The legs are where many women tend to store extra padding. And although weight loss can not be targeted at any one part of your body, diet and exercise tweaks are available to help your legs become slimmer quickly. In this article, discover why certain people tend to store fat in various areas of the body, why targeted spot reduction exercises aren’t successful and the best diet and exercise strategies for slim legs and overall body wellness.
The Reason Why Several People Store More Fat in Their Legs
Just as the blue eyes and the wavy hair are inherited, the body types are also handed down by your ancestors.
“people genetically have different body types, and we can not change this”
-Hannah Davis, a certified strength and conditioning specialist
For one area of the body, you may be more likely to get fat at the genetic level.
“For example, a pear shape body type will generally gain weight in the legs first and the midsection last”
– Hannah Davis, a certified strength and conditioning specialist
Your gender plays a role, too. Men tend to hold more fat in the body while woman hold fat in hips, tights, lower abdoment and upper right arms according to Davis.
Targeted Exercises are a Losing Battle
Try it, hundreds of leg lifts won’t help you to slim the legs easily, as you might imagine.
“Spot reduction is just a concept that you would want to reduce the body to a particular area to drop fat. But sadly, most studies have found this not to be the case,”
“The loss of fats means the division of triglycerides into free fatty acids and glycerol, and these components can come into the bloodstream to be used as fuel from anywhere in the body.”
– dietitian Nicole Hinckley, RD.
In other words, skinny legs workouts are not enough to make you lose your legs fat.
Case in point: Researchers had other people intensively work out their non-dominant leg three times a week in a study conducted in the August 2013 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. No major fat changes were reported in both legs after 12 weeks, but in the upper body a fat loss has been reported.
Working out your lower body is a smart idea to develop muscle and strengthen your endurance, but it is not the best choice to concentrate on workouts that concentrate on your thighs. “A healthy, full-body strength-training program is the best program for weight loss and tone, with moderate cardio, which burns calories and strengthens muscles around the entire body,” says Davis.
Get that Tone and Slim Legs with Full-Body Workouts
The Guidelines on the physical activity of Americans recommend moderate training for 150 minutes per week, which easily breaks down to 30 minutes a day five times a week, e.g. jogging or quick walking. When you hit the gym a little harder and exercise more regularly, you could cut down to 75 minutes a week, but don’t push that if you are fairly fresh to working out.
Hiking, jogging, and cycling are great physical activities, not burning fat directly, but burning calories and contributing to increased leg strength and toning.
Make sure you exercise to develop lean muscles and also to help weight loss. For her clients seeking leg-specific exercises, Davis offers movements like front squats, dead lifts, and reverse lunges as these will build muscle in every part of the lower body,” she explains.
The strength training helps you to retain and even increase the muscle mass according to Harvard Health Publishing which normally is lost as we age. Replacing fat with muscle would eventually lead to more calories burned for your body.
And don’t forget, there isn’t even a real fitness center needed to concentrate on legs. The Mayo Clinic reminds people that a simple staircase will help shape the legs and reinforce them.
10 Ways to Achieve Strong and Slim Legs
It’s good for you to shape, tone and strengthen your thigh muscles. Stronger thighs mean you’re going to leap quicker, jump higher, and increase overall stability. That is why reinforcing the legs is a much better goal than just achieving smaller thighs.
And, it’s important to note that overall cardiovascular and muscle safety is the most important thing — not the size of your pants.
Although you can’t do one exercise to target only one particular part of your body, there are several skinny legs workout that concentrate more on leg strength and flexibility than other parts of your body. So, try any of these workouts if you’re trying to strengthen and tone your thighs.
You can try these 10 activities which will help you on your fitness journey towards stronger thighs and healthier life:
Cycling
It is great to take a breath of fresh air and organize a bike ride in the woods or along country roads! Particularly during the summer and spring lazy days. Note that this is not a complete sport because only the muscles of the legs work but it is a perfect way not only to tone the legs but also to improve cardiovascular health and weight losses. It is an effective and enjoyable sport that allows you to lose weight while still enjoying the countryside.
Find a staircase
A person weighing 154 pounds burns an average of 295 calories for 30 minutes and 590 calories per hour. You are increasing the use of the muscle of your thigh when you use stairs in your running training. Since each move allows you to raise up your body, your leg muscles are forced to shoot.
Walk on the sand
If you are lucky enough to live close to the beach, Armen Ghazarians accredited trainer suggests that you walk on the beach will strengthen your thighs. “The extra tension of walking on the sand will help tone and firm your thigh muscles,” he explains.
Continue walking in the sand for 20 minutes a day to get acquainted with sand exercise. You will add time to your everyday workouts by being habituated to sand exercise.
Skipping rope
Perhaps this activity is familiar to you. The classic jump rope you used to bounce around with your friends. Alone or with others at the kindergarten and elementary school.
In short, the fact is that jumping rope is an effective sport for weight loss and the embellishment of your line. It burns about 715 kcal per hour. It is a sport that gets all of your body’s muscles to work including calves, legs, thighs, abs, arms.
Choose a sport
Sports are a perfect way to trim your body, especially your thighs, through cardiovascular activities and strength exercises that you won’t need to use athletic equipment or in workout classes. There is no way to reduce specific areas of body fat when performing an exercise. The more you use any single group of muscles, however, the more muscle you gain. Therefore, if you’re doing sports that allow quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves to be used, you will be well on your way to healthy, toned, and slim legs. Consider sports which require you to work aerobically with your thigh muscles, such as swimming, biking, football or volleyball.
