Targeting specific areas of your body to lose fat, can be challenging, especially when you’re consistently training and sticking to your nutrition plan. Unfortunately, where your body stores fat is entirely up to genetics. You can have rock-hard abs and still have stubborn body fat that sits on your thighs. The problem is that simply shredding fat from your thighs alone is impossible, without reducing total body fat and optimizing body composition. We’re going to talk more about how to burn and lose fat from your thighs so you can shed those last few percentage points of body fat. These 5 best ways to lose thigh fat you’ll have the shredded thighs you deserve.
How To Lose Thigh Fat
Your body fat is largely determined by three factors
- How many calories you consume throughout the day
- How many calories you burn
- Your metabolic rate
Largely determined, meaning that there are more factors that influence your body fat and weight than just these three factors alone. Quality of food, sleep, stress levels, genetic predispositions, body type, and hormonal balance all have a place in the makeup of your body aesthetic.
As you age, your body tends to hold onto body fat more readily. Your hormones will change, decreasing active testosterone levels, which will make it harder to maintain lean muscle mass. The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn at rest. Therefore, the decrease in muscle will inevitably increase the amount of body fat you have. Loss of muscle essentially will slow down your metabolism. In women, especially after menopause, decreasing levels of estrogen will also influence a greater distribution of body fat.
1. Eat More Protein
One of the best ways to lose thigh fat is to consume a lot of protein. More protein in your diet is going to help you build more muscle and lose more body fat, which is exactly what you need to lose thigh fat. You may think you’re eating all the right things, and heck, maybe you are. The difference could be simply adjusting your macros to include more protein, a little less fat, less carbs, or more carbs depending on your training regimen. Weight loss can get confusing, and adjusting your macros, can also be challenging, when you’ve been taught to restrict certain foods your entire life. This is where hiring a certified nutrition coach, comes in real clutch.
Protein has a high thermic effect and helps speed up your metabolism, and unlike refined or simple carbohydrates does not cause a spike in blood glucose levels - the catalyst for the creation of body fat.
Include proteins, like as grass-fed beef, chicken, turkey, pork and fish. Eat at least 0.8-1g of protein per pound of body weight to start. That means if you weigh 145 pounds, then you’re going to need to eat a minimum of 130g of protein each day. It may sound like a lot, but 4oz of protein at each meal, will get you around 100g. If you need some extra protein throw in a protein bar or protein shake made with whey protein isolate, and you’ll hit your protein intake for the day. Protein is typically low in calories, so even when you eat your weight in protein per day, your caloric intake will still be low and in a deficit.
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2. Add Another Leg Day To Your Training
If your thighs are the culprit to you losing your confidence, and you want to gain more definition, then add another leg day to your training split. Typically, with resistance training you should be targeting your lower body and legs 1-2 per week. But if the goal is losing thigh fat, then add in another leg day, to build more muscle mass and transform your legs.
If you’re a crossfitter or go to HIIT (High-intensity Interval Training) classes, then you’re one step ahead of what I’m about to say.
Turn up your workout intensity! Hitting an 85-95% of your max effort when it comes to intensity, will churn and burn more calories, turn up your body’s thermic effect, and help you burn more thigh fat. If you don’t want to turn it up, then go with some added cardio 3-4 times per week for 45 min.
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3. Hire A Nutrition Coach
You can’t out train a bad diet. Diet is everything, especially when it comes to body optimization and losing thigh fat. Losing weight is not the issue here, it’s the fine tuning and optimization that’s the real challenge. Two people are never one in the same, and conventional diets, do not address things such as genetics, hormones, food restrictions, gut health, or specific training modalities. Hiring a certified nutrition coach can assist you in taking the guesswork out of your training and nutrition, and help you optimize your results. A nutrition coach can adjust your training methods, to help you born more body fat, add specific exercises to target your thighs, or even help develop a training program for gaining more muscle in your legs, as well as build a nutrition plan that fits your lifestyle, including the foods you love that make you feel good and that will help you lose more body fat. When you simply can’t figure out what to do, where to go, or how to get there, hire a coach. You’ll wish you did sooner.
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4. Drink More Water
Sounds easy right… Wrong. Drinking more water throughout the day, can be extremely challenging for some. You get busy, forget, and often times mistake your hunger cues that you need to eat, when really you’re dehydrated. Drinking water throughout the day can have a drastic effect on your weight loss and help you lose stubborn thigh fat. Your brain often confuses thirst with hunger. Most of the time your, you’re not hungry at all, you’re experiencing mild dehydration. Therefore, drinking more water, will help increase satiation, keep you hydrated, all while cutting calories. What’s more, drinking water stimulates your body’s metabolism and energy expenditure, or thermogenesis.
RELATED ARTICLE How Water Can Help Weight Loss
5. Cut Out Refined Sugar
Look, we all love us some ice cream, a lemon poppy seed scone, or some birthday cake more than just when we celebrate birthdays. The goal of optimizing your lifestyle, is that you can achieve and eat anything and everything in moderation, but they key word here is – moderation. If you’re eating refined carbs/sugar at least once per day, then think about limiting your intake. You have goals, and if you don’t reduce your sugar intake, then your thighs will remain the same. Nothing changes, if nothing changes friend.
How To Lose Thigh Fat: Takeaway
By strategically implementing the best ways to lose thigh fat into your training and lifestyle, you'll be able to reach your goals in no time. You're doing all of the right things, or maybe you aren't either way, consistency, and trusting in the process are important to your overall success. Hire a nutrition coach, drink more water, add another leg day to your training and cut that last bit of body fat off those thighs.
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