i have HUGE calves?

Maybe it's a short girl thing. I am 5'3" and also have really big calves. Could just be the way your body is built. I have learned to embrace mine anyways. They take me places

I just stopped hoping I could buy real boots. Only ankle booties for me. *sigh.
I think it's probably genetic.
I'm 5'2 @133 lbs. Humongous calves. whachagonna do?

Everyone's body is different - your calves could be on the large side because of the extra weight you're carrying, or it could just be how your body is. No big deal, but you'll just have to wait and see.

I'm 5'5" with 14-inch calves. I've honestly never thought about the size of them very much.

Trade you.
Mine are 14.5".
I want bigger calves

That isn't exactly HUGE : ) It is just how your body is - it's all good. As someone pointed out above: If they are big due to excess fat, then they will decrease perhaps. If due to muscle - then NAH - prob not. I have 17" calves too. Muscle. They are basically the same size now than they were 70 pounds ago. They are in proportion to the rest of my legs, which are also muscular.

Instead of stressing, just embrace them as they are. ROCK THEM OUT. I've always had a desire for awesome dressy black knee boots. Guess what? Gonna get me a pair custom made for my fabulous calves. I waited to do so to see if they would indeed decrease in size with weight loss - they didn't much. My calves are my calves - they go with my thighs. I'm 5'4, wear a size 6 1/2 shoe just as a point of reference.

My hubbs has large calves as well. He has been heavier for a long time and his legs have gotten quite strong from carrying him around.

I have huge calves but also huge legs in general but as my coach said when I was young give up that image of long skinny legs like a model you are a great athlete and so I grew up identifying with strength not the model look thankful he did make me see the postive at such a young age

They will get smaller as you lose weight. I have big calves for my height 5'1" but they went all the way down to about 13.5 inches when I got to a healthy body fat percentage, and I had to work my *kitten* off literally and eat at a surplus just to get them back to 14 inches. I'd like them to be significantly bigger because I like big calves, but even doing calf raises with the weight of a grown man on my shoulders didn't make them any bigger. Deadlifts, squats and eating at a surplus made them half an inch bigger (and as I was eating at a surplus, some of that half inch was possibly a little extra fat. So I'm concerned (well that's too strong a word because aesthetics isn't really a big deal to me) that on this cut they'll just go right back to 13.5 inches. But really so long as I achieve my long term goal of deadlifting 300lb then I'll not care *that* much that my calves are too skinny.

Maybe it's a short girl thing. I am 5'3" and also have really big calves. Could just be the way your body is built. I have learned to embrace mine anyways. They take me places

Us taller girls can have big calves, too. I'm 5'8 and my calves are around 16.5 inches, Then again, I bike everywhere all year round and have done so for about... um, 20 years or so. I'm not claiming my calves are all muscle, but all that biking has paid off. I'm hoping they'll shrink just a bit once I lose the 20 or so pounds I'm trying to lose, because I'd really, really love to be able to buy knee-high boots.

I've always had huge, very muscular calves/legs. When I was younger my mom called them my softball legs (and occasionally still does). I learned to love and for some reason guys are infatuated with them, so I guess they're not all that bad haha.

Golly, I hope the mommy cow is okay.

Well, if the rancher is worth his salt, he'll start a heifer out with what's called a heifer bull. That's a bull that's known for throwing small calves, making the first birth an easier one. Then after that, they breed physically experienced cows to bulls with a history of throwing larger offspring.

I call my husband a heifer bull because our son was tiny.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I'm 5'1" and have slim ankles but what I've always thought of as really thick calves, which I put down to muscle built when I was doing gymnastics as a kid - my nickname in high school was chicken legs :laugh:

Fast forward to today and they're still pretty well defined when I flex, but feel a bit flabby when relaxed. Having said that, I've just measured and they're 14.5", so maybe not as big as I thought. But more definition would be good and I'm working on it!

mahatolba wrote: »

So i'm only 5'2", but I weigh around 165lbs and my calves are HUGE. They're around 17" When I flex them, they feel really firm which is weird since I never used to work out at all until I decided to start losing weight. When they're not flexed, though, they're super jiggly. Could they just be big because I'm short and overweight? Or is it possible that I somehow have muscly calves without ever having done exercise or sports? Any advice is appreciated!

Some people just have big calves. Even when I was a healthy weight, I couldn't always wear knee high boots, some wouldn't zip up. I know some here would recoil in horror, but I would like to lose muscle in my calves. LOL

I've read that calf size is mostly due to genetics and there is not much you can do. Sure weight gain/loss will influence the size a bit but if you have gigantic calves now, you are not going to have small or even medium size ones by losing a few lbs. Maybe if you have hundreds of lbs to lose then you can look forward to losing inches off your calves.

A friend who is a bodybuilder type has trained for years still has calves that look incredibly small for his frame. No amount of lifting helps him build bigger calves. His calves support his almost 200lb frame fine even when he does powerlifting competitions so I do not buy that big calf muscles are a result of having to support more body weight while you are overweight.

At 5'4 and 160ish lbs I have 17.75 inch calves (just measured). They are hard as rocks when I flex and do not jiggle. Just from putting on skis, I have noticed that they do get a little bit smaller when I lose weight- however the difference is not by much. I go from not being able to completely clip my ski shoes vs having a hard time but eventually being able to clip it up all the way but have it uncomfortably tight on my legs at my skinniest (about 140lbs). So there is some fat in there but mostly just a disproportionately big muscle. I have never done anything to train them.

It has taken me a while to feel okay about my calves but I've finally learned to accept them enough to not wear jeans in 90 degree weather.

segacs wrote: »

Ugh, mine are so big that I have a hellish time finding ski boots. (Downhill ski boots are a *** to fit in the first place, but try having tiny feet and enormous calves... ick ick ick!)

I leave the top parts unclipped and just find boots that fit my feet tight enough so that they stay in. This makes leaning forward into your boot more difficult but I find it works okay for me just doing recreational skiing on medium slopes.