Q: Hi Mike. I hope you can help me with my problem. :) I have 16 inch calves and I'm a girl, 15 years old. I think it's fat because it wiggles and it's flabby same also as my thighs. I wonder if there's something I can do about it. I'm currently doing cardio such as running, walking and cycling. And I also thought if I should drink green tea or diet supplements with L-carnitine to help me burn the fat faster, it seems unappropriate for the lessof my body. I also have cankles so when you look at my calves all you can see is fat down my feet. Thanks in advance. Hope you can help me.

A: Unfortunately this is a common situation for women and there isn't a particularly good solution for it. Most likely your calves have both a large amount of muscle and some fat on top of it. Your cardio unfortunately probably contributes to calf muscular development -- both running and walking use calves heavily and cycling somewhat less so. There is no perfect solution, as I said but here are two ideas for you...

Do less cardio and/or change the kind of cardio you do. Cycling or rollerblading use calves less than walking or running do which would give your body less of a 'reason' to build or preserve calf muscles. Swimming may be another option.

You didn't mention your height and weight but you could potentially consider losing some body fat which would decrease the size of your calves somewhat, in proportion to weight loss. BUT you should only consider doing this if and only if you are truly overweight. If you have normal healthy weight for your height it's a very bad idea to try and lose weight at your age since you are most likely not yet done growing and losing weight now can interfere with your development. If you are overweight and decided to lose some weight make sure you lose it only very gradually (no faster than one pound per week) and maintaining healthy diet of at least 1200 calories per day -- no starving yourself!

Hope this helps!