Exercising your hips will do exactly the opposite of making your hips smaller. Exercising your hips, particularly cycling but also running and walking will build some muscle on your hips.
Its only losing weight in general that will lose weight on your hips. But if you naturally big hips or bum you would want to limit exercise and muscle building on that area.
However, i think that when you are slim anyway, its better to be fit than avoid exercise for the sake of not building muscle.
From looking at your pictures, the biggest part of your problem is saddle bags. you have a pear-shaped body type. This is just fat. You need only to lose weight through your general diet and they will go. I"ve got saddle bags too. I've lost weight before. But it is our natural shape and you can't change it really. When you put on weight, those saddle bags will come back. The only way to keep those saddle bags off is to be skinnier. And you may have to get used to the idea that there will always be some hint of them. So learn to accept them while you go about losing weight and getting fitter. and don't think you can get rid of all trace of them because trying to do that will make you too skinny in the top side of your body. When my bum is the right size - because my bum is my biggest problem, i have practically no boobs at all and my ribs show. So i am not going to try to go there again. Well i might if i was younger but at my age, its better to keep some fat to prevent me looking to old in the face.
The saddlebags are fat for sure.. they jiggle when I run.. LOL so I know whatever jiggles can be reduced by exercise and only exercise!
Great advice Pattience, I don't want to lose too much in my upper body, just want to make sure I am in proportion. I still have over 50lbs to lose before I reach my goal of 150! I have no idea what shape I will end up in by then!
Arctic Mama and Novus, thanks for the fashion advice but when I try to wear straight fits, since my 'saddle bags' are so wide, they make my pants look super baggy but yeah I guess I can dress better to not look out of proportion while I am still losing weight.
Wannabeskinny LOL.. you know how tough it is to get the Spanx to ride over my big butt??!! It takes forever to get them on, I have to literally jump in place to get them to ride up!! Same goes for stockings.. I fear ripping them and I feel like my insides are going to implode so I stay away from Spanx
nitrus29 You look great - what a transformation! I can see the disappointment in your face though. You look so much happier in your before pictures
I really don't have any suggestions, but I did see someone suggested Hip Abductor/Adductor machines. Please be very, very careful if you try these. I have injured myself using these machines, and afterwards did my fair share of research (realized I wasn't the only one injuring myself!) and decided to stop using them based on what I found. Also, it won't do a thing for reducing inches of your outer thighs, even if it feels like you're working them hard.
I would suggest adding strength, though. I'd go for something that focuses on your larger thigh muscles (probably squats and lunges?) and maybe consider adding interval training into your cardio routine if you don't do it already. It's known to do wonders for fat burning!
Disclaimer: my opinion is based solely on personal experience and some internet research. Good luck to you as you continue your journey. You have already done an amazing job!
nonameslob - haha you caught the disappointment alright! I was happier when I was heavier 'cause I didn't care about my weight but now that I do, I get grumpy every time I take progress pics. But I am a happy person overall, believe me! Hehe
thanks for the advice though, any little bit I get, I'll take. I'm as stubborn as the fat.. the saddles HAVE to go!!
Oh I don't advise pants at all for pears, as skirts are a much safer bet. Get away with them as much as possible and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, because they will draw attention to your lovely waist while skimming the problem bits.
Arctic Mama and Novus, thanks for the fashion advice but when I try to wear straight fits, since my 'saddle bags' are so wide, they make my pants look super baggy but yeah I guess I can dress better to not look out of proportion while I am still losing weight.
You want pants that are tailored and wide-legged....not oversized and baggy. I found this article that shows some good examples of what I mean.
Even if you're totally against this idea, my post had a lot of other suggestions also.
I have the same problem. Patience is really all you can do. My hips are the largest part of me. I have found that I can wear up to two sizes smaller in dresses and skirts than I can pants. I take my measurements monthly and was getting very frustrated that my hips weren't shrinking at the same rate as the rest of me, but here lately I have started to see really good results. My sister tells me all the time "You can't choose what parts of your body shrink." I guess it's true, and it all comes in time. You have done a great job!!!
I agree Arctic Mama, skirts do make me look more proportional and thanks for the link Novus - I am a bit fashion challenged and shopping for different sized tops and bottoms is such a pain
My sister tells me all the time "You can't choose what parts of your body shrink." I guess it's true, and it all comes in time. You have done a great job!!!
Exercising your hips will do exactly the opposite of making your hips smaller. Exercising your hips, particularly cycling but also running and walking will build some muscle on your hips.
Its only losing weight in general that will lose weight on your hips. But if you naturally big hips or bum you would want to limit exercise and muscle building on that area.
However, i think that when you are slim anyway, its better to be fit than avoid exercise for the sake of not building muscle.
