I want to lose muscle

[nikkita]

I forgot, your cardio may be better suited to short-term high intensity 15-25 minutes total duration, 4-5 times per week.
On the other hand, regarding your training... as I mentioned circuit training try to cut rest intervals so that you can do weight training in an aerobic manner. Cutting rest intervals to 20-30 seconds can help burn a significant amount of body fat.

 

[superqt4u2nv]

I have FAT thighs, and I do have love handles. I do know that I have to lose more weight and I will lose the fat ... but everytime I look at my legs I want to cry. It's so awful because they serve me so well, etc, but they're not at all elegant or pretty! They're... thick. Like I could compare it to my guy friends' and mine would be thicker. What's so terrible about that is that the thickness makes my legs look stumpy, and trust me when I say they are unattractive! I know most of my quads is muscle, but I have just about 15-20 lbs to go, how much fat could possibly come off and make my legs slimmer? It's unproportional as it is!

I don't know what to do anymore. I'm really sick of dieting, I really am. I have f*cked around with my metabolism so much, with weight loss pills and crash dieting etc etc etc. And I'm only 19! My body is filled with stretch marks, and I am convinced that I'll never have a normal relationship with food. I guess it's like one of those days where you just automatically hate your body... but for me, that day is like every day.

Thanks for everything, especially listening.

When I first was being taugh how to pose with my trainer who is a guy we were standing side by side he is plus 6 feet and plus 200 lbs my legs looked way thicker then his. He was jealous actually said he would kill for my legs. I used to not like my legs like you but instead of seeing them as weak point I see them as my strong point now. So many people have pointed out to me how they would kill for the legs mass I have. As my bodyfat drops the definition in my legs starts becoming clear and clear. Once you get to that point you will see what a true asset your legs really are.

 

[Sassy69]

You have two things to deal w/ patiently -- the natural shape of your legs (or equivalently your body's natural tendency to deposit fat & muscle) and your relationship with food.

Both come with time, patience & persistence. I understand the stress of wanting your body to be a certain way -- I think we all do. And as you've already experienced with the pills, crash diets, etc. there's no quicky solution to it. I'm more than 2x your age and I'm just now starting to get control of how to reshape my body, and its taken 23 yrs of training, 5 yrs of competition dieting and just getting more comfortable with myself.

I used to think I had "big" legs, a decent waistline, no boobs and a not spectacular upper body. (I'm talking when I was 19...) After running through my first bodybuilding competition where you basically diet down for the first time in your life and expose where your really tough spots are -- I found that I diet down fantastically on my waist, my back and upper body are great after yrs of lifting, and my legs are really nothing spectacular and most of the size I thought I had was really fat (or lack of muscle). Oh yea, and I could afford to buy my own boobs

That was 5 yrs ago. NOW, as I've entered into what one might call peri-menopause (at least I've noticed some changes that could only be due to hormone changes...) Now I carry all my fat in my waist. I just competed in another show and was able to whittle down most of my tuff spots but the waist is still an issue. I also think I'm too big in the upper body now and workign to cut that down or at least reshape it. But to do that I'm really looking at a couple cycles of training / diet that are focused on that. I'm not just trying to lose bodyfat, but rather reshaping my body. But that takes more than just one diet stint. And to both achieve this and maintain it, this means I need to be consistent and persistent with my diet & training. No quicky fixes here.

At your age, the best thing you can do is establish a solid & healthy diet - as you said you are only 19. You NEED to get a good diet established & follow it because in a sense you are still growing and your body really needs to be fed cleanly and correctly. You are in the prime of your life - your growth hormone levels are almost at their highest and that means your body WANTS to run as efficiently as it can. It can best do that with a clean diet and activity. USE your body so it can run efficiently.

Stay away from the fad diets & pills because you've already seen that they dont' work. Maybe change up your training if you've been on it awhile and results are stalling. I'd recommend breaking up into body parts instead of full body workouts. Time to start optimizing! And you will see results. But if you panic and start making yourself feel bad because God saw fit to give you big strong legs, then it won't get you anywhere. It is really a fight of mind over matter sometimes, but putting in the time and energy now will pay off before you know it and will stay with you for the rest of your life so you aren't sitting there at age 40 goign "holy shit I have fat thighs".

 

[velvett]

I'm 5'7", 147 lbs (looking to weigh 133 in the future). I still have love handles and thigh fat that I'm looking to shed - although I know you can't spot reduce.

I walk literally everywhere, so sometimes I skimp out on cardio. And because it's summer, and I'm travelling (walking 4-7 hours a day, touring), I don't go to the gym. When I'm at school, I do cardio for 40 mins 2-3 a week. I lift 3x/wk, full body each time. I use the machines at the gym.

My diet is pretty clean. Staples are oatmeal, eggs and egg whites, chicken, tuna, and veggies. My only "cheat" foods are maybe a tbsp of peanut butter and/or Nutella with my oatmeal in the morning. I eat from 1000 (low) - 1900 (high) calories a day.

Do you know what your bodyfat is?

Do you tend to carry most of your body fat below the waist?

I would just diet down and see what you really look like than go on the venture to try and lose muscle (age will do that too you all on its own) and the less muscle on your body the slower your metabolism will run.

You could just develop your upper body to match..

ps - Listen to Sassy - and check out her gams.

 

[Daisy_Girl]

I would just diet down and see what you really look like than go on the venture to try and lose muscle (age will do that too you all on its own) and the less muscle on your body the slower your metabolism will run.

You could just develop your upper body to match..

Exactly what I said above.

 

[velvett]

Exactly what I said above.

Great minds...

 

[Daisy_Girl]

I was thinking the same thing, gorgeous. We just can't restrain these genius brains of ours. lol

 

[skinnyme]

Thanks ladies! You guys are wonderful support and I'm glad I found this forum.

I will try and tighten up my diet. It's just hard though, there always seems to be a piece of cake waiting for me around every corner! I know it's all about mindset.

My bodyfat is 22%, and YUP! most of my fat is below the waist (although back and arm fat can go too). But I find that it's really hard for me to diet... like I'll only drop fat through starvation (500 cals). I've heard of carbohydrate cycling, is that a good plan to use?

 

[Sassy69]

Carb cycling is a fantastic way to drop bodyfat. But understand that it is just one component of a tight diet. Starvation dieting will get you exactly no where & probably a few steps backwards.

The whole thing about dieting is that it isn't' somethign you suffer through to get to a certain point -- its a lifestyle. You need to adapt a style of eating that works w/ your schedule, your likes / disllikes, etc. But it does take a bit of work to really focus on getting it into play. They say it takes 3 weeks to establish a habit. A diet also takes about 3 weeks to really get set up and start showing results. Then you just keep plugging away at it. If you panic and start looking for quicky results, you will get a nice quicky rebound as well, so don't bother.

It is a process -- if you start by keeping to a clean diet, even just cutting out the junk food & processed stuff for a week, you will notice that you are feeling better already. It takes a few days to get the processed sugar out of your system (aka "detox") and then you can really start to appreciate "real" food. Allow yourself one cheat meal per week so that you aren't freaking out over the cake around every corner. Plan accordingly - make it so your cheat is the night you go out w/ your friends for dinner or whatever. If you socialize, keep the drinking to a minimum & keep drinking lots of water.

That will help get it started. HIGHLY recommend looking at the Shadow Project sticky for some guidance on the diet. It isn't supposed to be DIE w/ a T. Instead its a lifestyle. Its up to you to make it YOUR lifestyle.