How To Lose Weight On Thighs And Not Gain Muscle

Personal trainer reveals the six reasons why your legs aren't getting leaner - and how you can finally get the limbs of your dreams

A leading Australian personal trainer has shared the real reasons why your legs aren't getting leaner despite a healthy diet and exercise - and how you can finally get the limbs of your dreams.

Rachael Attard, from Sydney, said there are both diet and fitness reasons that are stopping you from getting slimmer legs, and both of these could lead to your legs 'bulking' out or getting bigger.

How To Get Rid Of Fat On The Back Of The Leg

'Girls who follow me on Instagram often ask me these questions: Why aren't my legs changing? When will I start seeing results? Why are my legs getting bigger?' Rachael wrote on her website.

A leading Australian personal trainer has shared the real reasons why your legs aren't getting leaner despite a healthy diet and exercise (Rachael Attard pictured)

Rachael said one of the main reasons why you're not losing weight on your legs is because you're doing the wrong type of workouts (one of Rachael's transformations pictured)

Best Ways To Reduce Thigh Fat Fast

Rachael said one of the main reasons why you're not losing weight on your legs is because you're doing the wrong type of workouts.

'I see lots of girls that do workouts that focus solely on squats and lunges when trying to get slimmer legs, ' Rachael said.

But if you focus solely on squats and lunges - as Rachael once did - the personal trainer explained you could end up with bulkier thighs.

How To Lose Thigh Fat For Men: Maximize Your Leg Training Results With These Thigh Blasting Moves

Instead, you need to focus on a mixture of cardio and resistance work, along with regular walking - which will keep your legs looking lean.

Rachael (pictured) said one of the biggest mistakes you could be making is over-training your legs, which can make them appear bigger

In the same way that squats and lunges could make your legs appear bigger, so too will doing exercises that are specifically targeted at your legs in favour of whole-body movements.

Saddlebags Or Outer Thigh Fat: Causes And 8 Effective Exercise For Fat Loss

However, she added, it is impossible to spot reduce fat, and so you're far better off adopting total-body movements that work every area of your body equally like burpees and mountain climbers.

Cardio is key to getting shapely legs, and Rachael recommends you aim for 30 minutes of some form of it per day (one of Rachael's transformations pictured)

Cardio is key to getting shapely legs, and Rachael recommends you aim for 30 minutes of some form of it per day.

How To Lose Weight In Your Stomach And Hips In Two Weeks

'If you aren't doing any cardio, it’s going to be harder for you to lose fat and slim down your legs, ' she said.

Rachael recommends walking over any other type like cycling or sprinting, as this keeps your body in the fat-burning zone and means that your body will use oxygen to convert far (instead of carbohydrates) to energy.

If you don't want big-looking calves, Rachael said you should walk on a flat surface instead of an incline, as the incline will bulk out your quads and could mean they look bigger than they are.

How To Lose Weight And Get Flat Stomach Without Losing Butt

'My advice is to start each morning with a 5km walk so a lot of your walking is already done for the day.'

Following this, try and incorporate as many as possible 'natural' steps into your day - by walking around the office at work, going outside on your lunch break and walking home or getting off the bus a stop early.

'Walking is the absolute best exercise for getting rid of overall excess fat, including your inner thighs, ' Rachael (pictured) said. She recommends getting a 5km walk in first thing in the morning

How To Lose Thigh Fat: 14 Expert Backed Tips To Tone Up

Ectomorph body types are very tall and slim. They don't have much muscle and find it difficult to put on muscle or any weight in general.

The mesomorph is between the ectomorph and the endomorph, and they are defined by a muscular frame and broader shoulders than their waist.

An endomorph body type is usually a larger curvier figure. They are quite commonly a stocky build and their bodies hold onto fat well and find it hard to lose. 

Reasons Your Thighs Aren't Changing No Matter How Much You Work Out

If you are eating more calories than you are expending and already have bigger legs, then these surplus calories are only going to end up 'going to your legs even more'.

'You can learn how to calculate your ideal daily amount of calories online, and if you want to lose weight, I suggest eating about 200 calories less than this number, ' Rachael said.

If you want to lose weight, Rachael (pictured) said you need to calculate how much you need to be eating and take away 200 calories for weight loss

How To Get Smaller Thighs And Hips: 10 Ways To Tone Up

Work out your basal metabolic rate (BMR) using the formula: 447.593 + (9.247 x body weight (kg)) + (3.098 x height (cm)) – (4.33 x age in years). This is your basal metabolic rate (BMR).

