I seem to have wide "child-bearing hips" even though I've never had kids & I'm in my mid-50s! All my life, my hips have always been 12 inches larger than my waist no matter what I weigh. Had the same proportions when I was in the 190s (60 lbs overweight) as when I was 125 lbs years ago. (Anyone else have a similar wide hip history?)
Right now since I lost 7 lbs and a few inches during the past 2 months, I'm 148 lbs at 5'2" & waist is 31", hips 43". While it's nice to be curvy with a small waist, I've always hated having such WIDE HIPS. It's especially bad because I'm also so short w/ short legs-- these wide hips drag me down! Only have about 20 lbs to lose right now, but even around much more overweight women, I usually look like the widest! (I'd trade having a small waist for narrower hips anytime!)
The other day in Tai Chi class when the instructor had us face the mirror (unusual for that class, our sides are usually to the mirror), I was horrified to realize that compared to the 10 other women there (3 were more overweight than me), they were ALL narrower than me-- again I had the widest hips in the room! (happens all the time.)
I'm posting this on the Exercise forum because while I know that supposedly you can't "spot-reduce", what suggestions are there to "narrow" my hip size while NOT decreasing my waist size at the same time? Seems very tricky to find. Every time in an exercise class when it's announced about a good exercise to work on the waist & decrease its size (seems like most people are focused on this more than decreasing hip size), I want to avoid doing this routine, don't need my waist any smaller! I know this is an unusual request but I'm so sick of having my hips so wide & out of proportion compared to my waist!
A friend of mine (she's the same height as me but more overweight -- about 50 lbs overweight but has better proportions so she looks thinner than she is) said she believes my wide hips were partly caused by all the bike riding I do! (for decades now, I've used a bike for 75% - 80% of my transportation needs since I've never owned a car/been a driver) Never heard of this before, any possible truth to this? I countered back that my wide hips are probably more due to the years I was very sedentary at my job sitting at a desk & then sitting around a lot at home! (maybe it increased my hip spread?)
Btw, seems like I have wide hip bones but there's also soft skin w/ fat over those bones! Yet, when I've tried to reduce that fat on the hips, the waist goes along with it & gets smaller also. The smallest measurements I can remember having were 26" waist & 38" hips, that was at 125 lbs in my twenties. Don't think I ever got my hips below 38", could hardly fit into size 9/10 jeans at that weight even though other females my exact same height & weight (I knew 2 of them around my age) could fit into much smaller clothing sizes, size 6 jeans! That's another thing that frustrates me, how difficult it is to find clothes that fit me right w/ these extra-wide hips/small waist!
Sorry if this sounds like a bad rant but feeling very frustrated today. Would appreciate any helpful feedback and/or exercise advice.