Slimming Down, But...
Kwitko
Sheriff of Banning (Retired)By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
So I've been exercising a lot lately. Been doing a lot of boxing, and the difference is noticeable. The big issue I'm having is with my legs. Anyone who has seen me in person knows I've got tree trunks for legs. My calves are bigger around than Keebs' waist. My big legs come from years of mountain biking and just being a big boy. Thing is, even with all that muscle, there's still a lot of fat there.
What exercises can I do to burn off my leg fat? It's crazy that I can fit into XL and L shirts for the first time in years, but my jeans are still 42 because my legs are so damn big. There's muscle hiding under there and I'd like to show it off. I didn't wax my bikini area for nothing!
What exercises can I do to burn off my leg fat? It's crazy that I can fit into XL and L shirts for the first time in years, but my jeans are still 42 because my legs are so damn big. There's muscle hiding under there and I'd like to show it off. I didn't wax my bikini area for nothing!
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I'm in the same boat as you. I've dropped over 35 lbs since July 06, but still wear the same size jeans (38), ( I can actually pull them down without unbuttoning/unzipping them!) because the 36s don't fit my thighs. I've had my suit slacks taken in 2x since I bought them last July, which feels good.
Nomad is right, your legs will get smaller, but it will take a while to do so. There is no way to "spot reduce" the size of certain areas of your body. (Why all the gimmick fitness equipment infomercials piss me off).
The only thing you can do is work out to maintain, or slightly build the muscle mass you have in your legs, and your whole body as a matter of fact. By maintaining, or increasing that muscle mass, you increase your body's ability to burn fat. Muscle is very efficent at burning fat, even while you sleep.
I'm not saying if you do 500 situps a day you'll have washboard abs if you are overweight or you don't eat right, its not that simple. What I am saying is that if you eat right, and you use isolation exercises to target a specific area, you will likely burn more fat from that specific area. All thats known is that excercise increases bloodflow to subcutaneous fat and lipolysis from the same cells.
You need to eat right to do it but targeting your legs specifically is not necessarily impossible. Food for thought, the type of exercise used for the study was essentially cardiovascular in nature. Low resistence for a period of around 30 minutes.
Example:
5 sets for reps 15,15,20,20,30
leg press & squats
lunges & leg extension
deadlifts & sissy squats
lying leg extensin & leg curl
sitting calf raises 3 sets, reps are 30,30,30
donkey calf raises
standing calf raise
All low weight. Try and incorporate 45-60min of cardio in the morning before any meals or right after workout. Also change up cardio 1 week 45-60 min and decent pace. Next week run 20-30 min. Also make sure to eat more protein and try to cut back on carbs while on this process. Will get you cut quicker.
Not trying to flame you bro, its just that this doesn't make any sense from a physiology standpoint.
When you lose weight (IE eat less & excercise, body burns fat for energy), Body Fat (Adipose Tissue) is broken down by a process called lipolysis. During this process, triglycerides within the adipose tissues are converted into fatty acids and glycerol, and sent to the liver for further processing before entering the body as fuel. Its not as if I do situps, and the muscles in that area use the fat in that area for extra energy... Turning fat into energy is a complex process involving most of the GI track of a your body. This is why we lose weight from our extremities 1st. Our bodies are geared to conserve fat/enegry to stave off starvation during the lean times our ancestors experienced.
Just my 2c, hope I didn't stomp on your post...... :bigggrin:
Cheers!
It was in the American Journal of Physiology last year. I read some of the highlights in M&F earlier this year I think. I'd have to go through a stack to find it again. The premise of the article was that when they measured bloodflow to fat cells around a muscle being exercised with low resistence, for around a half hour if memory serves, the bloodflow to the subcutaneous fat cells was signficantly higher, and lipolysis from those specific fat cells was a great deal higher.
I think they did it with leg extensions or something and compared the resting leg to the non-resting leg. "Its not as if I do situps, and the muscles in that area use the fat in that area for extra energy." That in essence, is exactly what they're saying. I'm not saying you bypass the whole GI track and it goes straight from fat to energy. What I'm saying is your muscles have a tendancy to burn the fat thats immediately available and close to the muscles under strain.
I know all about the body's predisposition towards storing fat for cold winters where our ancestors weren't eating as well. What I'm saying is the mindset is changing from "spot reduction is impossible, you have to drop bodyfat overall and wait and hope it comes off where you want" and its moving towards being possible to actually work on some of your problem areas. I think your odds are better ramping up cardio so you drop it overall, thats healthier anyway. All this means is that if you've got some extra hanging on your gut or wherever you may actually be able to target it a bit and increase your odds of getting your body to utilize THAT fat for energy over other areas. Genetics is still going to play into it and even embracing this information isn't going to make it signficantly easier to attain that washboard stomach since its the primary fat storage location for men.
Its just useful information and I think it relates to the OP's post since he's concerned with the fat stored in his legs.