So far since I started my diet I have lost 8 pounds, but it doesn't reflect a bit in my pants size. I can tell a difference in my belly and the way my shirts fit, but my pants all fit the same still! I got down to 128lbs when I was in high school a few years ago, but I still wore a 10 pretty comfortably. My hips measure 41 inches and they make me feel HUGE because my waist and bust are relatively smaller (bust 36, waist 29). I'm having to squeeze into a 12 and it's so depressing!! I want to get down into a pants size with a single digit!! Any tips on exercise or ANYTHING!! I'm desperate to shed some inches from my pear shape!

Kayla

What diet are you doing and what type of exercise? I did WW, and every time my weight starts to tip on the side of the scale I don't like, I start food journaling again. I also stay extremely active and do different exercise for every season. Softball for spring, summer, and fall. And during the winter I hit the gym and do machines and swim. I also swim a lot during the summer. I will start walking again once fall starts to near. I just try to make sure I stay out of the heat as much as possible and wait until night to get out there.

I definitely think if you food journal, it will help you sniff out the rat. I mean, I get rid of the glass of orange juice at night before bed once I start tipping the scales or lay off pizza and fast food.

I had been keeping a food journal, but since I graduated nursing school and started working I haven't really had the extra time. I am doing weight watchers as well and I've done okay up until this point, but I have been slipping some. I guess I'm getting too comfortable again and before I know it I'll put back on all the weight that I have lost if I don't intervene. Instead of taking my lunch to work like I used to (Smart Ones, Lean Cuisine, etc), I've just been eating there and I think that is my biggest problem. Also I'm not exercising as much since I started working, so there is another problem. I don't know, I guess I'm just going to have to stop avoiding the old tread mill and get into gear! I'll start running again bright and early in the morning!! Thanks for the encouragement!

Kayla

Kayla,

I am still learning the ropes so to speak. The best advice I can give to anyone is to let nothing, and I do mean nothing come between you and your exercise, sleep and nutrition. NOTHING and NO ONE! Plan your success. Plan your foods. Make your meals and snacks for work. Get up an hour early to get in your workout. Cut out processed or drastically cut back. Whole foods is the way to go! Look for ways to get in extra activity--walk during lunch time if you are able...take the stairs @ work as you go up and down. Wherever you can add it in, do it. I am not a WW but I believe their principles work--especially their non-scale victory ideas. GO! GO! GO!

girl i have the exact same measurements as you, although i am 15 lbs heavier and 2.5 inches taller. that i can remember, i have never been in a single digit pant size, the smallest i remember was when i was in highschool being a size 10. since i started my diet i have gone from a size 16 to a 12, so i know its hard to see right now, but the weight WILL come off! just keep at it! my goal is to be a single digit pant size as well, and as i have never been there in my adult life i can't really picture what i'll look like, but i know its bound to happen if i keep going. i am calorie counting, which is pretty similar to WW, and i have heard on here that the closer you get to your goal weight the harder it is to lose, and that since our bodies have learned to function on fewer calories, we need to up the cardio a lot more to get the scale moving down. i am still working on this part, lol. us pear shapes have a much harder time losing our hips, but its not impossible i promise, we can do it!

...I promise it too!!

I am a pear, but I used to be even "more a pear"
I have a different unit of measurement and different clothes sizes, so it's quite difficult for me to picture what a size 9 is... anyway, when I started the diet (I mean, THIS diet... my highest weight was 171) I was about 34-28-41 inches for 150 lb. Now I am 130 lb and 32-26-38... so you see I am still a pear.

But the inches in my lower body went off the last. FIRST I lost all the weight in the upper part of my body, which made me feel uncomfortable, with no breast and skinny arms and HUGE (in comparison) legs and B-side. But THEN, with no special effort, the weight came off even from my lower body.

