A big motivation for many people to exercise and eat a healthier diet is to ‘tone up’. Although there is lots of confusing information on the internet you only really need to know two things!

Hi! My name is Jack. I’ve worked with many clients to design the right exercise and nutrition plans, to help them form the healthy habits to lose weight.

When it comes to ‘toning up’, and the discussions surrounding how best to do it, I can’t think of a topic in health and fitness that contains more contradictory information. It’s a minefield!

So when I started working as a personal trainer, I conducted a focused test on myself to ensure I had practical, first-hand experience with the principles of losing body fat, and their application. 

Now, progress photos are a really handy tool to use when embarking on altering your body body fat levels – I often use them with clients to help guide their progress. They can show you information that scales, and your own emotions, simply won't.

Progress photos are also a useful way to give potential clients an insight into the process, and the methods of the trainer – but let's face it, posting photos of your naked torso online can be a bit embarrassing.

With this in mind, a few of my clients kindly agreed to let me show their progress photos in this post … on the condition I show mine first. So please find the - not intended for public viewing - before and after pictures of my test below …

The images above were taken 8 weeks apart. The only differences between the before and after photos was eating 500 calories less a day for 8 weeks, and making sure I ate 1.7g of protein per kilo of bodyweight. I maintained the same exercise regime, didn’t use any supplements or cut out any food groups. This resulted in my losing 10lbs. The lower the levels of body fat the more ‘toned’ you’ll appear.

Principle 1: create a calorie deficit

Principle 2: check your protein intake

You can find these basic principles on the NHS website and in countless textbooks, they are taught by every strength and conditioning coach around the world. But you’ll also find a lot of confusing, competing and contradictory information out there! If you can apply these simple principles into your lifestyle and build the habits to make the process sustainable you will achieve your ‘toning’ goal.

Applying these principles to create habits that stick can take a bit of trial and error. This is where a coach can come in handy, to help guide you to create healthy habits that last a lifetime. If you have any questions or need a helping hand do feel free to send me a message.

Below are a few of my client’s progress photos. The principles are always the same, but the application is unique to each person and their respective lifestyles.

A huge thank you to the clients who have let me post their photos online for the world to see. If you’re looking to ‘tone up’ remember the two principles and create the sustainable habits to make them fit.

Happy training!

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