How to Lose Fat Quickly From Your Thighs

Skinny jeans, leggings and the popularization of the desire to achieve a thigh gap may have contributed to your desire for slim, lean thighs. So can you really lose fat quickly from your thighs?

First of all, know that the so-called “thigh gap” has more to do with genetics than anything. Sure, you have to be pretty slim to have it, but some people have no hopes of ever getting it because they are just built differently.

Our focus needs to be on healthy, toned thighs, not some elusive “thigh gap” made popular on social media websites.

On women, fat tends to collect in the inner and outer thigh. According to Scientific American, female hormones are responsible for the accumulation of fat around the thighs and pelvis (1).

This may be necessary to store energy during the reproductive years. The fat around the pelvic area is most easily burned off during lactation.

Don’t worry; there are other ways to lose thigh fat quickly without having to birth and breastfeed a child.

Although there are no exercises to specifically target the fat in this area, there are many lifestyle changes that you can make to lose thigh fat quickly.

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1. Burn More Calories

Strip away fat from your body by burning more calories than you take in. We’ve all heard that a million times over. Can you be a little more specific!?

Most experts say that walking, cycling, swimming, and jogging are the best exercises for your legs. Some research shows that intense aerobic exercise, especially running, increases cortisol, a stress hormone that can make losing weight difficult.

If you’re a die-hard jogger, try switching it up with walking.

You’ll use different muscles in your legs and benefit from the cortisol-reducing exercise. If you feel like you’re just not working as hard when you walk, put on some headphones and walk to the beat of upbeat tunes.

If you work out on a treadmill, set it at a steep incline to work more muscles in your legs and burn more calories. You can also head for the hills or walk up bleachers or stairs for a similar effect.

However, if it’s just calorie burn you’re going for, Muscle and Fitness claims that the following exercises help you toast more calories:

High-intensity interval training or tabata – Intervals of working out at your maximum combined with intervals of rest or low-intensity exercise
Cardio boxing – A blend of cardio and muscle conditioning that provides a whole-body workout
Boot camp – A circuit-training type of class that incorporates body-conditioning moves, flexibility training, and agility work and challenges the body’s major energy systems
Bikram yoga – Hot yoga that includes cardio, strength and flexibility components’

I’m going to add regular ole’ yoga to this list as well.

We have tons of articles and resources on how yoga can help you burn fat. Try this 30-minute fat-burning yoga workout for starters.

2. Build Targeted Muscle

Your thighs will look leaner and stronger if you build muscle in that area. Performing exercises that focus on your inner thighs, outer thighs, glutes, and hamstrings can help you tighten up those areas as you lose the fat that covers the muscle.

You don’t need special equipment to perform strength-training exercises. Movements that use your own body weight can make you just as strong.

Some exercises that are ideal for toning the thighs are:

Squats
Lunges
Box jumps
Stair climbing
Glute bridges
YOGA!

Losing fat and seeing a change in your muscular structure can take time. Don’t give up just because you haven’t dropped a pants size yet.

Be realistic. Everyone has a predetermined body shape, and your hips may not be set wide enough apart to provide you with a thigh gap.

That’s ok. You can still achieve a healthy, strong and toned figure.

3. Get Enough Sleep

When you’re not burning calories, make sure that you are getting enough rest. Being perpetually overtired and overstressed can restrict your body’s ability to recuperate from your daily routine.

Sleep can impact weight loss efforts, hormones, immune system, productivity, ability to learn and focus, mood, diet, and athletic performance among many other things.

Lack of sleep can also make you hungrier. Sleep deprivation increases hunger hormones and lowers levels of the hormones that help you feel satisfied after a meal.

If you’re tired, you’re more likely to overeat, snack when you don’t really need the extra calories and gain weight. If you’re well-rested, your weight-loss efforts are more likely to pay off.

The consensus seems to be to get between 7 and 9 every night. We make sure that we always fall in this range every night because optimal health is a huge goal of ours. And because life is hard enough without being tired all the time, right??

4. Reset Your Body

If you struggle to lose weight, it can seem daunting to lose thigh fat quickly. Maybe you’re counting calories and working out at the gym seven days a week, but you’re only seeing a pound come off every week.

That can be discouraging, and it can be hard to maintain an intense diet and exercise routine if you’re not seeing fast results.

You might need to hit the reset button. One way to do this is by fasting. When you fast, your body produces less insulin. Research shows that this promotes fat burning (1).

Another study found that growth hormone release is enhanced when you fast. This can help you lose fat and gain muscle (2).

There are many ways to perform intermittent fasting. If you want to fast every day, eat within an 8-hour window, eliminating meals outside of that window. For example, you can eat your first meal of the day at 11 a.m. and continue to eat every 2 to 3 hours until 7 p.m.

Another method is to fast for 24 hours once or twice a week. The easiest way to do this may be to eat dinner one night in the early evening and restrict meals until the next day at dinner time.

After the fast, eating a meal full of protein and veggies is your best bet.

Fasting may help your body retain muscle while you’re restricting calories. Research shows that people who simply cut calories every day typically lose more muscle than people who cut calories through intermittent fasting (3).

Following a healthy diet is still important when fasting. If you’re eating pizza and doughnuts when you’re not fasting, your body may not be able to properly handle the influx of carbs.

Eat an appropriate number of calories when you’re not fasting, filling up on plenty of vegetables and protein.

If you are interested in learning more about how to implement fasting and the right diet in a program together to lose weight from your thighs or ANYWHERE, you should take a look at our 21-Day Fat Loss Challenge.

Fasting is, of course, optional and never required, but we do explain it in more depth and give you detailed instructions on how to do it if you’d like to try it. The fast and detox that the program starts out with help our clients lose an average of 7-10 lbs in the first week (average weight loss during the whole 21 days is 15-21 lbs).

The Fat Loss Challenge is all about learning how to properly diet and establish healthy habits for weight loss and beyond.

If you are ready to make some changes in your life, we really encourage you to start here and take this journey with us! We will teach you exactly how to make the necessary changes in your diet and your lifestyle and how to keep them “beyond the diet.”

Click here to start YOUR 21-Day Fat Loss Challenge today!

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