Pics - How far will dieting improve hips?

**scratchy** · 05-21-2003, 10:15 PM

In this first pic I've attached two pictures of me flexing. In these pics i'm 5'11 174. Guessing around 10% body fat.

One of my biggest problems is my hips. I've got the dieting down preatty good, but I've got naturaly wide hips . Its a total pain in the ass, look fine naked, but if i put on pants it looks i've got bigger handles then I actually do.

Bellow I've attached a rather unflattering pic of myself, i choose it on purpose because i think it illustrate my problem. Notice the arrows. It looks like i've got preatty brutal handles. I am carrying some fat, but honestly I can't pinch very much off the sides. I'm planning on losing another 5-10 pounds, but fear that I'm going to have to deal with having widder hips.

My question is this. Does anyone here have similiar hips? What is the best way to compensate. Obviously I'd like to grow everywhere, but out of interest, would defined abs or bigger back make my hips not look so wide?

Thanks ahead of time.

**scratchy** · 05-21-2003, 10:16 PM

UnFlexed, not to preatty ...

**cdog** · 05-21-2003, 10:22 PM

I have kinda the same thing going on and what I have done is worked my back and shoulders for width ....................CDOG

**saboudian** · 05-21-2003, 11:52 PM

Those ain't hips, those are love handles. PN got it right on the button too about the BF, i don't start to lose my love handles till about 6-8 %, so if you wanna get rid of em, be prepared to do some hardcore dieting

**nynsb** · 05-22-2003, 12:13 AM

Originally posted by scratchy
UnFlexed, not to preatty ...

You might not be able to pinch very much but the girls could grab a handful.
Watch the diet and up the cardio.

**dangit** · 05-22-2003, 08:37 AM

I've got the same thing going on with my hips. The muscles around there are stabelizer muscles and can get pretty big compared to your stomach muscles.

I see people all the time working on their sides doing weirdo excercises thinking they'll make their waiste and hips smaller only to end up working this muscle and making it bigger.

I broke my wrist last year and kept on working out at the gym doing really weird cable movements and my sides ended up getting real big. The physiopherapist told me this was because they were trying to overcompensate and stabelize me while doing my weird cable excercises.

Your best bet is to only do stomach crunches or crunches that hit the obliques and loose some bodyfat. You might also work on your lower lats to try and build them up so you don't get that dent.

I'm no expert though and these are just my thoughts on what happened to my "love handles". I could be totally wrong too. I'm going to look up this stabelizer muscle theory for fun since I'm bored at work today.

**scratchy** · 05-22-2003, 10:48 AM

Thanks guys. I think focusing on lower lats might be a good idea. I've also really got to development my abs. And yes, lose some BF.

On the topic of body fat, well like i said that was an unflatering picture, I chose it because it really shows hip problem. I got my body fat tested a little over a month ago, and I've dropped 10 pounds since then. Used bioimpedance method, which as you all know isn't very acurate, but I came in at 12% then. Give an error margin of 3% (which is about another 5.5 pounds of fat) at the time was lets say I was 15 percent. By no means am i trying to claim that the 10 pounds I lost are all fat, but I do think i made a decent dent. I may be off on my guess 10% (seen as how i based it on a not so accurate method body fat analysis), but I don't think I'm up at 17%. Then again, only time will tell i guess because I am going to bring BF preatty low.

Dangit, from your pics I can tell you've brought you BF real low. I was under the impression that going from 10% to 6% is damn hard, and involves ALOT of weight loss not simply (bodyweight x 0.04) pounds. Were as going from say 14% to 10% requires less weight loss then say 10% to %6. Am I off on this?

Heres another picture of my waist. Again, I am carrying some fat around it, and i will loose that. I'm looking for comments on how to build my physique to help remove the apperance that I've got wide hips rather then to lose body fat (which I am doing now).

Thanks.

**Needtobeswoledup** · 05-22-2003, 09:53 PM

I've got similar problem bro.... My freaking waist is a 34 and i still have a good ab outline.... I think if i dieted hardcore and got down to low bf i would still have like a 32.... wide hips. Only way to componsate is blow up the back!!

**saboudian** · 05-22-2003, 11:53 PM

Originally posted by scratchy

I was under the impression that going from 10% to 6% is damn hard, and involves ALOT of weight loss not simply (bodyweight x 0.04) pounds. Were as going from say 14% to 10% requires less weight loss then say 10% to %6. Am I off on this?

Heh i wish it was that way. I've been dieting for quite a while and I am a true endomorph. I got down to the ~10% BF range with strictly only diet. I am now stuck at 6-7% BF and i'm doing an hour of empty stomach cardio in the morning, 20 min cardio post weight training workout, and 75 minutes at night all on a low carb diet. I'm doin this all natural though, and i will be adding in an ECA this week, so hopefully i can get to the 4-5% BF range if i'm lucky cuz i don't have any more tricks left in my bag.

So i think this gives you an idea of how much harder it is to go from
10 -> 6 BF versus going 14->6 BF.

**scratchy** · 05-23-2003, 12:33 AM

saboudian, that's what i meant. I could have probably worded it clearer though because i think were saying the same thing. Out of interest, how long did it take you to get from approx 10% to were you are now. Anyone else want to comment on timing. From what i've read, some of the guys that compete talk about seriously dieting 12 weeks out of a competition. Of those 12 weeks, about how much of the time is spent going from 10% to 6%. I'm natural, but i'd love to hear replies from people who have done it on gear and those who have done it without.

**supernav** · 05-24-2003, 08:06 PM

here's what u do bro:

get yohimburn df, r-ala and thermorexin from anabolicfitness.net

work out cardio every day. eat LESS calories per day then what you need do. Have a defecit. The deficit is what will create fat loss.

With yohimburn, the fat will come from the love handles (make sure u exfoliate, shower b4 hand).

r-ala will make sure you don't gain excess fat if you overeat on carbs.

thermorexin will suppress your appetite, allowing you to drink mainly protein shakes and small amounts of food during the day.

do all that, and trust me, you'll lose 'em in a month no probs.

hope that helps. lates.

-= nav =-

**nynsb** · 05-25-2003, 01:39 AM

You are wide in the waist not the hips.
Your hips are at your but level
Love Handles are part of your waist not your hips.
Good luck, I have been trying to hone mine down my whole life
I have had better luck with building muscle
Dieting too hard just makes you look skinny with love handles.
Try puttin on some solid muscle.
But like I said I think it's more genetic so good luck.