If you're looking to shed pounds around your hips and thighs, combine a well-rounded routine of aerobic activity with a healthy, balanced diet. The daily workout will help you burn fat throughout your body, and a diet that cuts out the "empty calories" of processed foods will help to keep the fat off. While you can't control how quickly the weight loss affects your hip and thigh area, you can combine aerobic activity with focused strength-training exercises, which will define your hip and thigh muscles, and produce a trim, toned appearance.
The Myth of Spot Reduction
The myth persists that specific exercises will help you lose weight in a specific part of the body. However, "spot reduction" is impossible; instead, individual bodies tend to lose and store weight in specific areas. If you have an apple-shaped body, you'll quickly lose weight from the hip and thigh areas. However, it will take longer to reduce your waistline. If you have a pear-shaped body, your exercise routine will slim your waist before you see improvement in the hips and thighs.
Aerobic Activity
The Department of Health and Human Services recommends that average adults exercise aerobically for at least 150 minutes per week. If you opt for more vigorous activities, such as running instead of walking, the recommended weekly quota shrinks to 75 minutes. As a rule of thumb, you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you consume to shed 1 lb. of fat. In terms of calorie expenditure, running for 1 hour burns 986 calories in a person weighing 160 pounds. High-impact aerobics, backpacking, ice skating or swimming laps all burn 511 calories per hour for an individual of the same weight. If you have a tendency to joint problems, select a low-impact aerobic activity, such as swimming or elliptical training instead of running.
Strength Training
In addition to aerobic activity, the Department of Health and Human Services advises doing strength training at least two times per week. In addition to improving your muscular strength and chiseling your physique, regular strength training can heighten stamina, increase bone density, relieve arthritis, improve sleep and reduce the risk of heart disease. If your hips and thighs are your areas of chief concern, include lunges, squats and stepping in your workout, alongside specialized weight machines, which focus on hips, thighs and glutes.
Useful Equipment
Stability balls are useful for introducing variation into your hip and thigh exercises. For traditional squats, you bend at the knees and lower your torso to the ground, keeping your back straight. This movement works your thighs and glutes, instead of your back. For a variation on the exercise, stand close to the wall and place a stability ball between your lower back and the wall. As you do the squat, let the stability ball roll down the wall, leaning against it gently. Increase your intensity by adding hand weights to your lunges and step exercises. Incorporate arm curls with your lower body movements.
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