Eat This And Get Smaller Thighs!

Is that really possible?  Can it be true?   Read on and find out how to do it!

A very cool study has shown eating this one item resulted in smaller thighs!

Many women complain that they want to lose fat and overall size around their thighs.  They also want to make sure they reduce the jiggle factor too.

We all know how powerful exercise is in this area, but can what we eat have an impact and directly reduce fat in the thighs?

Yep!   The item we are talking about here is protein.   Now don't worry, eating more protein will not make women huge overnight; so relax. 

Layman DK et al. (2), showed that a diet with higher protein and less carbohydrates when combined with exercise, was superior to a diet with the same amount of calories, only higher in carbohydrates.   Even if subjects did not exercise and swapped some carbs in their diet for protein, they lost more fat!  Nice!  Score 1 for more protein.

In another wicked cool study (well, it was to me), Devkota S et al. (1), showed the addition of more protein in place of carbohydrates resulted in better glucose and insulin management.   They also showed a "repartitioning" effect where the subjects (our furry friend the rat, in this case) increased signals in muscle (Akt, p70S6K phosphorylation if you really wanted to know) to build more muscle.  In the higher protein group, the signals in fat tissue were actually DECREASED!   Just by shifting some of the incoming food from carbs to protein, showed a shift away from signaling processes used to store it in fat!   Increasing protein in place of carbs, ramps up processes for more muscle and less fat.

Human Data Please

The above study was done on our furry-tailed friends, but another study by Mojtahedi MC et al. (3), was conducted in older women and used a double-blind, randomized clinical trial to compare a higher protein level to a standard level of carbohydrates.    One group added 50 grams of a whey protein to their diet, while the other group added 50 grams of carbohydrates (maltodextrin) for 6 months. 

Even though the total calories were the same in both groups, the higher protein group lost more weight than the carb group.   The really cool part about this study, is they used MRI (which is very accurate) to assess body composition (muscle-to-fat ratio).  This allowed the researchers to look directly at the amount of fat stored next to the muscle tissue (intermuscular adipose tissue) in the thigh area.   If you are looking to reduce the size of your thighs or how much they jiggle, listen up!   The higher protein group saw an overall reduction of total thigh volume (size) 13% compared to 4.9% in the carb group.   Nice!  Protein DECREASES the size of women's thighs!

But did they lose more fat in their thighs?

Yes!  They lost 9.2% more intermuscular fat in their thighs compared to 1.0% in the carb group.  Replacing 50 grams of carbs in your diet with 50 grams of protein reduces overall thigh size and fat levels!