Building your booty is a big attention grabber these days.  The past decade has been the decade of the booty.   Build your butt, shape your glutes, grow a peach, and loads of other backside promotion headlines have been topping female fitness marketing.   It makes sense when you think about it.  The most popular female celebrities have been bringing curves back in a big way.  J-Lo, Pink, Kim Kardashian, Amber Rose, and plus-size models are all flaunting their curves while still sporting a healthy and fit look.  Let’s just say us guys aren’t complaining at all.

Of course with the booty craze comes a ton of information from a variety of sources on how females should train to grow their butt and get fit.  Unfortunately, as is always the case, there’s a mix of quality and crappy information out there.  It’s easy to get mislead to believe some of the crap out there.   This article is here to help you cut through all the noise and figure out exactly what it takes to grow your butt, feel comfortable with your body and enjoy your health and fitness plan so that you can continue to make progress.

BOOTY BUILDING RULE #1: Stop Comparing
This is easily one of the hardest parts of life in general these days.  We compare ourselves and our accomplishments to all the “perfect” people we see on social media.  Women with small waists, toned arms and a nice big butt are in your face telling you how “easy” it is to grow a butt with a few simple band workouts and some jump squats.   You follow their plans and expect to see your body transform into a curvalicious hottie, but when things don’t seem to be happening or your results aren’t identical to them you begin to question your self-worth.  Let me be the first to tell you – STOP.  Comparison is the thief of joy.  You’ll drive yourself insane if you constantly compare your body and booty to others.
Here’s the real truth.  Genetics are a BIG deal.   We are all born with unique bodies and different physical traits.  Nobody talks about how genetics can play a massive factor into your progress and how your body looks.  You can’t train and eat like someone else and expect to look exactly like them.  Not happening.  Instead, embrace your individual strengths and weaknesses.  Work on the things you are weak at and continue to utilize your strengths.  Quit the comparison game.   It’s a road to nowhere.  Admiring others is great, but feeling inadequate because you don’t look like them is a big mistake.
Commit to eliminating the constant comparison and you’ll be starting off on the right foot.  We are all guilty of falling back into a social media hole of wondering why we haven’t reached certain levels, but just remember this rule and be diligent with checking in with yourself to make sure you aren’t robbing yourself of positive vibes.

BOOTY RULE #2 :  STOP Starving!
To build your butt it’s going to take a well put together weight training routine coupled with sufficient food to give your body a chance to grow new tissue (butt) and possible (GASP!) store some fat.   Now before you hit the panic button and stop reading, hear me out on this one.  Most of the diets that you see advertised are meant to help you lose fat.  They aren’t built to help you grow new butt muscles.
If you want that curvy body that looks fit and sexy you’re going to have to eat sufficient calories to support the changes that need to take place.   This doesn’t mean you’ll be stuffing your face and pigging out, but it does mean you should toss your lettuce and air diet out the window.  Going super low calorie and starving your body is the exact opposite approach you should be taking with your butt building plan.
When it comes to calories you’ll want to hover around the amount needed to maintain your weight or even slightly above that number.  An occasional “fat loss” period can help keep your bodyfat levels in check, but fueling your body with sufficient food is extremely important.  Calorie needs will vary based off genetics (shocker), daily activity in your job/life, training plans and your height, weight, and age.  Don’t worry I’m going to give you a simple way of figuring out a good place to start with calories.
This is not an exact scientific formula, but based off training hundreds of women over the years it will get you close to where you need to be.  If you gain weight easily take your weight and multiply it by 12.  If you don’t gain or lose weight easily multiply it by 13.  If you lose weight fast multiply it by 14.  This will give you an excellent starting point for building your booty, body and improving your curves.
hould You Count Calories?

Let’s stop here for a second and discuss counting calories vs. not counting calories.  You don’t have to count calories.  Will counting calories help you be more accurate?  Yes of course.  Will it drive you crazy?  Maybe…maybe not.   Being able to track your food is a good skill to learn.  It helps you increase your awareness of what’s in the foods you’re eating so that you can make better eating decisions.   My belief is that, when you gave goals, it pays to at least spend some time tracking your food.
Food starts with calories, but it doesn’t end there.  The type of calories you’re eating is arguably just as (if not more) important.  Let’s say you need to be eating around 1500 calories per day to achieve your booty and body goals.  Imagine for a second eating all 1500 calories from rice, fruit and bread.  That would mean 100% of your calories (roughly) are coming from carbohydrates.   Yes you’d be nailing your calorie goals, but you wouldn’t be getting the right amount of nutrients your body needs.  That would be liking throwing on random clothes in the dark and going to an important event.  Yes you’d be dressed, but you wouldn’t be dressed appropriately.

