Whenever you see someone with a lean, defined physique you can be sure they have trained, and even more importantly dieted, with consistency. Rather than hitting the gym hard for a few weeks, or following a rigid diet which leaves you hungry and ready to binge at the drop of a hat, it's more productive, in the long-term, to keep progressing with small steps.
Many beginners to weight training make the mistake of increasing the weight too much. For years body builders have been saying that if you can't feel the muscle working then the weight is too heavy. Outside of power-lifting/strength/athletic performance circles this is absolutely right.
To build muscle you need to keep the target muscle under tension; you also need to focus on the function of the muscle and not on the lifting of the weight (which is a tool for increasing tension). Ego is often the curse of weight lifters. What's the point of benching 100kg if you are only starining your tendons and rotator cuff muscles?
A useful aid to making continual progress is to use small increments, micro weights (such as Plate Mates). These allow you to increase the load by as little as 1/4 of a kilo. This is most helpful for busting plateau's with smaller muscle groups.
Diet is the same. Make small adjustments that are easy to follow rather than depriving yourself so much that you can't sustain it.
Generally, increase protein (but not to the ridiculous levels recommended by some body builders, unless your goal is to keep growing huger), reduce carbs (but not as low as Atkins) and increase monunsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Ensure you take sufficient amounts of Essential Fatty Acids (omega 3 & 6; I would recommend Udo's Choice oils, flaxseeds and oily fish). A multi vitamin/mineral supplement is good insurance too. Make sure you have enough B6 in particular to metabolise all that protein.
I find it helpful to create food record sheets that list the 3 or 4 options for each meal as A, B, C etc. You then simply record the letter and the time of the meal. Too much choice may be detrimental; keep things simple.
If, like me, you like to socialise then you could have one cheat meal per week where you eat what you like for an hour. This is an opportunity to go to a favourite restaurant and have a glass of wine or two. Any more than that and you can't get really good results (although you might just be able to maintain).
To get the best results, you have to be consistent. It generally takes 12-16 weeks for a figure competitor to get into peak shape, and they often start off in good shape anyway. Make your eating and training parts of your routine, not chores to be gotten out of the way. When they become as easy and unconscious as breathing you will be on the way to serious transformation.
