Long lean muscles vs bulky legs?? Help

Overall fat loss accomplished through a moderate calorie deficit, cardio and weight training. Provided you are eating at a calorie deficit you shouldn't be gaining any significant amount of muscle mass. How many inches have you gained? Are you sure it's not temporary swelling or water retention.

I can certainly see more definition in my quads from doing squats. I have read that it is better for women to do low rep, high weight for legs? Is this true? It could be that I need to lose more fat from my legs. I am finding that losing from my inner thighs is the hardest thing as well as those love handles. Try to eat at a deficit, sometimes I go over and I am trying to exercise more than 3 days a week if not everyday.

I've just heard so much crap about how running or using the elippitical increases mass but pilates and yoga do not. I used to dance for 18 years and was small.....around 110. I had a major foot surgery which kept me off my feet for MONTHS...dropped to a very unhealthy weight because of all the meds and then I gained it back and then some. I'm just trying to find an effective way to keep my thighs firm but not huge.

High reps, and low weight has it benefits but it doesn't preserve muscle and/or build strength. My inner thighs and love handles are also the very last place I lose weight It's genetics and you can't do much about it. And yeah the stuff you hear about yoga vs. running is exactly that, crap. Yoga burns very minimal calories. Have you seen long distance running Olympians? They have tiny legs. Sometimes you've just got to do what you can to be health and achieve the best body your genetics allow while maintaining health. If you have genetically thicker legs, you have genetically thicker legs and chances are you might not get them as thin as you like while maintaining healthy levels of body fat.

I had this problem for months !!! It finally (like a few weeks ago) started to shift. Just keep on losing bodyfat and it will resolved itself.

Your original post is a bit confusing because you say you're trying to gain muscle, but that you don't want big muscles. I think you need to work out whether you want to increase the size of your leg muscles or not. It sounds, from the way you're talking about things, that you don't. Losing fat will help to make them slimmer, but there isn't any exercise that will make the muscles "long and lean". Yoga and pilates are great for lots of things, but they absolutely cannot lengthen your muscles. Low reps with heavy weights will help to build muscle size (particularly at a calorie surplus) and help to maintain the muscle mass you have if you're losing weight.

Strength training definitely helps burn fat, so maybe continue with that but concentrate less on your legs if you think they are muscular enough. Just keep eating at a modest calorie deficit and that should help you lose the fat all over. Yoga, pilates, running and weight-training are all great forms of exercise, but none of them are going to specifically slim down your legs. It may be that for you, the thighs and love handles are the last place for the fat to go. That's actually pretty common for women. You just need to persevere, while accepting that it's partly due to your own natural, genetically-determined shape.

Muscle is, by definition, lean. The only way to build it is to eat at a surplus and train with resistance.

My guess is that you really just want to lose body fat, in which case you should eat at a deficit, consume at least your lean body mass in grams of protein, and train with resistance.

Can we get some hard data here? How many inches were your waist, hips, thighs and calves before you started lifting and how many inches are they now?

What steroids are you using to get your muscles bulky? I lift and I'm just losing fat and seeing lean muscle..

Barre workouts! I love dancing and doing legit barre workouts give you those long, sculpted dancers legs. They are intense. Lots of holds, core control, small movements that force you to exert so much energy even though it doesn't look like it. I'm doing another round of barre & I ALREADY see my legs scultping! Dance is great.

I also do Denise Austin Legs & Buns Workout on Youtube. There are 3 Levels. I like it. 10 minutes and it just gives my legs that extra bump I want. I'm pear shaped. I have big old thighs and butt. Trying to shave it down lol!

What about low reps with a high weight? I was thinking of doing bikram yoga which says you will burn a lot of calories.

The extra heat with bikram yoga doesn't do anything except make you sweat, a lot, and relax your muscles. You'll burn the same amount of calories you'd burn doing those poses at room temperature. Heat really doesn't make you burn more calories. It just makes you hot. Saunas don't burn calories. Hot tubs don't. Steam rooms don't.

My body-fit media said I burned about 120 calories doing an hour of yoga, so it's just not a big burn.

^^truth. i teach hot yoga and the heat does not result in a higher calorie burn. it does warm your muscles to allow for a safer practice. the sweating is a great detox... but again, not a higher calorie burn.

My legs look bulky as hell and I LOVE IT. It means I'm finally losing the fat that covered my beautiful muscles.