I have a bad case of Flat Butt from running

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Do any of you suffer from this? In the past few months, I've lost about 16 lbs and I have 10 lbs to go. I've been taking my measurements every week. I get a half inch here and there all over...but my hips, ALLLL the inches! I am becoming a rectangle. I no longer fill out my shorts. I do my weighted lunges, one legged squats with weight, jump squats.... but, as I'm in weight loss mode, not muscle build mode, I just....don't have a butt anymore.

I'm still relatively new to training - only started running in April, when I had a nice round voluptuous bum.

I'm not complaining here. I love the weight loss and I especially love how much my performance improves with every pound gone.

I guess this is just a eulogy for what was once a great *kitten*-et.

RIP.

Replies

  • TriLifter
    TriLifter Posts: 1,283 Member
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    I've got plenty of butt, but it's mostly muscle, so it's not going anywhere. Just keep up the squats and lunges. Most importantly, though, embrace your shape! We're all different and tht's part of what makes us all beautiful!
  • eaglefish
    eaglefish Posts: 130 Member
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    The running will make you lean all over.. RIP KM's butt..
  • PeteWhoLikesToRunAlot
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    Pics of this alleged 'once a great *kitten*-et' please, let the masses decide :)

    My legs have dropped a bunch of inches. Not that I'm complaining, they were like fat little tree stumps previously. Embrace the side effect I suppose, it's a sign you're a badass runner.
  • KathleenMurry
    KathleenMurry Posts: 448 Member
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    Pics of this alleged 'once a great *kitten*-et' please, let the masses decide :)

    My legs have dropped a bunch of inches. Not that I'm complaining, they were like fat little tree stumps previously. Embrace the side effect I suppose, it's a sign you're a badass runner.

    I would LOVE to lose more inches off my legs. I'm down one inch on my thighs, 1 1/2 inches on one calf and 1/2 inch on the other calf. For some reason, my right calf just wants to stay extra huge in proportion to the rest of my body. My legs are pure muscle though from a long history of goaltending rep hockey and riding horses. All the fat that I still have left is just on my already flat butt. It's just going to get smaller!
  • thepetiterunner
    thepetiterunner Posts: 1,238 Member
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    I can't say if my own "*kitten*-ets" have gotten flatter, but I have lost inches all over. Might just be where your body was storing that extra weight.
  • plateaued
    plateaued Posts: 199 Member
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    Get smaller shorts :)
  • sevsmom
    sevsmom Posts: 1,172 Member
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    Bummer. My booty looks light years better. My "girls" on the other hand. ....all that running & weight loss took away all their volume. :-( Thankfully, shapewear saves the day!!
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
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    icon_worthless.gif
  • PeteWhoLikesToRunAlot
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    Stand by, I gotta get my daisy dukes on.
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
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    Stand by, I gotta get my daisy dukes on.

    I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-NrPOMBKnw
  • emAZn
    emAZn Posts: 413 Member
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    My poor saggy bottom used to be the "apple" of my boyfriend's eye.. Now we just longingly watch brazilian butt lift infomercials and wonder if they work ;)
  • WhataBroad
    WhataBroad Posts: 1,091 Member
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    ya, mine's flatten out quite a bit too. heavy lifting squats and deadlifts are going to change that for me =)
  • trail_rnr
    trail_rnr Posts: 337 Member
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    A friend of mine calls it no-butt-itis. I am a sufferer. I do some squats and glute work but it seems kind of pointless; I am pretty strong, but there isn't much volume there. Once the blubber went away (I lost most of my weight about 3 years ago), this is what I was left with :-)

    What I lack in butt I make up in calves. My calves are disproportionate; I cannot wear all of those cute boots (although last year I did find a pair of "wide calf" that I can zip over the monsters, just barely). I had to have my ski boots altered so my calves would fit in them. It's ridiculous.
  • WebbyShoo
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    I used to suffer from "Pancake *kitten*" about 4 years ago when I was chronically under eating and getting back into higher volume running again. My genetics from my mom never did me any favours that way, I got the long lanky genes, but I've defied them, even with my love for endurance training.

    The only way to prevent it is to eat more and retain/grow the muscle (heavy weight training, split squats, bulgarian split squats, deadlifts, bent legged deadlifts, reverse lunges, glute thrusters). Running is quad dominant. So you do not do quad dominant exercises if you want to make your thighs more proportionate to your glutes, avoid front lunges, side lunges and narrow squats. Do your squats wide and deep to activate the glutes. Deadlift to strengthen the hammies and pull up the glute tie ins.

    You also need to retain a healthy level of body fat to have a full shapely *kitten* as a woman (I've found my happy place to keep a full bum while running is about 16-18% but that's individual, any lower and I still get pancake *kitten* no matter how much muscle I retain, no fat to plump up under the skin!). So the only way to prevent this is by not getting too lean (you can still be athletically lean and have a great *kitten*), try to slow down your fat loss, you're probably losing more muscle at a higher ratio than fat in your attempts to lose fat, (us women have that hormonal disadvantage) which is no good... lean mass is wonderful and very hard to build/maintain (especially for runners) not to mention females. :)

    My motto is, you cannot retain/gain what you do not train, so you have to weight train effectively to prevent further muscle loss, weight training is anabolic, running catabolic, find a balance in your training and keep it full and not saggy. ;)
  • GiddyupTim
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
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    I can only commiserate, KM. I am sorry.
    I know that, for men, at some point you just lose your butt. Maybe it is 40, 45, 50? I don't know. But I know it goes, and there is not a darn thing you can do about it.
  • KathleenMurry
    KathleenMurry Posts: 448 Member
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    Oh I know how I could have kept my butt - heavy squats and deadlifts and eating more but i don't want to compromise my speed. A nice round, plump bum is not a fast bum. I doubt I'm losing much muscle mass. I eat my calories back and with about 2 hours training a day, I'm only losing 0.5-0.75 lbs a week. My body fat has been going down consistently and is now 17% (give or take a couple, I don't trust any method to be accurate). Few more lbs to go and I'm ready for my races in November :)
  • WebbyShoo
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    Good luck to you on your upcoming races! I have a half marathon coming up in October and I usually try to drop a few lbs of fat prior to races, but I rarely maintain those losses out of healths sake. I've found difficulty maintaining muscle this year with the volume increases even though I am eating a boat load of food (once you're under 20% as a female the rate of muscle loss>fat is a higher ratio, running makes that even more so) it's just part of the bodies natural survival mechanism unless you're on PEDs/steroids.

    Then again I'm just used to being more muscular so I think it's more noticeable to me. I decided this year I had to lose some of my hard gained muscle as a sacrifice to get lighter/faster. I stopped trying to lose at 134 (even though I wanted to hit 130) because the upper body striations were kind of worrisome. So now I'm trying not to look at scale weight and just focus on removing the jiggly bits but still looking/feeling healthy. ;) LOL. Dem jiggly bits.
  • txguard61
    txguard61 Posts: 51 Member
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    You gots to keep "some" jiggle in that wiggle :-))
  • runs4zen
    runs4zen Posts: 769 Member
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    You gots to keep "some" jiggle in that wiggle :-))

    :huh:

    :laugh: :drinker: