Where (and how) can I drop weight safely?

Question

I'm a wrestler (I know, you probably think I'm starving myself right now). Truth be told, I need to lose a couple of pounds (4 or 5) to make the weight class I want. I'm not sure how feasible this is though. Contrary to what some wrestlers believe, not eating food to lose weight also reduces your energy - effectively making you a bad wrestler with eating problems. I'm a pretty light guy. I'm about 142 pounds. I'm trying to make it to 138 or less. As far as my body goes, I'm pretty slim.

My question:

How this should my thighs be (sounds random right?-)? Over all I'm really skinny, I've always thought though, that I have slightly larger thighs. They aren't overly large though and nobody can really tell. Is this normal? How thick should my thighs be assuming I'm a slim guy at 142 pounds. If they are too big, what exercise can I do to best replace that with muscle and hopefully slim down a bit in that area?

Really, I'm only asking this because I don't know and I feel awkward asking people that I know about thigh size (The internetz, on the other hand, is another story). I could be normal for all I know. If I'm normal, I'll accept being 142 and bulk up a bit to compensated for the upper weight class.

If it means anything:

• I'm 5 foot 11 inches
• I weigh 142 pounds
• I'm a male

Answer 1

It is absolutely impossible to target fat loss to any particular part of your body.

Once again, it is absolutely impossible to target where fat will come off.

This is at least one piece of fairly well established science.

{As a footnote, other than, arguably, the notion of your sex hormone balance - which can affect your overall body shape - women and men have different fat patterns - but that is completely irrelevant to something like "fat on my thighs".}

All you can do is smash your intake of carbohydrates, and the FAT on your body will go away, week by week. But it is absolutely impossible to target WHERE adipose tissue is reduced.

I have no idea if you are (A) starting to put on weight, and that is happening in your thighs or (B) you just happen to have really large manly thighs (like some people are tall, some people have a big nose, etc).

IF the situation is (A), simply smash your carbohydrate intake and exercise more and you will lose the fat from your body, eventually including this fat on the thighs, (To repeat that's only if it IS THE CASE of (A). If it's (B) there is utterly nothing you can do, other than genetic time travel.)

By the way, I also have enormous, rather unsightly, thighs! Heh! they look great in a kilt (if you happen to be scottish) but that's about the only advantage. Or, I could easily play say a speed skater in a movie :)

Answer 2

I really advise you to take a look at Mark Sisson and Robb Wolf's websites. This is a very effective and healthy way to lose weight. Also train muscle groups instead of individual muscles.

Cross Fit is an effective way to do this, but make sure to start at a level that suits you and don't overtrain.

Also take a look at the lowest link that I posted. These are simple workouts that you can do at home that don't take longer than 30 minutes. Also they focus on muscle groups and movement patterns instead of hypertrophy. That way your basal metabolism goes up and you use more energy at rest and during nighttime.

Make sure you stay away from sugar, wheat, vegetable oils, trans fats, and high fructose corn syrup, and you should lose weight like a train!