For many women, especially millennial women, the subject of inner thigh fat is one that can trigger both anxiety and insecurity very fast. From the late 1990s to the late 2000s the subject of the ‘thigh gap’ was very prominent not only in magazines but also on social media. Having slim thighs was considered the epitome of praise for women. While this trend fell away in the 2010s, it now seems to be slowly making a comeback. According to an article published in British Vogue in late 2022, thin is in which sadly means that having bigger thighs may soon fall out of fashion. Contrary to what this new body type trend may say, fat is important in everyone’s body. It not only protects your organs but also helps sustain life. However, if you are overweight or seem to be storing extra fat in this area, then toning up may be a good idea. In this article, we are going to guide you on how to get rid of inner thigh fat safely with both diet and exercises.
Yes and no.
While everyone with excess fat in any part of their body can lose the fat, getting a thigh gap is not as simple. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone can get super slim thighs with a thigh gap no matter how much they exercise or change up their diet.
The truth is that a person’s ability to have a thigh gap largely comes down to two things (8)
The amount of fat in your body also determines how well your thigh gap can be seen. But once again, you need to naturally have a thigh gap to be able to lose enough inner thigh fat to make it more visible.
Before figuring out the best workouts to get rid of inner thigh fat, we must figure out and understand the root cause of this issue. Not only will this help with exercise and understanding our bodies better, but it also prevents us from repeating actions that could worsen this issue.
So what causes inner thigh fat?
Your recommended calorie intake is usually determined by a variety of factors such as age, metabolism and levels of physical activity, among other things (9). When you eat above your recommended intake, your body doesn’t burn all these calories for energy and the excess is stored in your body as fat. Having too much body fat will lead to excess inner thigh fat.
Diet and calorie intake aside, inner thigh fat is also determined by your genetics. Over the years, multiple studies have shown that our genes play a huge role in where and how our body fat is distributed. Genetics affect body fat distribution in both sexes – with women storing most of their fat in their hips, lower belly, and inner thigh and men storing it mostly in their abdomen (7, 6).
Read More: How To Slim Thighs: Top Exercises To Give Your Thighs A Better Shape
Working out is a great way to get rid of any kind of body fat, inner thigh fat included. Before getting into how to get rid of inner thigh fat with exercise, we must insist that spot reduction is not a thing.
There is no possible way to lose weight/fat in just one part of the body. To lose inner thigh fat, you will also lose it in other parts of the body too.
When it comes to losing thigh fat, people tend to approach this matter in two main ways:
If you simply want to slim down your thighs and have no desire to grow the muscles in your thighs, then doing cardio is the best way to go. While cardio does not hinder muscle growth, it doesn’t grow muscle as much as weight lifting/strength training does (8).
Some of the best cardio exercises to simply get rid of inner thigh fat include walking, swimming, running, cycling, as well as HIIT.
If you’d like to lose inner thigh fat and tone your inner thighs at the same time, then doing both cardio and strength training exercises is your best bet. Many people, especially women, avoid strength training because they think it’ll make them look bulky or ‘manly’.
This is a myth. While women can certainly build really big muscles – eg female bodybuilders, it will take a lot more than simply lifting weights a couple days a week. Some of the best exercise to get rid of inner thigh fat and create lean muscle include
Unlike traditional squats that require you to keep your stance closer and feet pointing straight ahead or slightly angled out, a sumo squat requires a wider stance with your feet turned out. This wider stance targets the inner thigh more. To add resistance to this exercise and work your muscles even more, hold a single dumbbell in front of your chest, or a barbell on the shoulders or behind the head.
Unlike normal lunges, where you move your leg to the front, lateral lunges require you to step to the side. Doing this works the muscles on your inner thigh more which helps with toning.
How to do lateral lunges:
To make lateral lunges more challenging, hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand.
Like lateral lunges, they also target the inner thigh through the curtsying motion.
How to do them:
Weights like dumbbells, kettlebells or a barbell are encouraged.
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Also known as inner thigh lifts, this is an exercise often seen in Pilates classes. As the name suggests, it is a great workout that targets your inner thigh muscles:
How to do it:
If this seems too complicated a simpler way to do inner leg lifts involves you lying on your back:
This squat variation – done with one leg elevated on a surface as the other leg performs a squat, receiving most of the load – has been receiving a lot of attention lately as one of the best squats variations for maximum glute growth. While it does indeed target the quadricep muscles, glutes, and hamstrings, the single leg unilateral movement also targets the inner thigh and will be effective in getting rid of inner thigh fat.
Read More: 8 Upper Thigh Exercises That Will Reduce The Appearance Of Cellulite
Unless you plan on booking a liposuction appointment with your local plastic surgeon, you cannot lose inner thigh fat in just a week – with diet or exercise. In fact, you cannot lose fat in any part of your body in just a week and any diet or exercise plan that promises you is a fad.
Any weight lost in a week is usually water weight – it may only take 2 days to lose water weight – but fat takes much longer to disappear. Remember that it often takes anywhere between four to eight weeks to see any body changes caused by fat loss.
If you’ve noticed that your inner thighs are sagging, extra fat is the least likely cause. Saggy thighs are usually caused by either
However, sometimes this doesn’t happen. If you slim down too fast, your skin doesn’t get a chance to shrink down with you which leaves behind saggy skin. For people who are quite obese, the skin is usually too stretched and has lost a lot of its original elasticity making it difficult to shrink back.
This laxity is usually more noticeable in the inner arms and legs as well as in the abdominal area. The decline in elasticity is caused by several factors including reduced collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid in the body (1). Another study published in 2021 also confirmed that the lack of these factors contribute to major issues such as sagging, wrinkling, fragility, irregularities in skin tone and texture, etc. we see as we age (5).
Other factors that could also lead to saggy thighs include smoking, alcohol consumption, menopause (3), steroids, etc.
To get rid of saggy thighs you can consider trying the following:
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Any of the above mentioned exercises to get rid of inner thigh fat will help you get rid of outer thigh fat too. Remember , spot reduction is a myth and to lose fat in a specific body part means losing fat all over your body.
Aside from exercise, however, the other important thing you have to do to reduce fat in this part of the body is improve your diet. Some tips to do this include:
As previously mentioned, spot reduction is a myth. If you want to get rid of upper inner thigh fat, you will have to lose fat in the whole thigh – and all over the body too. A combination of cardio and weighted lower body exercises like the ones mentioned above work great for this.
Cellulite is a condition – often seen in women – that causes lumpy, dimpled flesh on the thighs, hips, buttocks and abdomen. While this condition is relatively harmless, it usually causes a lot of insecurity in people, especially women.
A simple way to get rid of cellulite is through weight loss – as this condition is more prevalent in overweight people – as well as muscle toning. Any of the above mentioned exercises as well as the many variations of squats and lunges will help with toning the thighs.
If you are not overweight and you have pretty good muscle definition but still get cellulite, some home remedies to get rid of this include massages, consuming more collagen and drinking more water. These methods are fairly easy but probably have limited efficacy.
If you have some extra money to spend, the American Academy of Dermatology states that some of the best treatments to get rid of this include laser, subcision, and vacuum-assisted precise tissue release (4).
When it comes to how to get rid of inner thigh fat, full body weight loss is the only answer. Once again, spot reduction is a myth and no exercise will only help you lose weight in the inner thighs. For the best results, improve your diet, eat on a calorie deficit and do a combination of cardio and strength training exercises. Above all, no matter the beauty trend, remember that bodies are created differently and aiming for a thigh gap is not possible or desirable for everyone.
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