How do you lose weight in fat muscular legs? - Weight Loss Message Board

LeighJ · 05-03-2006, 08:49 PM

I hear so often you can't spot reduce, which is really depressing to me. I am especially big in my inner and outer thighs. The problem is, that I am pretty muscular and when people say do things like squats, instead of loosing weight I am just building muscle....or at least that is all that it ever appears to me. I am sure I loose a little, but the muscle gain outweighs that advantage. I know, muscle is suppose to burn fat, for me though it just makes me look like a muscular fat legged person!

Any ideas on ways to slim down in the legs without bulking up?

Leigh

sukiyaki · 05-04-2006, 12:45 AM

Ok, sounds like you're built just like me. When I was going to the gym, the fitness instructor told me that when I do the leg machine, to lower the weights to like the first or second bar, and do more reps. Instead of like, 3 reps of 15 with 50 lbs weights, I should do like, 5 reps of 20 or 25 with 5 or 10 lbs. It worked

OutToLunch · 05-04-2006, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeighJ

I hear so often you can't spot reduce, which is really depressing to me. I am especially big in my inner and outer thighs. The problem is, that I am pretty muscular and when people say do things like squats, instead of loosing weight I am just building muscle....or at least that is all that it ever appears to me. I am sure I loose a little, but the muscle gain outweighs that advantage. I know, muscle is suppose to burn fat, for me though it just makes me look like a muscular fat legged person!

Any ideas on ways to slim down in the legs without bulking up?

Leigh

My advice would be to just be patient. I always had bulky legs even back when I was a runner. Then when I stopped running and began using the elliptical plus weight training, I worried about my legs getting even thicker. But a surprising thing happened. As I got leaner, my thigh measurements dropped. When I was running, I had a thigh measurement of 21". Then I switched to using an elliptical and also did weight training exercises like squats and leg extensions. My thighs went up to 22" but now they're down to 20.5". I think the trick is to keep the resistance on the elliptical as low as possible and not squat down. When it comes to weight training, focus on a rep range that lets you focus more on gaining strength and less on gaining muscle. This is the approach I've been taking for the past year. It's caused my legs to get stronger, but not thicker. And as I've lowered my body fat, my legs are starting to look slimmer. The jeans definitely don't feel as tight in the legs as they used to.