I still have quite "big" legs... but I can't do so much on them, they are built that shape. If I exercise more, they just add up more muscle and become even bigger ehehe

But I have one suggestion for you, something that worked for me to get rid of the fat in my bum. I started to drink daily a special herbal tea which was meant to "drain and purify". Nothing too strong or laxative... just something that helped to get rid of toxins. Because you know, I suffer from constipation, and when this happens (maybe this is your case too?) the body can't get rid of all the toxins... and guess where is the first place the body uses to store all the toxins... yes, bum and cellulite!
so maybe you can try some beverage that may help you to get rid of the toxins

Good luck pear pal!!

Thanks girls! I no longer feel alone in my battle to get rid of my enormous hips! I started my diet again hard core yesterday (yes I admit I had been slipping). My short term goal is to lose 5 lbs by the end of the month so FINGERS CROSSED! I'm looking into getting one of the new ab circle thingy-ma-jiggers that they are advertising on TV. I just want to read some testimonials first before I waste my money. What do you all think??

oh i have seen the infomercials for those, if i could afford one right now i would totally buy one (i just realized i have no idea how much they are. the commercial says like a 30 day trial for $30 or smething but i'm sure that when you call they ask for the rest of it and tell you they will refund it or something if you don't like it) i do not know anyone who has one but as far as i can tell they can work wonders. it's pretty much like anything else on tv IMO, it all works as long as we use it! thats my problem, lol, i buy it then use it twice but i am working on that! good luck with your five pound goal and let us know about the abcircle pro if you get it!

hi there! I have a suggestion that may help more than you think, its along the same lines as what Julietta said as far as sort of "cleansing" your body.

Basically, all I know is, I am a pear shaped girl as well, and exercise and good nutrition are the keys blah blah blah, we all know this- its fact! But I also realized that I am a bit backed up and tend to be bloated a lot because of it. I looked into it natural ways to make my digestion normal and found that supplements like Align or yogurt with cultures like Activia really help in the lower gut and abs, making the area shrink a fair bit and your clothes will fit som uch better!

If you don't have this problem than ignore this, lol! I just found that I felt so much better when I realized and addressed my digestive "problems"

You are definitely not alone! Even when I weighed in the 120s, I never felt thin because of my my big butt (at least in comparison to my chest). Actually it's the hips that make me crazy, I have always felt like I looked very saddle bag-y... I totally understand the frustration.

All I can think of is to bump up the cardio to get overall body fat down. At least that's my plan, since my body fat had gotten high. I am doing gym aerobic classes 3-4x/week, 30 Day Shred when I'm in a pinch and need to just squeeze something in, and treadmill jogging/incline-walking on most other days. I am going to start the Couch to 5K program, probably in the fall when it's cool enough to run outside.

Also another strategy that I am trying is a lot of upper body toning to even out as much as possible the difference between top and bottom. The good thing about being a pear is that we tend to not have back and arm fat that hides muscles. We can get great arms and shoulders, so I am trying to emphasize that.

I haven't ever heard any good news about reducing the tendency to store fat in the bottom parts - except just losing fat in general (which tends to make the upper parts get really skinny...)

I'll be checking this thread to see if anyone has any other insight.

Thanks all for the input!! And to the previous post, yes we do tend to have a "skinnier" upper body (LOL!) If it weren't for my belly, love handles, hips, and thighs I be smokin'!! *Laughs until her side aches a little!* If I could be more committed to exercise then I could drop the inches pronto, but I'm... lazy? No more like so freakin busy that when I do have a second off from LIFE, all I want to do is lounge around in my jammies and watch NCIS! I'm an LPN and I work on an as needed basis, so I get called in on my days off a lot. I'm also in nursing school full time, have a husband, a dog, and a ga-zillion other pets, plus house work, homework, and yada yada. Excuses, excuses I KNOW, but they are my excuses and they are completely genuine! If I didn't have all of that junk on my plate then I could totally find the time and energy to stick to some sort of exercise. Heck I used to run like 2 miles a day until right before I started college, so I know I can do it. It's just I literally don't have the time with the crazy schedule that I have right now. Maybe I can try to squeeze in some pilates or a quick run in there somewhere... I'll try! Anyways, yeah sorry for ranting there for a second! LOL! Thanks again for all of the great advice.

Kayla