Help with Toning

I was looking for some advice and I know that your website is a great resource with very knowledgeable people. So, here it goes. What I am trying to accomplish is going to the next step with my diet/ workouts. About 5-6 mth ago my friend, who is a body builder, put me on a high protein diet. I take in about 200 g of protein a day. The only time during the week that I usually eat carbs is right after the gym. I eat oatmeal and eat between 30-60 g of carbs. After doing this diet for about 6-8 wks I did start seeing results. I actually have abs now. I still stick to this above diet pretty good. I am 5’2, 115 lbs. At the gym I switch up my routine. I go back and forth doing the following.

M- Back
T- Chest
W- Arms
T – Shoulders
F- Legs

When I exercise I typically do 3 exercises 4 sets for each exercise. My goal is to become leaner and more cut. I have a lot of muscle and I am in shape but I am not sure how to improve my workouts/diet to get the desired effects I am looking for. Is it better to do less weight and more reps? And if so how many reps is too many? For, ex: if I am doing 15-20 reps does that mean I should move up to the next weight? Basically, I need some tips on how to become more tone/lean. I have come a long way and do not want to get discouraged. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

you should always try to use as much weight as possible. that saying, 15-20 reps is prbably too much. you will hear varying opinions but i personally would never go over 12 under any circumstances. You cant really "tone" a muscle, definittion comes from diet and cardio removing excess fat on top of a muscle. It looks like your already on the right path with your diet, (which BTW is the biggest/hardest part of all this). just try upping your weights and lowering the reps and see how that goes. Im sure some of the other guys will post soon to help you out as well.keep us posted.

Thanks for the information. I do cardio about 3-4 times a week at least 25 mins. I guess my biggest confusion is with weight training and reps. I want to get more definition vs bulk. I will try upping my weight and doing less reps. 12 seems like a pretty good number to go by. Thanks for your help.

bulk comes from adding more muscle andf eating tons of protein, wheres defintion comes from removing the excess fat. the amount you bulk up depends in your diet. if your eating a calorie restricted diet and doing lots of cardio youll get the look you want without bulking up and without losing muscle

Body2See

Thanks for the info. I was working out for a long time before I switched my diet. Once, I switched my diet and stuck with it the results were great. I always used to eat healthy but I wasn't eating the right foods. Now, that I follow the high protein diet, low carbs, low fat diet the results are great. As always it could use improvement though. I will try your ratio out and see how that works. Thanks again for the advice. It is very helpful