I am happy with everything on my body except for my stomach and my inner thighs! I know there's no way to "spot reduce" but god...if I lose any more weight in some other areas of my body, I will look like a skeleton. Yet I have this stubborn belly fat and stupid inner thigh fat. UGH!!! I'm still 5 lbs from goal though, so maybe by then these areas will look better.
I'm not an expert, but I've heard that the belly and thighs are the place that women hold the fat they need for reproductive health. That's why it's so stubborn. I've also heard that there are certain foods can increase the appearance of fat in these areas (i.e., they make you bloat). I'd say watch your processed carbs, beans, cruciferous veggies, and dairy, and increase your water intake while maintaining or increasing your cardio.
Another thing I've heard is about crunches and ab exercises. When you do them, focus on bringing the muscles up and in toward your back versus just crunching and letting your stomach squish outward. You can actually train your muscles to go in the wrong way which will make you look like you have a pot belly.
I've learned to accept my inner thigh fat. I think women who's thighs don't touch at least a little at the top look weird.
Last edited by HudsonHawk; 07-25-2008 at 08:24 AM.
The other day, I was looking at my inner thigh, and realized there's not THAT much fat on them (we won't talk about the saddle bags though).
I really wonder if part of it is our height. We want to look like the skinny 5'9" models, but we NEVER will. Maybe if we're below a healthy BMI/fat %.
So, I think I've come to the realization that I'll never have skinny thighs.
(although since I'm in my 30's with 2 kids via csection, I've had a 'pooch'. Never had belly fat before them. Now I do. We'll see if that will ever go away)
I have the same issue!! (a very common one as a woman). I still have weight to lose in my arms and legs, but the main problem areas for me are stomach and thighs. Right now I am doing walking/running/spinning to tone up my legs, cardio in general for fat all over, crunches to tone up my abs so I don't end up "skinnyfat" when I reach goal, and strength/resistance training in general for upper and lower body.
Even when I weighed 105 lbs 20 some years ago I had "thunder thighs" (I think that's where most of the weight was). You could find exercises that tone the inner and out thigh muscle which could make it appear more slender I guess. There is also a book called the "Flat Belly Diet" which has foods, recipes, etc. with foods that can help reduce belly bloat. Hope this is helpful.
Hanging leg raises are great for flattening out the stomach along with cardio. After 4 weeks my stomach went from flab to flat. I also did crunches, leg lifts, and v-ups 6x a week. Diet being a major factor. (I agree with HudsonHawk on holding in your stomach while exercising and the diet bit)
Upper thighs are the last place to notice a difference. Even with lifting heavy weights the upper part of my thighs are the slowest in coming around. I have a gap now which is nice, but it's now my only problem area.
I heard Yohimbine is great for women to take just before their morning fasting cardio as it makes your body use up hormonal fat around hips, thighs, and butt. I've been taking it the past 3 weeks and lost 1/2 inch on each thigh, but who knows if I would've lost that anyway. I'm going to keep taking it though as it's been 7 years since I've had this gap : )
Great advice Taurie. Thanks. I am going to do the Hanging leg raises... how many would you rec... sets and # and how many times a day? Just curious as to what you do.
Hanging leg raises are great for flattening out the stomach along with cardio. After 4 weeks my stomach went from flab to flat.
I have to agree, I had great and fast results doing hanging leg lifts. It's a killer exercise but, so worth it. My tummy and inner thighs are still pretty saggy but, it sure beats what they were at!
okay, now I feel silly... What is a hanging leg raise? I have the same problem with the tummy so anything new I can learn would help!
Don't feel silly. It's good to ask.
I'd post a link to a video or picture of a hanging leg raise but, since I'm new and haven't posted much I can't post links etc
If you google hanging leg raise you should be able to see what we are talking about. Some show actual hanging though, I do the ones were my elbows rest of the side pads.
I looked it up but read it's difficult to do because posture needs to stay still and apparently thats hard to achieve. Plus I dont go to gym..can I just hang from any old thing ? :/
Great advice Taurie. Thanks. I am going to do the Hanging leg raises... how many would you rec... sets and # and how many times a day? Just curious as to what you do.
Yohimbine, I'll have to read up on that one...
For hanging leg raises you do as many as you can and you do 3 sets of them. You can do it any time of day. A book I have recommends doing stomach before weights training other parts of your body. But, I would do it either before or after my weight training or after my cardio.
I started doing:
3 sets of 10... and worked my way up to 20 in week 1 and 2
4 sets of 20... in week 3 and 4
5 sets of 20... in week 5 and 6
3 sets of 30... in week 7 and 8 (this is where I am now)
4 sets of ?... in week 9 and 10 (next week)
5 sets of ?... in week 11 and 12...
okay, now I feel silly... What is a hanging leg raise? I have the same problem with the tummy so anything new I can learn would help!
There are different ways to do it. I use what they call "captain's chair hanging leg raises" since, I don't have a lot of upper body strength. Here's a link to how you go about it.
Thanks for the link to the directions... I can see where that would help with the belly fat...
I exercise at home now also, I'm going to try to find a way to do it on my Weider home gym...
I do an ab workout video on exercise tv most every day - this morning I made sure to pull my stomach in so I didn't train it to poke out. It was harder than I thought it would be!
Stomach and inner thighs...
