reneerochelle

okay ladies...my problem area is my thighs. In terms of making them smaller...should I start doing squats and lunges to tighten them up OR lose my weight and then work on the muscles there? I do elliptical trainer 6 days a week for an hour and the weight on my upper is body is down...way down...just trying to get smaller thighs now. I don't want to make the quads bigger if the overall thigh size will go up...any tips? thanks and best of luck to everyone on acheiving their fitness goals!

NessaSonic

I'm having the same issue. My upper body is losing at a great rate, but my thighs are losing very slowly. Lately I've been running 5k 3x a week on the treadmill and on my weight lifting days I do two sets of reverse lunges and squats. Sometimes I take a spinning class, though I haven't for the last couple of weeks. So far I've lost two inches off my upper thigh on each leg. I wish it would come off sooner- but I do want to build muscle, because it will help me burn and keep off the fat covering it, so when it's reduces- I know my legs will look great!

reneerochelle

sounds like you have a great plan. I think I need to do some lunges and squats. I also need to take my bike out to the roads and use the quads! That is great that you lost 2 inches already! That must feel great! Keep up the great work!

adamcaa

I think it depends on your thigh muscle size to begin with. Lifting light weight should retain muscle while you lose weight. Heavier weight will probably force them to grow larger. The only way to tighted up your legs is to tighten up your whole body by lowering your body fat percentage.

rpmcduff

Unfortunately (despite the myths) you cannot spot reduce. Many women are prone to store fat in their hips and thighs. Men are more likely to carry the fat in their abdomens. The body also does not use fat stores from the entire body at the same rate. While parts of your body like arms or abdomen lean out the other areas stubbornly don't. The only way to lean out these areas is to continue to burn your body fat.

For exercise, in my opinion you should do heavy squats and deadlifts. Being a woman it will be very hard for you to build bulky muscles. Lifting heavy will help build denser muscles that burn more calories (even when they are at rest). This will help to increase your metabolism and help you to continue to lean out without having to eliminate more calories from your diet. An added benefit is better tone and shape of your glutes (buttocks). I personally like more musclular legs on women, but if you start down this path and don't like the changes you can always change back to a lighter weight workout. I have read many stories on Bodybuilding.com of women that were cardio queens but were unable to acheive the physique they wanted until they started to lift heavy.