Hi, I'm 18 years old and I used to be really active ( as in working out in highschool) but after I graduated I just kept up my daily routine without the exercising and have put on a noticeable amount of weight.. Embarrassingly the weight has went to my lower body (buttocks and inner thighs) while my upper body remains the same. I used to weight at least 165-168 and ever since I noticed how unhealthy I was, I started working on my cardio and doing plyometrics to lose the fat in my legs and tone them as much as possible. Ive also been using weight machines that target my thighs n calf ( doing reps of 20 and 3 sets) ever since then I've lost around 8-10 pounds. Ive also been trying to increase the muscle mass of my upper body by doing weight machines and consuming protein shakes. My question is how do I increase my upper body's muscle mass while cuttin/toning my lower body ! Is it okay to take protein shakes while trying to gain muscle in areas and cut others? Please help me

Well you're going to have to either bulk or cut. If you want muscle mass, you'll have to bulk up. You'll need to eat, sleep, and exercise in a way that you build muscle. What's your workout like? Machines sometimes are great for building muscle but some don't work as effectively as free weights. The squat machine, for example, mainly focuses on your quads while free weight squats targets quads, hamstrings, glutes, stabilizer muscles, and your entire posterior chain really. If you wanted similar results, you would have to do the squat machine, leg curls, and a sport like soccer, basketball, or football for the all the muscles that free weight squats work. You want upper body mass though so you need to incorporate the bench press if you haven't already. Do about 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps. Pick a weight you can ONLY do 6 to 8 reps for a single set. Focus on the negatives (going down) as well. Shoulder press for shoulders. Barbell rows for upper back. Chin ups and pull ups for biceps and triceps and back. All of these are compound exercises that stimulate multiple muscle groups and will be more effective than using their machine counterparts. You also must consume protein everyday and a lot of it, about a gram per body weight (general rule of thumb). You'll need enough calories in your diet to build muscle as well so if you want to bulk up, you'll need slightly more calories to build the muscle. Avoid eating too much carbs but your diet should have them in there. You can't really build muscle while you are cutting. You basically preserve muscle but you can build muscle and burn fat. It all will depend on your diet.