. Thank you for being here. I've noticed a big bump in downloads recently. And so the show is bringing in some new people. So if you are new, welcome. I'm thrilled that you're here. I'm Holly Perkins, and I help women mostly over 40 to improve your body composition so that you're more muscle and less fat, so that you're at least 70% lean mass, so that you can reduce your risk of disease, stay in the game of life, and out of the rocking chair and look fabulous along the way. And I love today's new episode. If you're struggling with feeling soft and squishy and fluffy, as I used to say, or frustrated because you feel like you have been working out consistently or working out hard, but you don't look hard, you don't have that toned look that you want, this episode is for you. And this is something I know very well because this was me through my 20s and 30s. In fact, I never got the athletic lean, hard look that I wanted until I was 40. Maybe you've said to yourself, I just want to tone up. Listen, the fitness industry loves to debate this term tone, but I get it. It basically means you want to see some muscle definition and you want firmness to your muscles, right? Or maybe you've said, I don't want to get bulky, or I want lean defined muscles, but not necessarily really big ones. And maybe like me, you say, I want big muscles, but I want to be able to see them. Judging from the women that come to me for coaching, there is a central theme where the majority of women, especially over the age of let's say 35, would say they want to look athletic. They want to feel tight and lean. They want to look like they work out. They want to see some muscle definition. And then I think where there is variety is in the semantics of how, quote unquote, big you want your muscles to be, right? Some women legitimately are still worried about bulking up. I get it. I understand it. And some women are like me who say I would give anything to be able to bulk up. But even within that, I think we each have our own definition of what kind of muscle you want and what you want it to look like. And I hear this all the time. I think about it all the time. And that is why I wanted to create the ultimate muscle toning guide so that you know what actually works to get you the athleticism and the defined look that you want. So in this episode, you'll learn what muscle toning actually means and why the fitness industry really gets it wrong. The biggest mistake. that women make when they're trying to get toned and the three things that you must do to create a lean defined body, especially after 40. I believe every woman deserves to feel strong and confident and proud in her body, irrespective of what it looks like, but also irrespective of what you want your body to look like. I even notice myself on a weekly basis when I'm on social media to sort of get brainwashed into thinking I'm supposed to want my body to look a certain way or it's supposed to look a certain way and now I'm in the fitness industry so that's kind of true for me but as Holly the person and the woman there are days when I'm like you know the truth is I kind of don't care what my body looks like I want to feel good I want to be strong I love crushing a workout I love increasing my weight load on my Bulgarian split squat. I love the experience of using my body. The truth is I most of the time don't really care what it looks like. And maybe that's good or bad. I don't know. And maybe you can relate. But my point here is, what kind of body do you want? And clearly there's this element of a desire for muscle tonality or tenseness or firmness. And I think that's something so many of us can agree on. And here's the thing when it comes to muscle toning. Muscle is the foundation. It's the foundation to health. vitality, longevity, and confidence. And I know that when you build the strong body that you need, you create the vehicle that allows you to fully participate in the life that you love so that you can look forward to the years ahead. Because strength training is the most effective way, I would argue the only way, to create a strong, lean, toned body that supports the life you you love. So let's get into the ultimate muscle toning guide. Last year, I was on a call with a prospective coaching client at the time. She's now become one of my favorite clients. And she said to me, Holly, I don't want to build muscle. I just want to tone. And she said it kind of sheepishly. And I think that's because these days, the media has so many headlines that will tell you women can't get bulky. Forget about getting bulky. And I've said that often too. The truth is it's really hard to get bulky. But the truth is if you are that woman who wants to look toned or wants to look slender or slim or athletic or like the yoga body, a lot of women want that. Not everyone wants to look like a CrossFit gal. Not everyone wants to look super jacked. And so I want to honor you and those women who are legitimately worried. about bulking up. Now, in other episodes, I talk about how that rarely happens, but we're going to stay on topic today as we talk about toning. So when she said to me, I just want to tone, it was hard for me to not giggle out loud because I've heard this so many times, the same exact phrase. And so instead of giggling, I asked her, tell me, what does toned mean to you? And that's That's a great question. for you to ask yourself. She paused and then she said, well, I want my arms to look firm. I want definition in my legs and I want to feel strong and fit instead of soft. And that's when I explained something that radically changed her perspective. Everything that she wanted required one thing, more muscle. And now listen, it might mean more muscle and less body fat so that we can see that muscle. But the foundation of