Womens Fitness, Diet and Weight Loss Blog.

Can I lose weight in just my lower body?

11/3/2018

Millions of dollars are spent by women on products that are advertised as being able to 'trim', 'tighten', 'reshape' or 'shrink' the thighs and glutes. Unfortunately all of that money is wasted.

Woman performing squats using a dumbbell

It is NOT possible to lose body fat from only one area of your body. Regardless of how much you concentrate on that area, any fat loss you experience will be systematic. In other words it will come off all over your body. When it comes to losing body fat, the quickest way is to use resistance exercises in a fast paced workout/cycle, especially your lower body muscles in your exercises. Because the thighs, glutes and hamstrings are larger muscle groups, your body burns more calories when you exercise them.

Exercises like squats, jump squats, lunges etc., burn more calories than training smaller muscle groups such as biceps or triceps. Even though you use these larger muscle groups of the lower body to burn calories, you will lose fat over your entire body, not just your lower body.
Do not believe any personal trainer, magazine article, YouTube video or fitness "expert" who says you can spot reduce (lose more body fat in one area of your body faster than another area).

Terry Stokes

Using resistance exercises to lose body fat:
The video below shows and example of using the legs along with biceps and shoulders to burn calories.

more fat loss workouts

The key to losing weight with resistance exercises is getting your heart rate high enough to burn calories. It's definitely more difficult to raise your heart rate using resistance exercises, than it is by running, spinning etc., but the results are better (you will lose fat but NOT muscle) and you never have to run on a treadmill again!
WARNING: Too much traditional cardio (running, spin etc.) can cause muscle loss. You do not want this! This leads to "Skinny Fat Syndrome", whereby you look thinner after losing weight, but you have just as much body fat as you had before, because you lost fat AND muscle. This is why retaining muscle is a very important part of your workout and weight loss plan.

Terry Stokes

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Exercises to Avoid: Dumbbell Pushups

11/2/2018

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Going too low during pushups places excessive stress on the shoulder joints possibly leading to an injury

Pushups with dumbbells are becoming more popular. Besides looking cool there are some excellent exercises you can perform with dumbbells in this position. You can do floor rows, burpees, pushups, walking pushups, body drags etc. I'm not against using dumbbells to perform pushups but you must avoid the extreme low position.

you can sometimes see the bones of the shoulder protruding during this exercise

This position place excess stress on the front of the shoulders. You may feel a good stretch in this position, but it's not good for your shoulder joints. It's safe to go down until your arms are at a 90 degree angle. If you go down further (bottom picture) you run the risk of over stressing the front capsule of the shoulders. This can cause a nagging injury that stays around for a long time and hinders other exercises such as bench press, shoulder presses etc.

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Can I lose weight in just my lower body?

Exercises to Avoid: Dumbbell Pushups

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