Is cycling a good way to lose weight around the legs?

There is a common misconception that working a specific part of your body will help you lose weight in that particular area.

In fact, when you lose weight (body fat) your body will take it from the place that it “thinks” it should come from. It may happen to be the part that you were working out, but that is no guarantee. It’s different for everybody. In general the fat around the hips, thighs, buttocks (for women) and belly fat (for men) is usually the most stubborn.

The thing that make a person lose weigh is an increase in metabolism. That means that your muscles get more “toned” and grow bigger. These bigger muscles require more energy (calories) to get through a given day. If these calories are not taken from food eaten in a given day, the body will convert stored energy (fat) into usable energy and “burn” it in the muscles.

Interesting note: Muscles are actually more dense than fat, so if you weighed your leg when your don’t regularly exercise, it would weigh less than if you did exercise, because there would be more muscle.

The advantage to working out is that it increases muscle mass, and therefore increases metabolism. These larger muscles will slowly “burn up” excess fat that the body has stored in the form of fat (no matter where that fat is).

However, as you get thinner and more fit, you need to make sure that you take in enough calories to keep your muscles functioning. If you don’t, the body will take fat from places where the body really needs it (ie from the brain, surrounding the kidneys, etc.)