Will squats make my thighs bigger?

OP: Interesting question. Some great responses. Thanks for the information and opinions. I mostly concentrate on cardio right now, but will begin to include the dreaded 'squats'. I hate them, but I guess they really do help to tone and strengthen.

Great job, OP!!!! I like your legs.

And I'm with you...My thighs went from 28.25" to 23". I always ran away from weights, saying that if I lifted I'd bulk up. I was the quintessential cardio bunny--and I could never get my thighs down. Now, I squat, deadlift, lunge and the thighs, hips and butt are down. I'm 5'6". I used to be a size 16; now, I'm a size 6, pushing a 4 in pants (top is size 4).

I think your progress is awesome, and you legs look great. But, there are people that just don't want to have legs that look like that. Too each her own.

Thank you...but I think you are missing my point. These are my legs, in progress. No one's legs will be just like mine. I was trying to demonstrate, visually, that squatting heavy won't necessarily make one's legs get bigger. Unfortunately I'm not at goal yet and can't use a very powerful demonstration with more lean legs, but one day I will. I'm not implying anyone should want their legs to look like mine...in whatever way you are implying. Just showing that they got smaller with squats. That's all.

I was going to say something like this.

Your legs are NOT her legs...mine are super long, and even though I WANT them to look more muscular, they dont really, just leaner and leaner since I have started squatting heavy.

Short legs will always look short regardless of muscle definition or "bulkiness". This is probably due to the fact that they're short legs. I'm no expert though.

Yes, but short muscular legs would be far more attractive than short jiggly ones in my opinion. I intend to work the hell out of my short little legs.

You look amazing! Thanks for posting this!

However, I'm not loving all of the resistance we are seeing here around women lifting! So many myths out there about "long lean muscles" and how distance running will get you that look, and women getting bulky. I started heavier lifting in December. I've gained ~4 pounds, but dropped 2 sizes. Tell me that replacing my fat with leaner muscle doesn't make me look better.
Plus I'm able to eat more, live saner, and enjoy my workouts.

Dizzle babe, your legs are what encouraged me to join a gym and pick up some weights.

I've given up on my persuit of trying to run longer distances. Weights and bits of cardio. If I want to run, I am going faster for shorter distance (oh and I do walk miles but that is training for a charity challenge).

OP, be my frieeend! Same goes for every other woman on this thread who loves to squat!

I think my profile pic tells you what I think of them.

I don't think a lot of people understand that the shape of your muscles is determined by genetics, not by the type of exercise you do. Running doesn't give you "long, lean" muscles, and squatting doesn't give you "short, bulky" muscles. I have legs that look a lot like the OP's, and I have ALWAYS had them. Even when I was a little kid, I had muscular legs, and I certainly wasn't squatting with a bar on my shoulders back then. Now, when I was 100 lbs overweight, there was a lot of fat covering up my muscular thighs, but the muscle is shorter and therefore appears thicker because I am only 5'0 tall, and I have shorter-than-average femurs. It's not because I lift weights. If I were a foot taller and had 20-inch femurs, the muscle would look a lot longer and thinner.

The size of your muscles is determined MOSTLY by your diet. A woman can add a minimal amount of muscle through heavy strength training, but gaining any significant amount of mass (for a female) requires LOTS of calories, hypertrophic training patterns, and steroids (or a freakish hormonal imbalance). Most MEN do not have enough testosterone to gain the kind of mass that women think they will gain if they pick up anything heavier than 10 lbs, so as a woman, you certainly do not have enough.

If you eat at a deficit and lift progressively heavier weights, your entire body is going to get smaller and harder and a hell of a lot hotter. You were born with your muscle structure. It is what it is. You can either make the best of it by stripping off the fat and showing it off, or you can keep your muscles covered with a layer (or two) of fat and pretend that they somehow look better than they would if you picked up something heavy every once in a while.

Thanks for your story and the comparison photos--a good reminder to me to be consistent with my strength training and not just running (as much as I love running, I want your "after" leg photo!

I don't think a lot of people understand that the shape of your muscles is determined by genetics, not by the type of exercise you do. Running doesn't give you "long, lean" muscles, and squatting doesn't give you "short, bulky" muscles. I have legs that look a lot like the OP's, and I have ALWAYS had them. Even when I was a little kid, I had muscular legs, and I certainly wasn't squatting with a bar on my shoulders back then. Now, when I was 100 lbs overweight, there was a lot of fat covering up my muscular thighs, but the muscle is shorter and therefore appears thicker because I am only 5'0 tall, and I have shorter-than-average femurs. It's not because I lift weights. If I were a foot taller and had 20-inch femurs, the muscle would look a lot longer and thinner.

The size of your muscles is determined MOSTLY by your diet. A woman can add a minimal amount of muscle through heavy strength training, but gaining any significant amount of mass (for a female) requires LOTS of calories, hypertrophic training patterns, and steroids (or a freakish hormonal imbalance). Most MEN do not have enough testosterone to gain the kind of mass that women think they will gain if they pick up anything heavier than 10 lbs, so as a woman, you certainly do not have enough.

If you eat at a deficit and lift progressively heavier weights, your entire body is going to get smaller and harder and a hell of a lot hotter. You were born with your muscle structure. It is what it is. You can either make the best of it by stripping off the fat and showing it off, or you can keep your muscles covered with a layer (or two) of fat and pretend that they somehow look better than they would if you picked up something heavy every once in a while.

^^^This

AWESOME!!! Looking so good. Thanks for the tip!

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

Lol, if 0.5 inches is A LOT bigger?

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I don't think a lot of people understand that the shape of your muscles is determined by genetics, not by the type of exercise you do. Running doesn't give you "long, lean" muscles, and squatting doesn't give you "short, bulky" muscles. I have legs that look a lot like the OP's, and I have ALWAYS had them. Even when I was a little kid, I had muscular legs, and I certainly wasn't squatting with a bar on my shoulders back then. Now, when I was 100 lbs overweight, there was a lot of fat covering up my muscular thighs, but the muscle is shorter and therefore appears thicker because I am only 5'0 tall, and I have shorter-than-average femurs. It's not because I lift weights. If I were a foot taller and had 20-inch femurs, the muscle would look a lot longer and thinner.

ME TOO!!!

I want my legs to look like that! How long did it take you to get from pic 1 to pic 2. I know you mentioned doing squats, lunges, etc to get there, but would you mind sharing your specific workout routine? Thanks!

I'm loving the legs in this thread!! I would MUCH RATHER have thighs a little bit bigger but firmer. I am a firm believer in lifting heavy, I've seen the results.

In my case, my genetics gave me flabby thighs. My mom has them, my sister has them, her mother before her, etc..

As someone else said, mostly it is diet - but diet can't reshape your body like lifting can - it has to be used in conjunction with a good lifting plan. When I was eating like a bird and weighed nothing I was just a flabby mess.

I was 103-105 pounds here and HATED my legs. Even though I was a skinny minny, my legs were still flabby. All I did back then were some light weights (DVDs) and the elliptical trainer, and my diet was low calorie/1000-1200 daily. See pic below. My legs were small by measurements, 19 inches at biggest part of thigh. And by the way, this was 7 years ago.



Now, I hardly do any cardio, only a couple sessions of HIIT per week, I lift heavy 3x a week, squats, deadlifts, you name it. Very little cellulite, and I eat WAY more. I weigh 6-7 pounds more, wear the same size clothing, and my measurements are 19.5 inches now. And now I wear short dresses, shorts, etc and I'm confident in them! I wish I could go back to the old me and tell me to lift weights! I spent years being dissatisfied. I wasted all of my 20's and early 30's away! :sad: