How to get rid of chunky legs? Please help!

I would not recommend you get down to 90lbs. 113lbs at 5'3" is small enough.

The first thing to do is look at your diet. Are you eating a lot of fatty foods?

I would recommend you try doing hills on the treadmill. Also try the stair climber. Another great leg exercise is lunges.

Lastly, not all of us can have those nice defined legs. Genetics might be in play here so consider that as well.

Your not gonna want to hear this, but again no way to spot reduce. Everyone stores fat a bit differently, and it seems like your body likes to put it on your lower torso (be happy, I rather have big legs then have stubborn fat on the gut).

Keep cutting and no its not "too skinny" till those fat rolls are gone. Keep up your deficits. It WILL eventually go off (although may be the last spots to leave).

I've had the same peoblem all my life. This time I tried losing a lot of weight and went to the underweight category(that's how much I hated my legs). I'm still not very happy about them, but as I'm not willing to go any lower I started working out and lost about 1 inch off my hips in more than one month. My weight stayed the same, but their shape is better/more toned.
If you look at my profile pic you'll see a 5'9"/120lbs pear shape with ok legs, but I would't recommend doing what I did to anyone. I don't think I'll be able to sustain this look for too long(just until my wedding) + not very healthy. For me it was an old dream of having my highschool legs back that I needed to come true, but soon I must grow up and accept genetics.

Have you always been small? could it be excess skin?

squats and deadlifts

with a heavy barbell (heavy = you can't lift it more than about 8 times)


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/987513-lifting-is-the-most-horrible-thing-to-a-woman-since-twiggy

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/979178-halp-heavy-lifting-made-me-supah-bulky

there are a lot of before and after pics in these threads, of women who took up heavy lifting so you can see how much it improves the shape of not just the legs but the whole body

I already do squats and dead lifts and have been for years. I can squat my own body weight.

It has helped me gain a lot of leg muscle (not something I particularly like) but has done nothing in helping my legs look more toned.

what lifting routines have you been doing, and how have you been eating?

Kettlebells have helped me a lot...also lots of running.

If you're loaded and get desperate, look into ultrasonic cavitation. I get it on my love handles and it helps quite a bit, but it's expensive if you don't have a Groupon or something.

I mentioned in OP I'm doing new rules of lifting right now.

I have done that routine before and other similar types (full body heavy weights with compound movements). I have also done crossfit here and there.

[edit - because the post I was replying to was edited] - if you're successfully losing just fat (not lean mass) and you really do still have stubborn fat, then you just need to lose a little more with a *very* conservative deficit (no more than 0.5lb a week/10% deficit) until it's gone...

However, given that you're already very slim, is your own assessment of how your legs look accurate? A lot of very beautiful women have great legs but think they look lumpy and ugly when they don't..... 21" thighs are not huge, they's slim. You say you have a small frame, so they seem big... maybe... but maybe that's your own perception of your legs, and others would not agree. Have you posted pictures to get an outside opinion? I really don't see how your legs could be carrying that much fat if you're already so slim and you're also doing a decent amount of training to work the legs (weights, crossfit, etc). Maybe you're a pear shape, i.e. thighs are the last place you lose fat from, but I have seen a lot of pear shaped women with great legs who still have some "saddlebag" fat on them.... or maybe you're over-focusing on a tiny bit of fat that no-one else even notices.

women under 50 perfer to store fat on the legs and behind and men prefer to store it on their "beer" belly.

Its because a woman's body wants to keep fat away from the womb area as much as possible do that it does not cause issues when reproducing.

This is the same reason men get moobs. When they get too much visceral fat estrogen is produced in the body which widens the hips and sends fat to the moob area (like a woman) to try and stop it crushing the organs.

Zumba! It works all the leg muscles so no one muscle is going to get bigger than another. Since doing zumba and toning exercises - lateral leg lifts etc. my legs are really toned but not bulky - I'm not building muscle, what i have is stronger and the fat on the top is slowly disappearing.

The tummy is going to take a lot longer, but the legs are doing quite well!:happy:

Since I started cycling to work, my legs have mostly firmed up (I still have weight to lose so there are a few flabby bits left yet) and the cellulite is improved beyond all my expectations. I only cycle around 5 miles a day too.

It never ceases to amaze me how much women obsess over their legs. Us guys really don't give a hoot, in fact you'll see a lot of chicken leg guys at the gym who refuse to squat.

I'm sure your fiance wont mind either Congrats on the loss. Btw that overweight / underweight is a complete pile of ___. A BF% is much more telling. The lower end of the "normal" (before bb range) is around 17-18%. Aim for that and stop there if you are comfortable.

I have to obsess about something. If I have no boobs only legs remain to obsess about; 1 out of 2 is close enough.

I'm exactly the same shape and have had chunky legs all my life, even when I was also 'underweight' for my height, at 114 lbs -I'm 5'4. I can tell you for sure that when you're pear shaped, your legs are the last place the fat goes from...we lose it from the head down! Apple shapes tend to lose it more from their slimmer arms and legs, when they want to lose it more from the middle....!

But there was one time when my legs looked really good, and they were very, very firm. At the time, I was following a basic workout in a gym, but was given whole body exercises that also worked my legs a lot. I was skipping (this really helped) and did a lot of pulley exercises, like standing on one leg, attaching the pulley to the other and swinging out to the sides, particularly working the inside leg muscles. I was also doing a lot of floor exercises, like lying on your back and doing scissor movements with the legs, where you let your legs swing out to the side and bring them in again, and at the same time moving them down towards the floor and back up again, so that they're at right angles from your waist.

The other thing I was doing was using a trampoline, also really worked everything. I was using an olympic sized trampoline every day, but even using one of those mini jogger types still works all the leg muscles. Someone mentioned cycling: I'm afraid that I used to cycle 20 miles a day, commuting into the city, and it only toned up my calves, didn't really do anything for my thighs, even though I'd hoped it would.

Finally, jogging was another exercise that really seemed to help tone up the flabby thighs and bottom!

I hope this helps.

I have a similar issue as I am only 5'4 and have very muscular legs from years of gymnastics as a child and teenager but now have a thick layer of fat on top. I am going to carry on with the weight loss and then maybe 40 lbs down the line I may consider lipo to finish me off.