First of all, before focusing on muscle training, you should focus on not being overweight .This can be achieved like this: 1. Wake up early, and drink a glass - small bottle of cold water on an empty stomach, this will cause your body to increase your core body temperature, and therefore burning calories.2. Once you ve had your cold water, wait for about 30 - 50 minutes before you have breakfast. I recommend you have a bowl of Special K cereal with skimmed (no fat!) milk.3. Exercise!! It is the most important factor overall! For weight loss, you need to perform cardio. Walk at a fast pace for about 30 minutes, as a warm up. Then keep on running as fast as you can, and when you get tired, walk until you re able to run again. Repeat this routine until you ve worked out another 20 minutes. If you have access to a gym, i suggest you do 20-30 minutes on a treadmill, speed 5.5, and increasing by 0.5 each 7 minutes. Once you re done with that, use an Elliptical Trainer / Cross-Trainer: these machines are fun-to-use and easy-to-use. I enjoy working out on these. Perform sit-ups before you go to bed.4. You must have lunch! But reduce the amount of food you normally eat, it will be easier if you use a smaller plate.5. Stay away from fried food, junk food, greasy food, candy, sweets, chocolates, potato chips, and sodas.6. Have a cup of green tea, without adding any sugar. It s been proven that green tea stimulates your metabolism, and helps you burn more calories. I suggest you have that 2-3 hours after lunch time.7. Try to engage in reading rather than watching T.V., researches have shown that you burn 19% more calories reading, than watching T.V.8. Drink alot of water!9. Have 5-6 smaller meals rather than 3 large meals.10. Snack on healthy food such as veggies, fruits, and/or nuts!11. Try not to eat past 7 P.M., or wait 3 hours to sleep after having a meal in the evening.I once followed that routine, and I lost 3-5 pounds a week.Once you ve lost your excess fat, you can go to muscle training.You can try push ups, sit ups, pull ups, and ofcourse, free weights.Be sure to get your daily supply of proteins, forget all the protein bar / shakes. Eat real food. Boiled eggs, grilled chicken, or tuna.I hope I ve helped.Night Wolf.
Gaining muscle tone is only 30% of what you do in the gym. Diet, sleep, and nutrional suppliments are a huge key. Reduce calories intake to 1500 a day, spread over 5 small means. Cut out fat. Eat alot of lean protein. Do not forget to do cardio. In 3 months, if you keep to this, you will look like a different person.
The only thing I would add to Cyestein s answer is to drink only and alot of water!
