Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hello
I really struggle with the last bit of fat/water/weight around my legs/ass/waist and hips. Im working out with weights for my upperbody but im really wondering whats the best thing to do for my lowerbody since i dont want to gain any muscle there. I just want to maintain the muscles and just loose all the fat and get really lean around my legs/ass/waist/hips.
I know like squat and all those exersices tend to put on inches around your waist etc and i dont want that. I just want to maintain my muscles there but not get bigger or add mucles in terms of size

What is the best approach for this? im starting with incline walking wich i think is good. Is it just running or should i do weights also for my legs etc to make it lean?
In that case how should my approach be? more reps and less weight etc?

Thanx

Working your legs will tone them, but the only things that reduce fat are cardio, dieting, and surgery. I assume nobody here is a fan of lipo, so that leaves cardio and diet. There is no such thing as spot reduction...everyone is genetically programmed to lose "last" from a specific area, in your case it's the lower body. Uppig cardio and working on your diet are the only things you can do about losing fat.

Ok, thank you. I will dont do any leg workout and just to cardio everyday incline walking, and maybe some running later on some days. Thanks for the advice. And also my eating will be clean aswell

My legs build easily and seem to be the last place the fat leaves.

I have found that I still need to workout my lower body but no heavy weights. Using a bike in low gear or a stationary bike at lower resistance seems to work the best. Long, slow boring cardio does not seem to do as well as high intensity interval training for fat burning.

Staying low fat with my diet and staying away from salt, sweets and processed foods are also a must for me. Eating high water foods and lots of alkaline foods (tons of blended greens) also has been extremely beneficial.

Keep up the questions and post what you are currently doing and how you are progressing.

Sometimes it takes a lot of tweaking to find what works best for your metabolism.

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Thank you.
I also have a very clean diet. I will do both slow steady cardio and also HIIT running.
Also is the slow steady cardio after waking up a good method? i see alot of debate around this but many BB are using it successfully

I think it works, but even though it's steady state it's still a challenge. 30 minutes on a 10-15 degree incline at 3.5 mph will burn some serious calories.

I think the reason it's so popular with bodybuilding is two fold. With lower intensity, more calories are coming from fat compared to muscle (relative only, in absolute terms you burn more fat with higher intensity along with much more muscle). Also, steady state doesn't wipe you out as much so there's still plenty of energy left to do a weight lifting routine. Try doing squats after interval sprints... it just doesn't work.

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That is true. I do 15% incline and 6.2 mph in 30 minutes. It looks like i have been out swimming.
But what about really light weights and high reps for my legs aswell, will that help burn some fat and tone my legs more?
As i stated, i dont want to get bigger. Or any other stuff i can do regarding weight training or circle training etc

Its just my ass and thighs...mostly thighs...but I am with you.

I just spent 6 weeks doing light weights, moderate reps and have done almost every day. I DID/DO see results and I also built up my strength and stamina and endurance and now as I am switching to heavier plates and weights at the gym, its a natural progression --and I am feeling the fatigue, as I am definitely pushing heavier poundage ( and LOVING it). I still am doing 5 or 6 days, but thats because I only have FAT in my blessed thighs....over all the years, this is the first time I am seeing such dramatic (slow) but dramatic results. I like it. Doing various lifts, squats and lunges as well as every 2 days I do quad extensions and hamstring curls for my legs--and Always a butt blaster! I really am glad I took this approach as even though I didn't have weak knees- I know my upper quads were only runner strong and hamstrings don't really get much of a workout like the quad muscles--even when running longer distances.

For me--its diet. And I am down to the last less than 5 pounds.

Good luck!

Your username doesn't give your gender away, but may I assume based on wanting to reduce the hips/thighs that you're female? If so, congrats, welcome to my world. I'm an hourglass and the only way to get rid of that is really to watch the calories in versus out, do cardio, and get some good exercises in for glutes/thighs. Squats, leglifts, deadlifts...they're all wonderful, wonderful things. I swear by ankle weights while doing lifts myself.

I haven't gained any inches from doing squats in my waist or otherwise, and honestly don't know how you can. However, the abs and midsection is the first place I lose weight and the easiest for me to develop as far as lean muscle def is concerned. Women who worry about "bulking up" really are just putting on muscle under the fat they've got and haven't burned off the fat yet. We don't have enough testosterone to bulk up. Muscle burns fat (and more calories) and the more of it you put on, the more calories you will burn.

Don't worry about reps and weight. My ideal is this: I do the right amount of weight to do about 8-12 reps and REALLY be feeling the burn on the last 3-4 reps. If I'm feeling the burn sooner, I lower the weight. If I'm not getting the burn, I either increase the weight or if I'm unable to do this, I increase the reps. And I focus on being able to increase that weight as time goes on.

I'm no expert, but I hope this helps.

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