How to Get Toned Legs for Women

Nothing screams “sexy!” like a tanned and toned pair of legs.  Put on some four inch heels and a slit dress and you’ll be smacking the guys off of you left and right.  If you want to gain back some confidence and strut a pair of spicy legs, follow these tips on toning your lower body.

Step 1: The Exercise

The first and most important step to getting nice firm legs is exercise. Hopefully you are currently doing some form of cardio.  For legs, running is the best type of cardiovascular exercise.  Try to run at least twice a week.  Try doing HIIT – or High Intensity Interval Training – where you switch from sprinting to jogging to walking.  Twenty to thirty minutes twice a week is the minimum you should do.  If you can, try doing HIIT three to four times per week.

Next, you should do resistance training.  Many women shy away from weight training because they don’t want to get bulky.  Women do not produce enough testosterone to fuel muscle growth – when you resistance train you will tighten up your muscles rather than build them, giving you a nice toned look.

Some great resistance exercises to try are lunges, squats, calf raises, and leg extensions.  Use a variety of leg resistance exercises to sculpt your legs. Work out your legs 30-60 minutes per session.  You only need to do this once or twice a week for good results.

Step 2: The Diet

The next important step in building great legs is your diet.  If your leg muscles are covered in fat, they will appear soft, shapeless and unattractive.  Because you can’t spot reduce fat, you must lower your entire body fat percentage in order to tone your legs.  Fortunately for women, you only need to get down to 20% body fat to have stunning thighs and calves. (In comparison, men need to get down to 10%).

The best way to shed fat overall is to reduce your caloric intake by 250-500 calories per day.  This way you will lose 2-4 pounds per month.  Combine that with consistent exercise and you could burn 6-7 pounds per month!  Say you weigh 200 pounds with 30% body fat.  You will need to lose 10%, or 20 pounds to get nice legs.  If you exercise 4 days a week and lower your calorie intake 500 per day, it will take you only three months to get stunning legs.  Plus your stomach and rear end will tighten up dramatically as well.

Step 3: The Perspective

Eating 250-500 calories less per day may seem like a huge sacrifice.  To put it in perspective, a slice of bread has around 100 calories, a single can of soda has 140, a doughnut has 250.  If you can skip these three things every day you can shed a pound per week! 

You don’t have to give them up entirely – simply replace these things with some low calorie alternatives and you will feel just as full.  Swap a fatty beef mayo sandwich for a wholewheat pitta roll choc-full of chargrilled veggies, grab some tasty sparkling water instead of a soda, and swap that sickly icky doughnut for a fresh sweet peach.  There, aren’t you feeling healthier already?

Another quick tip is that smooth and tanned legs look more toned than pale, white skin.  Getting nicer legs is as simple as investing in a nice moisturizer/ sunblock from the drugstore, and hitting the beach.  If you have the cash and want your legs to appear slimmer overnight ready for your wedding or high school reunion, get a sunless tan by visiting a tanning salon and getting a spray-on tan.

Getting toned legs does take a bit of commitment but is well within the reach of all women. Imagine, three months from now you could be sporting sexy, firm, and powerful legs.