Hips and thighs are a common storage place excess fat, especially for women. While it may be tempting to try to "spot treat" that area, it's not a feasible goal. Only overall weight loss can reduce the size of any body part. With weight loss and body fat reduction you'll notice you lose fat stored around your hips in addition to the rest of your body. If you want to lose this fat, you will need to try a combination of diet, cardiovascular and strengthening exercises.

Restricting Calories for Fat Reduction
1. Keep a food journal for a week. Continue eating in a normal manner. You can use this journal as a baseline for changing your diet.

2. Reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories daily. By reducing the amount you are eating, you can signal to your body to start using its stored fat for energy (including the fat stored in your hips).

3. Follow appropriate portion sizes. Following appropriate portion sizes in each of your meals will help you manage your calories and lose weight.

4. Choose lower calorie foods. Another item to focus on to help you lose weight in addition to watching calories and portion sizes is choosing lower calorie foods.



5. Limit liquid calories. Many times liquid calories are responsible for a large part of the excess calories in your diet. In addition, cutting these out completely can really help you lose weight.

6. Cut out excess snacking. Another dangerous area for weight loss is snacking. Too many snacks or grazing constantly throughout the day can sabotage your weight loss.

Including Exercise to Help Reduce Hip Fat
1. Do high-intensity cardiovascular exercise four to five days per week. High intensity exercises or HIIT is an exercise that combined both moderate and high intensity cardio activities that can torch calories and help burn body fat.

2. Exercise for at least 30 minutes, five days per week. You cannot reduce hip fat without reducing overall body fat. You also cannot spot correct using only toning exercises or strength training. Including regular cardio is an important component to help you meet your end goal.

3. Do squats. This popular exercise works your hips, butt, thighs and stomach. Developing muscles in those areas, combined with overall fat loss, can help with toning (showing lean muscle definition).

4. Do lunges. In this exercise, you will step forward with one foot and allow your knees to bend. This is a great exercise to help develop muscles around your hips and entire thigh.

5. Do hip raises. This particular exercise helps specifically target the muscles in your hips and thighs. It's a great move to help tone your outer thigh up to your hip.

6. Add in the bridge exercise. The bridge is a position that's known for working the back of your legs but can help your thighs and hips look more toned.

7. Include plies. A typical ballet move, this squat like exercise helps tone your thighs, butt and hips.