it is she needed more muscle, more muscle definition, and more tonality and tenseness to the muscle that she has. Within six months of focusing on building muscle, instead of avoiding it like she had been, her entire physique changed. She looked more toned, a lot more toned. She felt stronger. She had more energy and she finally felt like she had the body that she wanted. And she said, yes, this is what it means to me to not be bulky and to have muscle tone. Here's something that's going to challenge everything the fitness industry has sold you for the last 30 plus years. Muscles do not. tone. They never have. A muscle only does three things in its entire existence. It grows, it shrinks, or it maintains, it stays the same. That's the entire list. There is no fourth option where it becomes toned. There's no special movement that buffs or polishes or finishes it into definition. There's no class on the schedule that does something fundamentally different to your body than what's already available to you. So when women tell me they want a tone, I always gently dig just a little bit deeper because what I know they actually mean is that they want visible muscle definition. They want to see the shape and the firmness when they look in the mirror. I think most of us want that. I certainly do. And visible muscle definition comes down to a simple equation. That has nothing to do with toning exercises. You need enough lean muscle sitting underneath your skin, over your bones, and a healthy and appropriate level of body fat sitting above it. Now you need low enough body fat so that we can see the muscle, but I'm not an advocate for extreme low levels of body fat either. When you have both of those things in the right proportion, you see muscle definition. That's why we talk about body composition here. How much of your current body weight is muscle and how much of your current body weight is body fat. And when that proportion isn't right, you won't see the muscle even if you have tons of it, no matter how many reps you do, no matter what class you take. It really has more to do with how much fat is laying over top of the muscle. So in other words, muscle tone equals muscle plus the appropriate body fat level so that we can see that muscle full stop. That's the formula. We could end this episode here. And once you understand this, you can never unsee it. So if you've spent years doing a ton of cardio to burn that body fat off so you can see your muscles or lifting the light little pink dumbbells for set after set for 30, 40, 50 reps, hope that this is the thing that will tone you, I have to give you the honest truth. You may actually be losing the very thing that creates the look that you're chasing. You might actually be losing muscle because long bouts of cardio paired with under eating, if you're doing that, send your body a very clear signal that it doesn't need to hold onto that metabolically expensive you muscle tissue. So it lets it go. And every pound of muscle that you lose takes a little bit of that definition with it. I've been in the fitness industry for 30 years. Half of my career was in New York City. Half of my career was in Los Angeles. The large part of my career, I was in the gym teaching classes, working with people day in and day out. I know the landscape of fitness and I know pretty much every single toning, exercise class that is out there. And I can tell you after 30 years of being in and around this community, which I love so much, when I look into the toning classes, very few of the participants other than the instructor are toned. But yet when I look on the weightlifting floor where all the bros are and I look around, A higher percentage of women there look toned. And I'm not judging anyone. I'm not passing judgment on toning classes because you might enjoy them as an activity. That's fine. But if you start to look around at what activities are producing the best results, you may see something differently for yourself. Muscle is your fountain of youth. And I don't say that to be cute. or trite, I say it because it is true on a metabolic level, a cellular level, an endocrine level, and even on a brain level. Building lean muscle improves your metabolism so that you burn more calories even while you're sleeping. It steadies your energy throughout the day. It gives you stamina instead of leaving you crashing by mid-afternoon. It improves blood sugar regulation. which protects you against some of the most common diseases that we see as we age. It supports your mobility so that you can keep doing the things that you love for decades longer. And it directly impacts your longevity. The research on this is overwhelming and only getting stronger. What that gives you is better body composition, greater strength, more energy, and Let me tell you, as someone who's had a lot of muscle, who's had little muscle, who's had a lot of body fat, who's had a little body fat, when you've got the strength in the body composition that you want, it creates a level of confidence that changes how you walk into a room, how you move through the world, and sadly, how the world treats you. This is what you've actually been after the whole time, not toning. More muscle. So if toning isn't real and muscle is the goal, what does that look like when you walk into the gym on Monday morning? Let me give you the foundation I build every one of my client programs around. You want to be incorporating the big compound movements because they are the engine of everything. So this is a squat variation or two or three lunges. Hinges like deadlift or hip thrust for the back of your body, your glutes, presses for your chest and shoulders, and rows and pulls for your back. These multi-joint movements recruit the most muscle during the movement in the least amount of