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The closer the onset of summer, the stronger the desire to wear a shorter skirt, but what to do if you want to lose weight in the legs and hips? It is best to start solving this issue as soon as it arises, without postponing it on the back burner. A special diet for legs, effective exercises and … a few proven tricks will help to restore the lost slimness to the legs, and to the hips – graceful forms.
Getting rid of a few extra centimeters in your hips requires a consistent and planned “war campaign.” It is necessary to step on all fronts, starting with a review of the diet and ending with enhanced cosmetic procedures. And do not forget about partisan actions – for example, special shaping clothing allows you to get rid of a couple of sizes, first visually, and eventually realistically.
How to lose weight in legs and hips with a special leg diet
If the arrival of the warm season found you not in the best shape and whispered the question “how to lose weight in the legs”, it would be wise to start by reorganizing the diet. Nutritionists are confident that in order to acquire a healthy eating habit (or get rid of a bad one), a person needs only three weeks! Therefore, the earlier you start, the sooner you will get used to it.
If the main goal of your diet is to lose weight in legs, then it makes sense to focus on two points:
burning subcutaneous fat and combating the manifestations of cellulite;
strengthening and tightening muscles.
Of course, any meal plan will not act pointwise on any specific part of the body. In the role of a “guide” in a situation when it is required to put in order, first of all, a specific area, physical activity will act. In an effort to lose weight specifically in the legs and hips, it is important to focus on a diet that combines well with regular physical activity, in this case, with exercises for losing weight on the legs. This is almost any diet with a sufficient intake of protein (for example, the Kremlin diet or the Kovalkov diet, the Ducan diet, etc.) – protein, firstly, saturates for a long time and helps to fight cravings for sweets, and secondly, compensates for protein consumption in muscles during training and allows you to form new muscles.
Exercises for slimming legs: getting ready for the summer season
Excessive passion for sports and strict diets can play a cruel joke on you – at first, the legs and hips seem to lose weight, the fat will really leave the tissues. However, stiff muscles will immediately appear in its place, so in some cases the volume of the legs may become even larger after losing weight than it was before. To prevent this from happening, choose “soft” sports: swimming, dancing, water aerobics, yoga, etc.
However, for all its potency and long lasting effect, a protein diet low in carbohydrate foods can leave you lacking energy for exercise. The BUCH (protein-carbohydrate alternation) diet is gaining popularity when it is necessary to lose weight in the legs with the help of normalization of nutrition and regular fitness – a diet plan that allows you to enjoy the benefits of protein foods with sufficient intake of healthy “slow” carbohydrates. Studies have shown that carbophobia (fear of carbohydrate food), with all its undoubted weight loss effect, carries great health risks associated with metabolic disorders and a lack of nutritional resources for the brain and nervous system. Therefore, a balanced diet with control of essential nutrients will be the most intelligent choice when solving the problem of how to lose weight in the legs and hips.
The anti-cellulite diet, taken as a basis, will help you choose products with a special effect if you need to lose weight in your legs. Having found out which food will bring the greatest benefit, you should resolutely refuse:
sweets and pastries
any refined products (oil, sugar, cereals)
fast food and other sources of hydrogenated fats and “fast” calories
semi-finished products.
Convenience foods are generously packed with flavor-enhancing salty additives that cause fluid retention and visually make us look fuller. Attention to the amount of salt consumed is an integral part of the diet for the legs, so spicy nuts and popcorn as snacks are also prohibited.
Diet against cellulite: minus pounds, plus smooth skin!
By the way, about snacks. American nutrition consultants in their advice on “How to lose weight in the legs” recommend the following: as soon as you got up to look for some snack (or thought about it and were about to reach out) – do twenty squats. This will either discourage the desire to eat harmfulness or at least reduce the damage from its use.
How to lose weight in legs: 6 additional tricks
1 Swim and walk.
If you want to lose weight in your legs, swimming in the pool and regular walking will be a pleasant and really rewarding physical accompaniment of this process. Both types of activity provide a joyful and uncomplicated exercise, while at the same time physiologically stimulating the muscles of the legs. Even if you are just lying on the water, your muscles work! And walking part of the usual daytime route on foot in good weather is a pleasure. Both swimming and walking belong to the category of aerobic exercise, during which the body receives energy from oxygen: glucose is oxidized, fat is burned faster, mood rises, the effect of regular workouts at home and in the gym increases many times over.
2 Drink water, mate and pu-erh correctly.
Often, excess weight, concentrated in the thighs and legs, in women “reverberates” with manifestations of cellulite. By themselves, fatty nodules, alas, are characteristic of female physiology and it is not so easy to get rid of them, however, you can reduce the external manifestations of cellulite using various means. Among them is the correct drinking regime. Dehydration of tissues leads to the fact that the “orange peel” becomes more visible, but the water retained in the cells also does not add beauty.
