Will squats make my thighs bigger?

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  • tonytoo
    tonytoo Posts: 307
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    yup were 19.5in and now 20in

    half an inch is "a lot"???
  • dotknott
    dotknott Posts: 88 Member
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    made mine a lot bigger

    Did you actually take measurements to verify this? Or did they appear bigger for the reasons the OP explained?


    Love this OP! My legs are rocking thanks to squats. My muscles look bigger, but my legs are smaller. I know this because I've measured and I'm down another pant size since starting lifting (depsite not losing much weight).

    yup were 19.5in and now 20in

    .5 is a lot? If my math is right that's 2.5%
  • toomuchbootyindapants
    toomuchbootyindapants Posts: 811 Member
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    made mine a lot bigger

    Did you actually take measurements to verify this? Or did they appear bigger for the reasons the OP explained?


    Love this OP! My legs are rocking thanks to squats. My muscles look bigger, but my legs are smaller. I know this because I've measured and I'm down another pant size since starting lifting (depsite not losing much weight).

    yup were 19.5in and now 20in

    Are you measuring in the exact same spot? That's often a problem when measuring thighs (so much ground to cover!)...even going just a wee bit north can add to your measurement due to the way our legs are shaped. Half an inch isn't much - especially if you have gained some muscle.
    Tell me though - are your legs less jiggly? How's your diet? Squats alone don't make legs bigger...it's always a combination of things. ;)
  • escloflowneCHANGED
    escloflowneCHANGED Posts: 3,038 Member
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    made mine a lot bigger

    Did you actually take measurements to verify this? Or did they appear bigger for the reasons the OP explained?


    Love this OP! My legs are rocking thanks to squats. My muscles look bigger, but my legs are smaller. I know this because I've measured and I'm down another pant size since starting lifting (depsite not losing much weight).

    yup were 19.5in and now 20in

    .5 is a lot? If my math is right that's 2.5%

    That's still in the margin of error too!
  • LoraF83
    LoraF83 Posts: 15,694 Member
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    made mine a lot bigger

    Did you actually take measurements to verify this? Or did they appear bigger for the reasons the OP explained?


    Love this OP! My legs are rocking thanks to squats. My muscles look bigger, but my legs are smaller. I know this because I've measured and I'm down another pant size since starting lifting (depsite not losing much weight).

    yup were 19.5in and now 20in

    .5 is a lot? If my math is right that's 2.5%

    That's still in the margin of error too!

    And when are you measuring? If you're doing it right after you exercise, your muscles are retaining fluid. That could account for the 0.5".
  • toutmonpossible
    toutmonpossible Posts: 1,580 Member
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    Depends on how your body responds to exercise and what you want to look like. Not every woman wants heavily muscled thighs.
  • Mia_RagazzaTosta
    Mia_RagazzaTosta Posts: 4,885 Member
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    :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
  • toomuchbootyindapants
    toomuchbootyindapants Posts: 811 Member
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    Depends on how your body responds to exercise and what you want to look like. Not every woman wants heavily muscled thighs.

    No but they all seem to want them slimmer and are afraid squats will make them bigger. You don't have to squat to build muscle and have "heavily muscled thighs" - you can squat and still be on your quest for the elusive thigh gap. *rolls eyes*
  • Mia_RagazzaTosta
    Mia_RagazzaTosta Posts: 4,885 Member
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    Depends on how your body responds to exercise and what you want to look like. Not every woman wants heavily muscled thighs.

    I'm willing to bet that between "heavily muscled" and heavily flabby and cottage-cheese like thighs 99.999999% of women would choose the former.

    Move along
  • escloflowneCHANGED
    escloflowneCHANGED Posts: 3,038 Member
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    Depends on how your body responds to exercise and what you want to look like. Not every woman wants heavily muscled thighs.

    I wouldn't call that heavily muscled thighs, I would say she looks like she has a fit lower body, it's extremely attractive!
  • amberlykay1014
    amberlykay1014 Posts: 608 Member
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    I think of the most striking things about your photographs is the differences in your feet! You must have lost at least a shoe size or more. I know that's a random thing to notice, and this is a weird thing to say, but your feet look great too.

    And as for me, I love what squats and lunges have done to my legs! I remember before if I was laying down and had my knees pulled up to my chest, I could see folds in my thighs and cellulite. Now they are tight and sexy. :)
  • shutupandlift13
    shutupandlift13 Posts: 727 Member
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    Depends on how your body responds to exercise and what you want to look like. Not every woman wants heavily muscled thighs.

    Since she's been in a deficit for most of her weightlifting days, she isn't gaining muscle most likely. What she's done with a small deficit, adequate protein and lifting with movements like SQUATS is helped to maintain LBM aka MUSCLE while losing weight and also fat. So really she's shed the fat off her thighs and kept the muscle she already had.