time because multiple joints and muscle groups are involved. and doing these type of bigger compound exercises also matter enormously. When you have a full life outside of the gym, it's like you accomplish more during one movement. If you only had four exercises to choose from for the rest of your life, you'd pick from this list and you'd get great results. So from there, anchor your week around two or three, maybe four, focus strength sessions each week. Not five or six or seven. Not a different boutique class every day. not back-to-back exercise classes. Two to four sessions each week done with real intention will reshape your body far more effectively than a scattered week of light or random movement with no real direction. And give yourself some genuine recovery in between because your muscle isn't being built during the session. It's built in the days. in between when you rest because you have sufficiently taxed those muscles during your workout. Those rest days aren't you being lazy or falling off the wagon. That is when the actual building happens, provided you applied sufficient stimulus. And keep the whole thing simple and repeatable. You do not need a constantly changing complicated program to see results. In fact, if you've been doing that, that's why you're not getting results. You need a handful of foundational movements, like I mentioned, that you return to again and again so that you perfect them and so that you can overload them with increasing weight loads and you perform them consistently week after week. Consistency on the basics will always beat novelty or this idea of muscle confusion. I actually just got done with my own workout today. And you know what I worked on? Barbell back squat, Bulgarian split squat, barbell bench press, and barbell bent over row. Those four exercises, that's it. Those are complex compound exercises involving every muscle in the entire body. And what I focus on is not more, not creative not complexity. I focus on one thing. Can I use a heavier weight load today? And every single week when I do that, I'm going to wake up tomorrow and my body looks different. I don't think anyone would say I look bulky, but many would definitely say I'm toned. So up next, we're going to talk about how to progressively overload your exercises and how to fuel your body. But first, I want to ask you for a quick favor, and I promise it'll pay you back. If this episode is shifting how you think about your body or your potential, would you take 10 seconds to rate and review this show? Your reviews are how other women find this podcast, and every single review and rating helps me reach another woman who's feeling stuck, who's doing endless cardio, and wondering why. nothing is working. Wouldn't it be cool if you influenced another woman to go after her best body and her best health? And you can do that simply by reviewing my podcast. And here's the fun catch. If you rate and review and then upload a screenshot of your review over at my website, hollyperkins.com forward slash review, I will give you free access to my Optimize for Muscle Lab Workshop recording. It's the exact framework that I use with my clients to build lean muscle efficiently after 40. So just rate it, post a review, and then come over to hollyperkins.com forward slash review. Let's get back into the episode. Next, I want to address a topic that is still pervasive. Many women avoid lifting heavier weights because they're afraid of getting bulky. I spoke to this earlier, and if that's you, you are welcomed here. I see you. I honor you. Let's talk it out. Because this might be the single most persistent fear that I encounter in my practice. Now, I do feel it's changing, which is great. It used to be like 90% of clients that came to me would say they didn't want to get bulky. Now it's more down to like 50% would say they don't want to get bulky. So we're going in the right direction. Hooray. But I do still hear it and see it quite a bit. And I want to put this to rest. once and for all, because it's holding so many women back from the exact thing that would actually transform your body. Research clearly shows that women do not accidentally become bulky. It simply doesn't happen by chance. I wish it could. I've tried, but it doesn't. And it doesn't happen overnight. If you only knew how hard I work day in and day out. In all of my habits, my nutrition, my recovery, my sleep, my hydration, my supplements, my workouts, my exercise selection, et cetera, et cetera, I work so hard to build muscle and I just don't think I will ever be able to become bulky. I wish I could. We don't have the hormonal environment required to rapidly build large amounts of muscle the same way that men do. Our testosterone levels are a fraction of theirs, and that hormone is a major driver of rapid muscle growth. The truth is, so is estrogen. And if you're over the age of 40 and you either aren't using HRT or you are and you're not optimized, the truth is your estrogen is probably not at its peak in your 40s, 50s, and definitely not in your 60s. The truth is almost the opposite of what you've been afraid of. Most women have to work incredibly hard just to build five pounds of muscle. And if I were lucky enough to put five pounds of muscle on you, you barely see it. It's just going to make you look more toned, provided we also address body fat. The women you see who look muscular have pursued that look on purpose for years with enormous... intention. You are not going to wake up one morning accidentally looking like them because you picked up a heavier dumbbell. After 30 years of coaching women, I can count on one hand, actually on three fingers, the women that I have worked with in my entire career who actually put muscle on easily. Three women in 30 years of training people. Now, If