7 Reasons To Stop Worrying About Your Weight

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I would find it so refreshing to open up a magazine and #read an article on why you should stop worrying about your weight, rather than ways you can lose it. I am sick of reading so much more about the ways to avoid food, when what I really want to be doing is eating it. I want to be healthy, of course I do - but the pressure we put on ourselves to #look a certain way and the obsession in the media with the 'perfect body' is unarguably not healthy. So, after reading another article urging me to cut out sugar, and gluten, and wheat completely (and I LIKE those things), I wanted to write a post on why it's #time to stop worrying about your weight and stop making ourselves miserable.

1. WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT

I don't think you will ever stop worrying about your #weight unless you embrace this. I think the most important thing to press here is that we all have different body shapes and sizes - so if we all subscribe to the same ideal, it isn't going to work. You have to be aware of your #body shape and work towards your own ideal. Don't start out by imagining you're going to end up with someone else's #body.

Read more here:- http://health.allwomenstalk.com/reasons-to-stop-worrying-about-your-weight

Why I Don’t Believe In Dressing For My Body Type

This post has been on my to-do list for quite a while, but I’m finally writing it now, because of a conversation I overheard on the train yesterday.

I sat next to a group of girls, all of them 12, perhaps 13 years old. One of them wanted to buy a new pair of jeans and she talked about what kind she might want to get. “I don’t like high-waisted jeans but I have to wear them because I’m a pear shape. They are just so uncomfortable”, she said. “Just make sure you get black or dark blue ones to make your legs look smaller. And wear that with something white on top to balance it out”, said one of the other girls. “I wish I was an apple. That way I couldn’t wear tight tops, but at least I could wear dresses and short shorts. That’s good for the summer.” They all agreed.

That whole situation seems so absurd to me now, even though I remember when I was their age, I also already was very aware of my body type, my ‘flaws’ and ‘assets’. And that’s because for decades that idea of ‘dressing for your body shape’ has been everywhere. A staple in fashion magazines and books, that is so commonly accepted, even tiny 12-year-olds know ‘their type’.

Now, if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll probably already know that I’m not a fan of the whole concept, for one simple reason:

The concept of dressing for your body type feeds into the idea that looking slim and attractive according to today’s societal ideals is much more important than wearing clothes you personally like, self-expression and having fun with fashion.

Dressing for your body shape is all about choosing clothes that flatter your body. And let’s be honest: “Flattering” is really just code for “makes you look thinner, taller, more curvy or less curvy”, whichever side your body falls on in comparison to what’s currently considered ‘ideal’.

The girls on the train did not for one second talk about which types of jeans they liked or wanted to wear, they talked about which types of jeans would make their legs seem smaller and which jeans they are ‘allowed’ to wear.

And that’s exactly what articles and how-to guides on various body shape typologies convey to women. That the first and foremost objective of clothes is to manipulate, hide or minimise their body.

Plus, they promote what most women already do way too much of: obsessing over and rating every little part of their bodies. For example, a typical recommendation for the ‘Pear shape’ could go something like this:

“find clothes that enhance your waist because that is your smallest part (smallest = best), and go for A-line cut skirts and dresses that skim over your wide hips and thighs (wide = must be minimised) to make your body seem more proportionate (as if a pear-shaped body, perhaps the most common female body type, is somehow dis-proportionate and must be altered to look ok)“.

It’s a strange kind of nitpicking of women’s bodies that I think is so absurd, totally outdated and a dangerous message to send.

Of course you should feel confident in whatever you are wearing! Definitely! But I believe that confidence should stem from the fact that you love your outfit because it expresses your personal style and is uniquely you, not because it makes you look 2lbs lighter or half an inch taller.

I also think that because of the concept of dressing for your body shape, we have all become a little brainwashed to believe the basic premise that has to be true for body shape typologies to make any sense at all, and that is the idea that only a small range of cuts and silhouettes doesn’t make us look terrible.

It’s lead us to overestimate the effect clothes have on the way our body looks.

Now, I’m not denying that perhaps a few more extreme cuts and silhouettes can visually alter your overall proportions somewhat, but really, that effect is going to be small at best and definitely not something worth compromising your personal style for. Your body is what it is, and clothes can’t magically change that.

I write a lot about finding your own personal style and building a great wardrobe here on the blog, and I try to cover as many techniques and concepts as possible, because we all have a different creative process and find different things helpful. But I’ve never written about body shape typologies before and I never will, because of all of the things above, but also for one very practical reason: If you are trying to cultivate a strong sense of style, you have to first go through that experimentation phase and try a ton of different cuts, colours, styles and materials, to figure out what you love and develop your own aesthetic. Trying to dress according to the typical guidelines for your body type at the same time would completely ruin that process, because it would make you dismiss a huge range of pieces and combinations, that could possibly have turned out to be essential to your style, right off the bat.