From looking at your pictures, the biggest part of your problem is saddle bags. you have a pear-shaped body type. This is just fat. You need only to lose weight through your general diet and they will go. I"ve got saddle bags too. I've lost weight before. But it is our natural shape and you can't change it really. When you put on weight, those saddle bags will come back. The only way to keep those saddle bags off is to be skinnier. And you may have to get used to the idea that there will always be some hint of them. So learn to accept them while you go about losing weight and getting fitter. and don't think you can get rid of all trace of them because trying to do that will make you too skinny in the top side of your body. When my bum is the right size - because my bum is my biggest problem, i have practically no boobs at all and my ribs show. So i am not going to try to go there again. Well i might if i was younger but at my age, its better to keep some fat to prevent me looking to old in the face.
I'm sorry, this is the worst advice I've seen you give yet. Avoid walking and running and cycling to avoid building muscle in that area? The body should be worked equally as they are all connected. Overworking any can lead to imbalances in muscle structure which can cause other issues, but that also goes for underworking some muscles. This is why cross-training is so important and WALKING is one of the best exercises of all as it's low impact and something most of us can do our whole lives and uses so many muscle groups.
You are right though that in the problem isn't the hips, but fat stores in the upper thighs and as the OP loses weight, they will keep shrinking and shrinking. At what rate and in what proportion to other areas of the body is unpredictable, but the issues should resolve itself.
Last edited by berryblondeboys; 05-12-2014 at 04:31 PM.
This is slightly off topic. . .but look for the Jennifer Lopez brand of clothing at Kohls. Her jeans especially are cut for curvier figures like herself.
My point was to not focus your exercise on those areas. Exercising the areas you want to get smaller won't do anything to make that area smaller. It will only make it bigger. As you lose weight, you will get smaller, but building muscle in a problem area will make that area over all bigger.
I'm not really suggesting she doesn't walk or run. I am suggesting that's you'd have to do if you didn't want to build muscle there and add to the problem.
And i am certainly not suggesting she focus all her exercise on the top half of her body.
But i would say something like swimming freestyle, not breastroke, would be a good exercise because in swimming its the upper body that does most of the work. Breastroke would definitely build your buttock muscles.
But she still seems fixed on the idea that only exercise can resolve this problem. Well if this is what she believes, she will never resolve her problem. Losing weight is the way to reduce those saddle bags.
As to clothes. I have found that palazzo pants look great on me. And when i'm overweight i wear them with a tunic or below the bum length top. Since i bought my first pair of palazzo, low rider, pants 3 years ago, i haven't stopped wearing them, until now when i can wear long shorts again.
Narrow legged pants are the worst thing for wide hips unless you wear a tunic over the top. Last year i bought some wonderful big soft knit tops. Oversized with a sleeve. They are so lovely to wear, even as i'm skinnier. And they look great with a long skirt of trousers. alas i can't wear them in the hot weather.
Re skirts, A-line i think are supposed to the be the style of choice for pears. I liked long straight skirts if i could put a long top over them. Empire style dresses were good also.
Can I just say that you are freaking adorable! lol Really! You look great!
What's been working really well for me is walking hills. I can't believe how strong my legs and butt are and cannot believe how much smaller my saddlebags/thighs are. My hips/thighs were bigger when I was in my 20's and at a lower weight than I am now.
But the big thing is just losing more, I think. I am having the same sort of frustration with my belly now (oddly I was never that worried about my belly when I was bigger, but now I'm so frustrated bc I keep feel this crazy abs under there but there's still a pool of fat and skin sitting on top of them). I think I just need to lose that fat.
Agreed! You look beautiful. I too have hips and just find that certain clothes can balance out my body better than others. I have also found that guys LOVE hips for certain indoor fun activities
Agreed! You look beautiful. I too have hips and just find that certain clothes can balance out my body better than others. I have also found that guys LOVE hips for certain indoor fun activities
I'm sorry, this is the worst advice I've seen you give yet.
Berry blonde boys, i'm going to call you out on this. That's quite insulting. You are suggesting that i give a lot of bad advice. Naturally, since you've never countered anything i've said before, except perhaps for the thyroid thing, i can't think what you might be referring to. Rather than making insulting judgement calls in future you can just contradict what you disagree with.
btw i run and i cycle or at least i have done a lot of cycling. Here's what i looked like in 2011 when i was skinny (less than 55kg) and have done a lot of bicycle riding and on a diet controlled eating. I wouldn't have got like that eating the way i do when not on a diet. I know touring cyclists, i.e. who cycle all day with loaded panniers like i do, and still are considerably overweight.
Here's how i looked at the start of this current diet beginning of January. I don't know if i've got a pic now. I was 80.2 kg in the morning for that picture. Or maybe even a little less because i didn't take it at the very beginning. http://s123.photobucket.com/user/mis...20bc5.jpg.html
and I feel like my insides are going to implode so I stay away from Spanx 
Good luck to you as you continue your journey. You have already done an amazing job!
I was happier when I was heavier 'cause I didn't care about my weight but now that I do, I get grumpy every time I take progress pics. But I am a happy person overall, believe me! Hehe 
- I am a bit fashion challenged and shopping for different sized tops and bottoms is such a pain 
