Weight Loss Tips & Tricks: thigh gap

Showing posts with label thigh gap. Show all posts

Saturday, 19 September 2015

How to Lose Thigh Fat

Part 1 of 3: Thigh-Targeted Exercises

Do squats. There are tons of different squat exercises you can do, but the basic idea is this: With your legs shoulder-width apart, lower your bum down to the ground until your thighs are parallel with the ground. Balance here for at least three seconds before pushing up.^[1]

Try doing squats with an exercise ball. Place the ball against the wall with your lower back firmly pressed against the ball. Not only will the ball increase the intensity of the squat--it will also give you a nice back rub!

Do lunges. With a 5- or 8-pound dumbbell in each hand, lunge forward with one leg and bring the opposite knee about an inch above the ground. Step back and continue with the opposite leg.and draw it in so that it lightly taps the back of your right knee. Extend the left leg out again. Repeat with the other leg.

Part 2 of 3: Eating Well and Dieting

Hydrate while cutting out excessive sweets from your liquid diet. Stick with water. Water is healthy, plentiful, cheap, and actually tastes good. Water flushes out harmful toxins, carries nutrients to cells, and provides a moist environment for bodily tissues that need it. Doctors recommend drinking 64 ounces of fluid per day, or about 1.9 liters (0.5 US gal).^[3]

Avoid sodas, energy drinks, concentrated juices, etc.They're a weakness for us all, but they make shaving off those pounds really difficult. All of these drinks have tons of sugar in them, sometimes as much as 300 calories^[4], which can negate a whole workout.
Drink green tea for a great source of antioxidants and negligible calories.^[5]Green tea contains about ten times the polyphenols as most other veggies, and assists the body in protecting its cells from free radicals. Best of all, tea contains 1-2 calories per liter, which means that a simple cup of tea (unsweetened) is about as guilt-free as it gets!
Drink a cup of tea or a glass of water right before you eat a meal. This will trick your body into believing it's more full than it actually is, meaning that your cravings will be lower and you'll be inclined to eat less during a meal.

Eat healthy. You do not need to go on a diet in order to eat healthy. Simply watching what you eat will help you to slim down and get fit. When eating healthy you should consider what sort of items from each food group you should be eating. Try to eat balanced meals every time you sit down to eat.^[6]

Carbohydrates: Complex carbs are absorbed more slowly by your body so they don’t overload your system. These include oats, whole-wheat products, and unprocessed grains such as brown rice.
Protein: Choose lean meat when getting your protein intake. Lean meats include fish and poultry. Other forms of good protein include beans, soy products, and nuts.
Fruits and vegetables: While it may be hard to believe, there are actually better fruits and veggies than others (though they are all pretty darn good for you.) Look for super foods like kale, blueberries, and swiss chard.
Good fats vs. bad fats: Omega 3 fatty acid and monounsaturated fats are good for your system and will actually help you lower your cholesterol. Nuts, olive oil, seed oil, and fish all contain these ‘good fats.’ Trans and saturated fats are the things that will make your thighs larger. These include most processed food, candy, cakes, etc.
Dairy: Try to stick to low-fat dairy products. Yogurt is especially great, as it contains bacteria that help you digest and process food efficiently. Dairy products are also a good source of protein and calcium.^[7]

Consider a low-carbohydrate (Atkins) diet. The theory is that overweight people eat too many carbohydrates. A diet rich in carbs causes the body to release insulin.^[8] The body controls the insulin by producing glucose (sugar), which eventually gets converted into fat. The low-carb diet structures your meals around proteins, soy-products, vegetables, fruits and nuts to avoid this. While you want to limit the amount of carbs you eat, you don't want to completely cut them out of your diet. Try to have carbs at least 20% of the time. Your body does need glucose in order to function, and carbs are a good source for that. Foods that are allowed^[9] as part of the low-carb diet:

Unprocessed, high-protein meats, such as beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and turkey.
Unprocessed, high-protein fish, such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, and trout.
Low-carbohydrate vegetables and leafy greens.
Full-fat, unprocessed cow, goat, or sheep's milk cheeses.

Know what foods are not allowed in a low-carb diet. Foods that are not allowed as part of the low-carb diet include:

Grains. No pasta, bread, cakes, or pastries.
Fruits and fruit juices.
Processed foods. These usually have added sugar in them.
Starchy vegetables. No potatoes, beets, or corn.
Sugar or margarine.

Consider a low-calorie diet. If you burn more calories than you take in, you'll lose weight. The low-cal diet^[10] means reducing your intake to between 1,200 and 1,500 calories per day for women. It is recommended if you want to lose no more than 2 pounds per week. It is not safe to attempt to lose more than 2 pounds per week unless under strict doctor supervision.

Limit the amount of fat that you eat to between 35 and 60 grams per day. This means that fats should make up about 20% to 35% of your entire calories for the day.
Aim to eat about 170 to 240 grams of complex carbohydrates like whole grains, vegetables, and fruits per day. This should make up about 45% to 65% of your entire calories for the day.
Aim to eat about 55 to 95 grams of low-fat protein, which includes meat, poultry, and fish per day. This should account for about 15% to 25% of your total calorie intake for the day.

Consider a ketogenic (keto) diet. Keto diets are like low-carb diets in that you're trying to avoid eating carbohydrates by substituting fats and proteins into your diet. The difference is that Keto diets are higher in fat and lower in protein that the Atkins diet.

Why fats instead of protein? If you eat too much protein, your body turns the excess protein into glucose, which is what you were trying to avoid in carbs in the first place. On the other hand, fats have no effect on blood sugar and insulin levels.
Shoot to get about 70-75% of calories from fat, 20-25% from protein, and 5-10% from carbohydrates.^[11] Limit the amount of carbs you eat to between 20 and 50 grams per day.
Since being strict about how many carbs you eat is an essential part of the keto diet, it's important to understand how to count carbs correctly. Invest in a carb counter guide and study it.

Part 3 of 3: Maintaining Physical Health

Exercise your whole body. Without getting too technical, the body loses fat by converting it into usable energy. This process is called ketosis.^[12] But when your body converts fat into energy, it loses fat from all over, not just in a specific place like your thighs. So in order to work away that thigh fat, you have to work out your entire body.

Get a solid full body workout at the gym. If you want a full-body workout that burns a lot of calories but is relatively safe on your joints, try biking or swimming.^[13] These are recommended specifically for people suffering from arthritis or nursing a serious injury. Spin those legs or work those laps for an hour at least three times a week.

Play a sport. Joining a recreational or competitive league, or merely playing with friends, can make a huge difference in burning calories. We're more motivated to participate in sports for social and competitive reasons. This means we're much more likely to play for the entire game and burn more calories than we are to give up when the workout becomes hard.

If you don’t like playing sports but still want to work out in a group, form a workout group with your friends. Set a gym schedule every week and help each other stick to it. You can also get exercise videos like Insanity or P90X and do them at your house with your friends. Just make sure to keep each other on track.

Know what sort of exercise burns less or more calories. Sadly, yoga and Pilates are not great for burning lots of calories, so don't rely on them exclusively. Yoga and Pilates burn about 200 calories per hour^[14], compared to about 800 calories burned by playing competitive basketball. If you're serious about losing thigh fat, but seriously devoted to yoga, work another program into your calorie-busting routine.

Walk when you can. If you do nothing else, walk. Walking is an overlooked and underrated exercise. Depending on your weight and your pace, you can burn anywhere from 100-400 calories per hour walking.^[15] And as we all know, walking doesn't take it out of you like running, biking, or swimming does. Find a walking partner and work on burning calories together!

Make sure you're getting your beauty rest. With all this working out, you should feel exhausted and worn out. (That's a good sign!) The great part is that getting enough sleep can also help you lose weight. That's right: Sleeping enough can help you lose weight.

When your body doesn't get enough sleep, it produces a hormone called ghrelin and lowers levels of another hormone called leptin.^[16] Leptin tells your brain when you are full, and ghrelin stimulates your appetite. In other words, when you don't get enough sleep, your body has a bigger appetite and your brain doesn't send as many signals to your body that it's full.
People with sleep apnea, which causes breathing cessation for periods of time during the night, are also more likely to be overweight.^[17] If you think you have sleep apnea, it's a good idea to get it checked out by a doctor so that your sleep starts paying off.

