WANT TO BUILD YOUR GLUTES? STOP DIETING THEM AWAY.
One of the biggest mistakes I see women make when they tell me they want to build their glutes is also one of the simplest:
They immediately go into a calorie deficit.
Think about that for a minute.
You’re telling me your number-one goal is to build more muscle in your glutes. You want them bigger, rounder, fuller and more developed.
But at the same time, you’re cutting calories, cutting carbohydrates, adding cardio and trying to lose as much body fat as possible.
The order is backwards.
YOU’RE TRYING TO REVEAL SOMETHING YOU HAVEN’T BUILT YET
This is where a lot of women get frustrated.
They train glutes two, three or even four times per week. They’re doing hip thrusts, squats, lunges, kickbacks, abductions and every glute exercise they can find.
But there’s one problem:
Training provides the stimulus. Nutrition and recovery provide the resources to grow.
Muscle doesn’t appear simply because you trained it.
Your body needs adequate protein, enough energy to recover and enough carbohydrates to support productive training.
If you’re aggressively restricting calories while simultaneously asking your body to maximize muscle growth, those goals can start working against each other.
STOP BEING AFRAID TO EAT
Women will tell me they want bigger glutes, but they’re terrified of gaining two or three pounds on the scale.
You have to decide what the priority is.
If developing your glutes is truly the priority, there may be periods when your body weight increases.
That doesn’t automatically mean you’re getting fat.
Muscle has weight. Glycogen and the water stored with it have weight. Even having more food in your digestive system affects scale weight.
That’s why I don’t judge a productive building phase by one number.
I’m looking at strength, measurements, training performance, recovery and what your physique is actually doing.
And no, this doesn’t mean you need to “dirty bulk.”
For many women, maintenance calories or a small, controlled calorie surplus may be enough to support the goal.
The objective isn’t to eat everything in sight.
The objective is to eat enough to support growth without unnecessarily adding body fat.
TRAINING STILL HAS TO EARN THE GROWTH
Eating more calories doesn’t automatically build glutes either.
Those calories need somewhere productive to go.
Your glute training should be structured around progressive resistance, good execution, adequate volume and recovery.
You don’t need 15 different glute exercises every workout.
You need exercises you can execute properly and progressively improve over time.
More weight isn’t always better.
More exercises aren’t always better.
Better execution and progression are better.
BUILD FIRST. REVEAL SECOND.
Once you’ve spent enough time actually developing the glutes, then we can talk about bringing body fat down.
Now the goal changes.
You move into a controlled calorie deficit, keep protein high, continue resistance training and focus on preserving the muscle you worked so hard to build while gradually reducing body fat.
That’s when the work starts becoming more visible.
You’re no longer dieting and hoping your glutes somehow grow.
You’re revealing what you already built.
BUT WHAT ABOUT BODY RECOMPOSITION?
Can you lose body fat and build muscle at the same time?
Absolutely—but it depends on where you're starting.
Recomposition tends to be more realistic if you’re relatively new to resistance training, returning after a layoff, carrying more body fat or finally moving from inconsistent training and nutrition to a properly structured program.
In those situations, you may not need a calorie surplus. Maintenance calories or even a moderate deficit may allow you to improve body composition while getting stronger and building some muscle.
But as you become leaner and more experienced, maximizing new muscle growth while continuously dieting generally becomes more difficult.
That’s where you have to be honest about the priority.
If you’ve been training seriously for years, you’re already relatively lean and your number-one goal is significantly improving your glutes, constantly chasing a lower number on the scale may be working against you.
Recomposition has its place. Fat-loss phases have their place. Muscle-building phases have their place.
The strategy should match the woman, her starting point and her goal.
THE JM COACHING GLUTE-BUILDING CHECKLIST
Before you tell me your glutes “won’t grow,” go through this checklist:
☐ Are you eating enough to support growth?
If you’re constantly dieting and under-fueling your training, you may be working against the goal.
☐ Are you getting enough protein consistently?
Muscle recovery happens outside the gym too. Your protein intake needs to support it every day.
☐ Are your workouts properly fueled?
If your energy and performance are constantly falling off, take a serious look at your nutrition—especially your overall calorie and carbohydrate intake.
☐ Are you progressively improving?
Over time, something needs to get better: load, repetitions, execution, control or overall training quality.
☐ Are you actually training your glutes or just moving weight?
If your lower back, quads and hamstrings are doing everything, adding another plate isn’t solving the problem.
☐ Do you have a structured glute program?
Stop changing exercises every week because you saw something new on social media. Give movements enough time to improve and progress.
☐ Are you recovering between sessions?
More glute workouts aren’t automatically better. Growth happens when the training stimulus is followed by adequate recovery.
☐ Are you sleeping enough?
Training is only part of the equation. Recovery matters.
☐ Are you measuring progress beyond the scale?
Photos, measurements, strength, training performance and how your clothes fit can tell you much more than obsessing over daily scale fluctuations.
☐ Have you given it enough time?
Glutes aren’t built in three weeks. Meaningful muscle development requires consistency over months and years—not days.
If you can’t check most of these boxes, don’t blame your genetics yet. Fix the basics first.
THERE’S A TIME TO BUILD. THERE’S A TIME TO REVEAL.
This is where patience becomes part of the program.
Everybody wants the finished physique.
Very few people want to respect the process required to build it.
You can’t spend month after month afraid of food, constantly dieting and then wonder why your glutes haven’t changed.
Train them.
Fuel them.
Recover.
Progress.
And give them enough time to grow.
Then, when you’ve built the muscle you wanted, bring the body fat down strategically and reveal what you worked for.
Build the glutes first. Then uncover them.
Because you can’t reveal what you never took the time to build.
READY FOR A PLAN BUILT AROUND YOU?
If you’re tired of guessing whether you should be building, recomping or dieting—and you want a training and nutrition strategy built around your body, your experience and your goals—this is exactly what we do inside JM Coaching.
We’ll take the guesswork out of the process, structure your training, set your nutrition around the goal and make adjustments based on your actual progress.
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start following a plan with a purpose, apply for JM Coaching today.
→ APPLY FOR COACHING
— Jimmy Mentis
JM Coaching