Calories should be coming from three nutrients:  protein, carbs, and fats.  All three are important.  Anyone who tells you that you should completely eliminate any of those nutrients is absolutely trying to sell you a scam.  Run as fast as you can in the other direction.   The amount of each will, once again, vary from person to person but let me help you find a simple starting point for each nutrient.
Just as a side note here, if I were you I’d take 30 seconds to download the My Fitness Pal app on your phone.  It’s a free food tracking app that will make this tracking thing so simple and easy.  Do it and thank me later.

Now that you know your calorie totals – let’s map out your protein, carb and fat goals.
Protein, Carbs and Fat Goals

All food labels measure nutrients in grams so I’ll give you some simple protein, fats and carb goals in grams based on your total calories.  Let’s take a female who weighs 130 lbs and doesn’t gain or lose weight that easily.  Her starting calories would be around 1600-1700.  This might seem high, but that’s why we test things and adjust as needed.   Starting with protein we would aim for about .7g per pound of bodyweight.  This comes to 90g of protein.  Protein contains 4 calories per gram.  For this example, she’d be eating 360 calories from protein.    That leaves us with around 1300 calories to play with for fats and carbs.

To keep things really simple, take 1300 and divide in half.  Half of those remaining calories goes to fats and half goes to carbs.   650 each is a solid place to start.  Carbs contain 4 calories per gram so she’d be aiming for about 160g of carbs.  Fats are almost double the amount of calories per gram at 9 calories per gram.   That gives her 72g of fat per day.

Let’s recap this example.  Our booty building project for this female who weighs 130 and doesn’t gain or lose weight easily starts with 1600-1700 calories.  She’d be aiming for 90g of protein per day along with 160g of carbs and 72g of fat.  That would be her daily goal to start.  She would track her food and hit these targets (or at least close) for a couple weeks and monitor how she feels, performs, looks and sleeps with that level of food intake.

As far as the number of meals you should be eating goes, that number is truly up to you.  Some people prefer 4-5 small meals throughout the day.  Others like 3 big meals with a snack.  My suggestion is find what works for you.  Most of my clients go for 3-4 meals and maybe a small snack.  That seems to be the most lifestyle friendly schedule for most.  As long as your calories and nutrient goals are met – you can add or take away a meal as needed.

Adjustments would of course need to be made at some point.  However, as you’re testing out your calorie levels, I’d suggest avoiding big changes.  Taking away a little bit of food or adding a little bit of food at a time is the best bet.  We will cover adjustments later in this article.

BOOTY RULE #3: Weight Training is BAE
Take a stroll through Instagram and you’ll see quite a few “booty builder” exercises.  Most of these women truly mean well with their advice and exercise videos, but most of the time they’re way off with what they’re recommending.  Let’s talk about why that is.

Remember when I mentioned genetics?  A lot of the curvy IG models you see were blessed with a body that responds very well to all types of training.  Doing things like squat jumps, side lunges with bands on your knees and other activities might look like its building their butt, but unfortunately that doesn’t work for most women with booty-building problems.

Butt building is best done through good ol’ fashion weight lifting.  Yes, this means you’re going to have to step out of your comfort zone and learn how to train with weights.   I know it might be scary and often times annoying to venture into “meathead” land but it’s very necessary when it comes to building your butt and body.  Training with weights places a stress on the body that requires the body to build new tissue to support your training efforts.  Building a big ol’ butt comes from the response your body gives when you’re putting your glutes through some serious resistance training (with weights).

The truth is most shy away from weight training because it’s not easy.  It’s much easier to do some fun jumps and lunges and call it a day.  Those exercises do have their place, but only when they’re a part of a solid resistance training program.

Now here’s the good news…I have a booty building guide that maps out a solid butt-building routine for you.  It’s called my TRUE BOOTY program and I’m giving it to you for free.