So, if I could send those girls from the train a message, it would be simple: Wear clothes that you like! Wear clothes that express your style and that feel good. And forget about all of the rest of the stuff, body shapes, what supposedly flatters you, all that. If you find high-waisted jeans uncomfortable, don’t wear them! Even if you are a pear shape and have been told your whole life that low-waisted cuts don’t work with your hips. If somebody tells you what you’re wearing doesn’t flatter you, ignore them. Because it’s not your job to wear something that makes you look as close as possible to whatever’s currently considered ideal.

Wear whatever you like. And let’s all just stop using the word ‘flattering’, ok?

How to Slim Big Thighs – Muscular vs Fat Thighs

Before you set about losing weight from thighs first understand the factors that influence the size of your thighs. This will allow you to choose the right thigh exercises, tailored to your needs, goals and body type.

WHAT CAUSES BIG THIGHS?

1. GENDER

Women and men have so-called sex-specific fat deposits. Sex hormones affect fat distribution. Estrogen directs fat to deposit around the pelvis, buttocks, and outer and inner thighs of women, while testosterone means men store fat in the belly area. This makes it far more difficult for women to shift fat from the hips, butt and thighs than from other areas of the body – areas of so-called stubborn fat. While it is obviously the bane of many a woman’s life, there is a biological advantage – this type of fat is thought to play a role in fertility and lactation. Interestingly, it appears that during lactation, this stubborn fat is not quite so stubborn and easier to budge than normally.

2. BODY SHAPE

Your body shape will have significant bearing on the size of your thighs. Pear-shaped women will suffer the worst of it, with large thighs and butt, while cone-shaped women will have slim thighs and legs compared to the rest of their body. You cannot change your body shape and if you are pear-shaped you will have to work harder slim down thighs and inner thighs. However, don’t despair, Jennifer Lopez is a perfect example of a pear shape - yet no one gives a second thought about the size of her thighs, but instead extol her shapely derriere.

3. FAT

Your thighs may simply be large because you have a lot of fat in this area - fatty thighs. As explained above, most women will have a natural tendency to deposit fat in their outer and inner thighs. Unfortunately, this means that this is one of the last places fat then the shift, which means you need to be patient and determined to see results. For women legs tend to slim around a body fat percentage of 18%. Therefore, you can strip away thigh fat, to get slim thighs, but it will take time. Use the body fat calculator to determine your body fat percentage.

The best thigh exercises for you are the ones that don’t simply firm and tone, but strip fat from thighs, to make big thighs smaller (see how to lose fat from thighs). If you don’t burn fat, you wont get slimmer thighs. Thus, any thigh exercises that only firm thighs, but do not burn fat will do little to actually slim thighs, since your thigh muscles remain firmly hidden under a layer of thigh fat.

4. MUSCLE

Another reason for large thighs is that you may naturally have large thigh muscles. Muscle is made up of muscle fibers. There are different types of muscle fibers, which also vary in size. You are probably have a larger proportion of Type II muscle fibers (large) commonly found in sprinters and power athletes than Type I fibers (small) generally found in endurance athletes. Muscular thighs, even if thighs are toned, means larger thighs. Unfortunately, you can’t shift muscle like you can shift fat. Not that you would want to. Muscle is healthy, excessive fat is not. However, don’t be disheartened, there are a couple of causes of big thigh muscles you may be able to do something about, to slim thighs:

• It may be the case that you don’t have a genetic tendency to have big thigh muscles, but that you have a natural tendency to gain a lot of muscle in your thighs with exercise. High-resistance/ high-incline exercise (e.g. treadmill or elliptical trainer) or spot reduction exercises for your thighs/ inner thigh exercises may have made you thigh muscles bigger (see how to lose weight from thighs). Sports such as ice skating and dancing also tend to produce powerful thighs. Therefore, if you have been doing these type of exercises that target thighs in a bid to get slimmer thighs, you may need to rethink your workout strategy.

• You are genetically programmed to have large muscles (mesomorph body type), but you may also have a lot of fat around the muscle. In other words, you have a lot of fat and a lot of muscle. Stripping the fat from your outer and inner thighs will slim thighs significantly and you might just find that some beautifully defined legs are lurking underneath that thigh fat.

FAT THIGHS VS. MUSCULAR THIGHS

To understand how to slim thighs you need to understand a little about how your thigh is constructed, i.e. thigh anatomy. There are several layers that go into making your thigh. The first layer is obviously skin. Under the skin is a layer of fat. The yellow colored stuff you can see in the picture is fat. This thigh fat surrounds the thigh muscles. When you gain weight, that yellow layer gets much thicker making your thigh bigger. The red colored stuff under the fat is muscle. When you exercise these muscles in a certain way, they get larger, which in turn makes the thighs bigger. That’s why, when wanting to slim thighs, you need to think about both thigh fat and thigh muscle. Both go up and down in size, influencing the proportions of your thighs.

Take the slim thigh test to determine whether you have fatty thighs or big thigh muscles.

Source:- http://www.superskinnyme.com/how-to-slim-down-big-thighs.html