I've got a small waist as compared to my chest, hips, and bootie. There's a 14 inch difference between the waist and butt. ehk.

Are there any exercises specifically tailored to those problem spots that someone could point me to? I've been doing really well with the exercise in general, I'm going to start weight training (really mild) to help build some more testosterone (which helps muscle build and helps fat go away) and start a no-bounce lifestyle!!

Anything is appreciated.

Hi,

From what I hear (and will soon experience more of) Tae Bo with Billy Blanks will take it off of ya! I just started doing it, and I can see a difference and feel a difference already in my butt and hips. I was a size 18 in shorts and all of a sudden, they got too big, so I went and bought me some 16's. I am also doing Tae Kwon Do, which I just started 2 weeks ago.

I have several Tae Bo dvd's but have only been working with the ab one mostly. They are HARD but well worth it. I got mine off ebay.

Good luck!
Kathy

Running worked for me. Now I have no boobs and no butt...maybe I should have cut back! Just kidding--I didn't have a lot of those two to begin with so I was shortchanged in that department.

Sorry to say, there's no such thing as an exercise that will "spot reduce" a particular area. The only thing you can really do is lose the fat (which will come off where it wants to rather than where you want it to) and tighten up the muscles underneath.

There is no such thing as spot reducing .

I had a peek at your fitday journal , yes I peeked!! It seems that your eating plan is very processed, such as granola bars, 4 cups of lemonade ! Clean your eating habits up a bit, eating as UNprocessed as possible, meaning eating regularly 5-6 meals/day, LOTS of vegetables, some fruits, lean proteins, chicken and fish, cottage cheese, unprocessed carbs such as brown rice, oatmeal, beans... Eating properly is 80% of the equation to weight loss.

Clean up your food plan you will see the difference in your weight loss because if you eat terribly, all your hard work exercising will be for nothing because you wont' have the proper nutrients to burn fat and build muscle plus you just won't have the energy to exercise properly, IMHO....

Once you clean up your food act, then concentrate on intense cardio whether it be walking, jogging, running, elliptical, doing tapes of tae-bo or aerobics, choose something you enjoy and will continue doing. Also incorporate weight training, don't be shy with the weights you CAN go heavy and not BULK, we women cannot bulk we just don't have the testorone to do so. Weight training WILL give us muscle definition once the FAT on top of the muscle leaves, but again if you have a terrible food plan the FAT will not go....

OK, OK, I'll get off the now, I've gotten quile long winded but this is something I really REALLY believe in so I try to get my point across

Hope this and all the other advise helps, keep in touch and let us know...

Julia and Ilene are right. We can do weight training exercises to strengthen muscles and cardio exercise to burn fat, but we can't pick where the fat is going to come off and in what order. Lots of people lose from the head down (so face first and then boobs) but the problem spots are often the last to leave, sorry to say. But the fat WILL come off if you stick to your exercise and diet plan!

I had an 17 1/2 difference between my waist (39.5") and hips (57") when I started , and by the time I got to my goal weight, I had 35" hips and a 26" waist. The last twenty pounds came 100% off my thighs and butt, but until I lost those last pounds, I thought I was doomed to look like a bowling pin forever.

So patience! You can't spot reduce but you can reduce fat all over and eventually it will come off everywhere.

BTW, I've never heard that weight training increases testosterone production in women before -- can you point me to more info or sources?

My source of info was my Human Development Professor, Kit Payne.
I'll ask her. She also said that men, during thier 40s-50s, if they drink a lot of alcohol, it produces a synthetic estrogen and they can get boobies. Really fun professor. I'll get some more info though.


Ilene, I'm trying to clean up my diet - I live in a college dorm though! It's kind of hard (plus I'm veggie) to eat 5-6 times a day because of how my meal plan works. My meal plan has me eating 2x a day (the reason for the granola bars).

I thought granola bars were good? Are the crunchy ones better than the chewy ones? Hm. For the past few days I've been starting to plan my trips to the dining commons, getting better stuff in me (trying!).

Char -- In MY opinion granola bars are glorified cookies with just as much sugar but maybe just a tad bit more fibre. NO they are NOT good...