AIBU to HATE my hip dips (photo attached)

[Mamacita191]

This is getting me really down now. I gave birth 20 months ago, and my hips dip in and then back out again at my thighs. It feels quite hard and think it’s my actual bone structure now since giving birth, they weren’t like this beforehand though! No exercise I do gets rid of them or improves them, nor any dietary changes. It looks absolutely awful in jeans, really squishy and unflattering regardless of the fact I am quite toned.

Did anyone else’s hips go like this after giving birth? Do they go back ever? (I am pregnant again - 6 weeks so I understand they’ll be changing again, I just thought by 20 months post partum my hips would have gone back to normalish).

Is this all in my head? I am wondering if it looks worse to me than to others. And I do realise this may seem really pedantic to people, however it is my personality. I’ve always worried over my body image especially as I’ve always worked so hard to have a good shape.

[quote wallowmall]@NotMyCat how natural is the latter photo, it looks very Kardashian?[/quote]
Pass, I just looked for the hip dip pic that was clear enough to see!

I think you look fine - lovely hips! I have them too and would much rather have them than 'child-bearing' hips!

You look great IMHO. I have these but much more pronounced than you. Your body looks perfectly healthy & normal.

You look perfectly fine. With hip dips there is no way to get rid of these completely, even with exercise and a good PT would advise anyone of that. They can be minimised sometimes but not go. It's clearly something you pick up on when you look at yourself, but honestly, other people won't. We always criticise ourselves the hardest.

@NotMyCat 😆

These things always seem infinitely worse to us than they do to others. I doubt people even notice. Bodies change post partum and that’s Ok.

[quote Jobseeker19][/quote]

Please don't share this sort of bollocks. This is why people like the OP obsess over perfectly normal parts of our physiology.

I refuse to acknowledge the existence of hip dips. It's a concept that has literally been made up and has gained popularity off the back of women's insecurities. You have a figure that most women would love to have and nothing about you suggests anything to be self conscious of.

I think this shape looks really lovely OP! It absolutely wouldn't bother me.

@Franklyfrost

They’re saddle bags. You can get rid of them by constantly doing boring repetitive exercises. If it really stresses you then rather than trying to get rid of them I’d add some muscle to the top of the thigh (running is good for this) and maybe glutes (weights are good for this) which will balance the shape out.

Fucking hell. stop this toxic narrative.

You cannot target areas for fat loss through exercise. It doesn’t work. It’s never worked. It’s all clever marketing.

[quote acatcalledjohn]Hip dips are perfectly normal on the female body. It's our musculoskeletal build. Stop obsessing over it.

Not loved by everyone, but a good old rant from James Smith about how social media influences what we think bodies should look like.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CUPW8d4AYvc/?utmmedium=copylink[/quote]
I was coming on to recommend James Smith on this topic. He's not everyone's cup of tea but he is actually really good on a lot of women's issues.

OP, you look fine and I promise you that nobody else would even notice. I have them too and I don't love them, but you're figure is great overall so focussing on this minor issue seems a bit silly. Saying that, I hate my stomach after three kids, I'm quite slim but it's like a burst balloon and couldn't look better without surgery. I'm working on self acceptance and appreciating my body though, I think that's healthier than trying to change something that can't be changed.

OP you look slim and shapely. You look like a beautiful woman - kids or not.

Hip dips are the last set of bollocks made up on social media to make women feel bad and beat themselves up. It's probably the last bit left to beat us over the head with. What next? Elbow creases? Long necks? Perfect little toes?

I've got them, almost all women have them. Fat, thin, mothers, teenagers.

I totally empathise with you feeling like your body has changed post kids. It's normal and you look great.

It's like the thigh gap thing. I don't have one because I'm narrow. My mum who is bigger than me has one.

I just had to look up images of what these are. I am not sure if I have them - will go and look in a mo.

I am very slim, do loads of exercise bla bla, so if I do I guess they're just part of me.

You look completely normal. Even with the explanation of "hip dips" which I had never heard of until this thread I still can't see what you are looking at. Really not worth giving it another thought.

Anyone else googling what the heck hip dips are? Now I know I feel depressed. Just stop it.

Normal.

Your hips and ribcage permanently widen a little and you also get more upper arm fat after birth (it is theorized that the arm fat is for cradling babies and making them comfortable). All totally normal and IMO beautiful. Who wants to look like an unformed kid? You're a woman and you've given birth and you should feel proud of the incredible thing your body has done.

It just means you have slim hips and good quads, so not a bad thing!

I thought this was what I would have called 'higher hips'.
So where some figures have a gradual taper from hip to waist, others have a higher set hip point which.... isn't as gradual.

Do you feel high waisted OP?
I have a high waist (shorter torso) and don't suit high waist jeans or skirts, always suited lower cut stuff myself. I have always been very slender but I cant shunt my bones lower down:)

This is a variation of a perfectly normal body shape, but since you say it wasn't there before, it is possibly seemingly 'odd' to YOU. I have never given birth, so am not qualified to talk about changes, but all I see in your photos are slender, lovely shaped legs and small hips.
The area above the hip isn't sloping inwards to the waist as much as you'd like, so I'm wondering if you were previously a pear?

I guess my over all point is, that if I look at the photos all I immediately see is what I would call a very youthful, prettily shaped, slim body with a slightly higher waist.

You look lovely and normal and the current hip dip obsession is bollocks - you can’t change the natural shape of your body. BUT (with that massive caveat) if you didn’t used to have them, it might be that your posture has changed slightly post pregnancy. I went to a postnatal physio class and learnt that we often tuck our bum under when heavily pregnant which means our glutes get weak and that in turn affects our core etc etc. So trying sticking your arse back out a bit, and if that makes you look more like you used to - there’s your answer. Get squatting. To reiterate though - you look lovely and much fitter than me, a random woman giving you advice on the internet.

Not only are they not an actual problem of any kind but just the normal shape of most hips, but in the 80s/90s we'd all have wanted to look like pic 1 in the picture, not pic 2 because pic 2 has a bigger bum!

The industry/society just goes round and round on what you're supposed to look like so that all women can have a go at feeling bad so that we lack confidence, and spending more on trying to "fix" it.

Don't fall for it OP - having a strong toned body is something to be happy about.

it is theorized that the arm fat is for cradling babies and making them comfortable

I never knew that! My DD loves to squish my upper arms :o

I’d still prefer picture one above as the fashion for big arses mystifies me. I spent the 90s and noughties keeping mine as small as possible!

Never heard of this, has social media invented another term for women to feel shit about themselves with a stupid rhyme to sell more shit to us?
Don’t fall for it OP, you look great.