you've ever had an experience where you begin a new strength training program and you go after it and you're feeling very positive about it, then two or three weeks later, you're positive that you are bulkier. Let's talk about that because that look or experience scares so many women away from the weight rack. But here's what's actually going on. That puffy, larger feeling. is usually inflammation because of new activity. Water and fluids rush into muscle when you strength train and bring temporary inflammation on top of the muscle. Or it's body fat over the muscle. Just because you start strength training doesn't mean your body fat is going to come down. There has to be a coordinated attempt to bring muscle up and to bring body fat down. Now, for some women, depending on your eating habits or your genetic makeup, I have had enough clients to know that simply starting strength training can bring your body fat down, but I would say for the majority, that's not the case. Or it's a training program that was never really aligned with your goal in the first place. And I see this quite a bit. your strength training program. has to be right for the goal. What I see the most, lots of high rep volume with very little weight progression, which does build some muscle for sure and improves your fitness in general and is worth something, but it does nothing to reduce the fat that's over top of the muscle. So the muscle might swell or even grow slightly underneath the body fat, But the body fat stays on top and the result feels bulky. rather than lean. The problem was never the lifting. The problem was the whole picture. And oh, by the way, I speak from experience. This was me in my 20s and I guess into my 30s a little bit too. I was positive. I was getting bulkier within. three or four or five weeks of starting a new strength training program. But let me tell you this. We know from 50 years of research, muscle does not actually get bigger any sooner than eight to 12 weeks into a progressive resistance program. So if you start a program and three or four weeks in, you're bulkier. It's not muscle growth. It's biologically impossible. You can't build muscle in four to six weeks. You can get stronger. because of the neurological factors, but you're not actually building muscle. Here's what actually works and is actually really simple. Progressive strength training. And when I talk about progressive, I'm actually talking about progressive weight loads because there's different ways to progress your strength training. You could do more volume, higher reps, shorter rest, more exercises. more sets, right? But when I talk about progressive strength training, I'm really talking about progressing your weight loads. It is the only proven way to build the kind of lean defined muscle that you're after. And progressive is the key word that most women miss entirely. You hear me right now and you're like, I know Holly, I know all about progressive strength training. So the question becomes, But are you actually increasing your weight loads every single week? Look back over the past four to six months of workouts. Is your Bulgarian split squat heavier than it was two, three, four months ago? And if not, that's what needs to change. Because here is what's really cool about the human body. We are built for survival. We are efficient. So your body only changes and adapts. When you give it a reason to, if you don't force the stimulus for your muscle to change, it's not going to. That single principle is what gives you the firmer arms, the nicer looking legs, the toned booty, better posture, and improved bone density, and a faster metabolism, and a bigger brain, and better sleep, and improved hormones.If I had a dollar for every client who had to reduce her HRT after strength training with me for a few months, I would be sitting pretty. We know that building muscle and strength training correctly improves hormone optimization at every age. So if you're someone who doesn't want to use HRT in the years ahead, you have to be doing this. In my experience, here is what works best, especially for women over the age of 35. Lean, defined muscle comes from lifting heavier for fewer reps, not lighter for endless reps. When you load a weight that only lets you complete six or eight really challenging reps with perfect technique, you're building strength, and recruiting muscle without piling on the high volume fatigue that drives that puffiness and inflammation that I talked about. So on those big compound exercises, your squats, your lunges, your deadlift, your hip thrust, flip the script that you've been running. Instead of three sets of 15 with a lighter weight load, go heavier and drop it to around eight. 10 reps max. As you get more skilled, as you have perfect technique, you can do even fewer. Right now, I'm focusing on five to six reps on those exercises. Now listen, my five and six reps have perfect technique so I can go heavier than most women. You really do have to nail your technique. So I'm not telling you to just... do fewer reps, I'm telling you to use a weight load where you can only do fewer reps. But it does hinge upon you having really good technique. So please make sure you are studying technique, observing yourself in the mirror, filming yourself with a video. Become a student of technique because the heavier you go with your exercises, the more perfectly you have to move around your joints. The thing I love the most about this approach to training is that you're going to be doing less volume, so it's less systemically fatiguing. The name of the game here is to fatigue your muscles, ability, and its strength, not your system, not your energy, not your stamina. And so what I've found with myself and other women is that this approach doesn't wipe you out