If you struggle with stubborn thigh fat you’ll want to cut back on heavily processed food regardless of total food intake and even exercise habits to help solve this aggravating problem.
Hey look, it’s not an indication of poor body image or low self-confidence if you want to trim some fat off your thighs.
What’s important is that you avoid non-sustainable or unhealthy practices in your quest to achieve slimmer thighs.
A study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA, 2024) reveals a link between a diet high in ultra-processed foods and increased fat stored within thigh muscles — independent of caloric intake and physical activity levels.
But this study isn’t just about the desired aesthetics of slimmer thighs.
The findings suggest that this fat accumulation could also raise the risk of knee osteoarthritis, a condition that affects millions globally.
This wearing down of cartilage in the knees will eventually lead to bone-on-bone contact unless corrected with knee replacement surgery.
But why settle for metal and rubber in your knee joints when you can take measures to prevent this painful condition by reducing the fat in your thigh muscles?
Ultra-Processed Foods: Junk for the Body
©Lorra Garrick
Ultra-processed foods are characterized by industrially altered ingredients, artificial flavorings, colorings and preservatives.
When a food is very far removed from nature, you can consider it to be highly processed.
For example, apple pie is very far removed from a whole apple that you’ll find in the produce section.
Other examples include packaged snacks, sugary drinks, breakfast cereals, luncheon meats, salami, “ready-to-eat meals” and frozen pizzas. White squishy bread and dinner rolls also count.
Many of these foods are designed for convenience, with long shelf lives and a combination of ingredients — sugars, fats, salt/sodium and simple (quick-acting) carbohydrates — that appeal to the brain’s reward system, making it difficult to resist overeating.
Who can stop with just a handful of munchies?
What’s in your thigh muscles?
For the study, researchers focused on the impact of these ultra-processed foods on thigh muscle composition, particularly the amount of intramuscular fat (IMF), as assessed through MRI imaging.
Dr. Zehra Akkaya, the lead researcher, emphasizes that this study is the first to examine the connection between diet quality — specifically ultra-processed food consumption — and muscle fat content using MRI technology.
The study involved 666 participants around 60 years of age, from the Osteoarthritis Initiative, a research project aimed at understanding and preventing knee osteoarthritis.
The participants had an average BMI of 27, categorizing them as overweight but not obese.
Over the previous year, 40% of their food intake had consisted of ultra-processed foods.
The results showed that regardless of their caloric intake, level of physical activity or BMI, the more ultra-processed foods the participants consumed, the higher their levels of intramuscular fat in their thigh muscles.
To picture what intramuscular fat would look like, have you ever seen a steak at the supermarket that’s heavily “marbled”?
The white areas are fat. Freepik.com/rawpixel.com
This means a lot of that white gunk within it that you don’t want to eat.
Fatty degeneration of muscles, where muscle fibers are replaced by fat, can be detected on MRI scans.
This decline in muscle tissue may be associated with the onset and progression of knee osteoarthritis, a breakdown of cartilage in the joints.
The presence of excess fat within muscles could lead to a decrease in muscle strength and function, contributing to joint instability and pain in those at risk for osteoarthritis.
You need not be obese to get osteoarthritis, though obesity is a major risk factor.
Dr. Akkaya notes that, traditionally, lifestyle changes such as weight management through healthier eating and exercise are recommended to help prevent or manage knee osteoarthritis.
However, the study’s findings introduce a new avenue for understanding how diet quality affects musculoskeletal health.
Since osteoarthritis is closely linked to obesity and poor lifestyle choices, this research suggests that reducing ultra-processed food consumption could be a key factor in both preventing muscle degeneration and managing osteoarthritis.
You Don’t Have to Get Debilitating Knee Pain
Shutterstock/Syda Productions
In the U.S., knee osteoarthritis is one of the leading causes of non-cancer-related healthcare costs.
This progressive, irreversible disease often coincides with obesity, which is exacerbated by poor diet choices.
But remember, you need not be clinically obese to suffer from this disease.
Given that diet plays a role in both the health of muscles and the risk of developing osteoarthritis, these findings indicate the importance of paying more attention to weight management and food choices for preventing the condition – and even for treating it.
But the only “cure” is a knee replacement surgery. And even then, the patient’s knee won’t be as good as new, as there will be permanent restrictions (e.g., no jumping).
Furthermore, knee replacements don’t last forever; the average is 15-20 years.
The Thunder in the Thighs
Now, does this study mean that switching from a processed food diet to a mostly whole-foods or plant based diet will slim down your thighs?
The switch will reduce the “marbling” in your thighs.
But there’s more: Switching will likely result in fewer calories consumed, which would lead to fat loss.
Ultra-processed foods are often high in calories, and are often over-consumed, so yes, replacing these with more natural based foods will likely result in a lower caloric intake – leading to some loss of surplus body fat. Of course, this would include that of the legs.
One good rule to follow is this: The longer the ingredients list, the more likely a food item is highly processed.
However, a long ingredient list could also consist of numerous herbs/spices and vegetables added to the item.
If the list is full of chemical-sounding or “hard to pronounce” words, this is a red flag.
For more information on how to slim down and tone your thighs, check out the following articles.
Are Big Thighs Genetic? Are Some Women Doomed?
Will Strength Training Make Thunder Thighs Bigger?
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, increased strength, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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