lose weight around bum/thigh

[Duncan06]

I'm busy losing a lot of weight. I've so far lost 4KG (too lazy to found out that in pounds ) in my first week and I've lost around 2kg this week. Its noticeable in my stomach area though...

What cardio exercises should I do to lose weight around my bum/thigh area? At the moment I'm doing treadmill/rowing machine/steps/bicycle. If I continue doing this will I notice loss there?

[SNPiccolo5]

It is impossible to spot reduce. 2 kg (or 2 kg*2.2 lbs/kg = 4.4 lbs) in one week seems kind of extreme. If you are just doing cardio, it is difficult to maintain lean body mass (muscle) and lose fat at the same time. Of course, cardio is better than no excercise at all, but you will get faster results if you add resistance training.

Your body puts fat on in a certain order and then loses it in the reverse order. For many people, it's just a matter of losing enough until your body starts removing it from the spot you want it to. Eventually, you will lose fat from that area, but there's nothing you can do to control when.

Hope that helps!

-Tim

[threenorns]

definitely, you're losing too much, too fast. when you lose over a kilo a week (2lbs), it means your intake is way too low and your body is burning off muscle tissue to drop your metabolism to the available food supply. not only that, but your body is doing everything it can to preserve and increase fat stores because it's registering a famine situation and is doing everything it can to ensure you'll live long enough for the food to come back.

keep your diet between 1400 and 1800 cal/day (depending if you're shorter or taller), eat every three hours, do the cardio, and make sure you're doing weights. increased muscle tissue may weigh heavier on the scale, but it reads smaller on the tape measure and looks a helluva lot better in the mirror.

trust me: there's nothing worse than being a skinny fat person - i know.

[Duncan06]

hmm, you're making me worried now threenorns :O...

My diet plan is from a qualified dietician, I'm eating many different foods, but only three times a day. Hmm...

[Arith]

You should try to eat every three hours or so. It keeps your metabolism fired up throughout the day, which helps burn fat. Also, you need to add resistance training, muscle helps burn fat so as you add muscle you will find it easier to lose fat. Dont equate success with how much the scale says you weight, muscle weighs more then fat, use a cailpre and measure your bodyfat percentage.

[threenorns]

Originally Posted by Duncan06

hmm, you're making me worried now threenorns :O...

My diet plan is from a qualified dietician, I'm eating many different foods, but only three times a day. Hmm...

what's your macronutrient breakdown (protein/fat/carbs, in order of importance)? sorry - i thought you were f - the bum/thigh thing threw me. since you're m, go with 1800 to 2500 a day, depending if you're shorter or taller.

imo, "qualified dietitians" are s--t-all useless for ppl who work out - they rely too much on charts that tell you what you "should" be eating, instead of going by what your body actually needs. i'm f, five-two, and i've been slowly losing fat on an average of 2000 cal/day, which is well over maintenance for a female my height. tells you what those charts are worth to anyone not a standard couch potato with a nine-to-five and 2.4 kids.

two things you might want to investigate:

the first is zig-zagging your calories - one day, you eat 1800, the next you eat 2500 - you'll have an overall average of 2150 calories, which is good for losing fat. keep the carbs LOW - try a 40/40/20 split.

the other is a timed carb diet - requires more research (you can find a LOT of info on it at www.ironaddicts.com or just google it) but it's highly effective. this is the system i'm following.

[Duncan06]

thing is I'm never hungry between meals, so my guess is that nothing is wrong? If i was starving and watching the clock till food time then I'd be worried. But yeah, I'll start doing weights asap, I have a good program already. I thought I should do cardio and lose the weight first then do the weight training, but clearly not.

[threenorns]

absolutely not! weights are even more important than the cardio, since you can burn fat using weights, but can't build muscle (much) doing cardio.

doesn't matter if you're not hungry between meals - eat every three hours. within a week, you'll know exactly when three hours is up, lol. when you go longer than four hours between meals, your blood sugar drops. you don't want that. you want your metabolism revving at high speed - which means eating every three hours. hell, if you can swing it, eat every two hours! it means you eat less at one sitting, but you're barely done before you're eating again.

[Arith]

Dunca, even if your not hungry, i would at least have a small snack in between meals, maybe a peice of fruit or something. Your body needs to know its not being starved.

[Duncan06]

ok. Good stuff, thanks to all that posted (especially threenorns ). I will form a new diet.

How long do you think it will take to lose this weight/gain muscle (I'm not obese, just carrying a bit of weight, most people say I don't need to lose any weight but I'd like to be in peek condition). I hate the thought of having to do this work for like 6 months before I can see a difference.

[threenorns]

you should be pretty certain you're seeing results in three weeks, ppl will start to comment in four or five weeks.

lose the scales - use the tape measure.

[Duncan06]

Hmmm, I did forget to mention I'm 16 years of age. Thats a biggy. Maybe your opinions will change now? Drop a line if you don't mind replying

[Arith]

One more thing, drink plenty of water. I drink a gallon a day.

[SNPiccolo5]

If you're 16, then it's even worse that you were under-eating. Since you're probably still growing, focusing on eating clean and getting enough carbs around your workouts will ensure that you gain lots of muscle and lose fat. I'm in a similiar boat as you... 18 yrs old...

-Tim

[.V.]

Duncan06, it's not that the diet is necessarily bad as long as it is balanced - you are just may be losing too fast. However each body is different - 2 kilos a week is considered to be too fast by most - but during my 160lb weight loss, I lost about the same amount and got healthier.

Eating more than 3 times a day is definitely a good idea - just stick with the diet that is working for you, add a good weight training routine, and add 1 or 2 more balanced meals/day.

Remember, building muscle is a good thing - it's heavier so you can't go by the scale - you have to go by how your clothes fit and what the tape measure tells you. But more muscle = a faster metabolism and a need for more calories. This means an automatic caloric deficit and fat loss. Hence the saying that, "muscle burns fat". It really doesn't, but the end result is the same as if it does.

If you are doing a ketogenic diet - you can expect that kind of weight loss and not lose too much muscle - if any at all if you are weight training. Since I don't know what kind of diet you are doing I can't comment on that though. What works for one doesn't work for another. It seems that you are on the right track for your body and just need to fine tune it a bit to build some muscle and get rid of the excess fat stores. Good luck in reaching your goal.

Edit: oops missed page 2. You are only 16? Then you still have some growing to do. You also have a major anabolic advantage over us old guys and gals who have to struggle for every ounce of muscle we build and every ounce of fat we lose (I guess you would say every gram instead of ounce since you are on metric).

You definitely need to eat and lift for muscle building and that muscle will help burn off that fat. You don't have to eat like a pro bodybuilder though. Every gram of fat you have stored is has 9 calories of stored muscle building energy. Eat a clean, balanced diet. Eat enough but not too much. Lift AND do your cardio. You will do great.