If you don’t want to download the free book (not sure why you wouldn’t) I’ll give you the cliff notes here:
-Strength training isn’t just for guys. Building strength and learning to properly utilize your muscles in your butt, arms, back, etc. will help those areas develop  and grow much faster.  This doesn’t mean you’re going to look like a man.  In fact, female bone structure and ability to build muscle is much different than a man.  Hormones such as testosterone and estrogen play a huge role in the body’s ability to gain significant muscle.  Think about how many men you see walking around with tremendous muscular development.   Even if you go to a gym you won’t see loads and loads of men with tons of muscle.  What makes you think it’s so easy for females to build muscle?

-Squats are important for butt and leg growth, but only if done properly and with proper activation of the butt muscles. Squats are not the only glute building exercise either, sure they help, but combined with hip thrust variations, lunges, step ups and stiff leg deadlifts they are much more effective.  Your squat form and genetic body structure are very important when it comes to the effectiveness of squats for building your butt.

-High reps are NOT the best way to build your butt. In fact, all versions of reps should be utilized to build your body.  Low reps can help build strength which will help you lift more weight for higher reps.  Your standard “20 reps for everything” routine is just one phase of training styles that you can use.  Think about most routines you see as one ingredient in an entire recipe.  Most workouts are just a fraction of an overall program that should be followed.

-Exercise bands and leg bands, if used properly, are a strong tool in the overall toolbox when it comes to training. They shouldn’t be relied upon for every workout.  Plus, they aren’t a replacement for good ol’ fashioned free-weights done with proper form.

-Cardio can be a booty killer. Doing hours of jogging on the treadmill or elliptical is a booty-shrinking disaster.  Instead focus on weights first.  Then, if you enjoy cardio, stay active during the day by enjoying things like walking, hiking, and just being an active person.   An occasional higher-intensity cardio workout (1-3x per week) is fine, just be mindful of your recovery ability and how your body feels after workouts.

-My secret weapon for booty growth is doing “touch-up” workouts on days you aren’t in the gym. Simply doing some body weight squats or exercise band deadlifts to “feel” the muscle working can help with both recovery and development.  This doesn’t just apply to the butt.  This can be used for any body part that you want to “tone” or improve.

BOOTY RULE #4: Don’t Program Hop!
It’s so easy to hop on Facebook and see someone you know hyping up a new workout or diet plan.  Here’s the issue with that.  Your brain will get all tingly and you’ll want to try their program on for size, especially if you just started yours and haven’t seen major results yet.   It’s tempting, but don’t fall for that trap.  Stick with your program and be consistent.  Only after a good chunk of consistency should you think about trying something else (and if you’re getting tons of results, why would do that?).
How do you know if your program is working?  Well there are a few factors.  The first factor is how your clothes are fitting.  Do they seem tighter in all the right places?  That’s a good sign for sure.
Progress pictures are very helpful as well.  Take them every 2-3 weeks.  Notice the changes (even if they are small changes).  If you can visually see progress then you’re on the right track.

Stay away from the scale.  I know you want to weigh a certain amount.  Think about this scenario for a second.  What if you woke up one day with the body of your dreams?  You went to the doctor and your health was in perfect condition.  Your energy was amazing and you felt sexier than ever.  Then you jumped on the scale and your weight was double the day before.  What would you do?  You’d be shocked for sure, but you wouldn’t care because the important things were happening!  You look good, feel great and your health is perfect.

You might be used to checking the scale every day.  Let me encourage you to quit that cold turkey.  Instead, monitor how you feel energy wise.  Are you workouts going well?  Are you feeling excited to eat better?  Are you staying active?  Drinking enough water?   FORGET the scale.  Throw it out.  It honestly doesn’t really do much for your psychological health.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Building your body takes time.  A booty and body that you’ll be proud of will take effort, but I want to encourage you to focus on what’s important:

– Feel the muscles working.  You’ll need to develop a mind-muscle connection that allows you to actually feel your muscles working, contracting, and firing while you lift weights.
-Don’t be afraid to get stronger – over time you’ll need to get stronger to build your booty.
-Eat to support your goals – do NOT starve yourself
-Train your butt frequently (just not crazy intense every time)
-Stop comparing your results to others. You don’t know their struggles or their strengths.
-Enjoy the process!
-Take progress pics
-Appreciate and love your bodyFollow these guidelines and you’ll be a booty building pro in no time!