What's best for reducing thigh size? Why isn't diet working?

I am a 16 year old Asian. I've always been slender, but since I hit high school I've gained weight in my thighs and since I'm not very active, it's all fat. My upper body is still slender and my stomach is reasonably flat, but what can I do about my wobbly thighs? Exercise suggestions are really helpful for me, and I'm a complete beginner. All I do at the moment is run for 10 minutes once a week and take walks.

Also, I just can't understand how my eating habits aren't helping. I eat 1400-2000 calories but it's all healthy, unprocessed stuff like fruit, vegetables, whole wheat bread, clif bars, soup. Basically, nothing very fattening or unhealthy, but I haven't lost anything in my thighs. Any ideas?

Any suggestions are great.

 Mmm, given that I'd rather see you aim for 1431 calories (get more protein!) and add just a little more exercise to your life - some form of crosstraining to support your running habit would be good since you're already at the recommended level for improving your cardio capacity without increasing your injury risk at this particular training stage. As your fitness and work capacity in general improves you can do more without injury risk, the trick is to push your body enough to have an adaptation response but not so much that you get an injury response instead.

Maybe join the rest of the gang doing the no business running workout - a sports-specific strength training routine to keep you injury-free, or alternately the Army's version Fit to Run. Oh, and do check out the SmartCoach on runner's world to get a personalised running schedule, and read up on http://www.halhigdon.com or www.jeffgalloway.com if your ambitions stretch further than weight loss ;)

 Thing is that your body tends to respond better to a higher rate of energy turnover (up to a point, get your antioxidants in if you're going to run a lot!), the same calorie deficit but a slightly higher activity bracket with more crosstraining tends to lead to greater fat loss than only diet or only one form of exercise.

 The effect is pretty small, but over time it adds up to make for a large difference in outcomes - check this study for one example.

 Your diet in combination with exercise is what will give you the best results - and yes, you should opt for a slightly more calorie-dense diet, but that's dead easy if you plan it right. A small handful of almonds, a little flax seed, some avocado or a bit of salmon will all add much-needed healthy fats and protein to your diet without overloading you with volume. I think the main problem you're looking at in terms of your diet is not planning it out enough - so you wind up with a scramble to get in enough calories close to bed time.

 Though the metabolism-boosting effects of 6 meals vs. 3 meals is a fallacy, the thermic effect of feeding is the same no matter how you divide up your intake, the protein availability throughout the day is better on a more-frequent meal schedule and blood sugar/insulin levels are more controlled. This is kinda important - you want your body to always have amino acids available, and you don't want to deal with sugar rushes and insulin spike/crash cycles on a regular basis.

 So take some time out to read 2beittybitty's Sharing Info from My Nutritionist- Slow Weight-Loss/Low Metabolism, Helpful Tips That Work - if you follow that guideline, you're golden.

Original Post by kaleighlynn:

Should I just eat even if I'm not hungry? YES, plan out your meals ahead of time, schedule them and make sure you eat them.  You'll eventually get used to eating more.  Or should I eat higher calorie foods when I am hungry?   ???Yes again.

 

 

Thanks!  I'll definitely look at all those links and try to apply them in my life.  I guess I've been going about this the wrong way :(  Thanks for the help!

Melkor..I can't get this link to work and you have peaked my curiosity..

So take some time out to read 2beittybitty's Sharing Info from My Nutritionist- Slow Weight-Loss/Low Metabolism, Helpful Tips That Work - if you follow that guideline, you're golden

Thanks for all of your help and sharing your knowledge!

Odd - I click right through to this post - 2beittybitty's wonderful outline of everything you need to know. Well, you can get an almost excruciating amount of info from Tom Venuto, but it's just filling in the details of what 2beittybitty's already written.

I subscribe to Tom Venuto's newsletter very helpful. Thanks so much!