Hello everyone,
I am new here and this is my first post :-) I have a question: is it possible to get rid of saddlebags and get an even figure with just diet and excercise? I was searching the web and found sites that said that when "pear shaped" women lose weight, they just become smaller pears. I am a woman like that. I am 26 years old, small frame, weigh 110 lb, but not fit at all (couch potato with BF of ~ 25%). I am very skinny "upstairs" and wear XS size, but bellow my waist I wear S size which causes a lot of problems with clothes, especially dresses, because I have different size for different parts of my body. It is very frustrating because i am not fat, but still unable to wear a lot of clothes. I got very motivated to excercise while reading posts on this site, but after I read that I'll be unable to even out my figure I got very discouraged. That site also said that the only way to get rid of "isolated pockets of fat, like (in my case) saddlebags" is liposuction, but I would like to not have a surgery. Here's the bottom line -- I was wondering if there are women here, who could tell me that they had succsessfully changed their figure through natural means, or if they tried and failed. I guess if I know that it's possible I'll do it, and if not I won't (because I am very busy and it takes a lot of time and effort.) I know that eating right and excercising is good fot my health even if it doesn't change my looks, but I have this problem which really bugs me. Thank you very much for your replies. Good luck with achieving your goals! :-)
P.S. I also read that in order to see her legs a woman should have BF of ~ 18%. Maybe that's the trick, and if I get down to that I'll finally see muscle and not oupouching of fat on my thighs?

Hello everyone,
I am new here and this is my first post :-) I have a question: is it possible to get rid of saddlebags and get an even figure with just diet and excercise? I was searching the web and found sites that said that when "pear shaped" women lose weight, they just become smaller pears.
...

P.S. I also read that in order to see her legs a woman should have BF of ~ 18%. Maybe that's the trick, and if I get down to that I'll finally see muscle and not oupouching of fat on my thighs?

Hello--

Since you say you are pretty much living the couch potato lifestyle right now, I'd say that you have a very good chance of getting rid of those saddlebags if you start the usual recommended program of weight training, cardio, and healthy eating. Dropping your body fat through cardio and dieting will get rid of the excess fat in your legs, and weight training both your upper and lower body will take care of the rest. Upper body weight training will keep your top half from looking overly emaciated as your body fat drops and help balance out your bottom half, and lower body weight training--lunges, squats, leg press, etc--will firm up and tighten your thigh area, making your legs more defined and compact.

Check out my reply in this other post to see my puffy-legged before photo and my current photo after 7 months of weight training/cardio/nutrition.

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=12209

If you ONLY do cardio and diet, you will indeed just lose weight and look just like a smaller pear because you will be catabolizing muscle along with fat. Because muscle "costs" your body more calories to maintain, when you restrict your intake, your body's first response is to get rid of muscle, not fat. The weight training is KEY because it will preserve your muscles and shift the emphasis to fat burning--a good thing since it's your muscles that will ultimately determine your shape once you get rid of the layer of fat on top.

Maggie

Causticmuse makes a really good point--you CAN improve your shape, but by strengthening and defining your upper body, you can achieve a very balanced look. This is a great place to start. Make sure to have fun at it! :)

Check out my reply in this other post to see my puffy-legged before photo and my current photo after 7 months of weight training/cardio/nutrition.

first off, your transformation pics are wonderful~congrats~

and now for the question part...

my lower body *waist, thighs* are very much like your before pic. the difference is that i have a rather large chest. *which i guess makes me hour glass shaped, not pear* while i know there is no such thing as spot reducing, can i target my lower body without compromising my chest size? thanx.

my lower body *waist, thighs* are very much like your before pic. the difference is that i have a rather large chest. *which i guess makes me hour glass shaped, not pear* while i know there is no such thing as spot reducing, can i target my lower body without compromising my chest size? thanx.

LOL, well, just as you said, there's no such thing as spot reduction. Fat will come off of your body pretty evenly, so if you are pretty balanced as far as fat distribution--equal amounts on your upper body, waist, and lower body--it will all pretty much come off in even layers. Chest size is determined by both the amount of subcutaneous fat in that area (which will probably be lost as you drop your body fat overall) and the actual mammary glands that genetics gave you. Have you lost weight in the past? If so, where did the fat seem to come off of first? You will probably experience the same pattern of fat loss again.

The bottom line is that if you drop body fat in order to slim down your legs, the rest of your body is going to lose an equal amount of fat. As an hourglass, though, I suspect that any upper body fat loss will still leave you with plenty of chest though you are almost guaranteed to get a small reduction in band or cup size. It all depends on how much of that chest tissue is subcutaneous fat and how much is glandular tissue. (I was a 36B in my before photo; I'm a 34B/36A now.)

Maggie

I'm rather, er, blessed upstairs and hourglassy - and once I lost a ton of weight because I had the world's worst sore throat with mono and couldn't eat solid foods for three weeks. I went from a
C cup to a C minus, and everywhere else I looked a little horrible, I was so skinny. So that's the good news.