This article was co-authored by Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPT. Melody Sayers is a Registered Dietitian and NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) Certified Personal Trainer. She is the owner of Elevate Your Plate®, a private nutrition counseling and personal training practice, focused on an evidence-based, individualized, realistic, and results-driven approach to improving one's health. With over 8 years of experience, Melody has worked in both the private and public health sectors, helping both individuals and communities achieve milestones in managing their weight and preventing disease. She currently holds a Certificate in Adult Weight Management and a Master of Science in Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Science from the California State University - Northridge.
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Worried you're carrying too much weight in your posterior? A big butt can make it hard to shop for clothing and it may feel like your most defining, distracting feature. Spot reduction of an area is not possible, but you can strengthen the muscles in your butt to give it a more toned appearance. Diet can also play a role in the size of your butt. Through toning exercises or dieting, you'll a smaller butt in no time.
Steps
Using Exercise
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1Work your glutes. Strength-training exercises are ultimately the best way to shrink your butt. Muscle takes up less physical space than fat so toning your butt (turning the fat into muscle) will lift it and make it smaller. Carrying more muscle will also increase your overall metabolism and bring your whole body into proportion.
- Dead lifts are great exercises for your glutes. But when doing a deadlift, be sure to emphasize form over weight. Make sure to keep your spine in a neutral position and aligned with your head and shoulders, engage your core throughout the deadlift, and rest your weight on your heels.[1]
- Add squats into your routine. This exercise primarily targets your thighs and butt but also works your hamstrings and lower back. Make sure to warm up beforehand.
- Lunges are another fantastic exercise for your butt.[2] There are several different varieties (side, reverse, etc.), so constantly change what variety you do.
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2Get into cardio.Since fat is the culprit to a big butt, cardio is the quickest answer to blasting it away. Running, swimming, boxing, or cycling will burn the most calories.[3] And fewer calories equals a smaller butt.
- In addition to straight-up cardio, try interval training--it burns even more calories than its one-paced counterpart.[4] Exercise full out for 30 seconds and rest for a couple of minutes. Repeat 8-10 times. Your metabolism will get upped in minutes and stay up. And the best part? The hard part of your workout is done in 15 minutes.
- Find cardio exercises and routines that you enjoy doing and will stay motivated to do. You might like running or doing HIIT routines in your home, or you might enjoy something else. The best cardio exercise is the one that you enjoy doing.[5]
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3Begin circuit training. If regular strength training is getting a bit boring, mix it up with circuit training. While you can do cardio every day, keep the strength training to 30 minutes, 3 days a week. Alternate between a new glute-toning exercise and high-intensity cardio activity for your entire workout session.[6]
- Circuit training is about combinations. If you don't have access to a number of weights or machines, jog with weights in intervals of a minute or two. Otherwise add weights into your cardio exercises. You'll be killing two birds with one dumbbell.
Dieting
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1Cut calories. Fewer calories in equals more calories lost. More calories lost equals a smaller everything--including your bottom. Cutting calories with exercise may not be enough; you have to monitor your eating habits, too.
- 1 pound is 3,500 calories. If losing 10 lbs is your first goal, cutting 500 calories a day will equal the loss of 1 lb per week, 10 weeks in total. But don't forget: Exercise cuts out calories, too.
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2Eat the right carbs and fats. So often carbs and fats are made into villains. However, there are good carbs and good fats that are very important to your diet; they give your body energy, maintain your metabolism and help your digestive system absorb vitamins.[7]
- Avocados, olives, nuts, olive oil and salmon all have good unsaturated fats that will keep you satiated, which will keep you from overeating later.
- Whole-grain and whole-wheat breads, cereals and pasta, oatmeal, couscous, quinoa, and brown rice are good carbs that provide fiber, energy, and keep your insulin levels normal.
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3Get a healthy amount of dairy and protein. Both of these food groups help you build muscle and are full of nutrition. Dairy and protein will also make it easier to get through your workouts.
- Eggs, turkey, chicken, fish, low-fat yogurts, milk, cheeses, and cottage cheese are all good options. If you opt for red meat, make sure it's lean.