Comment below what you think! Let me know! Are you going to apply these tips to your daily life? Comment your thoughts xx

Source
http://www.wikihow.com/Lose-Thigh-Fat

Sources

Friday, 18 September 2015

4 Moves To Slim Your Hips And Thighs

Many women tell me that every stray calorie seems to migrate to their hips and thighs. This is not a figment of their imaginations. And many women are looking for ways to get slim hips and thighs.

Before menopause, many women's bodies store excess fat predominantly in this area, creating what's come to be known as the "pear-shaped" body. For thousands of years, fat storage in these areas greatly helped cave-dwelling women survive during times of drought and famine. And women who could easily store fat in their hips and thighs tended to be able to give birth and feed a baby during a drought—during pregnancy and breastfeeding, the body needs as many as 1,000 extra calories a day—thus passing on their thigh-fat-storing genetics to future generations.

This is one reason why thigh fat is so difficult to get rid of. Genes left over from your cave-dwelling ancestors cause hormones and enzymes in your body to direct every extra calorie into waiting fat cells in your hips and thighs. For example, your levels of the female sex hormone estrogen may be a tad higher than other women whose bodies don't store excess fat in these areas (or as much of it).

But there are ways to coax these fat cells in your thighs to release their contents, and to coax your muscle cells into burning it up! So don't despair. Read on for the right moves that blast fat from your hips and thighs.

What Causes Cellulite?
Besides excess fat in their thighs, many women complain to me about a certain type of fat known as cellulite. They tell me that no matter how much weight they lose, they can't seem to smooth out the tiny lumps of fat on their thighs. Indeed, some of the most slender women havecellulite. Cellulite is created when fat manages to push its way through tiny holes in your connective tissue, the thick web of interwoven fibers just underneath your skin. Strong and healthy connective tissue forms a tighter web of interwoven fibers, preventing fat from pressing its way through. Weak, unhealthy connective tissue, on the other hand, more easily stretches apart, allowing tiny fat pockets to poke through. Many factors can weaken your connective tissue, setting the stage for cellulite. They include:

High Hormone Levels: Women with higher-than-normal levels of the female hormone estrogen tend to suffer more often from cellulite. Other than directing extra calories to fat cells in your thighs, estrogen also weakens connective tissue. When estrogen softens connective tissue around the womb, it makes childbirth possible. Unfortunately, estrogen softens all of the connective tissue in your body, not just that around your womb.

Poor Blood Circulation: Usually, high estrogen levels alone won't trigger cellulite to form. Many experts believe that you must also have poor blood circulation to your connective tissue, which tends to cause swelling. The swelling stretches the connective tissue apart, allowing the fat to bulge through.

Fluid Retention: Many people think that fluid retention takes place only in the abdomen. That's not true. It actually occurs all over your body, including your thighs. If you've ever pulled on a favorite pair of pants and found them tight in the thighs one day and loose the next, you've experienced the ebb and flow of fluid retention. Any type of swelling in your thighs—particularly on a chronic basis—will stretch out and weaken connective tissue.

A Frenzied Lifestyle: Emotional stress has also been shown to weaken connective tissue.

What You Can Do
First, daily exercise will help to normalize your hormonal levels. This not only helps prevent cellulite, it will also help to prevent mood swings. Second, exercising will increase blood circulation to your thighs, helping to keep the connective tissue healthy. Better blood circulation will, in turn, help to remove excess fluid. Finally, as you shed fat in your hips and thighs, you'll have less of it to press against your connective tissue.

Good News/Bad News
Genetically speaking, there are two predominant body types. Some people gain fat in their lower bodies, creating the pear shape mentioned earlier. Others tend to gain fat in their abdomens, creating what's known as an apple shape.

Though you may have come to despise the fat on your hips and thighs, you should know that you have a major advantage over people who tend to gain it elsewhere. Research has shown over and over again that abdominal fat—and not hip and thigh fat—is particularly dangerous to your health. Abdominal fat more easily makes its way into your bloodstream, clogging your arteries. Thigh fat is much less likely to do so.

Now for the bad news. Thigh fat is a little harder to burn off than belly fat. You probably know this already. If you and a guy friend have ever resolved to lose weight at the same time, you probably noticed that he had a much easier time dropping the weight in his belly than you did in your thighs.

