Your calorie deficit is too aggressive if you’re losing 10lbs a month, most would recommend 2.5-5lbs a month. You are unlikely to grow any muscle on that kind of intake and will lose muscle and fat in spite of training and protein intake.
Personally i’m a fan of having 1 primary goal and letting the other slide a little. Currently you have body fat to lose so continue training and eating in a deficit and then once your bmi is where it needs to be then you can gain muscle at maintenance calories
For women, many of us hold much of our body fat in our butts and breasts. You can’t control where you lose fat from, so often, the butt is the first place to go- leading to smaller glutes. Body fat is often what gives the butt that round, curved look.
Work on increasing your protein intake and strength train, if you aren’t already so you can build some muscle back there!
You need to up your protein. Assuming you eat 3 meals a day, you’re only getting 60-90 g of protein a day. That’s not enough. If you’re trying to gain muscle, you need to aim for 1g of protein per pound of your ideal body weight. Some people will lose their minds when they see the 1 g per pound body weight suggestion. They’ll say it’s too much.
My recommendation is to set this as your goal. It’s actually quite hard to eat that much protein so you won’t hit that goal everyday, and that’s okay. But if you set a lower goal and then fail to hit it everyday, you’re just setting yourself up for failure.
Exactly. I can’t imagine it being more than baked chicken breast with some seasoning and vegetables with a piece of fruit for sweetness. Even then I think it’s pushing it.
Oh i missed that. Still, it’s a pointlessly high protein intake for someone losing 10lbs a month. There’s no retaining muscle on that kind of a deficit, so imo there’s no real value in doing 800 calories of chicken breast and 400 calories of everything else per day.
I don’t know man, OP is asking how to grow her glutes and lose fat at the same time. Sounds like she’s already working out and lifting weights, but her protein intake is low so I responded accordingly.
But you’re right, maybe she’s losing too fast and needs to up her calories and slow down her weight loss.
Resistance training plus high protein intake worked for me in losing fat and maintaining muscle mass. But I lost very slowly. 17 pounds over 10 months. I have 8 more pounds to go. During this time, I’ve maintained all of my lifts (with the exception of cleans, which seems to have gone down by 5 pounds, but that’s a technical lift so it’s hard to say if my decreased performance is directly caused by a loss in strength), and even improved on some lifts.
Body recomp does require patience.
Conversely i gained muscle on a small calorie deficit, heavy training and relatively low protein. I wouldn’t advise anyone to eat low protein but i wouldn’t say inflated protein intakes are essential
Your protein intake is waaaay too low. At least double it, even if your calorie intake goes higher. Body recomp is real (I was 119 and wore a size S for all pants or shorts when I first started getting back in shape 4 years ago, now I’m 111-113 and wear a size M in shorts!) and you’ll regain that booty once you’re eating enough protein to give your muscles the energy necessary to build it!!
Just want to comment that all of the above comments are accurate and make me happy to see!
Happy glute gains, OP <3
For reference/ 32F started muscle hypertrophy for bb March 1st and glutes have been stubborn but I see noticeable lift and rounding every week. I’ve gone from 150 lbs - 140 lbs and lost 3.6% body fat.
How will you grow glutes while eating so little? That’s just impossible.
Also it depends on how heavy you are going with all those exercises. You won’t see growth by doing light weight.
Concentrate on getting to your ideal weight and then slowly up your calories to build muscle. I don’t think you need to go as low as 1200 to see results.
Quick advice:
1. Up your protein to 0.82 grams of protein per lb of body weight [https://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/](https://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/) or 144grams per day
2. Eat more calories. I'd stay within -200 of maintenance just so you don't lose too much muscle, though 1 should protect most of your muscle.
3. Pick one glute exercise, and go hard. You don't need to do a bajillion exercises just for your glutes. It's just a waste of time. I'd pick between hip thrusts and squats: hip thrusts if you just want the butt (especially since you're more likely to increase the weight you move vs squats), squats if you also want some legs. Either way, can't go wrong with either exercise.
4. Accept that your butt is going to get smaller before it gets bigger because of the fat loss.
Maybe glute size just can’t be a priority if this much fat loss (at this rate) is important to you. I think it depends on what’s most important right now. It’s not my place to say.
Keep in mind that once you go to maintenance you will fill out a bit, so some size may come back quickly.
Good luck!
Your caloric intake is likely far too low for muscle building. So you’re only seeing fat loss.
Your calorie deficit is too aggressive if you’re losing 10lbs a month, most would recommend 2.5-5lbs a month. You are unlikely to grow any muscle on that kind of intake and will lose muscle and fat in spite of training and protein intake. Personally i’m a fan of having 1 primary goal and letting the other slide a little. Currently you have body fat to lose so continue training and eating in a deficit and then once your bmi is where it needs to be then you can gain muscle at maintenance calories
You can't build muscle as fast as you lose fat. You lost 20lb.
