For some women, losing weight from the hips, buttocks and thighs is difficult. This challenge is even greater when you gain fat along these areas of the body first, notes the American Council on Exercise. While there's no way to spot-reduce the hips, buttocks or thighs, you can lose inches by utilizing some of the more common methods of weight loss, particularly diet and exercise.
Step 1
Balance your diet with fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Eating these types of foods more than other types can help you feel fuller on fewer calories. This can help cut calories from your diet and generate the caloric deficit needed to lose weight, including the weight on your lower body.
Step 2
Limit the amount of food you put on your plate. This method of cutting calories from your diet allows you to continue eating some of your favorite foods, but just less of them. As with eating more fruits, vegetables and whole grains, this can help generate the deficit in calories needed to shed weight from the buttocks, hips and thighs.
Step 3
Watch your intake of both fat and sugar, suggests the National Institutes of Health. Foods relatively high in fat or sugar tend to be high in energy density, which means there's often a significant amount of calories compared to the quantity of food, leaving you less satiated than when you have eaten other food options.
Step 4
Incorporate aerobic activities into your day-to-day routine, particularly those pursuits that work the lower half of the body. Swimming, biking, jogging, hiking, cross-country skiing and simply walking not only burn calories --- which can help you reach the deficit to lose weight --- but these activities also strengthen and tone the muscles of your legs and buttocks. This can provide you with shapelier legs and a more pert behind once you lose the weight.
Step 5
Add strength-training activities to your workouts. On the days that you're not doing cardio exercises, work in some lunges, squats, leg lifts and other lower-body activities that further tone and strengthen the legs.
Tips and Warnings
- It takes a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose 1 lb. of fat. By reducing your caloric intake and increasing your level of physical activity, you can achieve this deficit. For example, reducing your caloric intake to provide a deficit of 500 calories a day, and then burning an additional 250 calories through exercise, can provide you with a weight loss of around 6 1/2 lbs. in as little as a month.
References
- National Institutes of Health; Tips for Losing Weight; Oct 2009
- MayoClinic.com; Energy Density and Weight Loss: Feel Full on Fewer Calories; Jan 2011
- American Council on Exercise; Why is the Concept of Spot Reduction Considered a Myth?; Cedric Bryant; 2004
- American Council on Exercise: So, You Want to Spot Reduce? Here's How...
Member Comments