Slimming down big muscular (upper) legs

Question

I am a short guy with pretty big legs, mainly the upper legs. In general I don't have a lot of body fat but the legs do have some body fat. My question is how to target these so that they slim down a bit. The struggle of finding a good pair of jeans is a bit too much.

I know a lot of cardiac exercises would help but are there some exercises which I can do without stimulating muscle grow? Because that's were I'm a bit afraid of, doing squats with or without weights and risking that my upper legs will get bigger.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You can't target a particular part of your body to lose fat because "spot reduction" is a myth:

Contrary to what the infomercials suggest, there is no such thing as spot reduction. Fat is lost throughout the body in a pattern dependent upon genetics, sex (hormones), and age. Overall body fat must be reduced to lose fat in any particular area. Although fat is lost or gained throughout the body, it seems the first area to get fat, or the last area to become lean, is the midsection (in men and some women, especially after menopause) and hips and thighs (in women and few men). Sit-ups, crunches, leg-hip raises, leg raises, hip adduction, hip abduction, etc. will only exercise the muscles under the fat.

I recommend trying to stop worrying about making parts of you smaller, and instead focus on building muscle (especially in places you want it) and doing some conditioning every week to stay healthy.