I'd been overweight up until three years ago when I lost forty pounds. I'm drastically thinner, but I still have core area fat, (from thighs to abdomen/back) is it possible to lose that at this point?

also, I run pretty religiously and I am told I have muscular thighs and calves, if i were to actually eat healthy, preventing weight gain or fat gain, and i stopped running, would my muscles begin to shrink in size? or would they just remain the same and put on fat to compensate?

You can lose weight anytime you like, but this "extra" fat around in these spots would require you to increase your exercise routine and nutrition (if you are not eating healthy as you think). The abdomen area would generally be first part where fat would be stored after you have consumed it and its after its finished processing i your body.

Your muscles would deplete in size and strength since muscles in similar to overall energy in the body. If you are not working the muscles then there is no demand for energy consumption and to absorb to result in muscle movement, or exercise. But the fact that you have built up your muscles, if you started to workout again those muscles that were decreasing will increasing in a shorter time then first starting off. This is due to that your muscles still is adapted to your previous exercise routines. And they have developed so that is can retrieve its energy consumption and return to its previous state.

I don't know how to increase my workout regimen. For the past year or so I've been running between 3-11 miles a day at varying speeds. Do I seriously need to do even more? I get about 5-7 miles an hour? is it more intensity i need? I don't know.

Intensity, Duration and frequency is how you can view it with your routine. By raising intensity your duration may decrease but still and adequate workout if done correctly. For duration you may look as you run more longer than your current time which would balance to +Intensity/-duration.

But in my opinion that is a good workout, but as RunningGirl asked what other workouts do you do.

As running may build muscle but it does have a limit until you do weights and resistance work.

Bottom line with regard to the fat, is that diet (and I don't mean diet as in "go on a" but diet in the holistic sense of what you eat every day) is going to be 80% or more of the process of losing fat.

Until you get control of your diet in terms of calories and nutrients, you can exercise until your legs fall off and you won't shed that fat.

Also, while running is a good cardio workout, but it's not going to maintain or build muscle mass. If you really want to work on that fat around your middle and balance out your upper body with your lower body, you'll need to add some kind of weight lifting/body resistance routine to your workouts.

I don't do any other training.


I don't want to get bigger though, I just want to get smaller around the waist, not by getting bigger around the chest.

It's really difficult to get bigger while dieting - doing the resistance training would just be to keep the muscles you've got, not to make yourself huge.

You won't get big and bulky unless you increase the stress on your muscles by increasing the weight by X amount. With muscular workout and body resistance you will tone and strengthen your muscles.

There is no need to worry about getting bigger if you only do weights, it is a misconception about weights will straight away increase the mass of your muscles. It may but it is in your control of how you go at it.