Lower Abs and Hips

[Cinmin]

Does anyone else have problems losing inches on their lower abs or hips? All of my meaurements decrease in proportion except for this area. They are still the same! I run three miles every time I get on the treadmill and I do a full circuit of lower body once a week. Any suggestions?

Oh, and I also have the Firm system that I do once a week that targets mostly my lower area.

[dana82]

Hey....I had the same problem for so long! my waist was 27 with a lower waist of a 33!!! I fianlly instead of only workout out my arms and legs with weights started to work out my whole body with weights, like back, butt, leggs, chest, arms and also started to do non weighted side bends and I didn't change in weight but my measurements went from a 27 to 26.5 and a 33 to a 31, and hips went from a 37- 36. So I am no expert at all, but I would say if you are not already at total body weight lifting which would jsut lower your overall body fat and being for you it seems as though that's where you store your fat , the inches will come off.....

[Cinmin]

I do workout my entire body but my lower body just seems so stubborn! I now follow laura's split (I have a daily journal) but even before I was doing my entire body. I do squats, lunges, etc. but the fat doesn't want to seem to move!

[Octagon]

Originally Posted by Cinmin

I do workout my entire body but my lower body just seems so stubborn!

Yeah, unfortunately body fat is a union shop with pretty inflexible 'last hired, first fired' rules which means the first places you start to gain fat are going to be the last places you lose it.

For men that tends to be the abdomen and for women that tends to be a bit lower.

Whatayagonnado

[sillygirl]

*sighs* I'm built a bit like a guy in that sense- I carry all my extra bodyfat in my abs. I have the skinniest legs, thighs, hips, butt, and arms (well, normally- I'm working on getting some muscle, hee hee)- but all the fat goes right to the stomach! BLAH! It makes it SO hard to find a pair of pants that fit correctly- I'm happiest when I'm a size 2, but since I'm only 5'2", that means my inseam is inbetween 29-30", or petite. And for some reason, clothing designers have decided that if you're anything above a size 0 and petite, you MUST have huge thighs and a huge butt.

So every single pair of pants I try on never fit correctly in the butt or thighs. Way too big. It's so frustrating! ARGH!

[sillygirl]

Oh, and I agree- really the only thing that worked for me to decrease bodyfat is to watch the diet, lift heavy, and throw in more HIIT cardio. I work my abs once or twice a week. But I've even gotten down to 13% bodyfat and still had some pudge on my stomach. I think unless I get lipo, I'll always have it...as both my parents have chicken legs and scrawny arms but little round bellies. So I've decided to embrace my buddha belly for what it is- you can only really do so much with genetics.

[laura817]

Genetic plays a big role to having bigger hips and thighs as Sillygirl stated. As everyone knows it's not possible to lose fat from one "problem" area, but by reducing overall body fat you can develop muscles in specific areas which can reduce your measurements. Good luck Cinmin!

[Cinmin]

Now that is the strange thing. I've never had a problem losing in that area before. It seems that all of sudden the fat has become stubborn...