Almost everyone wants a big butt. We’re long past the era of women asking their partners whether an outfit makes their butt look big hoping they’ll say no, and bubble butts among men have more recently become an object of pride. Per Google Trends, searches inquiring, “When does your butt stop growing?” have increased by 1,850 percent in the last year alone.
So, when does your butt stop growing? Does it ever?
Many of these searchers are presumably from young teens, hoping their frame will fill in during the years to come. The top result for “when does your butt stop growing” leads to a Planned Parenthood advice column, where an anxious 13-year-old asks the experts when she can expect to become curvier. “Please reply back i REALLY in need o your help [sic],” she writes. The expert responds, saying that at 13, she is almost certainly not finished with puberty, and that in the coming years her hips and butt will likely widen. From this standpoint, your bodily frame — which determines some of the limits of your butt size — will sort of stop growing late in your teen years.
For any teenagers that may be reading this, I urge you to relax. Your butt defines absolutely nothing about you. Puberty will do as it does, and even beyond then your body will continue to change depending on your lifestyle, childbirth and other factors. Furthermore, your butt — unlike breast or genital size — is something you have partial control over.
When Does Your Butt Stop Growing?
Butts are composed of some ratio of muscle and fat. The specifics of your ratio will largely be determined by genetics, but can still be influenced by your own actions. Some people’s genetics allow them to primarily carry fat in their butt and thighs, while others tend to carry it in their stomachs. If you’re in the former category, gaining weight of any kind will likely increase your butt size, though there’s no guarantee the rest of you won’t increase in size, as well.
Regardless of genetics, though, almost anyone can increase their butt size at any age by building their glute muscles. This will require a lot of dedication, weightlifting and eating in a calorie surplus, but it’s certainly achievable. If one regularly increases their weightlifting and caloric intake, it’s possible to grow your glutes in semi-perpetuity.
But no matter your stage of puberty, genetics, muscle or fat levels, it’s essential to keep your expectations in check. Many of the big butts we see on social media have been attained through plastic surgery and aren’t achievable through diet and exercise. For the vast majority of people, growing your butt is possible at any age, but with it will also come growth in thighs, stomach or wherever else you may carry fat and build muscle.
And that’s perfectly fine! Not building a butt at all is perfectly fine! Getting plastic surgery can be perfectly fine, too! Bottom line, for anyone worriedly googling, “When does your butt stop growing?”: Your butt never completely stops growing. You just might have to make it grow yourself.
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
