Tips To Slim Your Hips And Thighs

Many women tell me that every stray calorie seems to migrate to their hips and thighs. This is not a figment of their imaginations. And many women are looking for ways to get slim hips and thighs. 

Before menopause, many women's bodies store excess fat predominantly in this area, creating what's come to be known as the "pear-shaped" body. For thousands of years, fat storage in these areas greatly helped cave-dwelling women survive during times of drought and famine. And women who could easily store fat in their hips and thighs tended to be able to give birth and feed a baby during a drought—during pregnancy and breastfeeding, the body needs as many as 1,000 extra calories a day—thus passing on their thigh-fat-storing genetics to future generations.

Skip the Two-Week Fad Diets

Having a short timeline for your weight loss might tempt you to follow a fad diet that promises miraculous weight loss in very little time. These diets set you up for failure, however. They're often so restrictive and involved that you might have trouble maintaining them for a couple of days -- let alone two weeks. You may risk nutrient deficiencies and lose valuable muscle mass. Even if you can maintain a restrictive fad diet for two weeks, you'll likely regain the weight quickly once you go back to old habits.

Two weeks gives you time to start instilling good habits that support a healthy body weight. Aim for a safe, reasonable 1- to 2-pound-per-week rate of weight loss by creating a deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories a day. You'll eat fewer calories and move more. The good news is that when you reduce your portion sizes, curb your intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates, limit sodium and exercise more, you'll lose significant water weight in the first two weeks. You'll likely drop more than 1 to 2 pounds those first two weeks and significantly reduce water retention, so you can still look slimmer at your event.

Commit to Comprehensive Weight Loss

Use an online calculator to help you figure out how many calories you should eat daily during the two weeks of your focused weight loss. Plug in your age, gender, size and activity level to determine how many calories your body uses daily; then subtract 500 to 1,000 from this number. Don't drop below 1,200 calories if you're a woman or 1,800 calories as a man, in an effort to lose weight faster. Eating too little can stall your metabolism and make weight loss more difficult.