No matter how many lunges or squats you perform, it won't help you lose weight in your legs. Your leg muscles will get stronger, but spot-reduction of fat isn't possible -- to lose fat in one area of the body you must lose it as a whole from your entire body. Aside from eating a reduced-calorie diet and making smart food choices, a regular exercise routine can help you reduce the excess weight and keep it off.

Aerobic Exercise

For optimal weight loss, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests performing cardiovascular exercise for five hours per week at an intensity that still allows you to talk but not sing. Alternatively, cut the five hours in half and exercise at a high intensity where your breathing is heavier and you can't talk easily. Perform different types of cardiovascular exercise that gets your legs moving -- go jogging, swimming, ride a bike or train on the stair climber or elliptical machine. To add variety, take an aerobics class or take part in a group sport.

Resistance Training

A full-body strength-training routine that works your arms, legs, back, stomach, chest and shoulders, can help maximize your caloric burn. Muscle burns more calories than fat. Muscle tissue speeds up your metabolism when you're at rest -- it uses up calories to maintain itself. Perform strength training on at least two days of the week, as recommended by the CDC. Use your body weight, weightlifting machines, resistance bands or free weights for resistance, and use challenging weights that make the last repetition of each set difficult to complete.

Leg Exercises

Make leg exercises part of your resistance-training routine. Exercises, such as squats, in which you bend your knees and lower your body down as if to sit in a chair before standing back up, sculpt your legs. Lunges, in which you step forward with one leg and move your body straight down and up, also work the upper legs. To target the lower area of your legs, perform calf raises, in which you continuously rise up on the balls of your feet and lower back down.


As you get stronger, increase the intensity of your workout to avoid plateauing. Jog at an incline or add intervals where you speed up your cardiovascular exercise for 30 to 60 seconds. Use heavier weights when strength training or increase your repetitions. When performing leg exercises, hold dumbbells in your hands for a greater challenge, or perform one-legged squats and calf raises. If you're new to exercise, have a personal trainer teach you proper form, and if you have a medical condition, get your doctor's approval before taking on a new exercise routine.


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