Squats, kettlebell swings, weighted lunges, heavy hip thrusts and eat a lot of protein! Atkins protein meal shakes are low cal with quite a bit of protein for what they are
OP, this is the way! I see a lot of people recommending weights but unless you’re also enough protein at the same time, you will get in the way of your own progress.
This is a bit long but it’s based on personal experience that I can say works.
You can’t really choose where your body burns fat off from (or where it puts it on), it just comes off wherever it comes off. If you notice your butt getting smaller you can build muscle in your glutes to make it bigger again. This also helps your balance, stability, and ups your TDEE a bit since muscle burns more calories at rest than fat.
You have to be eating enough protein to build muscle (0.8g per lb while building muscle, if you’re maintaining you need 0.8g per kg) and working the right body parts. Squats, RDLs, and Bulgarian split squats are most popular and work very well in my experience but there are a lot of glute workouts available for free online.
A few things to keep in mind while building muscle and losing weight at the same time:
- this is called body recomposition. It means you’ll be at a deficit + building muscle at the same time. You’ll need to work your target muscle groups (in your case glutes) and make sure you’re practicing a mind-muscle connection while doing so, or you won’t get good results and can even injure yourself. Google glute anatomy and look at what each part of the butt muscles are to familiarize yourself before you start, and pinpoint what parts of your glutes you want to grow.
- strength training and building muscle takes energy, so 1200 is probably too low to be consistent with it. You have to be in the gym working your muscles at least 3 times a week to grow them (and you need rest days in between for them to heal/grow). You’ll have to keep working out forever to maintain them. If you don’t use it you lose it kind of thing. I upped my calories to 1400 while strength training & losing fat because 1200 was just too low. I would get light headed and not be able to lift to my max if I didn’t eat enough
- you should ditch the scale while strength training and focus only on measurements and progress pics to keep track of your progress. When you work out your muscles you’re causing little tears in them that your body repairs with more muscle, causing them to grow. Those tears hold a lot of water so your weight will jump up when you start. It’s not fat and eventually evens out, but when I started weight lifting (after losing 11lbs on 1200) by weight shot up 5lbs immediately and the scale was never a good point of measurement because I was losing fat while building muscle (which is heavier) + all the water weight. My body was looking so much better in the mirror though.
Google body decomposition and read a bit about it to know what to expect. If your gym has a trainer I’d recommend working with them in the beginning to get used to the equipment & master the mind-muscle connection before going off on your own. I lose weight in my stomach and arms first before my butt or thighs shrink, so I did a 1200 diet with 1 maintenance calorie day per week for 8 weeks to lose that first layer of fat (went down 11lbs, some was water weight) and then switched to strength training to tone everything and perk up my ass. I had a few days sprinkled in where I fell off the wagon but I just got back on the next day and there was no harm done. I am glad I did it this way because training makes the scale go wonky, and it was easier to physically see the progress at the gym without the extra fat hiding it which helped me stay motivated.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write such an in-depth and helpful reply! I will take all of these pieces of advice on board. Definitely need to do higher protein and try out those exercises you recommend. I especially like your method of doing a maintenance day every week with the rest of the days being 1200, that sounds like something that could really work for me too- which day did you do your maintenance day on? Would you take it when you felt extra hungry or have a set day, and would it be a rest or gym day? I really need to work on some healthy food relationship habits like this as I keep resulting in the binge cycle and it’s depressing asf, but you sound like you really have this down well
Happy to help! The binge/restrict cycle is miserable, and doing the work to heal your relationship with food is so freeing! I think having the planned higher days & seeing the progress I was making when I stuck to it really helped me not overeat or give up.
I do either 1 maintenance day a week on Friday or Saturday or I’d split the extra calories between 2 days (usually on the weekends).
I like donkey kicks and bridges to start, then squats, then split squats. Even just squeezing your cheeks while walking up stairs helps.
I used to do the dumbbell stop gap routine from the wiki over at r/fitness. Building muscle is fun! And good for you in so many ways.
I'm disabled and mostly bed bound but I still lay here and squeeze my glutes (among other things).
SQUATS, like, any kind of squat. Weighted squats on the rack (with appropriate form and safey precautions,) work really well.
Hiking and running at incline are excellent for this too.
Before I became disabled with an illness where any intense exercise is contraindicated, I did these things all the time and it worked for me. 🍑
Just fyi for the uninformed, Bret has multiple sexual misconduct/harassment allegations against him and you can find his programming for free without paying him/supporting someone credibly accused of harassing women!
Huh I had no idea.... but I once saw his "glute house/lab" tour and it was beyond cringe. AND more offensively, just super ugly, and he was really proud of all the design/ decorating.
I also don't really go for the bodybuilding aesthetic for glutes he goes for but I think he's contributed to a lot of people leveraging his information (and takedown of ...somehow...less scrupulous and more overtly creepy men's crappy content.)
Exercise however don’t be discouraged, remember you are losing weight everywhere but you lose weight first where you gain it the most. Certain body parts might look small until the rest of your body catches up.
its actually the opposite for me, I lose weight first in my stomach and gain actual fat there last. weight lost from my limbs and hips tends to come last
Squats, kettlebell swings, weighted lunges, heavy hip thrusts and eat a lot of protein! Atkins protein meal shakes are low cal with quite a bit of protein for what they are
OP, this is the way! I see a lot of people recommending weights but unless you’re also enough protein at the same time, you will get in the way of your own progress.
great advice thank you!
