A
female
age
30-35,
anonymous
writes:Hiya,This isn't a relationship question, but I guess it's kind of a health one, which is why I'm asking here.Recently I've decided that i don't really like my body shape~ I'm about 5'5" and maybe around 11-12 stone (about 160 pounds) though I've not weighed myself in years. I've never really been self concious about my appearence either, and I'm not now, but I wanna lose weight. Especially around my thighs as they are really big. So I'm gonna start eating better~ i've already made a start on this, and I'm planning on joining the gym too. Which i'm pretty excited about.My only concern is, that I mainly wanna do cardio exercises such as the treadmill, bikes ect, but would this actually make my legs thinner, or bulk them out making them muscley? I'm just desperate for nice shaped legs that are thinner as i'd love to be able to wear short skirts without leggings on underneath, and shorts in the summer :) I really don't want my thighs any wider than they are now. :( Any advice is appreciated :) Thanks for reading ^_^
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female
reader, maverick494  +, writes (4 November 2012):
Strong is the new skinny. Don't be afraid of muscle. You're a girl, you're not made to bulk up incessantly unless you use supplements to stimulate that kind of growth (a.k.a. steroids or some variation of them). Look at ballet dancers for example. These girls are all incredibly strong and they have muscles in their legs, but they look graceful and slim (not borderline anorexic unless they're with the wrong company).
Also, like Cerberus said, spot reduction is a myth. Some people just have bigger legs than others. You have to work with what you have. That may mean in your case that in order to get your legs as thin as you want, you may have to lose so much weight overall it makes your upper body look stick thin. Take a look at Keira Knightley for example. Her legs are much bigger in comparison to her upper body, which may as well have been that of a runway model. Shaping them up however is never a bad idea. So don't shy away from tough workouts or weight training, as that is exactly what makes a leg shapely. Also use the jump rope as it is a great cardio workout that doesn't require you to go places. Plus it's fun and easy to mix up.
In the end though, it's all about the diet. Drink lots of water or non-sweetened (green) tea, eat fruits, green veggies and protein from eggs, fish, chicken or lean meats. Limit the carb intake you get from starch (pasta, potatoes, white rice, bread) by making it less than 50% of your meals. Don't snack. If you have trouble getting the right nutrition, you may want to look into juicing to help supplement you with that (don't use it as meal replacement however: it's to support, not to replace.) However, if you do look into juicing, keep the calories in mind and don't sweeten things up with sugar or anything of the sort.
A
reader, anonymous, writes (4 November 2012): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questionThank you all for you help and encouragement :) Hopefully I can make them at least a bit thinner :)
And Cerberus~ I don't want "disgusting stick thighs", i just want shapely slender legs where my thighs don't 'rub' together when i walk and i don't have to worry too much about finding trousers that fit :)
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A
female
reader, Celia2 +, writes (3 November 2012):
 Yes, you need to make exercise a routine. I started working out more than a year ago and my 4 times a week work outs have now become second nature and extremely enjoyable.
Try working out 2 days per week initially since you're new. Try 1 day weight training and the other day cardio. No need to go over an hour with your work outs either, remember QUALITY vs. quantity.
With the weight training, do each repetition slowly and don't use your momentum to get through each repetition. Unless you're a male, or intend to use steroids, as a female, you will NOT bulk up. You will gain lean muscle and shed weight quickly from weight training exercises. Weight training gets your heart pumping and with cardio combined, you'll quickly see the resulting lean figure you're looking for.
With cardio, go HARD! Look up interval training, it's extremely effective - it requires you push yourself extremely hard for an allotted amount of time and then rest for a very short period of time.
I work out 4 days a week: 2 days weight training and 2 days cardio. I do arms, cardio, legs, cardio. I add new exercises regularly, switch up my days, increase weight slightly per exercise, etc. to ensure my body doesn't get accustomed to my work outs and plateau as a result. My workouts are under 1 hour each in length. In fact, my cardio days are 35 minutes.
