Slim down muscle/fat during reverse diet

bridgeycee

Hey there- so I have a couple things going on. I'm currently undergoing a reverse diet during my ED recovery. The last few months I had been doing a combo of weights/circuits/HIIT/some cardio. I found that the reverse diet and my ability to put on muscle fairly easily is not matching up with my aesthetic goals and I feel my legs (specifically my inner thigh/adductors) have gotten incredibly bulky. I need to continue to finish my reverse diet but I was hoping for suggestions to decrease some muscle and also not add a lot of fat throughout the process. If that means doing more sustained cardio or what... Feeling a little overwhelmed with all of it!

Need2Exerc1se

Your legs didn't get incredibly bulky. If you want to stop putting on muscle in your legs then stop progressively adding weight to leg exercises.

sardelsa

Perhaps you are retaining more water, but I don't think your legs got that bulky that fast. It is very difficult for women to put on significant muscle especially in months. To be honest, I think it could be a skewed perception of yourself due to your history. Regardless, if you aren't happy with how you are looking, either cut out the weights to the legs or cut out progressive overload to them.

As to not add too much fat, keep your surplus minimal can help but if it is a team that has a recommended cal intake for you, I would follow them first above any advice here obviously.

I wish I had these bulky genes... I would love to look more like a bikini bodybuilder/ fitness model, even after several bulk cycles I am just starting to get a hint of muscle. 3 years later...

rheddmobile

So you are recovering from an ED and you feel your muscles are making you look bulky? What does your treatment team think about this? it doesn't sound like a reality-based or healthy goal, and it would be irresponsible to sign off on it.

usmcmp

You need to talk to your recovery team about body dysmorphia. They need to stay on top of working with you on how you see your body. This is a mental thing, you didn't gain that much muscle on your legs.

jemhh

It sounds like you need to continue to work on recovery from your ED. You are asking to become smaller, which I am going to guess is part of your ED. This isn't something that we can help you with.

amusedmonkey

You're reverse dieting, so the goal is to gain weight and with that comes gain in size. More cardio will only make things worse for your ED. You need to understand that becoming bigger is unavoidable and necessary, in addition to water retention being part of the process which can make you feel even bigger. Let your ED care know that you're having issues with size gain, and if you don't understand something about what to expect during this process you need to ask.