Stroll to shrink the hips and thighs

If you‘re an endurance responder

Women with this DNA type, which makes up about 30 percent of the population, have a form of the gene ADRB2 that makes them prone to storing fat around the hips, butt and thighs. These women are often descended from nomadic cultures that would travel incredibly long distances by foot. They developed variations in the genes ADRB2 and ADRB3 that made their body less efficient at mobilizing and burning stored fat, which helped ensure they’d have ample stored fat to power them through such a journey when needed.

The makeup of their muscles, as determined by the gene PPARA, tends to favor slow-twitch muscle fibers. “Long-distance runners skew in the direction of slow-twitch muscles, which means you might be the turtle, but you’ll finish the longer race,” says Dr. Moalem. Because these slowtwitch fibers burn through blood sugar in cells before they switch to burning stored fat as fuel, these women get better results from longer, slower bouts of exercise that force muscles to burn up any available sugar so the body can start burning fat.

One easy way to prime this genotype to burn more fat—and to burn it faster: taking a daily walk within the first hour of waking before eating breakfast. The overnight fast will deplete blood sugar, ensuring muscles have to burn fat from the get-go. The proof: In a study at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, exercisers who strolled in the morning on an empty stomach burned 20 percent more fat than those who ate breakfast first.

Your slimming walking plan

The beauty of steady-paced walking is that it can be done anywhere and anytime. Even if you can’t get out in the morning for a stroll on an empty stomach, you’ll still get benefits walking in the afternoon or evening around the office, on a treadmill or in a park. Simply set aside at least 30 minutes a day to walk at a pace where you can comfortably talk without pausing for breath but wouldn’t be able to sing. Aim to walk at least 5 days a week.

As you stroll, concentrate on taking deep breaths in through your nose (as if you were smelling flowers) and out through pursed lips (as though you were blowing out birthday cake candles). This will maximize your intake of oxygen needed to help slow-twitch muscle fibers convert more fat into fuel. Researchers at the International Breath Institute in Boulder, Colorado, found that this breathing approach can double fat burning.