No gym pass, just about 300 pounds worth of free weights and a stair climber (stair climber is ridiculously exhausting!). I'm 5'5," 115 pounds (remember, muscle weighs more than fat), 34"-26"-36." Last year, I was 20 pounds heavier with no muscle mass.
You can do this! Read up a bit on nutrition, find some sample workouts (bodybuilding.com) and push yourself, push yourself, push yourself! :) You can do it! Good luck!
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reader, anonymous, writes (3 November 2012): OP you can't lose weight on specific body parts so don't get caught up in this idea that you will or can. Have to focus on full body work outs and stuff.
Losing body fat is easy, you burn off more calories than you consume and you do it healthily and have patience.
No offence to Lauren but her personal trainer sounds like a quack, unless you have high levels of testosterone in your body, which most women don't have, you won't build bulk. Plus even men have to consume a very specific diet to be able to bulk, mainly a high protein diet with a tonne of calories and even then it takes a hell of a lot of work, so you don't have to worry about that either.
Your thighs won't widen but she is right about doing exercises like spinning and cycling. They very specifically target the thighs and doing only those will give you a very uneven looking shape as your leg muscles will be stronger and more pronounced than your other muscle groups. Google cyclist physique if you want to see what I mean.
OP you do understand that having larger legs is genetics right? My girlfriend has the same body shape, wide hips and big thighs they look a tiny bit thinner with overall weight loss but they are always going to be big proportion to rest of her physique. That's just the way it is.
OP unless you're training for a specific sport then you want to do a full body resistance/weights workout, women can't build bulk OP unless you somehow have been diagnosed with a man's amount of testosterone then it won't happen with you either, especially seeing as you're going on a cutting diet and not a building one.
As I said before if you focus only on your thighs you're going to have strong, hard muscles on your thighs (not bigger) and that will make them look bigger than your others muscles because they won't be as toned, so always do full body.
FYI weights/resistance workouts burn more calories than cardio, build better functioning muscles too that are stronger and able to burn off calories quicker.
But if you want to add cardio then the best way to find which will work best for how you want to look is to google the types of body.
It sounds to me like you want disgusting stick thighs, those rotten looking things that women somehow seem to think looks better in a skirt, well only you think so OP, we guys like shapely womanly legs, not shapeless sticks. So I recommend you check out the legs of long distance runners, they're basically walking sticks so perhaps you may want to try long distance running.
If not then just google what a professional athlete in the type of cardio you want to do looks like. Don't look at all this zumba crap because all those models got those bodies a different way. Plus dancers aren't exactly known for their stick thighs.
Remember though OP, you can't fight genetics, you can work and tone your muscles but your proportion will always be the same unless you became deathly skinny or morbidly obese and neither of those are in anyway nice looking.
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reader, anonymous, writes (3 November 2012): I went to a personal trainer to sort my thighs out as I was taking cardio classes, spinning and using treadmill, cross trainer and bikes. She straight away told me do not cycle so drop the bikes and spinning classes. The reason being that when cycling your leg muscles do not completely straighten before they are brought back up so instead of "Lengthening" the muscle (can't actually make it longer but that's the term) it was building up width ways.
When running concentrate on making your legs long, take a long stride that doesn't strain at all but it will help make the muscles leaner, cross trainer is not essential but it burns more calories an hour than the treadmill so I tend to use it in order to continue weight loss but will eventually just run once I am at my desired weight. She also showed me some exercises to do on that mats that involved lunging while holding weights, but its done in a really particular way to avoid making muscles bulky as thats what lunging usually does, so I would ask for advice from a member of staff at the gym to demonstrate that.
Obviously eat well, don't cut down food too much otherwise you end up putting weight back on too easily. I eat a big breakfast (scrambled eggs, toast, banana, orange juice), a medium lunch (tuna salad, mackerel, chicken with noodles or similar high protein/low carb meal) and then for dinner keep it simple (porridge) also have snacks (fruit, veg, protein flapjack (homemade with protein shake powder added to regular flapjack mix))
Good luck, it takes dedication but once in a routine it gets easier!
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