    Heavily muscled thighs... really? Because fit, athletic and healthy are such unattractive qualities. SMH.
  • canelly
    canelly Posts: 731 Member
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    You're quads are amazing!!! I really need to start lifting heavy do my legs can look like yours!!!
  • bumblebums
    bumblebums Posts: 2,181 Member
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    Great post, and congrats on your progress!
  • jonesin_am
    jonesin_am Posts: 404 Member
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    This picture below shows my legs at 185# on the left. I had already lost 35# but you can see they are very flabby and pocked and just not pleasing to look at. They rubbed against each other when walking, standing, what have you (and that ish hurts when they chafe!). At this point all I had done for exercise was walking and some jogging (while doing C25K). You can imagine how fatty and big they were when I was 220# several months earlier!

    The picture on the right shows my legs currently, in progress. I'm 155# (about 25% bodyfat, trying to get to 18-20%). You'll notice they didn't get "bigger". They are more defined, leaner, and definitely wayyy more taut than before. My quads are pretty dominant and I can squat a hella lot of weight. These legs were built from lifting (no cardio) and a small calorie deficit (250-500 cals, toward the lower end on average though - I like to eat, a LOT). So - squats, deads, lunges, etc COMBINED with a caloric deficit = smaller thighs. As I continue to drop fat, they will continue to lean out and be even more defined and taut. I'm anxious for that but I suck at dieting.

    picstitch3.jpg

    Just out of curiosity, what's the time difference between your two pics?
  • lcuconley
    lcuconley Posts: 734 Member
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    Depends on how your body responds to exercise and what you want to look like. Not every woman wants heavily muscled thighs.

    I'm willing to bet that between "heavily muscled" and heavily flabby and cottage-cheese like thighs 99.999999% of women would choose the former.

    Move along

    I agree that given the choice, women wd choose the former. The problem is that they stay at the latter because they use "too much muscle" as an excuse.

    Op - nice work and great post!
  • toomuchbootyindapants
    toomuchbootyindapants Posts: 811 Member
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    Just out of curiosity, what's the time difference between your two pics?
    The first picture was August 2011. I did Chalean Extreme in September '11-January '12 (but my legs didn't change all that much). I picked up a barbell in March 2012 and have been squatting (and other compound movements) since. The current picture was taken in March. Soooo, long story short - about a year and a half between the two images. As I said - I like to eat a lot, so my progress is slower than some people because I keep a smaller deficit on average. :)

    And to the feet comment - LOL, yes I dropped half a shoe size. The length of my foot obviously didn't get smaller but they weren't so darn fat so now I'm able to wear sz 9.5 instead. Big ol' feet! Thank you, I think?! hahh ;)
  • Penny_Lane_
    Penny_Lane_ Posts: 163
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    The answer is no...not really.
    So many women want to know the secret to slimming out their thighs. It's an area women struggle with because we tend to store fat there, the stubborn kind that seems resistant to change. And yes, it is stubborn. Which is why it is all the more important to SQUAT, LUNGE, DEADLIFT, JUMP, and USE THOSE THIGHS to their advantage! Big muscle groups within the quads, hamstrings, and glutes that burn big calories! Muscle burns more calories at rest than does fat so we WANT to build muscle in our legs, or at least retain as much as we can while dieting.

    Squats - in conjunction with a caloric deficit - will help your legs get smaller, more taut, less jiggly - what we alllll want. The people who say that squats made their legs bigger are special snowflakes OR they were eating too much and either gained muscle in the process or gained fat (depending on how much they were eating and what they were doing for exercise).

    This picture below shows my legs at 185# on the left. I had already lost 35# but you can see they are very flabby and pocked and just not pleasing to look at. They rubbed against each other when walking, standing, what have you (and that ish hurts when they chafe!). At this point all I had done for exercise was walking and some jogging (while doing C25K). You can imagine how fatty and big they were when I was 220# several months earlier!

    The picture on the right shows my legs currently, in progress. I'm 155# (about 25% bodyfat, trying to get to 18-20%). You'll notice they didn't get "bigger". They are more defined, leaner, and definitely wayyy more taut than before. My quads are pretty dominant and I can squat a hella lot of weight. These legs were built from lifting (no cardio) and a small calorie deficit (250-500 cals, toward the lower end on average though - I like to eat, a LOT). So - squats, deads, lunges, etc COMBINED with a caloric deficit = smaller thighs. As I continue to drop fat, they will continue to lean out and be even more defined and taut. I'm anxious for that but I suck at dieting.

    picstitch3.jpg

    So there ya have it - a little progress picture to show the ladies who are afraid to lift weights because their legs might get "bigger" that it's all about your diet when you are lifting. If you eat at maintenance or more, you may build some muscle and until you lose that fat your legs will look bigger. But if you eat within a deficit, your legs will respond and get smaller. It just takes time...because that fat is very stubborn. Happy Beautiful Thigh Thursday!

    Roundhouse kicks her desk chair and starts doing squats at her desk. o__o
  • casy84
    casy84 Posts: 290 Member
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    It really depends on what you like. If you want to look strong as the OP does, then squats are ok, but if you're more into the lean long look, then avoid them and go running.
  • shutupandlift13
    shutupandlift13 Posts: 727 Member
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    It really depends on what you like. If you want to look strong as the OP does, then squats are ok, but if you're more into the lean long look, then avoid them and go running.

    Please tell me you haven't just replaced "bulky" with "strong"? Or even suggested that the OP isn't lean?

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