Knees fat? Keys to Losing Weight and Tone Them
Discipline, localized exercises and changes in the diet help reduce accumulated fat in the legs and lose weight and tone the knees.
Legs are one of the body parts that we like to show off the most, especially if we have them toned and strong. But we have to bear in mind that when we talk about having heart attack legs we are not only talking about the quadriceps, abductors ... the knees must also be toned.
"Whenever we have excess fat, whatever the area, we must understand that we have excess energy, this is 9 kcal for each gram of fat, which means that we will need the daily calorie intake to be less than the daily caloric expenditure, since, if we do not comply with this premise, the rest of the efforts will not achieve the objective ", according to Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Health Director of Zagros Sports La Moraleja , who recommends facing this challenge from two very clear aspects: reduction caloric intake and increased energy expenditure .
Reduced Calorie intake
In most cases, a special regimen is necessary if not small interventions in the diet:
- Reduces sugar to a minimum. This not only implies the white sugar that we use in coffee, but also prepared foods such as cold cuts, breakfast cereals, precooked food, sauces in general, ... Always read the labels, and eliminate from your diet foods that have sugar in them. top of the ingredient list.
- Eat different types of protein. That is, eat meat, fish, eggs, legumes, etc. The food of this group that we should take in a more moderate way is red meat. In general, protein foods tend to have fewer calories and also increase the feeling of fullness.
- The consumption of greens and vegetables should be high. They are very nutritious, provide few calories, and also increase the feeling of satiety.
- Eat fruit and avoid juicesThe squeezed fruit eliminates the fiber, making the assimilation of the sugars naturally present in the fruit much faster, which tends to get us to store that sugar in the form of fat. Orange juice usually contains at least 2 to 3 oranges, when we would hardly be able to eat more than one orange in its solid form.
Increased Energy Expenditure
The resistance training as a career, stairs, cycling, etc., help you spend a lot of calories, so it is a very interesting option. Now, if we consider these exercises as the only activity, we will not achieve the best results. The explanation is that in reality (and this is proven by science, as the Zagos Sports expert says) the best results are obtained by combining strength and resistance exercises, preferably executed at high intensity.
The Right Strength Exercises
The first muscle we see if we look at the knees is the quadriceps. This would lead us to think that the first thing we must do to work our knees is to sit on a leg extension machine (quadriceps) and start "kicking". But, as Miguel Ángel Rodríguez explains, the problem with this approach is that this exercise will excessively develop the quadriceps, but it will not exercise the rest of the leg muscles, which in addition to causing a muscular imbalance, will lead to less expenditure of calories than if we work more muscles at the same time.
For this reason, the expert advises doing exercises that tone the quadriceps, but at the same time work the rest of the muscles of the leg and spine.
When practicing the exercises, he recommends doing it with your hands on the neck and elbows as open as possible, and always looking straight ahead, because in this way we will achieve greater activation of the abdominal and lumbar area.
Squats
With a chair or stool as low as possible, and with your legs shoulder-width apart, lower until you touch your buttocks. 15 to 20 repetitions
Lunges back
From the standing position, bring one leg back wide, place the ball of the foot on the ground, kneel it (without touching the ground) and return to the starting position. 10 to 15 repetitions with each leg.
Lunges forward
It is the same technique (and repetitions) as in the previous exercise, but taking the step forward, and focusing on pushing the floor with the front leg to return to the starting position.
Side lunges
From the previous position, make a lateral movement, keeping the fixed leg straight and slightly turning the knee of the mobile leg, to avoid causing stress on the joint.
ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY - FITNESS YODHA