To lose weight in the legs, sometimes it is enough to adjust the rate and method of fluid intake: drink at least 1,5 liters of pure non-carbonated water per day, preferably in small portions (20-30 ml several times per hour). Ethnic teas will be a good help: Paraguayan mate and Chinese pu-erh have established themselves as reliable aids in losing weight. These drinks, provided they are brewed correctly, not only help control an exuberant appetite, but also improve lymph flow and lipolysis.
3 Wear shapewear and shaping clothing
Modern corrective “slimming” tights and pantaloons are a powerful secret weapon! They will help you look slimmer when you are just starting to lose weight in your legs. Corrective underwear not only shapes the silhouette, creating a beautiful and more toned line of the hips, knees, ankles, but also has an anti-varicose effect, fighting the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle. Recently, the lingerie market has also been enriched with innovative corrective leggings, which outwardly do not differ from the usual ones, but help to “narrow” the buttocks and legs by a couple of sizes. Such wardrobe items also act as a supportive psychological tool, clearly showing how good you will be by “removing” a centimeter or two of volume from your feet.
4 Try autoloading.
Self-tanning not only gives the effect of “sun kiss”, but also allows you to visually lose weight in the legs. However, be careful and careful – it takes a certain amount of skill and dexterity to apply a skin coloring product. It will be most convenient for beginners to use toning napkins. Shoes that are similar in color to your natural tanned skin tone will help enhance the effect by making your legs look slimmer and longer. Didn’t work with self-tanning? Combine shoes and tights.
5 Learn about dry foot brushing.
Many people know the tonic and rejuvenating effect of facial brushing, but it may come as a surprise to use the same method to answer the question of how to lose weight in the legs. For dry brushing of the feet, it is enough to have 10 minutes of free time, a brush with a fairly hard natural bristle or, conversely, soft plastic, and, of course, access to the feet. If these conditions are met, you will be able to perform a brushing session (vigorous circular massage with a brush) even at work. Brushing helps not only to get rid of dead skin particles, but also provides a lymphatic drainage and anti-cellulite effect, and also improves skin elasticity.
6 Work while standing.
A sedentary lifestyle and, most importantly, work (which is often life for a modern woman), as you know, does not matter much on the figure and on the mood. Sitting for many hours in a sedentary position blocks blood flow and lymphatic drainage, and also leads to muscle weakening. The flaccidity of the muscles affects the overall functionality of the supporting tissues – becoming less elastic, they condone not only the growth of the fat layer, but also the union of adipocyte cells into cellulite tubercles. However, if you just change your posture and body position at least once an hour, the situation will change for the better. Doing some of the office work while standing will give your muscles work and help you lose weight in your legs. By the way, for those who work in the office, but are ready to be creative about their working conditions, one of the increasingly popular slimming gadgets, a table with a variable height, has been invented.
How to lose weight in legs and become slimmer: the benefits and harms of exercise
If it is necessary to lose weight in the legs and hips, it will not be possible to do without physical activity at all. However, it makes sense not to overdo it: a noticeable increase in muscle mass, of course, will make the hips, knees, ankles more athletic and give them sculpturality, but they will not look thin at the same time.
You can train both at home and in the gym, the main thing is to pay fitness attention to your legs daily for 15-30 minutes (depending on the composition and intensity of the workout). One of the best methods for losing weight in the legs is considered to be cardio training (intense aerobic exercise), such as various types of running, jumping rope, squatting, and cycling. Usually they are recommended to be carried out three times a week.
When working out with a trainer in order to lose weight in your legs, take an interest in HIIT (Intensive Interval Training) – this is a relatively new, but rapidly gaining positive reviews fitness method, the essence of which is a chaotic (but actually thoughtful) change of exercises and intervals between them. … HIIT allows you to target different types of muscle fibers and thus increases the consumption of both fat and glycogen stores.
However, not all activities require the help and support of an instructor – many leg weight loss exercises can be performed comfortably at home. By combining physical exercises with breathing according to the bodyflex technique invented by the American Greer Chalders, you will achieve more pronounced results in less time! Bodyflex speeds up fat metabolism and tightens muscles by receiving additional oxygen. Respiratory gymnastics according to the scheme “full exhalation – full inhalation through the nose – a sharp full exhalation through the mouth – holding the breath – inhalation” can be combined with almost any fitness exercise that includes a phase of static muscle tension – it is at this phase that you should delay for 8-10 seconds breathing after full exhalation.
Interview
What do you think: do your legs need weight loss?
Yes
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