Help! I joined a gym in hopes to trim up my thighs.. what exercise equipment is best for doing this?!

Running is the best thing, walking helps. I don't believe that weight lifting is the way to go, but many people do. I've always found that the range of motion that weight lifting in your legs offers is unnatural and doesn't actually improve strength... I do yoga instead and it has trimmed up my legs quite a bit and my legs are much stronger as a result.

Bike riding is also good... basically any exercise that involves leg movement will help tone your legs; I think in a much better way than weights.

**added note... your legs are supposed to have some fat on them. It isn't healthy to not have fat in the thigh area. Don't go getting anorexic or anything to try to eliminate the fat in this are. Try adopting a fitness program that focusses on your whole body... that will give you better results than just trying to trim your thighs up.

It's a myth that you can "spot reduce" to preferentially remove fat from one chosen part of your body rather than another.

When you are in positive calorie balance (eat more than you burn) your body will add fat according to its own genetic / physiologic program, typically more in the thighs and buttocks in women, more in the abdomen in men. In negative calorie balance (burn more than you eat) it's just the reverse. There's not much you can do about it. The areas where fat most accumulates with weight gain will also be the areas where fat most disappears with weight reduction.

That said, it's certainly true that specific exercises will tone up and strengthen specific muscles that underlie the fat, which might improve your shape. And anything that works muscles will help with weight reduction. (I'm basically restating aminator's advice above.)

The myth is persistent, however, and the weight-loss industry bamboozles millions of people based on it with all kinds of machines, exercises, and gimmicks supposedly targeting just the hips, or thighs, or belly fat, etc. Too bad it doesn't really work that way.

Professor,

I think you are absolutely right, but I do think that toning gives the appearance of fat loss when a person is within a reasonable weight range to begin with. Flabby thighs will become tighter with muscle toning for instance. The actual amount of fat is not reduced but the perception is that the person is much more fit. This perception is lost if the person is over 15-20 pounds overweight though.

It is right that exercises do not burn fat in a certain area, which is why I think the overall fitness plan should be the focus.

BTW (something I want to add to my post) - I think kicking a soccer ball is an excellent way to tone the legs, but would make the purchase of the gym membership unnecessary. I noticed considerable changes when I started playing soccer regularly.

Well, I dont plan on lifting any weights... I just use the cardio equipment. My fear is that instead of triming down on the fat in my thighs, I'll only add muscle and my legs will become even larger.

Well there is nothing wrong with using weights but the key to not developing larger legs is to go light on the weights while increasing the repetitions.

It is true that you cannot choose where to loose your weight, but getting enough exercise to burn calories and a healthy diet will help burn the overall fat and convert it to muscle which in turn burns calories. Weight bearing exercise is important in keeping up your bone strength, but equally important is that you do it at a level that is not too heavy for you and that you do the exercises correctly and also remember to breathe properly. Holding your breath during exertion can cause your blood pressure to rise excessively. Women do not generally muscle up the same as men, so you will find the benefits of weight toning do not make you look like a freak, but instead make you look and feel a whole lot better about yourself. Squats are excellent exercises for the legs, but if you can hire a personal trainer, just to get you started on a plan, they can customize a plan to suit you. It cost me only AU$50.00 to do so.
Running machines and crosstrainers are great, also swimming on the aerobic side. Also drink lots of water, but lay off the sports drinks, they are not normally necessary and impede the weight loss.