and require a lot more recovery. And here is one more thing that so many women get wrong. As you improve your technique and as you increase your weight loads on those exercises, as you get closer to truly effortful reps, you're going to need more rest in between sets. So many women rest 30 or 60 seconds between their sets because either they feel lazy, they don't know what to do with themselves, or they think that they should keep their heart rate up. But the truth is when you are actually really lifting at a high percentage of your actual potential in a set, you might need two or even three minutes of rest in between those heavier sets. The sweet spot for me is about two minutes of rest. But on a good day when I'm increasing my weight loads on one of those big movements, I might need three minutes of rest. Now here is where so much of the hard work falls apart. And it breaks my heart because the women making this mistake are often the most dedicated, the ones working the hardest. You cannot build muscle if you're constantly under eating or not paying attention to your nutrition in general. And this isn't a willpower problem and it's not a discipline problem either. It's really just a raw materials issue. Muscle recovers and is built from what you eat. And if the building blocks aren't there, all the heavy lifting in the world is not going to give you the body that you're after. And this is exactly where so many women, especially in midlife, get quietly stuck. After years of being told that smaller is better and less is more, many women are unintentionally eating too little protein and too few total calories to support the very real results that they're chasing. They've spent decades in a subtle state of under-fueling, and then when they add demanding strength training on top of it... and wonder why they feel exhausted, why their recovery is terrible, and why their body refuses to change. The body isn't being stubborn. It's being starved of what it needs to build. So if you want a lean, defined body, you have to give your body the raw materials it needs to construct it. That means prioritizing protein and carbs and fat at every single meal, not just at breakfast, not just at dinner, but... all the time and throughout the day. It means eating consistently enough to actually recover from your training so that each session builds on the last instead of digging you into a deeper recovery hole. I often say how you eat today is going to influence your workout tomorrow. Tomorrow's workout is going to influence the results that you get, but nutrition is you intimately connected to this process. It means pairing your strength work with strategic nutrition so that the two are working together towards the same goal, which is more muscle and less body fat rather than fighting each other. Now here's the distinction that matters the most, and I want you to really sit with this one. So listen close because it changes everything. A person can lose weight. and lose muscle. In fact, if you're not super strategic about your weight loss, you will lose muscle. I talk about this on the podcast all the time. Or a person can lose body fat while building muscle. These are two completely different outcomes that can show up as the same exact number on your bathroom scale. And yet they create an entirely different aesthetic. and a different body. The first woman got smaller, but she's generally softer and weaker with a slower metabolism, usually more frustrated, and often ending up at a lower weight that still doesn't look better. This happened to me in my 30s. I got down to 118 pounds. I was so proud of myself and I was like, oh my gosh, I don't look any better. I'm just smaller. And that to me is so frustrating. And it's something that we're seeing a lot right now in the weight loss injectables era. Losing weight is not the goal. Losing body fat is. That is a very different scenario. Now that second woman, she might not see the scale move that much. It might even go up a pound, but her body becomes firmer, leaner, smaller. stronger and more defined. That is the right way to tone your muscles because you're improving your body composition. Sure, you're probably going to be smaller, but it won't be reflected on the scale. Same number for these two women, but they look completely different in the mirror. And this is exactly why I beg my clients to stop worshiping the scale because it cannot tell the difference between the two outcomes. And those two outcomes are everything. Every week inside of my program, the Body Composition Project, a client reaches out to me and she's like, oh my gosh, I just got a new DEXA scan. And I was feeling frustrated because I had only lost three pounds on the scale. But after I got my DEXA report and I saw that I gained five pounds of muscle, that actually means she lost eight. pounds of body fat. Can you do that math? She gained five pounds of muscle, lost eight pounds of body fat. That means the scale is only going to go down by three pounds. But what that looks like and feels like in her body is radically different. That is muscle toning. When you prioritize muscle first. Something almost magical happens. Body fat becomes naturally easier to manage. More muscle means a higher metabolism, better blood sugar regulation, and a body that uses the food that you eat more efficiently. So rather than fighting your body with deprivation, you start working with it. And that is what creates sustainable fat loss that doesn't rebound, improved recovery between sessions, better performance in your workouts. and the kind of long-term body composition changes that actually last not just for your summer bathing suit or your vacation, but for the rest of your life. So let's bring a bit more clarity to the nutrition piece of the puzzle so that it's