How To Lose Leg Fat: 5 Most Effective Ways To Tone The Legs In 2024

5 Best Ways To Tone Your Legs

Toning any part of your muscle requires increased lean muscle mass. You may also need to reduce body fat to show off your results. Building muscle and healthy habits are key if you are still asking yourself how to get rid of leg fat. All in all, small steps can lead to big results.

Although not necessarily something that will make you tone your legs fast, it is a good place to start. Starting slow and progressing is going to help you stick to it longer. When you have not done any muscle training or physical activity in a long time, take your time in learning the moves and getting used to routinely exercising.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends 150 minutes or two hours and 30 minutes per week. This recommendation is for moderate-vigorous activities, weight loss, and overall health. You may start training two days a week and increase another day per week until you meet the target minutes. Make sure to achieve at least two days of muscle-strengthening exercises.

You can combine^[2] strengthening exercises with aerobic activities like running or dance classes if you need some variety in your workouts.

Practice Strengthening Exercises

Some basic movements to grow muscle are squats, lunges, good mornings, hip thrusts, and box step-ups or box jumps. These are great to include in your exercise routine. Practice each move for adequate form. Start first with body weight; then, you can increase resistance with weights or a band.

Complete^[3] two or three sets of each exercise. You can do between 8-12 repetitions in each set, benefiting hypertrophy or growing muscle. To see better results, you need to feel exerted near the end of the set but able to breathe quickly and maintain form. You can arrange the weight you use or the difficulty of the movement accordingly.

If you need help creating a routine, contact a physical trainer who can guide you. Get cleared by your medical provider to perform any kind of physical activity.

Build Healthy Habits

Toning your legs while losing fast may not go as fast as you want if your food intake is not optimal. Eating too little may affect your muscle building, but eating too much will cause you to gain fat. Adjusting your diet to include more vegetables, higher nutrient starches like whole grains, and good fats. Including more nutrient-dense foods will help fuel you for your workouts.

It is recommended to decrease 250-500 calories of your daily from your diet for healthy weight loss. You can start by making simple changes, like eating fewer calories by decreasing the amount of starches and increasing high-fiber foods on your plate. Choose lower-calorie snacks, for example, some healthy fruits and vegetables. Fill up your plate with vegetables. Consume lean proteins and low-fat dairy. It is also important to fuel your workouts. Eat a sensible snack that contains a carbohydrate one or two hours before working out and after finishing. This can help energize your workout.

Eat Enough Protein

Protein is used by our bodies to build muscle. Including protein in your meals may also help with satiety, keeping you full for longer. Include at least 0.8-1 gram of protein per kilogram^[4] of body weight daily. This estimate should allow you to secure enough protein to maintain lean muscle mass. This depends on your activity level, as more active people can use^[5] 1.2-2.0 grams/kg daily.

Since protein can help you get full for longer, it may curb your snacking. It may also help you eat less on your journey to body fat loss.

If you need specific help to reach your protein target, talk to a Registered Dietitian. They can also help with helping you create a healthy diet pattern for you.

Sleep Well

In studies,^[6] achieving quality sleep for more than six hours will help your exercise performance. Another study^[7] found that people who did not get adequate sleep tend to have alterations in appetite-regulating hormones. This may lead to problems with satiety and caloric intake and weight gain. So if you don’t sleep well, you may feel more hungry and worse performance for your training.

It is recommended that adults sleep^[8] over six hours per day. If you are having issues achieving this, practice some sleep hygiene, like avoiding electronic devices before bed.

How Does Leg Fat Develop?

Humans are born with some fat stored in their bodies. We then store more fat in our bodies when more energy is consumed than what the body needs. Where our bodies decide to store fat can be a gamble. Factors include genetics, environment, and hormonal instruction.

Fatty or adipose tissue^[9] in our bodies has a role in energy storage, production of hormones, and regulating body temperature. When we have too much fat, it can accumulate around organs,  leading to metabolic problems in our bodies.

There are two places where we can store fat. Subcutaneous fat, placed under the skin, is the least associated with disease development compared to visceral fat storage, also known as belly fat. Visceral fat is associated with developing diabetes, liver, and heart disease. Thus, having fat stored around your hips, legs, or buttocks may not increase your risk of developing chronic diseases.

Strategies For Reducing Leg Fat Fast

The best way to promote fat mobilization is by restricting calories and physical activity. Sadly, we cannot target a part of our body to lose weight or thigh fat to disappear. Nonetheless, when lose weight, even though you can not target the exact area for the weight loss, your body will lose that body fat from the legs too. So do not worry about the effort that you put in will go to waste.

On another note, you can build muscle to tone the legs. Increasing muscle mass may give the appearance of more toned legs.

Even though you may not get rid of leg fat fast, you can work on overall weight loss. Gradual weight loss^[10] of 1-2 pounds per week is best advised. In particular, if you want to maintain your lean muscle mass and toned look. Here are some tips to achieve faster weight loss:

• Be consistent. Losing weight takes time. You will see results in no time if you show up to your workouts as scheduled and maintain your caloric deficit.
• Eat right. High nutrient-dense foods like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables protect the body.
• Focus on small changes. The numbers on the scale might play tricks on you while increasing muscle mass. Look for small changes in your body to keep you motivated.
• Concentrate on your body. Sometimes, we like to compare ourselves to others. Losing fat on the legs will look different for both men and women and individually. So focus on your own journey.
• Stay active. Ideally, we would do some physical activity daily to keep our bodies burning calories. Be consistent and show up.

Conclusion

Even though spot-targeting fat loss is impossible, getting toned, lean legs is achievable. You will need to put in some time working out and fine-tuning your diet. Make sure to work on muscle-building exercises, which can also increase strength and promote overall well-being.

You can get help from a professional personal trainer and registered dietitian to plan your workout routine and eating habits for your weight loss journey.