Regardless, that doesn't mean you can't burn it off. I know that women who have excess thigh fat are generally the most motivated to get rid of it. So I probably don't have to give you much of a pep talk to help motivate you toward your goal. Abdominal fat is easy to hide with a big sweater. Thigh fat, on the other hand, is almost impossible to hide. And summer can be a very difficult time for women. My female friends and online clients tell me that they hate wearing shorts and swimsuits because they hate revealing their legs. And they tell me that their pants tend to hug too tightly in the thighs.

But you can change all of that! Not only can you slim down your thighs and hips and smooth away that cellulite, but you can also build the muscles in your legs, which are some of the largest and strongest muscles in your body. Stronger leg muscles make your overall life feel so much more effortless. You'll walk with more confidence and with a spring in your step. You'll be able to climb stairs without getting tired. And you'll be able to go on strenuous hikes—all because of your strong legs! You will feel better about yourself from the inside out.

Move 1: Seated Pillow Squeeze (works on inner thighs)

Sit on a sturdy chair (one without wheels). Rest your feet on the floor with your knees bent at 90-degree angles. Place a pillow between your thighs. Exhale as you squeeze the pillow between your thighs, as if you were trying to squeeze the stuffing out of the pillow. Hold for 1 minute as you breathe normally. Release and proceed to Move 2.

Move 2: Seated Hand Push (works outer thighs and hips)

Sit on a sturdy chair. Rest your feet on the floor with your knees bent at 90-degree angles. Place your palms on the outsides of your knees. While keeping your palms and arms stationary, push your knees outward against your palms, as if you were trying to push your palms away. At the same time, press inward with your hands, preventing your thighs from pushing them outward. Hold this isometric contraction for 1 minute, breathing normally. Release and proceed to Move 3.

Move 3: Seated Leg Raise (works fronts of the thighs)

Sit on a sturdy chair. Rest your feet on the floor with your knees bent at 90-degree angles. Rest your hands on the chair at your sides. Exhale as you lift and extend your right leg. Hold for 30 seconds as you breathe normally. Then inhale as you lower your right leg and exhale as you repeat with your left leg. Hold for 30 seconds while breathing normally. Release and proceed to Move 4.

Move 4: Seated Bridge (works the backs of the thigh and rear end)

Sit on the edge of a sturdy chair. Rest your feet on the floor with your knees bent at 90-degree angles. Rest your palms on the chair at your sides. Exhale as you lift your hips, allowing your palms and feet to support your body weight. Continue to lift your hips until your body resembles the shape of a bridge. Hold for 20 to 60 seconds while breathing normally. Release and return to Move 1. Repeat Moves 1-4 once more, and you're done.

Will you try these exercises out? Comment below what you think! Let me know xx

Source
http://www.prevention.com/fitness/strength-training/exercise-tips-slim-hips-and-thighs

How to Slim Thighs – The Thigh Gap!

A woman’s thighs tend to start to get skinny at a body fat percentage of approximately 18%. However, for your thighs to become slim, tight and toned you first need to know what type of thighs you have, otherwise you may inadvertently make your thighs bigger.

Do you feel you have fat thighs, muscular thighs or just aren’t sure? To successfully slim down thighs take the test below. The result will help you determine whether you need to lose fat from thighs or need to slim down muscular thighs.

SLIM THIGH TEST

Before you set about trying to slim down your thighs, you need to establish whether you have big thigh muscles or a lot of thigh fat.

Straighten your leg
Tighten your thigh muscles
Pinch the top layer of fat and skin of the thigh

If there is much to pinch, then fat is making your thighs big and you’ll also probably suffer with cellulite. (read more about fat thighs)

If there is little to pinch, you have large thigh muscles and little fat and will have little cellulite, if any. (read more about muscular thighs)

HOW TO SLIM THIGHS

1. Avoid exercises such as squats

Avoid exercises such as squats, lunges, leg curls, stiff-legged deadlifts, leg extensions and calf raises, especially with heavy weights for now. They DO NOT slim thighs. A piece of cardio machinery you would do well to avoid is the Stairmaster/ step machine. Although these exercise are often promoted to make thighs smaller, they actually target thigh muscles and can make them bigger. Weight training make muscle fibers larger. You can do these exercises once you have striped fat from your thighs and have a clearer idea of how muscular your thighs are.