as concrete as the training piece of the puzzle, because this is where I see the fastest transformations once women finally get it. Listen, building muscle and improving your body composition is more of a long term, long range goal, but bringing your body fat down through nutrition can happen relatively fast. Here's how to do it. Start by anchoring every single meal with protein first. Identify your protein and then build the rest of your meal with carbohydrates and some fat. Carbohydrates are just as important as your protein. I know we're in the protein, protein, protein era. I call it the protein preoccupation, but you have to balance your proteins with carbohydrates. But start each meal identifying what the protein will be. A simple target that... many women do well on is roughly a palm-sized portion or more of protein at each meal. This could be eggs, lean meat, fish, poultry, lean red meat if you want. It could be tofu or even a protein powder. You want to aim for about 28 to 30 grams of protein per meal. Then balance out that protein with carbohydrates. reassess the meal to make sure you've got the right range of fat. Now, I have a ton of podcast episodes on this exact topic. The one you want to listen to first is episode 103, How to Track Macros the Right Way for Women. It will walk you through my entire process for getting your macronutrient distribution right at each meal, because this ensures that you get the protein and the carbs you need for everything we've talked about, but it also regulates blood sugar. to free up fat burning. And this is a huge puzzle piece for bringing your body fat down, not cardio. Get your nutrition right so that your body is burning body fat throughout the day, bringing your body fat levels down. That is when you're going to be able to see all that gorgeous muscle that you're working so hard for. Next, pay particular attention to the meals around your training. Protein paired with some quality carbohydrates in the 30 to 60 minutes before or after your training session gives your body the fuel to train hard, to perform, and the materials to begin recovery afterwards. One of my basic tenets around here is we do not train fasted. I know some people will lead you to believe that it's okay and that there are benefits to it, but the truth is it's pretty much counterproductive for most women, especially over 40. You're going to have more energy and be able to train better when you've got fuel in the tank. And please hear me on this. Carbohydrates are not your enemy. They are your best friend when you pair them with protein. They are what powers a strong session and helps your muscles bounce back so that recovery is fast and you're ready for your next training session. Once you've got all of that right with your nutrition, the next thing you've got to look at is how much energy are you actually bringing in and expending each day. In order to release body fat, you have to be in a mild calorie deficit. Now, we could go down the rabbit hole of calculations and numbers, and I do that on a lot of other podcast episodes. So check them out on my website, hollyprickins.com forward slash podcast. But for today, here is your shortcut, and this works really well. Get your nutrition consistent and apply some of the things that I've talked about here today. Use a diet tracking app just so that you can get a general sense. of the metrics of what you're eating each day, just a general idea of how many calories you're eating each day. Do that for two weeks. Once you've got enough data that you can honestly say, in general, on average, I eat X number of calories each day. Subtract 100 calories, give it two weeks. If you don't feel that you're looking leaner, Reduce your calories again by 100 and give it two weeks. Work in this system slowly, gradually over time. I promise it works. every single time. And it usually only takes two to three calorie adjustments before you really start seeing some changes with very little fallout symptoms like hunger, craving, sugar cravings, or even energy slumps. At the end of the day, you just need to be eating a little less than what you're expending each day and the body fat will start to chip away coming. off of those glorious muscles that you have built. And now you're going to have that beautiful definition, the toned arms, the tight booty, the glimpses of your hamstrings on the back of your thighs, and you're going to have that toned look that you want. And that is it, my friend, the ultimate muscle toning guide as I see it in my practice. The truth is really pretty simple. If you want to look toned, you need to build muscle first. If you're over 40, this becomes even more important because age-related muscle loss accelerates every single year. So if you're over 40, if you're over 50 or over 60, it gets increasingly important to target your muscle first. Now, I know you might be tempted to think that you have been trying so hard for so many years or that you have been getting it wrong for all these years. Forgive yourself, grant yourself some grace, because the truth is most women have simply never been taught what actually creates muscle to then create the muscle tone. And now you know. And when you know better, you can do better. Imagine if instead of chasing weight loss or chasing a lower number on the bathroom scale, you focused on becoming stronger. How surprised would you be? If that was the thing that finally transformed not only your body, but your life. Because in my experience, that's usually what happens. Thank you so much for staying all the way to the end. I appreciate you. I hope you loved this episode. If so, please share it with the other women in your life who can relate and stay tuned for another brand new episode on Tuesday of next week. Stay strong, my friend.