I know that the inner thighs are a problem area for many women (myself included) and a very challenging part to slim down, which is why I’ve decided to do a separate post on it and show you the best workouts for inner thighs that burn fat in this area.
But before that, let’s try to figure out why we have such a stubborn fat on our thighs. The thing is that some parts of our body are essential for storing fat because it’s used for sustaining life and protecting your organs. Women tend to store extra weight in their hips, butt and inner thighs. Men can also have some weight on their legs, but more often they store fat in their abdomen area.
It happens because female hormones make fat storage more likely to occur in the hips and thighs as it has an advantage during childbirth. For this very reason, his fat is particularly difficult to get rid of. But it’s still possible to reduce it and make your legs look slimmer.
But you should focus on workouts for inner thigh that assist in burning fat. I’ve tried many different exercises and plans, but some of them actually made things worse and caused my thighs to grow instead of making them smaller. That’s because different exercises work differently depending on your goals. Some allow to build muscles and increase the size of your legs, and some help to make your legs thinner. We’ll cover it in the post in just a minute.
Before that, I just want you to realize that the most effective way to get rid of fat in your inner thighs is to burn overall body fat. Your first step in losing weight is to create a calorie deficit. It’s crucial to make changes in your diet in order to see results
Start by eating a healthy diet, followed by cardio and the right types of resistance training if you want to slim down inner thighs without adding extra muscle bulk. A healthy diet consists of low-sugar fruits and veggies, lean protein, good fats. You can learn more about that in my free ebook “How to start eating healthy” (you can get it in the right sidebar of this blog).
To lose weight, you have also to mobilize as much fat as possible through different fitness activities that use multiple muscles at once for extended periods of time. Long-duration cardio and complex resistance training are the best options for that.
And now let’s talk about what kind of workouts for inner thighs fat you should use and what to avoid in order to get beautiful lean legs.
Inner thigh tips:
1
Avoid certain types of resistance training
Unfortunately, some of the popular exercises that people use for building muscles are not the best for you as they won’t slim down your inner thigh area. Even more – they can make your thighs bigger.
These exercises are the ones that heavily target your quads, such as the following: weighted squats, lunges, leg machines. If you do them you can burn a lot of calories, but at the same time, they can make this area end up looking bigger. If you add some muscle – but don’t really lose fat – then you’ll end up wondering why your legs are getting bigger from working out.
The same states for some cardio exercises like cycling, the elliptical, stair master, stair or uphill running. They are amazing for overall health, but if you want to slim down your legs, you’d better skip them for now. A lot of these types of cardio will actually build your leg muscles so your thighs may get bigger, rather than slimmer.
2
Walk and run more
Probably, the best ways to reduce inner thigh fat are by walking and running.
Walking may seem like a too simple and easy exercise, but in fact, it’s really effective. When you walk regularly, you get rid of extra weight, including your inner thighs fat. Usually, I recommend doing at least 15,000 steps per day.
When you do cardio at a low to moderate intensity (walking), your body burns stored glycogen first, and then fats. So the longer you exercise, the more fat your body will burn.
Check my article “How to lose weight by walking” with all the recommendations and tips on how to walk to burn fat
As for the running, it may be a really great workout for inner thighs if you do it right. Some women can get bigger legs from running because it may actually build leg muscle. But it happens when you use short high-intensity forms of running such as sprinting.
Generally speaking, long-distance running will not bulk up your legs as it breaks down muscle and will make them thinner. Maybe you noticed that endurance runners tend to have very slim legs. So if you want to reduce the size of your legs and thighs, choose long endurance running, if you want more toned and defined thighs go for short workouts such as HIIT (high-intensity interval training.
3
Use cardio
If you train regularly, but still don’t see any improvements in your inner thigh area, add some extra cardio sessions. Try to do at least 250 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio per week if you want to lose weight in this area.
As it was mentioned before, avoid heavy forms of cardio, otherwise, you may grow your thighs instead of reducing them. You should also avoid the stair machine and spin bike as these will build muscle in places you may not want. The best forms of cardio for you are walking, jogging, hiking, inline skating or cross-country skiing. Dance and boxing are other options.
If you want to burn inner thigh fat without gaining much muscle mass, you should keep the resistance or incline low. It’s important to choose low resistance low on the elliptical trainer, stationary bike or treadmill. However, always try to keep a moderately high intensity in order to burn calories and lose weight. You can use the heart rate calculator for this.
4
Resistance training
Cardio is amazing for achieving your fitness goals, but you shouldn’t forget about strength training as well. In order to have lean, toned legs you need to incorporate exercises that challenge your muscles. That’s why resistance training should be always a part of your workout plan.
If you don’t want to grow your muscles too much, choose light weights or even just your body weight. This way your leg muscles become stronger and more toned, but not bigger. Focus on performing more repetitions rather than using heavier weights.
I will show you the most effective exercises you can use for creating your own workout for inner thigh fat at the end of this post. They all can be performed without any weights, just keep focusing on the right technique and the number of sets.
5
Try fasting
Intermittent fasting is really popular nowadays and it has many health benefits. But you can also use just a regular morning fasting. If you want to lose weight from your thighs, you can try to exercise on an empty stomach. It’s usually called “fasted cardio”. Specialists sat that in this state you will end up burning more fat.
When you first wake up, you have not eaten for at least 9-10 hours. This means that your body doesn’t have much glycogen (carbs) so you can quickly deplete it and start burning fat.
You can try it, but always remember to listen to your body. I know people that can’t work out while fasting, they get nauseous or fatigued too much. In this case, stick to your regular routine.
Workouts for inner thigh fat
To tone up your legs and butt without adding bulk, you should focus on lighter workouts:
Try these workouts for inner thigh fat and let me know what you think. Also, if you find this post helpful, please share it using the social media links below.
xo,
Jane
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