2. Cardiovascular exercise to slim thighs

This is the main tool in your arsenal. Your cardio goal should be to burn fat without gaining much muscle mass in the thighs. To achieve this you need to avoid working the thigh muscles more than necessary. If you are working out on cardio equipment, you need to keep the resistance low (e.g. elliptical trainer, stationary bike) or the incline low (treadmill). However, aim for a moderately high intensity (how hard you are exercising) for maximum effectiveness. Use the heart rate calculator. If you are exercising outside avoid hilly terrain.

3. Long-duration cardio to burn fat without bulking up

This will avoid targeting the type of muscle fiber that makes muscle get big and bulky. Instead, long-duration cardio (e.g. long-distance running) will target a smaller muscle fiber that has very limited capacity for growth. The result is that you build stronger muscle without building big thigh muscles, while burning fat. On the other hand, avoid short intense bouts of cardio (e.g. sprinting, HIIT). Although this can be a great fat burner, it may also increase the size of your thigh muscles. Endurance running is one of the most effective exercise to get defined, slim thighs and legs. Endurance runners tend to have very slim legs, especially in compared with sprinters who have highly developed and very large thigh muscles.

4. Running to slim thighs and reshape legs

Endurance running is especially effective in those who have big thigh muscles, as it may decrease the size of the muscles and reduce fat around the muscle to make the thighs smaller. It will completely transform the size and make-up of your thighs and your calves. Therefore, to slim down thighs do endurance running with little or no incline. If you find it too difficult to run or are unable to run, try the elliptical trainer with little or no resistance. Posture on the elliptical trainer is critical. Correct posture will target your butt, outer thigh and hamstring muscles (back of thighs) and lessen the strain on your quadriceps (front of thighs), avoiding you from inadvertently building big thighs.

5. Resistance training

When you have lost some fat from your thighs you can think about resistance training. If you need to increase muscle mass in order to increase the shape and definition of your thighs you can implement resistance exercises. In order to have fantastic legs you need muscle. Therefore, if you lack shape having lost weight, a program of resistance training targeting the legs will help to shape and firm them. Be sure to keep the weights moderately light (up to 70% of your one-lift maximum), so that your thigh muscles become harder, stronger and more defined, but not significantly larger. In other words, focus on completing more repetitions, with less resistance. Those who have the type of muscle (mesomorphs) that responds quickly and gets big need to be particularly vigilant and may not choose not to do any such exercises, since their thigh muscles are already well toned.

6. Patience

You need to be patient and focused on what you want to achieve. You cannot burn body fat in specific areas, especially inner thigh fat. You cannot spot reduce. Body fat is lost from the entire body during weight loss. The inner thighs will be one of the last areas of the body in a woman to be slim and firm. Just remember to be realistic and to take your body shape, genetics and current level of body fat into consideration when setting goals. You can get slim thighs, but you need time to get there.

7. Targeted workout program

Check out Visual Impact for Women (there’s also Visual Impact for Men). If you need to reduce inches – fat or muscle – or feel you are overly muscular this program is certainly is worth investigating. The author tackles the issue of wanting to get fit and lean without getting big or bulky head on. The program specifically addresses the problem of being overly muscular and takes it seriously; offering a comprehensive strategy that encompasses diet, cardiovascular exercise and resistance training aimed at reducing – not gaining – inches. In chapter 1 the author has this to say:

“Sick of hearing that it impossible for you to gain too much muscle because you don’t have enough testosterone? I will discuss that and other myths told to women on a consistent basis.”

Visual Impact for Women also has solutions on how to decrease muscle mass, if you feel you are too bulky. Here’s a description from one of the chapters of Visual Impact for Women:

“Legions of women have muscular thighs and calves that they would like to make slim and defined. This is common especially with women who have been given poor training advice. Despite this being a taboo subject, I’m going to give you a strategy that works.“

Source
http://www.superskinnyme.com/slim-thighs.html

THIGH WORKOUTS | (thigh gap, inner thigh, outer thigh) - Lindsay Marie

Let me know what you think of this thigh workout!! Do you want me to post another? Will you do this workout? Has it worked for you? Comment below!! Love hearing what you think xx