I'm a 21 year old male trying to get back into shape and I'm about to begin a keto cutting session to lose body fat in general. What I'm stuck on is the training method for my legs. For whatever reason, most of my extra weight concentrates in my legs and my lower stomach, and my legs look disproportionate to my upper body (they have more muscle mass too). Aside from training my upper body to catch up, how do I train my legs to either lean them out or at the least keep them the same size, to change my bodily proportions?
I keep hearing conflicting info on this. Some people say a low volume, high weight, 2-3 minute rest approach is best, others say that doing light weight with high volume (15+ reps) is the way to go. Others say you should skip weights and just do bodyweight exercises and plyometrics along with long distance slow pace running.
What's the real answer here?
?2018-05-07T15:16:25Z
As already pointed out to you, exercise will not lean out your legs. Exercise can contribute to creating a larger calorie deficit. The most important factor is the size of your calorie deficit.
So technically the best exercise is cardio. Running would be best.
As far as running goes, longer less intensive runs do burn a lot of calories, and they are effective in burning body fat. I do one once a week, mostly cause they are too time consuming. Shorter higher intensive workouts can burn just as many calories and they have the added benefit of taking less time and boosting your metabolism. If done correctly they are pretty exhausting and should only be done once a week. On the other days work up to going a little faster or a little longer.
Another good idea is on alternate days to work on upper body strength training. Building up the upper body will help you look more proportionate. And yes, there are lots of different strategies for weight training. My personal preference right now is one set of 16, twice a week. but that is a minimalist approach. There are other approaches that are more time consuming and harder. My present strategy is not the best but the easiest to do. As you yourself seem to know - its hard to be consistent. So I make it easier.
And just losing weight should help. The less you weigh - the less muscle mass you need in your legs for all your daily activities.
I realize I can't target one area of the body, but the training method still matters. I'm also not new to lifting, I just never got much in the way of results because I was fairly inconsistent.
Spot reducing is a widely held myth, but a myth nonetheless. Each body stores its fat slightly differently based on your genetics. When you lose fat you lose it from all over your body based on that same genetics. Or in other words you don't get to choose where your body gains or loses fat. But you can gain or lose fat overall based on your diet and exercise pattern. Having too much fat is bad for you but don't forget that having too little is also unhealthy. Being healthy is about finding the right balance not taking anything to extremes.
From what I hear, you cant lose fat only in one specific area in the body because thats determined by genetics.
The only way to lose fat in your legs naturally, is to to lose weight everywhere.
High volume is good for weight loss because it burns more calories. Unless its a HIIT workout
High volume is more important to women because they are afraid of bulking muscle, so they can burn the calories and get stronger w/o bulking up in muscle.
For increasing muscle mass, I heard its better to go low rep but high weight. But that works when in a calorie surplus or new to lifting.