How to Lose Butt Fat: Expert Advice

Tips for slimming down your bum, with and without exercise

Co-authored by Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPT and Hannah Madden

Last Updated: February 23, 2023 References Approved

Best Exercises to Shrink Your Butt

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Dieting to Lose Weight

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Video

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Expert Q&A

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Tips

Worried you're carrying too much weight in your posterior? Targeting the weight in your butt is a common fitness goal for a lot of us. Fortunately, that means there are a lot of exercise and diet tips you can use to slim down, especially in your glutes. Keep reading for a comprehensive list of tips to shrink your derriere and meet your weight loss goals.

Things You Should Know

Do glute exercises, like deadlifts and squats, to target your butt while exercising.
Try cardio workouts, like swimming, running, and cycling, to lose weight.
Eat a healthy, balanced diet and avoid junk food to lose weight over time.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Best Exercises to Shrink Your Butt

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Work 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 metabolism and bring your whole body into proportion.^{[1]
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- Doing dead lifts is a great exercise for your glutes. When doing a deadlift, emphasize form over weight. 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.^{[2]
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  Expert Source
  
  Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPT
  Registered Dietician & Personal Trainer
  Expert Interview. 6 May 2020.}
- Add squats into your routine. With your legs hip-width apart, slowly bend your knees, engaging your glutes as you go. Bend down as far as you can with your back straight, then stand back up to complete 1 squat.
- Doing lunges is another fantastic exercise for your butt.^{[3]
  X
  Expert Source
  
  Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPT
  Registered Dietician & Personal Trainer
  Expert Interview. 6 May 2020.} With one leg in front and one leg behind you, slowly bend your front knee until it’s at a 90-degree angle to the floor. Then, stand back up to complete 1 lunge.
- Do wall sits to fire up your glutes. With your back against a wall, bend your legs at a 90-degree angle to the floor, like you’re sitting in a chair. Hold the position for as long as you can, then stand up.
- Climb stairs to work your glutes. Simply walking up a set of stairs is a great way to target the muscles in your bum. As often as you can, take the stairs instead of an elevator to slim down.
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Get into cardio to lose weight. 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.^{[4]
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Trustworthy Source
PubMed Central
Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
Go to source} Burning calories leads to weight loss, which equals a smaller butt.
- In addition to straight-up cardio, try interval training—it burns even more calories than its one-paced counterpart.^{[5]
  X
  Trustworthy Source
  PubMed Central
  Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
  Go to source} 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 like and will stay motivated to do. You might like running or doing HIIT routines in your home, or you might prefer something else. The best cardio exercise is the one that you enjoy doing.^{[6]
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  Expert Source
  
  Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPT
  Registered Dietician & Personal Trainer
  Expert Interview. 6 May 2020.}
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Begin circuit training to mix up your exercise routine. Pick a high-intensity exercise, like squats, lunges, or climbing stairs. Then, alternate between this glute-toning exercise and a different high-intensity cardio activity every 30 minutes.^{[7]
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- Circuit training is about combinations of using weights and doing cardio. 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 to your cardio exercises. You'll be killing 2 birds with one dumbbell.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Dieting to Lose Weight

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Cut calories. The fewer calories you eat, the easier it is to lose weight. More calories lost equals a smaller everything—including your bottom. Cutting calories with exercise may not be enough, so adjust your eating habits, too.^{[8]
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Mayo Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals
Go to source}
- 1 pound (0.45 kg) is 3,500 calories. If losing 10 lbs (4.5 kg) is your first goal, cutting 500 calories a day will equal the loss of 1 lb (0.45 kg) per week, 10 weeks in total. But don't forget: exercise burns calories, too.
- Focusing on your diet is the best way to get a smaller butt without exercising.
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Eat 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.^{[9]
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Expert Source

Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPT
Registered Dietician & Personal Trainer
Expert Interview. 6 May 2020.} Try to eat around 50 grams of carbs per day to lose weight.
- 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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Get 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.^{[10]
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- In general, try to eat around 3 cups (360 g) of dairy and 1/2 cup (60 g) of protein per day.
- Eggs, turkey, chicken, fish, low-fat yogurts, milk, cheeses, and cottage cheese are all good options. If you opt for red meat, choose lean options.
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Cut out empty calories and junk food. To cut calories, eliminate the bad fats and empty calories. That means no junk food and no sugary drinks. Eliminating empty calories will help your body tack on muscles instead of fat.^{[11]
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- 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 to lose weight, too. Drinking 2 cups (250 mL) before every meal will satisfy you, hydrate you, and keep weight off.^{[12]
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  Trustworthy Source
  PubMed Central
  Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
  Go to source}
- Cutting out junk food is great, but don’t worry if you slip up every now and then. Having a small treat after a big exercise session is much better than not exercising at all.

Expert Q&A

Question

How long will it take to trim a healthy butt?

Michele Dolan
Certified Fitness Trainer
Michele Dolan is a BCRPA certified Personal Trainer in British Columbia. She has been a personal trainer and fitness instructor since 2002.

Michele Dolan

Certified Fitness Trainer

Expert Answer

Exercise 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.
Question

I would like to know how many sets to do to lose the weight in my thighs and butt.

Michele Dolan
Certified Fitness Trainer
Michele Dolan is a BCRPA certified Personal Trainer in British Columbia. She has been a personal trainer and fitness instructor since 2002.

Michele Dolan

Certified Fitness Trainer

Expert Answer

Start 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.
Question

What are common mistakes people make when doing deadlifts?

Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPT
Registered Dietician & Personal Trainer
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.

Melody Sayers, MS, RD, NASM-CPT

Registered Dietician & Personal Trainer

Expert Answer

The 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.