The body of everyone of us is something like a diamond that we varnish – through our daily choices.
The body that we have right now is a result of everything you have believed to be true and from everything that your convictions made you choose.
Everyone of us looks in the mirror and sees… what we do not like. And then our day is the total sum of the efforts made to change and improve ourselves.
Women can be divided in three:
-those that have a thinner upper body and their problem zone is the lower body – butt and thighs;
-those that have thinner and longer legs, but their belly has more fat;
-those that accept themselves and do the optimal for the body they were born with.
I work with a lot of women and I communicate with them on a daily basis. I receive messages with the words: “Ines, when are my legs gonna get thinner?”
“Ines, I love my upper body, but I want to have thinner and longer legs.”
“Ines, I want to have longer looking muscles. What can I do?”
That is why I will dedicate today’s post to women and to bigger butts and thighs. If you are that type of woman and you wonder what to do in order to achieve your goals:
What is the reason about this type of structure and incline to gain fat in your lower body?
1.Genes
Genes always have a role in the way we look, but up to a certain level. Genes are something like a hand of cards that life deals us, but it is up to us how we play it. Genes can determine some of our characteristics and our appearance, but it is up to us to make the optimal out of them.
The first and most important thing is to realize that we are all born different. Every one of us has a different structure. I am almost 6’2’’ tall and no matter what I do, I will never have the appearance of a woman who is 5’4’’. And the contrary is true, as well.
That is why, instead of spending my life whining that I am that tall; instead of feeding my insecurities on a daily basis and looking in the mirror searching for more flaws, I can think in a different way: “Ines, this is the body you have. This is your diamond. Now varnish it so you achieve the best thing that can come out of the piece (body), that you have.”
If you have a structure that gives you a nice, flat and lean tummy and arms, but you have a little more volume in your lower body – let’s not fool ourselves – you can’t change your structure – you can just change what you get out of it.
What you can do is to start training and eating properly, so you burn the additional fat and have athletic, well shaped legs. Yes, they will always have a little bit more volume, but your body will be beautiful, because the volume won’t come from cellulite and a lot of unwanted fat. The volume will come from your well shaped muscles, which is in fact attractive and beautiful.
2.Hormonal imbalance
What is the hormonal imbalance when you are predisposed to gain fat in your hips and thighs?
Gaining fat in the hips and thighs is once again an indication for hormonal imbalance. In this case, the cause is higher estrogen levels. Probably you’ve noticed that this fat accumulation is typical for women and usually women who can’t get rid of excess weight have such a hormonal imbalance.
In this case, nutrition is a key player. Soy and all soy derivatives are not encouraged and my advice is to avoid them. Read Stefani Ruper’s post HERE on how soy affects the health of women.
Another common trait among women who have problems with gaining more fat in their lower body is the excessive consumption of dairy products. Usually, these are women who love cheese, yogurt, they are generous with different dairies in their salads and they love adding blue cheese and mozzarella. Everything is in the doze, but overdoing it with dairy (especially bought from the supermarket), leads to these unwanted consequences.
My advice is to not go overboard with dairy products and include them in just one of your daily meals, twice at the most. Emphasize more on fermented dairy products. There is a difference in the technological preparation of different dairies and those that are not fermented, usually create some gut issues.
3.You don’t train properly
A lot of women train. They say that they do squats, lunges, Bg- squats, and still there is no effect on their butt and legs.
They come to me, in the gym, and when I ask them to show me how they perform the exercises, their technique is pretty bad. Actually, they train, they waste time and efforts, but they don’t perform the exercises properly.
It is really important to perform the exercises with full range of motion and proper technique in order to load your muscles. In most cases, bad technique leads to a state where we stress our ligaments and joints. We force them to bare the load, and our muscles don’t do their work.
That’s why you need to master the proper technique of all exercises. If you can’t do it by yourself, find somebody who knows what he is doing and let him teach you. Invest some time to master the technique and later on you can continue on your own.
The exercises that will help you shape your butt and legs are:
-Deadlift
-Squat
-Bulgarian Squats and Bulgarian Squats from deficit
-Pistol Squats
-Hip Thrusters
-Swiss Ball Roll Out
-Glute Ham Rise
-Good Morning
-Lunges and Lunges from deficit
Read this post, where I wrote how to shape your booty, without increasing the volume of your legs ( HERE).
It is important that the workout is intense and that it causes the appropriate metabolic reaction – i.e. just sweating, just being tired or just having some muscle soreness is not enough to say that you had an effective workout. Here, you can see the last 3 workouts that I shared with you last week. Get out of your comfort zone and make your muscles burn – and the fat will burn as well.
4.You have unrealistic expectations
Few things drive me out of my skin, but I get furious when somebody says: “Ines, how can I speed up the results? How can I lose weight faster?”
Let me ask you, how much time did it take you to gain the weight? Probably a couple months? Then, what is making you think that you will lose them in 2-3 weeks?
A week or two of efforts is not enough to turn you in your best self.
You do not need a short term diet or a temporary effort to work out. You need a lifestyle change and a mindset shift.
Walk step by step and give time to the efforts that you make, so they can lead you to satisfying results. Do not quit after the first week or month.
Here are some of the things I’ve been training lately 🙂
