slimming thighs at the gym

J

jess12

New member
hey, i hope i have posted this in the right section. Basically, I am very unhappy with the size of my thighs, and have just joined the gym. I would like some advice on what machines/workouts are best to do to slim them, as opposed to building up lots of muscle and making them big.
I was thinking of using the cross trainer, cycle machines and treadmill, but would it be best to use a lower resistance setting to avoid building big muscle, but to slim my legs down?
Any other tips would be great. thanks x
 
Unfortunately you cannot spot remove fat. The only way to slim down parts of your body is to slim down your whole body - by eating fewer calories than you burn. As you lose fat, it will eventually come off of your thighs as well as other places.
 
Well, let's look at a little context here.

How would you describe the composition of your thighs? Odd question, I know, but here's the thing.. If your thighs have a large amount of fat, then with weight loss, they'll generally decrease in size.. they're losing the wrapper of fat around them. They'll lose the fat when the body is encoded to lose fat there. (generally, think of fat as last on, first off)

Now, if they're mostly muscular, and you can't really pinch anything off of them, they're still likely to go down in size a bit for a few other reasons. One, depending on where you store your fat (everyone is different even if there are certain trends) you still likely have some there depending on your weight and general body composition.

Second, if you're losing an appreciable amount of weight (>20-30 lbs) you're going to likely lose some muscle size in that area just because you're not carrying around as much body weight. For example, I'm 307 trying to get down to 200. I have some massively strong legs from a lot of walking, running and martial arts at the weight I'm at. Do you think my body will retain all that muscle after I drop 100 lbs of load off of them unless I really really REALLY try to maintain it? No, likely not.

Thirdly. I'm going to take a swing at your name and reckon your female. In general, women by design don't pack on a lot of muscle unless they try very hard, have some major genetic superiorities, or are using 'roids. Not that you can't gain muscle, but women don't tend to 'get big' without a truckload of work compared to guys. In my meager experience, women seem to tend to tighten up and get definition more than size.

So really, don't worry about it, and also as Kara said, don't think that there are any magic exercises that will make you lose fat/size in one specific area.
 
well i have been healthy eating for the last month or so, have made big lifestyle changes and cut out the junk, so have lost almost a stone, but want to up the exercise and get fit and have been enjoying the gym, doing a spin class tonight!! only have another 8lbs to get me back to target goal of 8and a half stone, which is what i used to weigh, but am so chuffed i managed to get back into my old size 8 jeans the other day, i guess i just need to keep the gym up. have been using the cross trainer alot and cycling machines and think it is working!! thanks for all your replies, any other tips would be much appreciated.
 
squats and lunges are both good exercises to work the legs! I really enjoy spinning too - just make sure not to cheat yourself and really up that resistance when on it!
 
I've been going to a spinning class 1-2 times a week for the last month or two and I've noticed a huge difference in my legs. They are more shapely and toned for sure. It's also a great workout as far as burning calories. Check it out at your gym.
 
I think u should hire a personal trainer.. He will create a plan for u, and basically manage u at ur gym.. so u'll know what u're supposed to do at gym ;)
 
lol. Some people like not knowing how to spell I guess. What they don't realize is their informal way of typing will come back to bite them when they actually try to write something formal.

The advice given in this thread is the only real thing that can be said regarding your problem. You can't change genetics, but you can do the best you can with what you've got.
 
While is true that you cannot spot reduce there can be hormonal as well as genetic factors that will influence where you store body fat.

Women who tend to store more fat on their hips and thighs are generally estrogen dominant. A good indication is if you tend to suffer a lot from PMS during your monthly cycle.

Without propering testing there is no way to know for sure, but you can try a few of these tips that can help to balance your estrogen levels:

1. Avoid plastics as much as possible (food storage and water bottles) as these contain xenoestrogens that mimic estrogen in the body.

2. Try to use only natural personal care products, as many contain synthetic chemicals that will also cause hormonal imbalances (if you can't eat it, then don't put it on your skin). Check your brands at the following link to see if they contain harmful chemicals(SPAM REMOVED)

3. You can also use eat foods such as broccoli or take supplements such as indole-3-carbinol, D.I.M. or resveratrol which can help reduce excess estrogen in your system.

4. Do not take the birth control pill.

As far as exercise is concerned, you need to lift weights in order build lean muscle which will help to define that area. Try the following:

- Lunges (forward, backward and lateral).
- Squats
- Step-ups
- Single leg hip bridges
- Bulgarian split squats

Cheers,

Jason
 
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There are two ways to achieve slimmer thighs, burn the fat from all areas and eventually fat will remove from difficult spots or tone and firm the thighs quickly with the best thigh exercise of all. Toning the thighs will help burn some fat indirectly because the best thigh exercise helps raise the metabolism causing more calories to be burned, if regular aerobic exercise is performed as well as the best toning thigh exercise results should be seen quickly.

The best exercise for toning the thighs is squats. Some believe squats cause the thighs to become massive but if the trainer doesn't want big thighs it wont happen. If squats are performed moderately they will tone the thighs and butt very quickly. In fact when a muscle is toned a slight growth occurs, in order to continue that growth so the thighs become very large the trainer needs to perform squats with a progressive increase in the intensity level. This is the reason why its so easy to control thigh size when using squats we just control the intensity level, this way we gain toned thighs quickly but halt progress if thigh size increases!
 
Abc defo hij
 
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