I hope you’ve been enjoying my how to get skinny legs blog series. I have given you the foundations of nutrition and exercise to help you achieve lean and toned legs. Now I’m going to provide you with some information about common mistakes that you might be making.
1. HEAVY SQUATS
Through my experience and that of others, I have learned that heavy squats don’t work for most body types. It results in overly muscular legs (but does amazing things for the rest of your body!). While squatting is still good for you and can really help tone up your legs, I would avoid squatting heavy (I’m sure most personal trainer’s are hating me right now).
2. TARGETING INNER THIGHS
There is a common misconception that if you do exercises to target your inner thighs, your inner thighs will get smaller. This comes from the idea that you can spot reduce fat from specific areas of your body. This is not really true, except for doing cardio (particularly running and walking) to reduce body fat on your legs (read more here).
In fact, by doing exercises to target your inner thighs you are actually making the muscle bigger, which may make your inner thighs look bigger. To reduce the size of your thighs you need to do cardio to reduce the fat (plus eat healthy)!
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3. NOT EATING ENOUGH
Yes in order to lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit, which means eating less food than your body needs. BUT many people underestimate the amount of food they need and severely restrict their calorie intake.
I know I have mentioned this time and time again, but not eating enough food slows down your metabolism and causes your body to go into “starvation” mode. This means that when you do eat more food or have a naughty meal, your body will store it as fat.
If you starve yourself for a long period of time (more than 6 months eating less than 1200 calories), you will do long term damage to your metabolism.
The other bad side effect that can be caused by severely cutting calories is binge eating. Binge eating will DEFINITELY cause you to gain weight and causes inflammation within the body.
So please please don’t do any crash diets or juice cleanses or try to starve yourself, as I PROMISE it will backfire in the long run!
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It’s FREE
32 Responses
Hello, Rachael! Your blog is so helpful to me! Thank you very much for the tips?I was wondering, I’m 17 years old and I want to get skinny legs and a small waist. Should I follow an adult diet and exercise plan or try one for teens? I’m at that awkward stage of life where I’m not sure what age group I’m in anymore. Thank you!??
Hi lovely,
You’re very welcome, I’m happy to hear that! :) I would recommend eating in a way that feels best for your body. You could try both plans and see which one works better for you! xx
Love,
Diana
Hello,
If you’ve eaten at a calorie deficient for over 6 months, is it possible to re-boost your metabolism? It says that you would have done long term damage, however I’m wondering if this is able to be reversed?
Thank you x
Hi lovely,
Yes, it’s possible to fix a damaged metabolism, but it takes some patience and persistence. Please have a read of these blog posts where we have described how to deal with this issue in greater detail:
https://www.rachaelattard.com/224-how-to-fix-a-damaged-metabolism/
https://www.rachaelattard.com/boost-your-metabolism/
I hope you find these tips helpful! :) xx
Love,
Diana
Hi,
Thank you for this blog! I just have a quick question, when I started a new diet about 3 weeks ago, I eat around 1000 – 1100 calories per day. I’ve realised it is too less, so I’ve been trying to add the calories back. However, as you mentioned when you go too low and suddenly add in more calories the body tends to store them as fat more easily. Do you have any suggestions? I’ve slowly moved up to 1200 then 1300. However I feel like I’m gaining back those fat, is it just in my head or I am really gaining back those fat I loss?
Thanks!
Hi Rachael!
I want to start by saying I’m obsessed with you and your blog! I have gotten amazing information and inspiration from you and your posts! But, I am in a similar situation as one of the women above. I had an eating disorder around 3 years ago, but now want to lean out my legs a little. I have recovered from my disorder, but am still unhappy with how I look. I build muscle very easily, and want to slim down the muscle and fat on my legs. I don’t really want to lose weight because that is not the goal, and I don’t want to trigger anything. I know you probably don’t have much experience in this area, but is there any advice you could give me? Thank you so much!
Hi Rachael!
I have really enjoyed reading all your posts they’ve been super helpful and I’m taking all the advice on board. However, I am in a bit of a predicament. I have been recovering from an eating disorder for 2 years now and was very scared to increase my calories over 1000/day, until recently. About 6 months ago, no matter how little I was eating and how much walking/running I was doing I wasn’t losing any weight, in fact I was gaining weight quite gradually. I decided to start eating more food, in a healthy manner, as you said 100-200 calories per day. But I was just wondering if you knew anything about increasing metabolism after it’s been damaged for so long? Is there anything else I can do? Will it ever go back to normal and will I ever stop gradually gaining weight? I often get days where I get scared to eat more because I ate the recommended amount in the previous days. I’m just feeling very scared and I’m running out of options. Any advice would be appreciated!!
Lots of Love!!
Hi lovely, I’m really sorry to hear your troubles. Yes you can definitely recover and your metabolism will go back to normal :) Please have a read of this blog post on how to recover from a damaged metabolism. If you’ve been trying to recover on your own for 2 years without much luck, it could be a good idea to get help from a sports nutritionist or dietician who will be able to guide you. You will recover quicker like this and they will be able to tell you exactly what to do during your recovery, instead of guessing for yourself. I hope that helps. And I really wish you all the best! xx