Flabby legs and lean upper body

[Alychef]

Ok, I need some advice here....I have a nice lean reasonably toned upper body. Good abs, arms and shoulders, female pecs are coming on!

My legs, in my opinion are a mess and Im wondering how I can get them lean, without losing weight elsewhere. I'm guess I'm around 20% bmi altho I can check that later at the gym. My husband says just do lunges and squats, but that will build muscle and not get rid of the flabby bits, right?

I weigh 100lbs and am 5'3"....so not a great deal to work with here. I'd like to lose the rest of the fat on my thighs and gain muscle elsewhere. The must be other feloow females in a similar position??

I have a very low fat high protein diet. Not too high in protein, probably around 40-50g a day.

 

Any advice would be great thanks

 

Alychef

[Marcina]

My body is kinda like that.. Except instead of flabby legs, I got a flabby bum, and hips. My legs are actually quite skinny. It's hard to build muscle tone on them. I'm very fine-boned as well.

 

Lunges and squats seem to work the best for me. I build muscle tone but it's pretty lean. The bonus part is those moves target the glutes very well, which is my problem area. Uphill running would probably help, as well as biking (on a real bicycle, not a machine ) My bf biked everywhere for years and he's got the leanest, most muscular and strong legs of anyone I've ever seen.

[hsorlando]

I'm kind of like this too. I have quite a bit of muscle in my upperlegs, but they're not exactly lean. Slowly but surely this is changing as I continually target legs doing leg presses, lunges, squats, and running. I think the running is definitely making the difference, and changing my body. You just have to be patient, not give up,and it your body will respond.

[Alychef]

I am soooooo not a runner! I kinda believe either you're a born runner or you're not. Do you think that's true? I do lots of lunges of squats but I'm terrified of my legs getting big before they get slim, if you get my drift!!??

 

They don't look too bad at the moment, I've been working a lot lately - even started my own little blog - but it's not half as busy and heavy as others but I know that will come and I need to be really patient.

 

Food is another tricky one for me...I got no problem eating the right things, but quanity is my concern. I often can't manage carbs barely at al and just rely on the carb content of the veg etc. Otherwise I get far too full.

 

Thanks for your replies guys.

 

Alychef UK

[Richard]

Unless you're doing squats or lunges with lots of additional weights, you won't get super big legs from it, so I'd say you shouldn't worry too much. To lose the fat from anywhere in your body will involve sticking to the diet and/or burning calories through cardio and/or weight training. I've been advised to avoid doing cardio before weights - rather it's best to do them on separate days, or to do cardio after weights.

[Marcina]

Yar, that's what I've done. After doing cardio, your carbohydrate stores are depleted and you'll fatigue too quickly during lifting to really make any gains from it.

 

I'll warmup for 5-10 minutes and then do my weights. I've cut cardio out completely for the past couple of months.

[Alychef]

I only do cardio warm up on the bike before doing weights....just 5 mins so my body knows it's ready to exercise.

I did some exercise bike at home yesterday...half hour, no weights. I'd been doing weights for days so decided a break would be good.

 

I'm now making sure I don't go high on calories or fat or carbs...see if I can shift a bit of body fat!

 

I was tempted to go on the body fat scales tonight at the gym, but I only used them on Saturday so I decided to wait, hopefully the wait will be worth it!

[Gaia]

Legs on girls can be quite the problem. I know for a fact that even 2 weeks before a comp, my legs are lagging behind.

 

My legs are very solid (can push quite the weight in the gym), but in order for me to get them defined, I have to run/jog really . I run in the morning before breakfast (I like to do it on an empty stomach). You can also make it aerobic by doing leg extensions, leg curls, lunges, squats with low weights and put the reps way up there (25 reps a set, and rest for 1 minute, and begin again with another set, and do mega sets = alot of time like 10 minutes) - I would rather run! Start out slowly. Like just 15 minutes for week 1, 20 minutes for week 2, 30 minutes for week 3 and 4! That is 2 or 3 times a week).

 

You do have to watch your diet also. Too many carbs will keep the fat clinging to the legs. You have to eat enough carbs to make you feel good, but low enough to start taking the bodyfat away from the body/legs. You have to balance the carbs going into your body for fuel, and the fuel needed to do your exercise activities. Keep the carbs a little bit lower on some days (when you are not doing cardio), and then increase it on other days (when you are doing cardio/lifting weights).

 

Usually hormones are what keeps the bodyfat on the thighs and hips for women. Sometimes you might have high estrogen levels that will make it seem impossible to get the fat off (thus the lean upper body, and heavy legs). A person's genetics can be prone to have high levels of estrogen/estrogen stimulated receptors. Another reasons for high estrogen levels is from the environment. Blood test can tell you if you are high or not.

[Alychef]

Legs on girls can be quite the problem. I know for a fact that even 2 weeks before a comp, my legs are lagging behind.

 

My legs are very solid (can push quite the weight in the gym), but in order for me to get them defined, I have to run/jog really . I run in the morning before breakfast (I like to do it on an empty stomach). You can also make it aerobic by doing leg extensions, leg curls, lunges, squats with low weights and put the reps way up there (25 reps a set, and rest for 1 minute, and begin again with another set, and do mega sets = alot of time like 10 minutes) - I would rather run! Start out slowly. Like just 15 minutes for week 1, 20 minutes for week 2, 30 minutes for week 3 and 4! That is 2 or 3 times a week).

 

Oh crap! Looks like I'll have to get into the running then...I know this info is true as I used to run/jog and also walk a lot everywhere...this did indeed keep the flabof my legs, infact my legs were really skinny at the time. I don't want skinny legs, but defined would be nice.

 

I would like to think that one day I could enter some sort of amateur featherweight beginners type comp! If there is such a thing. I'm so please I've found that not only I can do, but really enjoy also. I was never athletic at school....I guess my chance is now-at 38!

 

You do have to watch your diet also. Too many carbs will keep the fat clinging to the legs. You have to eat enough carbs to make you feel good, but low enough to start taking the bodyfat away from the body/legs. You have to balance the carbs going into your body for fuel, and the fuel needed to do your exercise activities. Keep the carbs a little bit lower on some days (when you are not doing cardio), and then increase it on other days (when you are doing cardio/lifting weights).

 

Usually hormones are what keeps the bodyfat on the thighs and hips for women. Sometimes you might have high estrogen levels that will make it seem impossible to get the fat off (thus the lean upper body, and heavy legs). A person's genetics can be prone to have high levels of estrogen/estrogen stimulated receptors. Another reasons for high estrogen levels is from the environment. Blood test can tell you if you are high or not.