fat thighs

[olijackmum]

my thighs are really depressing me I have joined a gym and doing loads of exercise on the treadmill , bike , cross trainer 3 or 4 times a week and also leg press weights but feel like they are getting bigger rather than thinner .

Anyone any advice

Thank you for all your help I know now what I need to do , and hopfully I can start to try and get these horrible things down

Wanted to add to respond to Lostgirl - I am only doing a 5km run once a week. The other times I go to the gym I spend 15 mins on treadmill doing interval training like she describes - increasing speed and incline, pushing comfort zone.

Also thanks Lostgirl for explaining no point to the inner/outer thigh machine, will not use again, doing losts of squats/lunges in the shred DVD.

Try and take the focus of your thighs, measure different parts of your body and take a picture of yourself in your underwear, then to commit to doing something for a month and then remeasure and take another photo to compare. If you are pear shaped then you will start noticing changes in other parts of your body first, for me it was my shoulders. There is no quick fix and nothing that can just target your thighs in particular, you need to try and take a healthy whole body approach to this and congratulate yourself when it starts to work even if you are not seeing the results where you want to for a while.
Forever the shred is great for muscular endurance but also a good idea to do some lunges and squats at a lower rep range/higher number of sets/heavier weight to help build strength as well. This in turn would help your running and cycling, give you more power in your legs.

Lostgirl good idea, will do some squats and lunges in gym (with heavier weights...only have 2kg and 4kg at home, although could use DS2, he weights about 9kg ) also do squats and lunges on powerplate... but thats something else!

I've never tried a power plate, do yo think they are any good?? You will be surprised by how much weight you will need to make low reps a challenge, your ds is probably not heavy enough! If you want something new try some bulgarian split squats and single leg romanian deadlifts, two of my favorites at the moment. How long until your sprint triathlon?

Forever, thankyou for that advise. I think I have a Rosemary Connely GI DVD somewhere. Am going to look for it.

I like the power plate think it does make a difference, but hard to tell as doing so many other things at same time...

Sprint triathlon is Blenheim Palace, start of June. Signed up at start of diet as way to help motivate me! Sill haven't trained outside yet. Am waiting until after easter! But can do each thing on its own, and no problem doing running after cycle.....

Typical week:
Sunday - 20 mins trixster (6km), 5km run, 30 lengths front crawl
Monday - 30 day shred
Tuesday - 30 day shred
Wednesday am 40 mins trixster, 20 mins run, plus free weights, pm 25 min swim (Thurs - 30 day shred
Friday - spin class, plus 2km run
Sat - day off

I've certainly noticed that the Power Plate made a huge difference to my arms and shoulders (doing press ups on plate).

Spinning is excellent for lower body as well.

I am exhausted just reading that Forever, what is a Trixster?

A trixster is a gaming bike. Its a race... progress up the levels and the trails get harder. Involves steering, braking, and changing gears. I love it. It arrived in the gym the week after I signed up for the triathlon, so excellent timing!

www.trixter.net/

Must try some press-ups on the powerplate!

Wow!
Mine is a Council run gym so won't hold my breath that we'll get one!
Honestly, a few minutes of press ups (you don't even have to do move, just hold the position) on the powerplate and you can feel the difference, great for abs as well.

Am impressed there is a powerplate in a council run gym.

I go to a virgin active gym, I think they put trixters in lots of their gyms.

Will try press-ups, already do plank on powerplate so will try some press ups too.

You do have to pay! £10 for 100 minutes.
So not that bad.
Do you know, there is a strange looking bike that noone goes on in the gym, I will ask what it is next time I go. I am on a mission now I am garden leave pre-starting my FT job.

Well i went home and did some squats, lunges and other exercises and feeling much better today, apart from achy legs

this has been a great thread for me - I have spent years hating my fat thighs and thinking how unfair it was to have them without working out that actually being overweight probably is the main cause of it!

forever - you have inspired me to get down to BMI of 23 with your results - started back at the gym today on running programme and booked a weight training session to support it..

Did just want to ask if you used the Slimpods I saw you mention on another thread - did you find them useful?

Hi,

I always had an issue with my thighs as well. I was doing kickboxing for my exercise, so I had muscle but unfortunately still fat around the muscle.Then my friend recommended the Dukan Diet. I couldn't believe it, how fast results came. I lost 6.5 kg so far. I hate dieting but I saw results on my friend and I just had to try it. It is the only diet that helped me lose fat from my thighs. My cellulite is also less visible because of that. The best thing is that you can eat whenever you want, as long as you eat allowed food. I highly recommend it to anyone.

I'm so happy about it that I started a blog (Firm Thighs and Butt) because I want to share my experience and help others with the same problem. I'm now size 8 AUS which I believe is size 6. I've never been so toned.

ZZMum I haven't bought the slimpods, have Paul McKenna which I use if I need extra willpower.

But yes, I had fat thighs because I was overweight, not the other way around. When I get overweight I store the weight on my thighs! BMI is now just under 23, target was 22.5 (only have 1lb to go!) then will try and keep weight the same and reduce bodyfat % down a bit. Normal is between 20-25 so wanted to aim for middle of range. And yes at this weight I am now in proportion. My thighs are never going to be skinny but wouldn't mind being seen in swimming costume.

Olijackmum well done! But it takes time, need to be patient....

teic24, yes currently doing dukan. Started off doing low GI, low fat (inspired by Rosemary Coneley thigh diet but not following meal plans) used tesco diets to track it. But found that dukan has helped when I reached plateau. Don't miss the carbs but do miss vegetables on protein days.

LostGirl, where did you get your information that after glycogen, the body burns lean muscle in preference to fat?

It sounds such a counter-productive thing for our bodies to do. You would've thought that over the millions of years our metabolisms have evolved, they would do better than that.

ZZMum The reason for me aiming for the middle of the BMI range was because I am of a medium built. Someone of small build might want to aim for the lower end of the range, etc. You can work out your build depending on wrist measurement...

I read it in a book but there is an article here that talks about the same thing. It does seem counter productive but the way it was explained to me is that when humans evolved we needed to hunt etc and this meant our bodies needed to walk for long distances, with sudden short bursts of dynamic activity, not long distance running etc.
I'm not saying that running won't make your thighs smaller but you will have a different body composition and you could possibly workout more time effectively by using other methods.

My thighs are always the first place I gain weight and the last place I lose it too. The only thing which works for me, is regular cardio and toning exercises combined with a healthy balanced diet where I stick to about 1200-1500 cals of low GI foods.

I have to have my BMI down under 23 to see any difference to my thighs, and definitely look best at a BMI of 22. Right now I'm about 24.5 so have about another stone to go, and have already dropped 11lbs doing a low GI diet. The weird thing is how much has gone off between my boobs and hips - I didn't realise I had that much there to lose!! Just need the rest to catch up now..

since starting this thread I have been doing squats and other exercises every morning and night as I havnt been able to get to t he gym and I have also started slimming world so maybe I will be wearing a bikini in august