i live in ny and ride my bike around the big pond in flushing meadow park that is mostly on level pavement but includes two hills. i normally bike twice a week and swim three times a week with breaks on saturday and sunday.
i have really thick thighs and they make me feel really self-conscience. especially because they look horrible in my uniform skirt so i ALWAYS where my pants that are baggy enough that people cant tell how big my thighs really are.
i want to know if what i am doing will slim down my thighs. i only started a month ago and i cant really tell if there has been any change. I live in NYC too! Hey neighbor.
Alright, to keep things simple... basically you just have a lot of fuel stored at your thighs. To get rid of this fuel, you must use it quicker than it stores. So eat healthy, and try to consume only enough calories to sustain your activities. No more, no less.
You have to bike as often as you can so you can use this extra fuel up. Initially, it doesn't matter whether you bike with easy gears and go long distances or bike with harder gears and use brute force to go fast for short durations. Both will help you burn fat although using brute force to go as fast as you can might help use more fuel faster if you don't have that much time on your hands.
If all goes well, you thighs should start slimming. Now it's time to choose. Do you want big bulky muscular legs like the professionals or do you want slim fit legs?
There are two types of muscles. One is fast-twitch and one is slow-twitch.
Fast-twitch muscles are the ones you see on body builders and weight lifters. They're huge and they pack a hard punch but they don't have as much endurance as slow-twitch muscles.
Slow-twitch muscles are the lean muscles you see on ballerina. They're lean and they don't have big bursts of power but they can last long periods of time. If you ever watch the movie "The Game Plan" you'll see that The Rock struggles to learn ballet because his muscles can't endure the long exercises. This is because it is harder for glycogen (food for the muscle cells) to reach the cells if your muscles are huge. Slim muscles recover quickly because glycogen can reach each muscle cell quickly. Slim athletes get tired less quickly.
To change your muscle composition, you must consistently use your muscles a certain way. Assuming you want slim, lean muscles, you must do light exercises for long periods of time. This means that you have to take time out of your schedule and ride your bike for long periods of time without using brute force. Just ride in moderate paces for as long as you can. It takes a lot of patience to build lean muscles because it's tempting to show off your strength, tire yourself out and end up with bulky muscles.
If you do want big quad muscles on your thighs, take up a protein-based diet and sprint as hard as you can, recover, sprint as hard as you can, recover, and so on. This will break down muscle cells quickly and build new ones with the extra protein you eat.
But, don't think about which type of muscle you want until you see real progress in slimming your thighs. For now, just focus on burning the fat by riding as often as you can and eating healthy. I mean, what's the point of having big or lean muscles when you can't see them right?
There's lots of neat places in NYC to check out by bike like Rockaway beach, Hudson River Park, and Riverside. You can burn fat and explore! Make it your goal to go somewhere further than usual and bike back home. Go as far as you can and don't anticipate the ride home. This way, you'll be forced to ride home no matter how tired you are. Sign up for bike events such as tours, club rides, and eventually centuries. There's the Five Boro Bike Tour that covers 42 miles with 30,000 cyclists from all around the world. Riding with so many people in such a big event distracts the fact that you're exercising and makes it enjoyable. People of all ages and body types do it every year. You can also sign up for the free Tour de Brooklyn, Tour de Bronx, and Tour de Queens.
Anyways, good luck, have fun, and I hope my advice can guide you. Biking will drop your body fat, but will build the muscles in your legs, making your thighs bigger. At least mine got bigger, but I ride about a hundred miles a week, as fast as I can. If you're doing a lot less then that, then you might only tone your legs and drop fat. yes it does. it can really get your heart working when going up hills etc.. i started doing some street riding and dirt juming a little less than a year ago and i have worked up A LOT of leg muscle and have kept myself fit from riding only 1nce or twice a week. Also can work up your biceps if your gonna be hopping or pulling mannuals/monos. Yes, if the thighs have a lot of fatty tissue cells the fat will be replaced with muscle if you get a full workout and eat right. The problem is if you slim down the fat and then relapse and eat bad foods with no exercise. Then you get fatter than before unfortunately. Lots of interesting information from other respondents including some theories that are, perhaps a bit dubious.
Here is the question: do you have thick thighs because they are heavily muscled or because you are carrying excess body weight? If you are heavily muscled, change your attitude and be proud! If you are carrying around excess body weight, cycling will help you shed pounds.
Here is the real skinny: the key to losing weight is burning more calories than you take in. A pound of fat contains roughly 3500 calories. If you consistently burn 200 more calories than you take in, you will lose about 1 pound of body fat every two weeks. This is a very sustainable pace of weight loss that won't leave you feeling perpetually weak and starved.
Now, this weight isn't going to all come off your thighs. Weight loss occurs all over the body simultaneously. If you keep at it long enough, though, your thighs along with all other parts of you will slim down.
Cycling is an endurance sport characterized by high levels of repetitions with low resistance. It will tend to tone your leg muscles. To build bulky muscles requires low repetions with high resistance (like sprinting.) Furthermore, significant bulk formation requires high levels of testosterone. (A healthy woman's testosterone level is too low for significant bulk formation.) Thus, you should not expect to build a lot of bulk as a result of cycling.
Keep at it!
Hope this helps. |
