Question:
I have one major problem area: my thighs, mainly in the back near the buttocks. I have the ugly dimple-looking effect happening. I was wondering what I have to do to get rid of these unsightly cottage cheese thighs.
Are there any specific exercises you can tell me to do? I seem to carry most of my body fat in my stomach and my legs, but I lose fat from my stomach faster than I do in my thighs. Could you tell me why that is? Any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated. Do I need more cardio? I do cardio 3 to 4 times a week already. Do I need to do more weight lifting with my legs? How do I make the dimples go away?
Answer:
Your problem with lower body fat buildup is typical one for women. It happens because of your hormones and your physiology. Basically your body is always trying to prepare itself for childbearing. Men have the same problem with abdominal fat (it’s not for the childbearing reason, though, even if they may look pregnant!).
Losing the cottage cheese is going to be a matter of losing fat. There are exercises you can do to tone up the muscle underneath the area and help improve the appearance though. Once you reduce the fat on your thighs, you’ll have nicely toned muscle to show.
It sounds like you are doing a lot of cardio already. If you can, I would suggest interval training to increase your fat loss.
To do this, you will essentially alternate between periods of high intensity and low intensity, known as interval training for fat loss. For example, on the elliptical trainer (or other machine) start with a short warm-up, then set on a relatively high intensity that makes you work hard for 30 seconds to a minute. Then reduce it back down to the warm-up level for 30 seconds to a minute for recovery. Repeat this training for between 10 to 15 minutes.
This intense type of training will help increase your metabolic rate long after you’re done, causing you to burn more overall calories during the day..
For resistance training, I would go with squats, leg presses, lunges and leg curls, for example.
Something to note with leg presses – always keep your lower back and hips up against the back pad. If you allow those parts to come up off the pad at the bottom of the rep you stand a very good chance of injuring your back.
Here are some quick nutrition tips that can help you with fat loss:
•Increase your protein intake, e.g. eggs, lean meat, chicken, fish, etc. This supports your metabolism and your muscle, which is critical for burning fat in the long term.
•Reduce junk food intake. This will make a huge difference quickly. You don’t have to totally remove it, just decrease it quite a lot.
•Don’t eat anything before doing a workout. If you do, your body will burn what you just ate rather than fat.
•Eat an hour or so after your training sessions. Your fat burning to continue until you eat. Don’t wait much longer than that though, as you need food to recover.
•Stick to protein and low-fat foods.
•Try not to eat late at night. Your body won’t have time to use those calories and may store them as fat.
Tags: cottage cheese thighs, lose fat, reduce thighs, tone thighs