How to Get Skinny Legs: Workouts to Get Slim Legs

Skinny legs or big curvy legs might be a topic of debate for some, but for many, lean legs with slimmer thighs is their preferred choice. Sure the curvy legs also look attractive up to an extent but you may not like it your thighs start rubbing while you walk.

If you are one of those who would prefer having skinnier legs but have some extra fat on them currently, then you are in luck, we have created this article to help you know how to get skinny legs efficiently.

Many people like you, especially women, want to get thinner legs but don’t exactly know how to. Most of them end up doing some form of exercise that either generates very slow results or may end up bulking up the legs even more.

So, if you are wondering how to slim down legs without risking developing muscular legs and without having to hire a personal trainer, keep on reading.

This article tries to explain the science behind how to get smaller legs and provides you with a well-planned workout routine along with specifics of the exercises for lean legs.

Slim & Toned Legs Workout Principles

To reach your goal of having slim and toned legs you obviously need to shed the fat around your thighs, calves, and glutes. But the process to reach that goal is not as straightforward.

It is not feasible to shed fat from certain parts of your body through exercise. You can’t just slim down your legs without reducing overall body fat.

You can however perform muscle toning exercises of the legs to achieve toned legs. For overall slim and toned legs performing only leg exercises won’t be enough. It needs to be a combination of effective cardio, the right kind of resistance training, and a diet suitable to your body type.

The most suitable cardio for your goal of getting slimmer legs is aerobic running. Low-intensity exercise like brisk walking or jogging uses stored glycogen for the first few minutes then starts using stored fat to fuel your workout, thus resulting in burning body fat.

Cardio exercises like sprints or high-intensity interval training tend to utilize only stored glycogen. And the exercises on the treadmill, steppers, and running on an inclined treadmill can result in muscle gain in quads, hams, abductors, and adductors.

Most of the resistance exercises are designed for muscle mass growth or strength improvement or both. So, if you choose to perform high-intensity resistance training exercises that are not for slimming down the legs, you may end up bulking them up.

Contrary to popular belief that women don’t have enough testosterone to bulk up, some women can get bulky. The type of muscle fibers and testosterone to estrogen ratio in some women doesn’t allow them to lean out the legs by performing any rando resistance training.

All the cardio and resistance training you perform must be coupled with a calorie deficit diet if you want to see some significant results in reducing the size of your legs. This type of diet helps in reducing overall body fat, resulting in leg slimming.

Leg Slimming Workout Schedule

Any thin legs workout routine would involve doing a lot of cardio. In many target-oriented workout programs that are intended for muscle building or strength training, there would be one cardio day per week. But in this slim leg workout plan, there are three cardio sessions per week.

The routine is a combination of aerobic cardio, anaerobic cardio, and resistance training for the upper and lower body. The routine will help you get thinner legs and also improve your overall fitness, improve metabolism and reduce overall body fat.

Here is how the workout schedule looks like;

• Monday: Lower body workouts and cardio session
• Tuesday: Upper body resistance training or bodyweight exercises
• Wednesday: Lower body workouts and cardio session
• Thursday: Upper body resistance training or bodyweight exercises
• Friday: Cardio
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest

Leg Slimming Workout Routine [Slim & Toned Legs]

For any fitness goal, there are many ways to reach there. Similarly, there are many workout plans designed to achieve slimmer thighs and overall skinny legs.

Among the many ways to get slim & toned legs, we have brought the most effective workout routine here. This routine consists of five workout days a week and two rest days. You can either keep the rest days together on the sixth and seventh day of the routine or can split them on the third and seventh day of the week.

This slimmer legs workout routine is a week-long cycle. The first and third day of the week is lower body plus cardio day. Though the muscle groups we are targeting on these days are similar but the resistance exercises differ in both sessions.

On both these days, you have the option of choosing among three options of cardio ranging between 20 to 40 minutes. It is suggested that you choose different types of cardio on all three cardio sessions of the week.

The cardio options include low-intensity exercise like brisk walking, mid-intensity cardio like running or stationary bikes, and high-intensity interval training using elliptical, bike, or treadmill.

Day two and day four of the week are reserved for upper body resistance training. Both these sessions are similar in terms of exercises, sets, and reps.

