To be so depressed about my saddlebags

[Mamacita191]

It’s all I think about. I’m a slim size 8 however since giving birth 19 months ago I noticed that my hips have gone wider and stayed that way (which is absolutely fine and I have no issues with). It’s just a bit lower down on the side of my bum I have saddlebags that look horrible. I can no longer where jeans with a shirt top as they stick out, especially when I walk. I can’t dress how I used to. I work out 5 times a week, I do cardio but also weights. That hasn’t reduced them. Ive also tried eating healthier etc and that hasn’t reduced them. I feel so down that I can’t shift them and I feel like they look even more pronounced on me as I’m thin. I can’t lose more weight tho as If I lost any more weight I’d go too skinny.

Does anyone have any tips or help? Or suffer from this at all.

I understand this isn’t the normal AIBU, but I’ve posted elsewhere and had no responses and I think about it on a daily basis. So I guess it is AIBU to obsess to much. I know I should love myself regardless, and I do. But this part just gets me down.

Thank you for reading and I would appreciate any comments

At a size 8, I'm sure no one else notices OP! But I know what it's like to be worried about something.

What kinds of exercises are you doing?

This article seems quite comprehensive about the realities and safer ways of losing extra weight - she seems to suggest resistance bands and squats more than cardio.

https://postpartumtrainer.com/get-rid-of-saddlebags/

I have saddlebags even when I am really skinny elsewhere. It just seems to be where my fat is distributed. I can be skeletal in other places and still have them. I actually became anorexic in my twenties in my quest to be rid of them!

The only thing I’ve found that does make any difference is lifting proper weights, especially split squats and weighted hip thrusts. Anything that builds your bum will lift them and improve the shape.

Honesty though, I do think a lot of it is my head and no one else notices or cares! I’m sure it’s the same for you.

YABU to obsess over a perfectly normal part of your body, but I get it. I wonder why you seem reasonably happy with other aspects of your post-baby body and not this - you seem to accept that your body will have changed, but not in this specific way?

Do you mean like the image on the left? If your hips have widened out, like the woman in the left's photo, then where your femurs meet your hip sockets are wider too. The fat deposits that sit on top of those sockets - to keep them safe! - are therefore more noticeable, as they're set wider from your body.

It's normal, it's by design to keep your big important joints safe. If you're struggling with self image you could try and look at resources about body neutrality online (there are free courses, etc)? That might help you, as obsessing over your body (especially when you start making diet and fitness changes to try and get rid of a normal body part) is a concerning route to go down, and I'd be trying to stop that in its tracks.

Good luck

If you are slim elsewhere and doing exercise then they're probably just stubborn fat pockets. Have you considered fat dissolving injections or fat freezing?