I know you can't spot reduce but...

So I have taken a pic of me this time last year and then today...same bikini etc. So I've been eating a lot more than I used to, cut my cardio and lifted heavy for about 6 months. Consistency is getting better, I think alcohol holds me back along with chocolate. I've noticed that I do look heavier (I've gained 6lbs), my stomach looks more toned but my thighs now appear bigger and hips wider. I'm much stronger than I used to be too.

Any ideas how to support reducing my hips/thighs. I currently lift heavy so not sure whether to switch to low weight and high rep for lower body exercises. Or, do I need to go back to my old ways and do lots of cardio in the form of spin, aerobics and running?

I currently lift 4 days per week (2 upper/2 lowere) with 10/15mins HIIT after, do steady cardio or HIIT another day maybe and workout with my PT once a week which is a combo of HIIT, weights and cardio.

Intermittent Fasting will help you LOTS if you are wanting to shed Bodyfat. I have been researching it for about a month and started following Leangains.com and lost nearly 3% Bodyfat so far. I feel great too and I think this is really going to help me get the body I want. You can also follow the Eatstopeat.

If you need any more info feel free to ask me.

There a re lot of other health benefits to this lifestyle too.

I'm a teacher so I can't have a fixed period of time to eat...will IF work for me?

I think it can work yes as it give you more time to do what you need to and less time worrying about fitting in 6 meals a days. If I explain how I do it maybe that will help you see what its like.

So like I said I am following the leangains guide which means I fast for 16 hours and eat my calories in and 8 hour window. While fasting I drink water or black coffee but you can drink suger free drinks or add a splash of milk. I like water though so I drink that. Its important to drink lots of fluids to keep hydrated so you dont get thirsty and mistake it for hunger (Allthough in my experience so far after about 4 days I am so much better than ever before at recognising actual hunger).

My Fasting period is between the hours of 8.30pm till 12.30pm the next day (so most of it while I am asleep =D) and then I eat my calorie intake from12.30pm till 8.30pm. For me I usually have 2 large meals and then snacks imbetween. I would say about 30% of my calories in my first meal and about 40%ish in final meal around 18.00pm and the rest are snacky type things. I also did a 24 hour fast at the weekend after a cheat day but I only plan on doing this on weekend as fits in with my lifestyle.

So there it is, I hope that helped a bit.

On a side note this is what statement is what made me do a 24 hour fast after my cheat day:

"After only 24 hours of fasting, the amount of fat being released from people’s fat stores (lipolysis) and the amount being burnt for fuel (oxidation) had been significantly increased by over 50%."

Source: Eat-Stop-Eat

I'm just not sure I can manage two large meals. Typically how many grams of protein would you have in a large meal?

Well as a male I guess my protein intake will be much larger but generally between 50-70 grams. But you could spread it out over the Eating window. I think reason I like doing it this way is because I have hated all this 6 small meals a day crap so I am making the most of being able to eat a fulfilling meal lol. I added a lil table below so you can work out roughly what your protein needs are depending on your goals.


Activity level - Protein needs (grams)
Sedentary - Weight in pounds X .4
Active - Weight in pounds. X .6
Competitive athlete - Weight in pounds X .75
Light body-builder - Weight in pounds X .85

Source:http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20410520,00.html

I've heard it's not easy for a woman to digest more than 30g of protein in one sitting? Also, the above gives me 70g protein...I currently eat double that!

Double haha that about what I am eating on my non workout days =D

The 30g of protein thing is a myth, take a look at this (from leangains.com Top Ten Fasting Myths Debunked)

5. Myth: Maintain a steady supply of amino acids by eating protein every 2-3 hours. The body can only absorb 30 grams of protein in one sitting.


Truth

Whenever you hear something really crazy you need to ask yourself if it makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. It's a great way to quickly determine if something may be valid or if it's more likely a steaming pile of horse****. This myth is a great example of the latter. Do you think we would be here today if our bodies could only make use of 30 grams of protein per meal?

The simple truth is that more protein just takes a longer time to digest and be utilized. For some concrete numbers, digestion of a standard meal is still incomplete after five hours. Amino acids are still being released into your bloodstream and absorbed into muscles. You are still "anabolic." This is a fairly standard "Average Joe"-meal: 600 kcal, 75 g carbs, 37 g protein and 17 g fat. Best of all? This was after eating pizza, a refined food that should be quickly absorbed relatively speaking.

Think about this for a second. How long do you think a big steak, with double the protein intake of the above example, and a big pile of veggies would last you? More than 10 hours, that's for sure. Meal composition plays an important role in absorption speed, especially when it comes to amino acids. Type of protein, fiber, carbohydrates and prior meals eaten all affect how long you'll have amino acids released and being taken up by tissues after meals.

