Hi all,

I'm in a good place at the moment, doing well on my new lifestyle. Loving exercising and eagerly anticipating a real increase in my fitness. I'm also enjoying the weight coming off, of course!

I did my measurements today, and am losing lots from my waist, but only a little from my hips. And, I store most of my excess fat in my bum, thighs and legs in general.

I'd love tips on ways to accelerate the fat loss from these areas, and how to get more in proportion. I think I've lost as much off my chins as I have off my legs so far help!

You can't spot reduce. Your body will lose fat from where ever it wants (in my case, the bum, where I can least afford it.)

You could do stairclimbing, hiking, biking, lungs etc. to build muscle in your lower half.

Thanks Seagirl!

Trust me a loss from anywhere is a welcome one, and I do understand I can't order where the weight comes off, was just hoping there was a way to help out my most problematic areas.....

I think the building the muscle is what I was talking about, rather than making the fat disappear (although, that would be nice!) Probably a bit of a stupid thread from me now I read it back!

Pull-aways = that's when you "pull away" from the table! Seriously.

If you want to firm up the glutes/thighs quickly...2nd to PULL AWAYS, is RUNNING! C25K is a great program for beginners.

Yeah, as long as you understand you can't spot reduce. You can definitely build beautiful muscles that will pop once the fat does choose to move.

My favorite leg "stuff":

cardio: Spinning, running, elliptical, stair running. Of those, I feel the stairs the most and it takes the least amount of time. I run stairs up and down 3:00 at a time for 3 sets.

lifting: Regular squats, weighted squats, squats on a BOSU, squat pulses. (I like squats!) Lunges are great. Wall sits are amazing and hard and you can work up to a time you are really proud of. Calf raises are great. I like to combine a calf raise with a bicep curl. It works the calf muscle in a different way as you balance the weights and also works the core a bit. To do the movement you raise up on your toes and hold the position while performing a bicep curl. Lower the curl, then the lower the heels.

Oh that's good to know! I started c25k yesterday, looking forward to the second sesh tomorrow

Thanks Eliana! I'll defo try out all you suggested, minus the stairs perhaps (at home at least, I live in an old thai house with dodgy wooden stairs that would no way take me running up and down them lol)

Today I made up a routine of plain squats, lunges and leg raises, 16 of each on each side, and did three cycles. I look forward to adding in some of your ideas too

don't forget lateral moves too. (sideways) like side lunges with or without a weight. or speed skaters. they are actually pretty fun!

I saw someone do some "speed skating" side to sides in socked feet on the kitchen floor. I've seen it done with towels too. I haven't actually tried it but it looks like fun.

yup, and you can also hop side to side. so it's easily adjusted for knee problems or a really high energy w/o. also, sounds great for kids too

you can't spot reduce and you need to realize that they may actually appear bigger when you first really work on them but if you wanna tone up those areas really good.

squats of any kind. moving squats, side squats, sumo squats, sissy squats, split squats jumps, hindu squats, etc.

lunges of any kind. static lunges, moving lunges, side lunges, one leg lunges, etc.

deadlifts are also great for your butt and legs and should be done with relatively heavy weights. the traditional version is great but you will probably want to do sumo deadlifts since they put more emphasis on your legs and butt instead of your back.

kicking in my opinion would be your best bet. they work the whole area your talking about and can definitely be considered cardio so do all kinds of kicks. front kicks, side kicks, back kicks, roundhouse kicks, scissor kicks, etc. try and stick to the easier ones at first and work your way up. i can still barely manage to do decent scissor kicks but it gets easier with time. XD

running and bicycling are also very popular and will get the job done eventually but the combination of squats, lunges, deadlifts, and kicking will get you there much faster.