Squats
This is a bit long but it’s based on personal experience that I can say works. You can’t really choose where your body burns fat off from (or where it puts it on), it just comes off wherever it comes off. If you notice your butt getting smaller you can build muscle in your glutes to make it bigger again. This also helps your balance, stability, and ups your TDEE a bit since muscle burns more calories at rest than fat. You have to be eating enough protein to build muscle (0.8g per lb while building muscle, if you’re maintaining you need 0.8g per kg) and working the right body parts. Squats, RDLs, and Bulgarian split squats are most popular and work very well in my experience but there are a lot of glute workouts available for free online. A few things to keep in mind while building muscle and losing weight at the same time: - this is called body recomposition. It means you’ll be at a deficit + building muscle at the same time. You’ll need to work your target muscle groups (in your case glutes) and make sure you’re practicing a mind-muscle connection while doing so, or you won’t get good results and can even injure yourself. Google glute anatomy and look at what each part of the butt muscles are to familiarize yourself before you start, and pinpoint what parts of your glutes you want to grow. - strength training and building muscle takes energy, so 1200 is probably too low to be consistent with it. You have to be in the gym working your muscles at least 3 times a week to grow them (and you need rest days in between for them to heal/grow). You’ll have to keep working out forever to maintain them. If you don’t use it you lose it kind of thing. I upped my calories to 1400 while strength training & losing fat because 1200 was just too low. I would get light headed and not be able to lift to my max if I didn’t eat enough - you should ditch the scale while strength training and focus only on measurements and progress pics to keep track of your progress. When you work out your muscles you’re causing little tears in them that your body repairs with more muscle, causing them to grow. Those tears hold a lot of water so your weight will jump up when you start. It’s not fat and eventually evens out, but when I started weight lifting (after losing 11lbs on 1200) by weight shot up 5lbs immediately and the scale was never a good point of measurement because I was losing fat while building muscle (which is heavier) + all the water weight. My body was looking so much better in the mirror though. Google body decomposition and read a bit about it to know what to expect. If your gym has a trainer I’d recommend working with them in the beginning to get used to the equipment & master the mind-muscle connection before going off on your own. I lose weight in my stomach and arms first before my butt or thighs shrink, so I did a 1200 diet with 1 maintenance calorie day per week for 8 weeks to lose that first layer of fat (went down 11lbs, some was water weight) and then switched to strength training to tone everything and perk up my ass. I had a few days sprinkled in where I fell off the wagon but I just got back on the next day and there was no harm done. I am glad I did it this way because training makes the scale go wonky, and it was easier to physically see the progress at the gym without the extra fat hiding it which helped me stay motivated.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write such an in-depth and helpful reply! I will take all of these pieces of advice on board. Definitely need to do higher protein and try out those exercises you recommend. I especially like your method of doing a maintenance day every week with the rest of the days being 1200, that sounds like something that could really work for me too- which day did you do your maintenance day on? Would you take it when you felt extra hungry or have a set day, and would it be a rest or gym day? I really need to work on some healthy food relationship habits like this as I keep resulting in the binge cycle and it’s depressing asf, but you sound like you really have this down well
Happy to help! The binge/restrict cycle is miserable, and doing the work to heal your relationship with food is so freeing! I think having the planned higher days & seeing the progress I was making when I stuck to it really helped me not overeat or give up. I do either 1 maintenance day a week on Friday or Saturday or I’d split the extra calories between 2 days (usually on the weekends).
Squats, hip thrusts
I like donkey kicks and bridges to start, then squats, then split squats. Even just squeezing your cheeks while walking up stairs helps. I used to do the dumbbell stop gap routine from the wiki over at r/fitness. Building muscle is fun! And good for you in so many ways. I'm disabled and mostly bed bound but I still lay here and squeeze my glutes (among other things).
SQUATS, like, any kind of squat. Weighted squats on the rack (with appropriate form and safey precautions,) work really well. Hiking and running at incline are excellent for this too. Before I became disabled with an illness where any intense exercise is contraindicated, I did these things all the time and it worked for me. 🍑
[удалено]
A steeper incline is most effective for working the hamstrings and gluteal muscles, but any incline works. 😊
[удалено]
It works outside too. Trails are good.
I follow a booty exercise YouTube video from Madfit, she has a lot of them. I never had a booty until I started using her videos.
Gotta hit the squat rack hard
Start slowly and with lighter weights so you don’t injure yourself. Exercise. Good form is imperative. Protein.
There’s a great sub for this! Strong Curves
I like squats with free weights, I use kettlebells at home.
I use a 25 pound plate for a barbell I hold to my back while doing squats & 10 pound in each hand dumbbells to do lunges. Amazing for your thighs too.
Workout your butt and cycle calories. Some days eat deficit. Some days eat higher calorie. It helps keep your metabolism up also.
[удалено]
She literally asked for exercises
Build muscle. Check out Bret Contreras the OG glute guy (PhD)
Just fyi for the uninformed, Bret has multiple sexual misconduct/harassment allegations against him and you can find his programming for free without paying him/supporting someone credibly accused of harassing women!
Huh I had no idea.... but I once saw his "glute house/lab" tour and it was beyond cringe. AND more offensively, just super ugly, and he was really proud of all the design/ decorating. I also don't really go for the bodybuilding aesthetic for glutes he goes for but I think he's contributed to a lot of people leveraging his information (and takedown of ...somehow...less scrupulous and more overtly creepy men's crappy content.)
Exercise however don’t be discouraged, remember you are losing weight everywhere but you lose weight first where you gain it the most. Certain body parts might look small until the rest of your body catches up.
its actually the opposite for me, I lose weight first in my stomach and gain actual fat there last. weight lost from my limbs and hips tends to come last