Origin

I think this "30 grams of protein"-nonsense started to circulate after a classic study from 1997 by Boirie and colleagues. "Slow and fast dietary proteins differently modulate postprandial protein accretion" was the first study to quantify the absorption rate of whey and casein protein and gave birth to the concept of fast and slow protein. After that, whey protein came to be known for it's ability to rapidly elevate amino acids in the blood stream and casein for it's ability to create a sustained release of amino acids. Whey was anabolic and casein anti-catabolic.

Given that 30 grams of whey protein was absorbed within 3-4 hours, I guess some people believed that meant 30 grams of protein can only be used in one sitting. Or that you had to eat every 3-4 hours to stay "anabolic." Unfortunately, people missed a few facts that made these findings irrelevant to real-world scenarios. First of all, this study looked at the absorption rate of whey protein in the fasted state. On it's own, and with no meals eaten beforehand, 30 grams of whey protein is absorbed within a mere 3-4 hours. With meals eaten earlier in the day, or if you'd consume a whey shake after a meal, absorption would be much slower.

Second of all, whey protein is the fastest protein of all and digests at 10 g/hour. Casein is much slower; in Boirie's study, the casein protein was still being absorbed when they stopped the experiment 7 hours later. Most whole food proteins are absorbed at a rate of 3-6 grams an hour. Add other macronutrients to that and they'll take longer.


One of my clients, showing symptoms of profound catabolism by impaired protein absorption and daily 16 hour periods of fasting.

Ok cool...that's cleared that up.

Can you give a rough idea of what your larger meals look like? For me, if I did 12.30-8.30...big lunch would be 12.30... Then I train around 4-5pm...so eat before this with protein shake after the one large meal at 8.30?

That's pretty close to what my IF schedule is like. Some days I end up grazing continuously during that time period, but usually its big lunch (which I log as breakfast), protein shake, big dinner.

And I add in an extra carb snack- like an english muffin for example, in between meals if I'm planning intense cardio in the evening (like a long run).

If you are eating at a surplus you most certainly will gain either muscle or fat depending on your activity level. Women can bulk up, it isn't easy for many female body types, but it does happen and many women tend to carry more weight in their hips and thighs (I for one have always had what I refer to as "big peasant thighs"...they respond well to exercise and become more defined)

If I wanted to achieve a leaner and longer look, I would incorporate more pilates, yoga, and other types of exercise that focus more on lengthening the muscles as well as additional cardio to burn fat. It all depends on the look you are hoping for.

Women can gain small amounts of muscle on a surplus (the gain in mass is very slow due to our low testosterone levels). Women carry more FAT on their legs, not necessarily muscle.

I meant how is it working for you, seeing result...which you clearly are.

I want to get my bf% down 1-2% More so it's closer to 21%. This stubborn fat just won't budge. My thighs don't feel very flabby but the look so much bigger and my cellulite is more apparent which I hate. I think all the cardio helped reduce this before.

IMHO you should add some cardio back in and keep the weight lifting. You can try IF if you think the schedule will work for you- I love it. It for sure helps with calorie control.

I'm just not sure how much, what type of cardio I should now do as I do HIIT at the end of my workouts and dedicate a who,e 45 mins once a week when I'm not lifting.

Whatever you like, really. I'm biased towards running but it's not for everyone. I actually ended up weeding out HIIT from my schedule because I do full body lifting about twice a week, and the HIIT is sort of redundant (anabolic workout, growth hormone) to the weightlifting so I get more benefit from endurance cardio- but endurance is one of my goals so I don't know if my philosophy would hold true if you aren't in to endurance. I just got a jump rope and got a killer cardio workout with that today- and it was pretty fun!

I think everyone should do weights and cardio. That way everyone is self sufficient for when the zombies come. If muscles meets zombie hoard and they suck at running...or runner meets chainsaw wielding fast zombie...Whose going to save them?

P.S. It's probably fat. Do you measure fat in that area? If so what method? Has it changed?

I meant how is it working for you, seeing result...which you clearly are.

I want to get my bf% down 1-2% More so it's closer to 21%. This stubborn fat just won't budge. My thighs don't feel very flabby but the look so much bigger and my cellulite is more apparent which I hate. I think all the cardio helped reduce this before.

Its working out great for me so far I mean in first week of doing it I lost 2.5% bf. Also, in my picture from the week before and at the end of first week I thought the difference was quite big. 2nd week was less dramatic but lost another 0.3% BF. In my third week and if it keep up like this I have lost 2 pounds (hopefully 3 pounds by tomorrow) and another 0.5% BF. I am still overweight but its going in the right direction. =D

My suggestion is low resistance/weight and high reps for your legs.

If you are using heavier weights or high resistance for your legs, your muscles will get larger, making you appear larger.

Uh, no.

ETA: Posted before reading through the rest of the comments to see that the idea of a woman eating at or below TDEE "bulking up" by lifting heavy has been addressed.