While you might think losing weight is as easy as eating well and exercising often, the reality is that you’re not going to always get the results you want.
In fact, you might get the complete opposite results. Nothing is quite as disheartening as gaining weight in certain areas of your body.
Sometimes, it’s an unavoidable inevitability that you have to come to terms with.
Other times, you might be doing something slightly wrong in your diet or exercise routine that means you’re bulking up in your lower body.
So, if you’re wondering “why am I gaining weight in thighs and buttocks?”, you’ve come to the right place.
Here are the reasons why you’re gaining weight in your thighs and buttocks!
Women Gain Lower Body Weight
As if women don’t go through enough as it is with their bodies, they are also more prone to gaining lower body weight in their thighs and buttocks than men.
While men tend to store excess weight in their torsos, women gain weight in the areas surrounding the pelvis, including the thighs and buttocks.
The main reason for this is because of hormones.
Fat stores around the pelvic area to prepare the woman for childbirth, even if the individual isn’t planning on having a child.
This typically begins during the first stage of puberty in the teen years, but continues in the early 20s in the second wave of puberty.
It’s not just the thighs and buttocks that store fat to prepare for childbirth – women will also gain fat in their breasts to support a child for breastfeeding.
Unfortunately, even if you’re a woman who doesn’t want a child, your body will still naturally prepare itself for supporting a fetus and the inevitable pregnancy.
Another unfortunate fact about women is that they gain more weight than men because of these hormones, and at a faster rate, too.
On average, a 25-year-old woman will have around double the amount of body fat as a man of the same age.
You Have Simply Gained Weight
Whether you’re a female or male, you can still gain weight in your thighs and buttocks because you have simply put on a few pounds.
Humans naturally store calories and fat in the lower part of their bodies as a form of energy, so if you find that your thighs and buttocks look bigger than usual, it might be because you’re eating more calories than you burn.
A stationary lifestyle is also the culprit for this.
With the rise of office and working from home jobs, we spend a lot of time sitting down, which reduces the number of calories we burn.
If you think this might be the reason why you’ve gained weight in your thighs and buttocks, you might want to look into exercising more regularly.
Alternatively, if you’re a young person, you might simply be going through puberty!
Puberty can last anywhere from 2-5 years, but you will continue to grow throughout your early adult life.
Chances are, your hormones are simply changing as you age, which is totally normal and healthy.
You Don’t Have A Stable Diet
Yo-yoing between healthy eating and consuming excessive amounts of processed foods can be responsible for gaining weight in your thighs and buttocks.
Losing weight means that you lose muscle mass too, so when you put that weight back on, you’re not actually building up that muscle – unless you’re weight training alongside this weight gain.
As a result, you’re left with a higher body fat percentage than before. This is why it’s important to stick to a stable diet rather than changing it often.
Likewise, eating processed foods and refined carbohydrates is responsible for weight gain in your lower body.
Sugary foods, including beverages, lead to stubborn fat, which can be really difficult to burn.
You’re Under Chronic Stress
As if chronic stress isn’t horrible enough, it can also lead to weight gain in your lower body.
This is because you release a hormone called cortisol when you are stressed, which works to prepare the body for a flight or fight response.
Unfortunately, chronic stress can lead to an overexertion of this hormone. Too much cortisol builds up in the blood and results in the formation of belly fat.
This fat can remain here, or move further down to the hips, thighs, and buttocks.
This is why it’s so important to manage your stress and mental wellbeing, because you don’t want your weight gain to add to the stress!
You’re Going Through Menopause
Just when you think women go through enough with puberty, menstruation, and their bodies preparing for childbirth, they’ve also got menopause to tackle.
You guessed it – menopause can also be the cause of weight gain in the thighs and buttocks.
The reason for this is because of the drop in estrogen levels, which then works to redistribute the fat that once surrounded your pelvic area to support childbirth.
The fat is most typically redistributed to the lower belly, but can also move downwards to the thighs and buttocks.
So, if you are an older woman going through perimenopause or menopause, then your weight gain might be a result of the drop in estrogen levels.
However, this also depends on your genetics, because not all women will experience this.
How To Lose Weight In Thighs And Buttocks?
If you want to try losing the weight in your thighs and buttocks, here are our top tips.
Eat a balanced diet – Cut out processed foods and refined carbs.
Commit to cardio – Cardio is a great way to lose weight all over the body.
Focus on lower-body exercises – Target the areas with resistance training, such as lunges, squats, wall-sits, step-ups, thigh lifts, and more.
Keep in mind that when you commit to strength training exercises, such as squats and lunges, you will build muscle alongside losing fat.
Conclusion
So, there you have it!
There are several reasons why you might have gained weight in your thighs and buttocks, but in most cases, it’s totally normal and healthy.
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