Increase your resistance training
Engaging in total-body, muscle-strengthening exercises can help you lose calories at least two days a week, minimize fat mass, and strengthen your legs. Include lower-body movements with only your body weight, such as lunges, wall sits, inner or outer thigh lifts, and step-ups.
To keep the reps high, doing at least 15 reps per set is the key to strengthening the legs without bulking up. Perform each exercise in three rounds with limited rest in each movement.
For great two-in-one move for overall fitness, you can also add upper-body movement to your lower-body exercises. For starters, grab some dumbbells and do bicep curl lunges, or squats with an overhead shoulder press.
Do squats
Bodyweight squats, which use your own bodyweight as leverage, burn calories, strengthen the muscles of your legs and tone your thighs. Plus, they can be performed anywhere, anytime.
The squat is one of the best thin legs workout. The butt, hips, and abs are also sculpted.
If you’ve got back issues, squats are perfect. They won’t strain their backs because they’re done standing up without any extra weight.
Perform your squats standing next to a wall or next to a chair, or the edge of a table with one hand on the object, for balance or extra support. Resist the urge to pull or push it away.
Ghazarians suggest beginning with 25 squats with body weight, twice daily, 50 in total. You can squat while you watch television at home or as you climb a flight of stairs at work. Consider this 30 day weighted squat challenge if you’re up for even more of a challenge.
Running or Jogging
Running or jogging can generally help you achieve having slim legs since you replace the fat with muscle. It will help with fat loss, making your leg muscles stronger but not much bigger. But the weight-loss results can be entirely reversed without a healthy diet, resulting in more fat and greater muscle. Muscles are heavier than fat so you might weigh more, but you’re going to look thinner because fat takes up more space than lean muscles. This along with running can also burn a lot of fat.
Attend Dance Classes
Dancing is a quick and amusing way to tone and slim down your legs. You can attend a dancing class or follow videos at home. There are many other dance styles including salsa, hip-hop, and line dancing. Pick your favorite!
Dancing also raises your heart rate, improves balance, and improves memory. Look for organized dancing near you, such as guided country line dancing, salsa, or aerobic dance lessons. Or you can simply turn on and dance to music at home.
HIIT cardio
Cardiovascular exercise burns calories, which makes the heart stronger. This also assists in reducing body fat. Including high-intensity-interval-training (HIIT) as well as steady-state cardio in your overall workout program will help reduce your overall body fat and tone your thighs.
Try adding 1 session of metabolic conditioning to your fitness routine for a more advanced workout and calorie burn. The CDC recommends that adults be given at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, every week, or 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity.
Combine moderate as well as vigorous aerobic activity to get a complete body workout.
Drop Calories Safely for Weight Loss
“Eat less, do more” is the old slogan for weight loss, but it is important to do so safely. It is not intelligent to try to lose weight too fast with an intense diet.
Your best target for weight loss is one or two pound a week, according to the Mayo Clinic. One pound corresponds to approximately 3,500 calories, Hinckley noted, so try to remove 500 calories from your diet every day to lose a pound a week. Just keep in mind that you’re not supposed to dip below 1,200 calories for women or 1,500 calories for men to stay healthy, according to Harvard Health Publishing.
“A healthy and successful calory deficit would typically consist of a reduction in dietary calories, together with an increase in the number of calories burned by exercise,” said Valdez.
Research has shown that weight loss and maintenance can best be accomplished with a high protein, low in fat and high in fiber diet, he says.
As to different foods for weight loss, Hinckley suggests eating a complex carbohydrate with lean protein and healthy fat every 3 to 4 hours. “See that you get ample protein to retain muscle mass and add vegetables as much as possible,” she says.
Important Note for Weight loss
It’s worth noting that better fitness doesn’t automatically equal weight loss. However, if it’s also a priority to get leaner and improve your body shape, you’ll need to burn more calories than you consume.
Numerous of the above exercises should simultaneously burn calories and strengthen your muscles. Remember, the best way to maintain a loss over time is to lose weight slow and steady.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC) suggests that you lose around 1 to 2 pounds a week. Those who do so would be more likely to maintain the weight.
It is also necessary to avoid taking an extreme diet that fully cuts one food category, such as carbs, or is extremely low in calories, Bouzinova states.
And, the weight-loss benefits go far beyond aesthetics. Losing inches in thighs, hips, and buttocks may decrease other risk factors for heart disease according to a 2018 study.
Here are a few science-backed tips for a healthy weight loss:
- Drink plenty of water, especially before mealtime.
- Eat eggs instead of grains, for breakfast.
- To cut back on added sugar read the food labels.
Do Not Rush the Process
Your goal for slim legs can feel super significant, particularly if you’re planning a short-term cruise or beach vacation. But bear in mind that thighs, hips, and buttocks, particularly in women, can be stubborn places of fat storage.
Losing weight can get backfire too easily, and overtraining can lead to injury. So, calm down: stick to a healthy calorie deficit and ease into a workout routine that works for you and see results.
You’ll need to do workouts that include the legs like exercise for thinner thighs and legs in order to strengthen and tone the thighs. If weight loss is also a priority, combined with strength and aerobic exercise, dietary improvements can help you lose fat, build muscle, and boost overall health.