Thread: Looking for exercise advice

Hi everyone,
I have always had a very small lower to upper hip ratio; the two measurements have never been more then 3 inches different because I have very small hip bones. I have recently noticed that I am getting little 'love handles' above my bum (not quite on the side of my hips and not quite on my back but kind of in between the two) and it's been making me a bit self conscious because I don't want to loose the little hip definition I have (its starting to creep towards only 2" difference). I sit around a lot in school and working at a computer and then being lazy when I get home so this is probably the problem. I've never worked out except for dancing, but now I'm starting to think I should so I can nip this love handle situation in the bud. I guess I just don't know where to begin, can anyone recommend some good exercises for working with this area? My body type is very small and skinny overall and I shouldn't really be concerned but I just tried on a costume I made last year and I can't get it on and I would like it to fit again. Thanks in advance for your advice.

There's no specific excercise that will remove fat from your hips. You can work the muscle under the fat, but that doesn't do a thing to the fat between the muscle and the skin.

Putting on a layer of new padding is a signal from your body that you're taking in more calories than you're expending, and your body has to store the excess somewhere.

The only answer is to change that so you're buring more calories than you're taking in. That means changing your eating pattern or burning more calories or (even better) both.

You can burn calories on a treadmill, walking outside, riding bikes, dancing, kickboxing, etc. Whatever is fun for you that you'll actually do every day.

I know it's satisfying to work the muscles underneath the problem area and feel that tasty sensation right where you're hoping to see results. But there's no such thing as spot reduction.

Sadly.

I really hate to be depressing, but spot reducing is really impossible. Our bodies decide to store fat where they decide it's going to go. The only thing you can really do is decrease your overall body fat via diet and aerobic activity.

*spanked by Lauren*

agree with what's been stated so far- biggest thing is to get up & DO something- but wanted to throw out there that there's nothing wrong with small/straight hips either. At least that's what I keep telling myself!