If you’ve been trying to reduce your knee fat and nothing seems to be working, I know how you feel. Fat knees are incredibly frustrating because you don’t have muscle on the front of your knee (though you do have muscle above, below, and behind your knees).
For anyone who has tried to tackle this problem, it can be difficult to know where to start. Here are some questions that point you in the right direction
- What kind of specific weight loss exercises are best to fight the flab in problem areas?
- How much does fitness play into reducing fat in stubborn areas, and how much does weight loss nutrition play into it?
- Are there any other options or fat loss tools and resources that can help with spot fat reduction?
- Can knee liposuction effectively remove fat from my knees?
You likely have more questions. I’ve tried to answer other frequently asked questions near the end of this post. If I didn’t answer a specific question you have about fat knees, just ask in the comments. I will try to share what I’ve learned. Also, if you have any tips, I and this blog’s readers would love to hear them, so please share knee-fat tips too!
After reading through some of my articles, putting together an action plan, and putting in some genuine effort, I believe you can start to see some results within a few weeks and really notice them after a few months. There are, however, no quick, instant fixes. Focus on a process, and the results will come.
To keep your knees and thighs toned, you’ll probably need to make these exercises a more regular habit, along with a healthier diet and lifestyle.
Incorporate the following activities into your weekly workout routine:
Walking (Do this as fast as you can so you work up a bit of sweat and get your heart rate up a bit.). (You should be slightly short of breath.)
If you have some hills nearby or long flights of stairs, that will work even better!
When this becomes easier for you, try walking up a grass hill backward; this will force your lower thigh muscles (just above the knees) to really work hard. This will strengthen the lower parts of your quadriceps, which will help give this area a more toned look.
Jogging: Once you can easily walk fast without getting too winded, then you should start jogging.
Keep trying to jog a little bit longer each time you put your feet on pavement or trail. Even if it is only 10 additional seconds for each jogging session, keep aiming to increase your time spent jogging. You can even get a heart rate monitor and jog at a speed that keeps your heart rate in a “fat-burning” zone.
Sprinting: Sprinting is a high-intensity activity and has additional benefits that lower-intensity distance activities like walking and jogging do not.
For example, high-intensity sprints have been shown to release growth hormone, which helps burn fat for fuel, among many other health benefits.
Also, keep in mind the physiques that sprinters have compared to marathon runners. Or think about the physiques of athletes whose sports require a lot of explosive short-distance running compared to endurance athletes in biking, track and field, and triathlons.
Sprinters often appear to be in much better shape because this high-intensity training results in not only fat loss but also an increase in muscle. This is ideal for creating sexier knees and thighs!
Cycling: Cycle in the gym or on the streets. Cycling seems to put more focus and stress on your upper legs than running and walking may.
If you really want to get a nice burn, increase the resistance on your bike or cycle machine and slow the speed if you have to. If you are using a real bike, you can put it on the most difficult gear, and you can kick it up a notch even further by not allowing yourself to sit on the seat and just pedal standing up.
If you decide to try this out for a minute or two, you are really going to start to feel the burn in your quads and get more winded than usual.
When you need a break, just sit back down and keep pedaling until you can hit it hard again. When you cycle like this, you can really do wonders for your fat knees and thighs.
No Liquid Calories: Don’t drink calories! Only drink fluids like water or tea. If you’re a coffee drinker, try to limit it to 1 cup a day, and ideally take this prior to your workout.
Coffee acts as a stimulant that can help you work out harder, but it also releases cortisol (the stress hormone). Cortisol interferes with sleep and recovery. Too much of it leads our bodies to store more fat.
Don’t drink any soda, juice, or milk either. At least for the period while you are dieting. It is recommended to greatly reduce or stop this altogether after your dieting period, since these all boost your blood sugar levels.
When you eat solid foods, you are often taking in fiber along with the other macronutrients (carbs, proteins, and fats), and the fiber helps to slow down the digestion of these other nutrients, leading to more steady blood sugar and insulin levels. This translates to less fat storage in your body.
Avoid Whites: Eat no, or very little, bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, and other starchy foods while cutting weight. Most of these have been bleached and then “enriched” with vitamins because the bleach has depleted what little nutrients they had to begin with.
Just by cutting these out, you will begin to see the flab come off within 2–3 weeks. If you do have to have rice, eat wild rice. If you must have pasta, eat whole-grain pasta, and the same goes for bread.
For potatoes, sweet potatoes actually have quite a bit of fiber, which helps regulate blood sugar levels. And ideally, if you decide you must have one of these more starchy foods, have them approximately an hour after your workout so the calories go mostly back to refueling your muscles instead of “storage for later” adipose tissue.
Compound the other tips, and it should come off even faster, and you should begin to feel more energetic.
Although this is probably not what you want to hear, keep in mind that it is debatable whether or not you can spot-reduce fat without liposuction. Most experts agree that your body will simply lose fat all around (systemically) in whatever way it is predisposed to, rather than focus its fat loss on one area.
For men, fat tends to accumulate primarily in the stomach area, and for women, fat often accumulates on their buttocks and upper legs.
Often times, your body will begin to lose fat in these areas where the most fat is accumulated first, and consequently, you may not readily notice your fat knees and thighs shedding their flab until after these areas that have larger fat deposits have been trimmed.
Stay Motivated With The Tricks The Pro’s Use
This can make it difficult to stay motivated, so it is always a good idea to take before and after pictures and take some measurements before you embark on your diet and workout program.
If you can track and see your progress, however small and incremental it may be, you will have a much easier time staying motivated. You should take your pictures using the same lighting and position every week or every 2 weeks to see results.
And remember, it is going to take you even longer to lose fat around your knees, so be patient. As far as taking measurements, just use a measuring tape or a string wrapped around your knee, and then measure the length of the string with a ruler.
Record your numbers and take more measurements throughout your diet and workout program. Also, keep in mind that you may be losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time.
If this is the case, you may not experience a change in the circumference of your measured areas, but hopefully you will notice a difference in tone from the pictures.
Resistance Training
Additionally, the more muscle you have and the more you work it, the more calories your body will burn throughout the day. Some bodybuilders have theorized that when you focus your workout on a specific area, it also forces more blood into that area, which consequently pushes more nutrients into the same area. This may help a person lose fat in that specific area.
This is one of the best theories in favor of the possibility of spot reduction that I have heard. It just makes sense.
You could also try adding thermogenic cream (Fat Burning Cream
For losing Knee Fat, Workouts with Weights Training < Workouts with Weight
How should you go about resistance training? Focus on compound movements for your legs. Do lots of squats, lunges, and dead lifts. These are the most natural forms of movement, and they are the most efficient exercises you can perform because they work the most muscles at the same time.
They work your entire legs and glutes, as well as your midsection. They definitely give you the most bang for your buck, and again, they will begin to build more shape in your legs and create better proportions, which will make any fat problem areas you have much less noticeable.
Check out the video below for a demonstration of the proper form for squats and lunges if you don’t already have that down.
Have any more tips, strategies, or thoughts on the matter? Share them below and help everyone out! We’re all in this together and we can help each other get rid of our fat knees and thighs by sharing our experiences with these stubborn problem areas :)
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