Walking stairs can help you lose weight, which can reduce the amount of fat on your legs, but it won't "spot-burn" leg fat. No amount of exercise can target fat in only one area of the body. The best way to shrink your hips and thighs is to reduce your total body fat percentage.
Caloric Deficit
To reduce your total body fat percentage, you need to generate what's known as a caloric deficit. It takes a deficit of approximately 3,500 calories to lose 1 lb. of fat. Increasing your level of physical activity, such as walking stairs, and limiting your caloric intake can help facilitate this process.
Exercise
When you increase your level of physical activity, you expend more energy. This causes your body to burn additional calories. But the amount of calories your body burns is based on your level of physical exertion and current body weight. Walking stairs, for example, can cause you to burn roughly 266 calories in just 30 minutes at a body weight of 185 lbs., the Harvard Medical School says. This equates to a weight loss of about 1 lb. every 13 days. Increasing the length of your workout to an hour obviously doubles your results, which can bring about a weight loss of 1 lb. every six to seven days.
Diet
Like exercise, limiting your caloric intake can help generate a caloric deficit. You can do this by reducing the size of your portions or incorporating healthier foods into your eating regimen. If you're able to generate a caloric deficit of 250 calories each day, you can expect to lose 1 lb. of fat every two weeks. Combine this with walking stairs for 30 minutes each day and you can increase your results. For someone weighing 185 lbs., that's a weight loss of 1 lb. every week, which can help reduce leg fat.
Stairs
Just because stairs can't spot-reduce leg fat doesn't mean this activity isn't beneficial to the look of your legs. Climbing stairs is a form of strength training that adds muscle to the legs. Once you lose the excess fat, your legs can appear shapelier. The other benefit of the added muscle is the increase in caloric burn. Muscle burns more calories than body fat, so adding muscle to your legs can help increase the number of calories your body burns while at rest.
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