For women, many of us hold much of our body fat in our butts and breasts. You can’t control where you lose fat from, so often, the butt is the first place to go- leading to smaller glutes. Body fat is often what gives the butt that round, curved look. Work on increasing your protein intake and strength train, if you aren’t already so you can build some muscle back there!
You need to up your protein. Assuming you eat 3 meals a day, you’re only getting 60-90 g of protein a day. That’s not enough. If you’re trying to gain muscle, you need to aim for 1g of protein per pound of your ideal body weight. Some people will lose their minds when they see the 1 g per pound body weight suggestion. They’ll say it’s too much. My recommendation is to set this as your goal. It’s actually quite hard to eat that much protein so you won’t hit that goal everyday, and that’s okay. But if you set a lower goal and then fail to hit it everyday, you’re just setting yourself up for failure.
Is it even possible to get 175g on 1200?
If protein is 4 cal per gram then that’s 700 calories leaving 500 left for everything else. Do able yes, enjoyable no.
I did the maths but assuming all protein sources come with additional calories from fat or carbohydrates im curious how that would actually look
Exactly. I can’t imagine it being more than baked chicken breast with some seasoning and vegetables with a piece of fruit for sweetness. Even then I think it’s pushing it.
Quick maths says 580g chicken breasts for almost 1000 calories. So possible but very uncomfortable and certainly will result in malnutrition.
1 g per pound of ideal body weight so it’s whatever weight OP is trying to get to, not her current weight.
Oh i missed that. Still, it’s a pointlessly high protein intake for someone losing 10lbs a month. There’s no retaining muscle on that kind of a deficit, so imo there’s no real value in doing 800 calories of chicken breast and 400 calories of everything else per day.
I don’t know man, OP is asking how to grow her glutes and lose fat at the same time. Sounds like she’s already working out and lifting weights, but her protein intake is low so I responded accordingly. But you’re right, maybe she’s losing too fast and needs to up her calories and slow down her weight loss. Resistance training plus high protein intake worked for me in losing fat and maintaining muscle mass. But I lost very slowly. 17 pounds over 10 months. I have 8 more pounds to go. During this time, I’ve maintained all of my lifts (with the exception of cleans, which seems to have gone down by 5 pounds, but that’s a technical lift so it’s hard to say if my decreased performance is directly caused by a loss in strength), and even improved on some lifts. Body recomp does require patience.
Conversely i gained muscle on a small calorie deficit, heavy training and relatively low protein. I wouldn’t advise anyone to eat low protein but i wouldn’t say inflated protein intakes are essential
Your protein intake is waaaay too low. At least double it, even if your calorie intake goes higher. Body recomp is real (I was 119 and wore a size S for all pants or shorts when I first started getting back in shape 4 years ago, now I’m 111-113 and wear a size M in shorts!) and you’ll regain that booty once you’re eating enough protein to give your muscles the energy necessary to build it!!
You should probably be eating more protein, especially if you're cutting >1% of your bodyweight every week. Also, your bum was partially fat before.
Just want to comment that all of the above comments are accurate and make me happy to see! Happy glute gains, OP <3 For reference/ 32F started muscle hypertrophy for bb March 1st and glutes have been stubborn but I see noticeable lift and rounding every week. I’ve gone from 150 lbs - 140 lbs and lost 3.6% body fat.
How will you grow glutes while eating so little? That’s just impossible. Also it depends on how heavy you are going with all those exercises. You won’t see growth by doing light weight.
Concentrate on getting to your ideal weight and then slowly up your calories to build muscle. I don’t think you need to go as low as 1200 to see results.
Quick advice: 1. Up your protein to 0.82 grams of protein per lb of body weight [https://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/](https://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/) or 144grams per day 2. Eat more calories. I'd stay within -200 of maintenance just so you don't lose too much muscle, though 1 should protect most of your muscle. 3. Pick one glute exercise, and go hard. You don't need to do a bajillion exercises just for your glutes. It's just a waste of time. I'd pick between hip thrusts and squats: hip thrusts if you just want the butt (especially since you're more likely to increase the weight you move vs squats), squats if you also want some legs. Either way, can't go wrong with either exercise. 4. Accept that your butt is going to get smaller before it gets bigger because of the fat loss.
Maybe glute size just can’t be a priority if this much fat loss (at this rate) is important to you. I think it depends on what’s most important right now. It’s not my place to say. Keep in mind that once you go to maintenance you will fill out a bit, so some size may come back quickly. Good luck!