How to Get an Hourglass Figure: Skinny Girl’s Guide

Are you here because you are one of those fortunate ladies who never gains weight? Do you want to get an hourglass figure?

Everyone assumes that skinny girls have it easy. They think that skinny people are blessed because they can eat whatever they want and not gain a pound, while others merely breathe and gain 5 lbs instantly. But a lot of people don’t see the struggles skinny girls face. 

There are a lot of thin women who want to get curves and look thick. Because of their super-fast metabolisms, getting curvy isn’t that easy. 

So, how can skinny girls get an hourglass figure?

To get an hourglass figure when you are skinny, you must increase your caloric intake by 500 – 1000 calories roughly. The food you are consuming must be clean, to avoid them being stored as belly fat. Combine proper nutrition with strength or resistance training to build curves, such as in your glutes and your hips.

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Now that you have an idea of what it takes to make a slim girl voluptuous, let’s go more in-depth to find out the steps you should take to get an hourglass figure.

How Can Skinny Girls Get an Hourglass Figure?

To get a better understanding of how to get an hourglass figure, let us find out what the 3 body types are.

The 3 body types:

Ectomorph

Ectomorphs are naturally slim people. These people who have a hard time gaining weight, they can eat whatever they want and still not gain weight. They have extremely fast metabolisms. Not only do they have a hard time gaining fat, their bodies also find it difficult to gain muscle. 

Mesomorph

Mesomorphs are people who can gain and lose weight easily. Their bodies can put on and lose both muscle and fat easily. Mesomorphs are usually not overweight or underweight. The mesomorph body is the most malleable when dieting and working out.

Endomorph

Endomorphs have higher fat percentages,and they have less muscles in their body. These people are usually on the heavier side. Endomorph bodies have high tendencies to store fat, and their bodies find it difficult to gain muscle.

If you find yourself having a hard time gaining weight, then you are most likely an ectomorph. Your metabolism is too fast therefore you hardly gain any weight. 

Don’t worry, it is still possible for you to get a curvier body. You just have to take the right steps in order to get the hourglass figure you desire.

In order to get an hourglass figure, the first thing you must do is to increase your caloric intake. When you are going from skinny to curvy, you must increase the number of calories you eat in a day. 

However, you must remember to eat proper nutrition and not just stuff your face with whatever food you like. You must take in food that will help you gain healthy weight and not a bulging muffin top you get from eating too much junk food.

Apart from eating more and eating the right kind of food, you must also workout to gain muscle. By growing your glutes and shaping your hips and legs, you will be able to achieve the hourglass look.

The real key to getting curvier through workouts is to be consistent. Consistency is key if you want to transform your body. Be consistent with both your diet and your workout to achieve amazing results!

Hourglass Figure Diet and Gaining Weight

Now, let’s dive deeper to find out what part of your diet you must change in order to get that curvy body you are aiming for.

Increase Your Calorie Intake

This is pretty obvious, but you have to eat more. Depending on how fast your metabolism is, you will need to increase your caloric intake by around 500 – 1000 calories. 

Some people might find this an easy task to do and others might find it difficult. So, to make things easier, you can track your calories. 

You can create a food journal that will track your calories and macros. You can also create a spreadsheet on your computer. Or, the easiest way in my opinion, is to download an app. There are a lot of free apps you can download to help you track the amount of food you are taking in. Personally, I use MyFitnessPal, just the free version. I’d say it’s good, it does the job.

Eat Nutritious Food 

You can’t just eat whatever you want and expect to get an hourglass figure. You have to make sure to eat the right kinds of food, and try to eat as clean as you can. 

When it comes to healthy weight gain, you must ensure that you are taking in enough lean protein, healthy carbs, and healthy fats. The amount of protein, carbs, and fats needed differs from person to person. 

If you want to make you sure you are taking in the right amount of calories and nutrition you need, you can start by learning more about macronutrients. Basically, macronutrients are protein, carbohydrates, and fats—which provide calories or energy to carry out daily activities. 

You can use a macronutrient calculator to figure out the exact macros you personally need.

Stay Away From Junk Food

If you try to gain weight by eating junk food, fast food, and sugar, you will gain weight. However, the weight you will gain will be fat, in all the places you wouldn’t want to gain them. Since your goal is to have an hourglass figure, you would want to keep your waist tight. The last thing you’d want is to gain mostly belly fat. 

Don’t fret—you can still indulge, just make sure to not overdo it. 

