Q: What is the best exercise to take fat off my thighs? Is rollerblading good for slimming them down, or will it bulk up my muscles and make my legs look bigger? - M.S., Dallas, TX

A: First of all, I should point out that selected body parts cannot be exercised in such a way that they lose excess fat at a faster rate than another body part where fat is also generally stored. In other words, spot reducing does not work.

You can lose overall body fat by increasing the number of calories burned through physical activity, by reducing caloric intake, by modifying your diet to reduce the body's propensity to store fat (e.g., by lowering fat intake), or some combination of the above.

Rollerblading is an excellent way to increase the number of calories you burn. If you are skating very hard, non-stop, I suspect you would burn about 600 to 800 calories per hour. This means skating quite fast - fast enough that your breathing is heavy and carrying on a conversation is difficult. (As the effort goes down, so does the number of calories burned.) Any aerobic activity will chew up calories, but if inline skating is something you like, you'll have an edge. The most important aspect of selecting a fitness activity is choosing one you enjoy, so you're more likely to stay with it for a long time.

One of the advantages of inline skating is that it involves less impact to the joints than activities such as running. Since the knee is slightly flexed while skating, it will also help to firm and strengthen the muscles of the thigh. It is quite doubtful that they will become larger because of this type of activity. It's an endurance sport, and these seldom cause muscles to grow large.

Source: fitlinxx.com