What is Mom Butt?
While clearly not a medical term, “mom butt” is a generic way to refer to buttocks that are less than ideal in size or shape. Women often use it to refer to changes in their rear end that occur after having children, although age and lifestyle often play a role in changing the shape of the buttocks. Mom butt doesn’t refer to any specific medical condition but more of a general unhappiness with one’s rear end.
What Causes Mom Butt?
There are several potential causes of mom butt, but hormonal changes play a very large role in most cases. Pregnancy and menopause both cause very large hormone fluctuations that can alter muscle mass and change the way your body stores fat. Estrogen levels, in particular, can influence where fat is stored, often shifting it away from the buttocks area and creating a flatter butt.
Both rapidly losing or gaining weight can also alter the shape of your buttocks. Both can impact skin elasticity and muscle tone, contributing to changes in appearance. The weight gained during pregnancy serves a perfect example. As their abdomen expands later in pregnancy, many women tuck their butts under and push their hips forward to compensate for the change in weight distribution. This changes the posture and often disengages the gluteal muscles, or glutes, weakening them and ultimately making them smaller.
Lifestyle choices also play a role. Those with a more sedentary existence tend to have less muscle tone overall, and this can make the glutes smaller. Muscle mass also tends to decrease as we age.
While age is arguably in a category of its own, every other potential cause of butt changes occurs during pregnancy. Pregnancy causes massive hormone fluctuations, makes you gain weight quickly, and, in many cases, then leaves you dropping it quickly after delivery. It also makes you tired and often leads at least temporarily to the need for more rest and sitting, which contributes to a few weeks of a more sedentary life. Pregnancy can also make it difficult to follow your normal exercise routine. It’s easy to see then why pregnancy can change the shape of your buttocks and why postpartum changes are referred to as mom butt.
Types of Mom Butt
Because the term is a generic one that refers to any shape that you don’t particularly love, mom butts come in all shapes and sizes. We do, however, hear some frequent complaints in our clinics about common types of mom butt.
A Big Butt
Sir Mix-A-Lot may like big butts, but you may not be happy to find that yours has increased in size. And more butt doesn’t necessarily mean better butt. Fat deposits tend to occur indiscriminately, which means your butt can get larger without getting shapelier.
A Saggy Butt
A loss of fat, muscle, or both can leave your butt sagging and drooping. You may even experience some loose skin if the weight loss happened very quickly or if your skin has lost some elasticity.
A Flat Butt
Many women find that they just don’t fill out their pants quite like they used to after pregnancy. A loss of muscle tone and fat can leave your butt flatter than it was before, causing you to lose projection. This is the most common mom butt complaint.
Can Exercise Fix Mom Butt?
Yes, exercise can significantly improve mom butt. Exercise is a great way to fix mom butt, but it’s often difficult to find the time to exercise regularly when caring for a newborn. This leads many new moms to opt for a surgical correction instead. But if you can make the time to exercise, you can cure your mom butt naturally.
Exercises that target the glutes and other supporting muscles are extremely helpful. These exercises include:
- Squats: Squats are one of the most effective exercises for strengthening the gluteus maximus, which is the largest muscle in the buttocks. Keep your feet shoulder-width apart and your back straight while performing squats to ensure proper muscle engagement.
- Lunges: Lunges work each leg individually, which can help improve balance and muscle strength in the buttocks. Make sure you keep your back straight as you sink into the lunge position and don’t push farther than you can comfortably go.
- Hip Thrusts: This exercise specifically targets the glutes and can be performed with or without weights. By pushing down through the heels and lifting the hips towards the ceiling, you engage the glute muscles effectively.
- Step-ups: As simple as they sound, step-ups literally require you to simply step up and then back down. Make sure you are using a sturdy step or even the bottom step of a staircase at home. Step-ups target the glutes and help improve balance and coordination. Holding dumbbells or a barbell can increase the intensity of the exercise.
- Glute Bridges: Lie on your back with your feet flat on the ground and then lift your hips towards the ceiling. Hold the position for a few seconds before releasing it. This targets the glutes. Need a more intense workout? Perform the exercise with one leg at a time for an added challenge.
Can Nutrition Cure Mom Butt?
Nutrition alone can’t cure mom butt since it’s about fat distribution and muscle tone. But that doesn’t mean that nutrition can’t help you. When building and toning muscle, it’s vital that you get enough protein. Lean meats, fish, eggs, and legumes are all great sources of protein. It’s best to avoid saturated fats, but healthy fats help to balance the hormones, which can also help with mom butt. Healthy fats are found in fish, nuts, and seeds.
If you’re fighting a sagging butt, firming up your skin might prove beneficial. There are many foods that help your body produce collagen, including bone broths, chicken, broccoli, berries, and citrus fruits. Food alone probably won’t do the trick, but the right foods can help support a good exercise regimen.
Surgical Options to Cure Mom Butt
Liposuction, a BBL, and a mommy makeover are all surgical procedures that can cure mom butt and do it quickly. Liposuction is a good choice if your mom butt is the big type. Liposuction removes excess, unwanted fat to reshape and sculpt the area. The result is a smaller, more toned-looking butt.
If pregnancy left you with a flat butt, a BBL can help. This procedure involves taking fat from areas you don’t want it via liposuction and reinjecting it into your buttocks. BBLs can increase both the size and projection of the buttocks while providing a pleasing shape. At Mia Aesthetics, we exclusively perform ultrasound-guided BBLs to provide superior safety.
While fixing your mom butt may be the priority, your pregnancy may have made undesirable changes to other parts of your body as well. If you wish, you can combine multiple procedures to save time and money while addressing your mom butt. Many women opt for a mommy makeover and have a tummy tuck or breast surgery to solve multiple issues at once.
Benefits of Surgical Treatments for Mom Butt
Surgery is no substitute for taking care of yourself, but it’s easier to maintain a shape than it is to create one. This makes surgery an excellent choice for busy moms who want fast results and just don’t have the time to commit to a consistent or intense exercise program.
As we’ve briefly touched on, you can also combine surgeries to save time and money. Addressing other issues along with your mom butt means you need help with the kids and household chores only during one recovery period. This can be a lot easier than trying to juggle multiple surgeries and recoveries.
At Mia Aesthetics, we’re also pleased to offer multiple financing options. We know adding a baby to the household changes the finances, but we want you to be able to have surgery if you want it. To that end, we keep our prices as low as possible and provide several financing venues to help make sure surgery isn’t a financial burden.