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4Cut out empty calories. To cut calories, you're going to have to eliminate the bad fats and empty calories. That means no junk food and no sugary drinks. Cutting out empty calories means your body doesn't get full and stores the calories in with your fat cells.
- Load up on the fruit and vegetables. They are low-calorie but still dense, providing you nutrition, few calories, energy, and leaving you fuller longer.
- Drink water. Two cups before every meal will satisfy you, hydrate you, and keep weight off.[8] You'll also have less time to consume those sugary, high-calorie drinks that do nothing for your body's nutrition.
Expert Q&A
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QuestionHow long will it take to trim a healthy butt?
Michele DolanMichele Dolan is a BCRPA certified Personal Trainer in British Columbia. She has been a personal trainer and fitness instructor since 2002.
Certified Fitness TrainerExercise combined with a good diet can change your rear view in 2-3 months. If that seems like a long time, consider how long it took you to get a big butt. -
QuestionI would like to know how many sets to do to lose the weight in my thighs and butt.Michele DolanMichele Dolan is a BCRPA certified Personal Trainer in British Columbia. She has been a personal trainer and fitness instructor since 2002.
Certified Fitness TrainerStart with 3 sets of 12-15 reps. If you want to build more muscle, then after 3-4 weeks, increase the weight, and perform 3-5 sets of 8-10 reps. If you want to keep the toning but not build muscle size, increase the reps. As long as your joints feel fine, you can do as many reps as you want. -
QuestionWhat are common mistakes people make when doing deadlifts?
Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPTMelody Sayers is a Registered Dietitian and NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) Certified Personal Trainer. She is the owner of Elevate Your Plate®, a private nutrition counseling and personal training practice, focused on an evidence-based, individualized, realistic, and results-driven approach to improving one's health. With over 8 years of experience, Melody has worked in both the private and public health sectors, helping both individuals and communities achieve milestones in managing their weight and preventing disease. She currently holds a Certificate in Adult Weight Management and a Master of Science in Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Science from the California State University - Northridge.
Registered Dietician & Personal TrainerThe biggest mistake with a deadlift is confusing it with a squat. While a deadlift is a similar movement to a squat in which you sit your butt back and stay heavy in the heels. A deadlift is a hinging movement where you create a neutral spine that is parallel with the ground, and is not a squatting movement where you keep your chest up. The biggest mistakes I see with deadlifts are: people who lock out their knees, people who do not create a neutral spine with their head, shoulders, and back in alignment, meaning they look down or look up, people who arch their back and do not engage their core, and people who do not keep the weight heavy in their heels and lean forward.
Warnings
- Study healthy nutrition for help in achieving your goals. Avoid fad diets and unproven supplements. You may see results initially, but they'll go away quickly and ultimately do harm to your body.⧼thumbs_response⧽
References
- ↑ Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPT. Registered Dietician & Personal Trainer. Expert Interview. 6 May 2020.
- ↑ Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPT. Registered Dietician & Personal Trainer. Expert Interview. 6 May 2020.
- ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042001772.html
- ↑ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23210120
- ↑ Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPT. Registered Dietician & Personal Trainer. Expert Interview. 6 May 2020.
- ↑ http://healthyliving.azcentral.com/smaller-butt-gym-10163.html
- ↑ Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPT. Registered Dietician & Personal Trainer. Expert Interview. 6 May 2020.
- ↑ http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/23/drink.water.lose.weight/index.html
- Videos provided by BeFiT
About This Article
If you want to shrink your butt, exercise your glutes with dead lifts, squats, and lunges so that it looks smaller and more toned. Since extra fat on your butt makes it look bigger, add more cardio like running or swimming to your workout routine to burn extra calories. Another way to make your butt look smaller is to eat more nutritiously so you can build muscle and lose weight. To do this, eat a healthy amount of dairy and protein like eggs, chicken, low-fat yogurt, and milk. It may be hard, but try to avoid empty calories like junk food and soda since those will just get stored in your body as fat. Instead, opt for healthy alternatives like fruit, vegetables, and water. For more advice from our Fitness co-author, including how to cut calories to make your butt smaller, read on!
