Best exercise for losing weight on hips and thighs?

[muminthecity]

I have recently lost just over 3 stone with a combination of Slimming World and visiting the gym. The weight loss is really showing on my stomach, waist and arms, but my hips and thighs are still huge! Can anyone recommend a particular exercise that is good for these areas? Something that I can do either at the gym or at home? (The gym I go to is very modern and fully equipped with every machine known to man!) Thank you in advance

[Pan]

Yay for you Cote! But overall weight loss wasn't Scot's enquiry. She was fairly specific about her request.

[EarthtoMajorTom]

Best ever exercise for toning thighs is an hour's walk a day with a dog pulling you along on a lead.

[CoteDAzur]

Pan - Conversation moved on a bit from there and the link I posted was relevant to what mercury & I were talking about. Lovely to see you share my enthusiasm for this fascinating subject, though

[Pan]

I've thought of nothing else since, Cote.

[CoteDAzur]

That's the spirit

[Sleepwhenidie]

To really hit the thighs and bum in the gym, Novice is spot on, the stepper machine is fantastic (evil, but fantastic). Less impact on the joints than the treadmill but hard work. Do intervals and you will shift fat pretty quickly,

[snowlie]

Exercise will help to build muscle on hips and thighs if you do enough and the energy expenditure may help you to lose fat, as long as you don't eat back all those calories burned but there is no way to target fat loss on the body to a specific area, unfortunately!

[muminthecity]

Thanks again everyone, especially Pan and CoteDAzur for the interesting debate . FWIW I do swim, but not very often as I find it a bit boring! I prefer to go swimming with DD, swim a few lengths, play around with DD for a bit, do a few more lengths, go down the water slide with DD etc .

I have started doing squats. They are bloody hard, and I can definitely feel it in my thighs! Will keep going with them and try to build up the amount I can do.

On a positive note, whatever I have been doing so far is having some effect. Last night I tried on a pair of skinny jeans which, a couple of months ago, I couldn't pull up past the tops of my thighs. They now fit perfectly!

[Elenashephard]

Do Squats and lunges and perform hip extensions, also in order to work away that thigh fat, you have to work out your entire body.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Squats and lunges are a great way to screw up your knees & hips especially if ... you are over 35.

I'm 52 and have done the 30 day Shred a couple of times through and now Ripped in 30, thet have loads of squats and lunges and my joints feel better than before I started. (the thing that screws up my hip is running on level tarmac). For anyone who prefers exercising at home, and especially if you don't have much time, these videos are good for all-over toning and strength, include warm-up/cooldown, show you how to do the moves with good form and what to avoid (esp with the legwork)and there's always a support thread (sometimes several) on MN.

[kaizen]

I agree with squats and lunges with kettle bells- I must have done literally thousands in the last 2 years n have an arse n thighs like bloody rock . Try holding the movement down too for a couple of seconds to really engage the muscles and do them slowly for max effect.

Same works for tricep dips too - much harder and more effective if you slow down n hold at the bottom for 2 secs.

[kaizen]

Try doing a ski squat against the wall too and gradually extend the time, and if you want to be really mental follow 30 secs ski squat with 10 jump squats, then 30 secs followed by 9 jumps, then 8 etc etc until you are weeeeeeeeeeping and then have this