Workout your total energy expenditure (TEE) using this scale: little to no exercise a week = 1.2; 1-3 days of exercise a week = 1.375; 3-5 days of exercise a week = 1.55; 6-7 days of exercise a week = 1.752; twice daily exercise = 1.9.

BMR x TEE = how many calories you can eat to maintain your current weight while doing the same amount of exercise.

Personal Trainer Rachael Attard Reveals The Real Reasons Why Your Legs Aren't Getting Leaner

You need to be in a deficit of around 200-500 calories from this calorie amount if you want to maintain your workout schedule.  

If you think you might be under-eating, try resetting your metabolism by eating smaller meals every three hours so your body never goes into starvation mode.

Finally, the personal trainer said if you're really struggling to get slimmer legs, it might not be something you are doing - but a broader health issue (one of her transformations pictured)

Where Do You Lose Weight First? A Complete Guide

Finally, the personal trainer said if you're really struggling to get slimmer legs, it might not be something you are doing - but a broader health issue.

'Hormonal health issues can cause you to gain weight and they can make it really hard to lose weight. I used to struggle with hormonal imbalances, and I understand how upsetting they can be, ' Rachael said.

Dmg media Contact us How to complain Leadership Team Advertise with us Contributors Terms Do not sell or share my personal information About MailOnline Privacy policy & cookiesEveryone is predisposed to carry body fat a little differently. Some of us are pear-shaped, while others may be more top-heavy or have an athletic build. 

What Exercise Is Best To Lose Weight Quickly And Lose Thigh Fat?

No matter what your body type is, if you want to lose thigh fat, you have to know something upfront: spot-reducing doesn’t work. You can’t spot-reduce body fat because you store fat cells all over your body—where your fat cells happen to be concentrated is often a genetic predisposition. 

You need to lose weight all over by making dietary and lifestyle changes, and then tone up your thighs with targeted exercises. If you take our comprehensive approach, you’ll lose pounds all over AND tone your thighs to make them tighter and stronger.

Heart-pumping cardio is a great way to up your calorie burn, and many forms of cardiovascular exercise also focus on toning the legs simultaneously: think running, cycling, or jumping rope.

How To Lose Thigh Fat: A 3 Step Guide For Achieving Slim Legs

If you’re only doing a few light cardio workouts per week, increase that number to burn more calories. The CDC recommends 2 hours and 30 minutes of heart-pumping cardiovascular exercise per week. You should also be mixing up your workouts by incorporating High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), which helps burn fat fast and has you doing calorie-torching plyometrics.

Note: While you’re on your cardio kick, incorporate more inclines to really target your thighs. If you walk on a treadmill , ramp up the incline manually. If you walk or jog outside, find a trail with some hills. You’ll immediately start to feel the burn in your inner thighs and glutes, because the incline targets your thighs and buns more than walking on a flat surface.

Your thigh muscles are made up of your quadriceps, hamstrings, abductors and adductors (inner and outer thighs). To sculpt and tone these muscles, you have to perform exercises that incorporate different angles, moving in different directions.

Why Are My Thighs So Fat

The exercises shown below target both the inner and outer thighs by using different ranges of motion. Aim to perform 8-10 reps of these exercises 3 times per week, in addition to your other workouts. You’ll be feeling the burn and loving your slimmed, toned thighs!

Also called curtsy lunges, cross-behind lunges are a great lunge variation to specifically target the inner thighs. Click here to learn how to perform cross-behind lunges.

Not only will this move target the thighs and hamstrings, but it also requires great core stabilization. Click here to learn how to perform a stability ball single leg lift and lower.

How I Lost My Thigh Fat + Thigh Fat Burning Workout

This fun squat variation targets the inner thighs more intensely than a regular squat. Click here to learn how to perform a plié squat, or check out this quick video below.

With the help of a resistance band, this move targets the tricky-to-tone outer thighs, or abdutors. Click here to learn how to perform a resistance band outer thigh press. 

Not only does this exercise get your heart pumping because it’s a plyometric (jumping movement), but it also specifically targets the outer thighs. Click here to learn how to

How To Lose Weight In Your Thighs