All the upper body and lower body exercises can be performed without any equipment. You can add some dumbbell or barbell weights in squats, or ankle strap weights in chin-ups, or something alike. As this routine is focused to slim down the legs, you shouldn’t be using heavier weights, and the best way to perform these are by using just the body weight.

Here is the workout routine for slimming down the legs.

You can choose any of the three options of cardio on lower body day or the cardio-only session on the fifth day of the week. Doing HIIT on day one, brisk walk on the third day, and running or spinning on a cardio day would allow sufficient time for muscles to recover and improve the effectiveness of the workout.

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You can take the printout of the table above to refer to it as your weekly schedule to perform the exercise for lean legs and track your progress.

How can I get skinny legs fast?

The fastest way to get skinny legs goes through a balanced diet, a lot of cardio, and a little resistance bodyweight training. You lose fat in your legs through cardio only, the bodyweight training is basically to tone your legs, strengthen your core and other muscle groups.

Here are a few things you should try to reach your goal of getting slimmer legs faster.

• Try fasted cardio
• Understand ideal calorie intake and adjust the diet accordingly
• Prefer long-distance slow running type cardio over sprints
• Set the cardio target, reach there, increase the target, repeat

How do you get rid of thick legs?

The main culprit behind forming deposits of fat around thighs and making your legs look thicker is estrogen. Unfortunately, there is no non-surgical way of spot reducing the fat on the legs or getting rid of the thick thighs.

The best way to get rid of thick legs is to get rid of overall body fat through a calorie deficit diet and fat-burning exercises.

Can you slim your legs in 2 weeks?

Any physical change that happens too fast is not sustainable. Sure, you may see visible changes in the size of your legs in two weeks if you have started working out for the first time in life and are following the right workout routine. But for sustainable and significant changes in your thighs and leg thickness, you would need to continue the efforts for about eight weeks or more.

How can I slim down my legs in a week?

Practically it is not possible to slim down your legs in a week. However, you may get the feeling and confidence of being on the right path to get slimmer legs in a week by following the right workout routine to the T and accompanying it with the right kind of diet.

Why won’t my legs lean out?

There are many reasons that slow down your results or in cases, you completely stop making any progress. Here are the most prominent reasons why your legs won’t lean out.

• Too little cardio
• Cardio is more focused on HIIT
• The wrong type of resistance training resulted in bulking
• Calorie surplus diet
• Body type and the ratio of testosterone to estrogen

Why do I have fat legs?

Your genetics determine your body type. The estrogen in your body especially in women is responsible for deposits of fat around thighs and glutes.

The other reason for having fat legs is calorie surplus diet and lack of active lifestyle.

Can walking reduce thigh fat?

Yes, walking is one of the best cardio exercises to reduce thigh fat. While walking for forty-plus minutes a day helps you shed overall body fat, it does not contribute too much to muscle mass gaining around thighs and calves, making it a suitable cardio workout for achieving skinny thighs.

A brisk walking more effective and efficient way to reduce thigh fat than slow walking. It should be accompanied by a suitable diet for faster results.

Does running tone your legs?

Running burns more calories in the same amount of time as many other exercises. It does burn a lot of fat and helps in overall weight loss. You also gain a good amount of muscle by just running.

So, running not only help you slim down the legs but also tones the leg muscles to give it desirable shape

Will my legs get smaller if I lose weight?

You will lose the fat in your thighs, legs, and glutes only when you reduce overall fat and lose weight. When you lose weight, you get rid of overall body fat along with the fat in your legs resulting in smaller legs.

Will running reduce thigh fat?

Yes. Running burns calories and fats at a good rate. Slow, long-distance running helps you burn overall body fat and in turn, reduces thigh fat.

How long does it take to slim and tone legs?

The exact duration for slimming and toning the legs depends on many factors including your body type, how much you want to shed, and how seriously you follow the workout routine. On average, one needs about eight weeks to see significant results.

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Winding-up

A sustainable positive change in your body will take time. But you would start seeing changes from week four itself if you follow the right workout routine and diet plan.

To get slimmer legs the first thing to do is devise the workout and diet plan that would help you achieve the goal.

To summarise, you need to follow a calorie deficit diet, do a lot of cardio, and perform suitable bodyweight or resistance exercises to promote fat loss and achieve slimmer and toned legs.