I have been doing squats and lunges for about 3 months now and my thighs are getting bigger every day I swear. Is it better if I just do them without using weights and just using my own body weight? I know that lifting weights will not bulk women up but the way my legs are looking I don't know. Any suggestions???

Are you doing any cardio too? (Treadmill, elliptical, etc.) Doing cardio might help tighten them up a bit. (And since they use slow-twitch muscles, they don't bulk like the fast-twitch muscles used in weights/lunges/etc.)

Also, make sure you're going through the full movement of the lunge/work. If you're stopping too short or don't have good form, you're only working part of the muscle, instead of the whole thing, and this will cause it to bulk up in one section instead of being "long and lean."

Try mixing up your exercises too, so that it's not all lunges.

--Janis

If you aren't losing fat, just gaining muscle they will get bigger. I don't know your story as far as what your goal is so it would help us help you if you told us a little more

My thighs are enormous too. I gain muscle quicker than I lose fat on my legs. But about 6 months ago (and I posted a distress post just like this one) my arms did the same thing, and now they have slimmed a great deal.

Just work through it. As the other fab posters have said, keep up your cardio so you are burning the fat, and really take time over your technique.

Intense cardio (running) and of course heavy leg training has leaned my legs out, but it takes time, unfortunetaly...

I do about 1/2 hour of cardio (treadmill) on my off days and then 15-20 minutes again on my weight days. I hope that's enough???

I wouldn't have thought that would be enough, but I'm no expert. I do 20 minutes on weight training days, as well as an hour swimming. On cardio days I do about an hour sometimes more, and I do a mix up combination, sometimes treadmill, cross trainer, bike, stepper, rower and a weird new thing called a cardio wave. I shake it up all the time.

Although I say my thighs are huge, I have lost over 10 inches off each one in a year, so I must be doing something right

That's awesome results ...

I'm no expert either, but I think intensity is also key when you are doing cardio. If you spend 30 mins on the treadmill walking leasurely, well, to me that's not cardio. If you are going at a fast pace, working up a good sweat, and feel like you've really accomplished something after half an hour, then you are on the right track... I do at least an hour of cardio, or more, every second day, on the other days I weight train and/or swim for at least an hour...

I'm seeing similar results (as in, getting bigger) but mainly in my calves. They really are huge. Last year I lost 12lbs of fat and gained 6lbs of muscle and I think the majority of that went into my legs. The fat definately came off my bottom, it's looking, dare I say, pert these days!

As my cardio I do 30 mins of elliptical on weight days (3 days a week) and 30 - 45 mins of running on the treadmill on my off days (2 days a week). I am hoping that as time passes, my muscles will take on a "leaner" look. My frame is medium but sometimes I suspect that I will be stocky looking when I get down to my goal weight. Not that stocky is a bad thing but I always hoped I would regain some of the lean, slim look I had when I was younger.