Consider having cheat meals. Create a fitness planner and schedule your cheat meals. Find what works best for you. 

Pro tip: List all your favorite cheat meals on your fitness planner for cheat days when you are not sure what you want to eat.

If you are not the cheat meal type, you can try the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule is when you eat healthy food 80% of the time and eat not-so-healthy food for the remaining 20%.

The 80/20 creates an excellent balance, which won’t make you feel deprived.

Eat More Protein

Protein is essential to building muscles, which you will need to give yourself an hourglass body. In order to grow your butt, your hips, or any other body part you’d want to shape, you will need protein to help you replenish your muscles. Muscles don’t grow during the workout, they grow during the recovery period. Protein will help your muscles repair faster during this stage. Consume a protein-rich meal or drink within 40 minutes after a workout. Partner the meal or drink with healthy carbs. Carbohydrates and protein work together to repair and grow your muscles after exercising. 

Eat Carbohydrates

Like what I mentioned, carbs and protein work together to repair and build muscles. However, not all carbs are good for you. The carbohydrates you want to avoid are the carbs from donuts, cakes, refined sugar, etc. Go for healthy carbohydrates like brown/red rice, whole wheat bread and pasta, potatoes, and such.

Eat more frequently 

To get from skinny to thick you have to eat more calories, right? So, one way to help you consume more is to have more meals throughout the day. Instead of having three big meals, why not have 6 meals throughout your day? You can add as many snacks as you want. Just make sure you aren’t reaching for the unhealthy snacks in your pantry.

Also, some people who are petite and/or underweight tend to have small appetites. So, these people might have a hard time consuming big meals. Therefore, having more normal sized meals would be more attainable for them. 

Supplements You Can Take

If I could recommend only one supplement, I would tell you to get protein powders. There are several benefits to taking protein supplements.

We women, generally, don’t consume enough protein our bodies need. Which is why protein powders are beneficial to women. 

As a rule, a person would need 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight. If you use pounds, you can simply divide your bodyweight in pounds by 2.205 to get your kilogram weight.

The grams of protein your body needs can change depending on your health, lifestyle, and activities. If you are recovering from an illness, stressed, pregnant, or if you are working out consistently you may need around 1.2 grams to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.

Examples:

Person A

120 lbs, exercises regularly

120 lbs / 2.205 = 54.4 kg

54 kg * 1.5 = 81 g 

Person A would need 81 grams of protein per day.

Person B 

110 lbs, sedentary lifestyle

115 lbs / 2.205 = 52.15 kg

52 kg * 0.8 = 41.6 g 

Person B would need 42 grams of protein per day.

This is a great way to calculate how many grams of protein you need in a day to achieve your fitness goal.

Do Resistance Workouts

Muscles can also make you look curvy, not just fat. Do resistance training, and build that booty! Through strength training, you will be able to shape your body and create curves. 

You can start by doing bodyweight exercises first. Then, once you get the hang of it, add resistance bands and weights. If you do the same routine over and over, eventually you will hit a plateau. When this happens, you will stop seeing results. This is why you have to add resistance to make it challenging. Every time your routine stops being challenging for you, it means you are getting stronger. So, that is the time to take it to the next level again for you to be able to continually get results. 

Consider Taking Mass Gainers

This is optional. You don’t have to, but if you are someone who struggles to hit your daily calorie intake needed to gain more weight then you can try drinking mass gainer shakes. They are usually 500 – 1000 calories in a single serving of shake. 

Make it fun, add ice cream. Make a milkshake out of it to help you gain the curves! Just remember, don’t over do the unhealthy foods. 

How to Get an Hourglass Figure With Exercise 

Before we discuss the kinds of workouts you should do, let’s break down the goals first. What do you need to do to get an hourglass figure? First, you’ll want to keep your core tight. Then, you’ll need to grow your glutes, shape your hips and legs. 

So, do ab and core tightening exercises. Also, do workouts to grow your glutes and hips. But, don’t forget the rest of your body, of course. 

Alternate between leg and booty day with upper body and ab day to get the best results. Do not target the same muscle groups consecutively. Your muscles need to rest in order for them to repair and grow. If you want that curvy butt, then you must let it rest and grow. 

Workout 3-6 times a week. Depending on your exercise routine and the intensity of your workouts. 

Activate Your Glutes Using Glute Activation Exercises

Glute activation workout is a series of warm-up exercises that will wake your glute muscles up. When you activate your glutes beforehand, you are preparing your muscles for the workout. It’s like you are telling your glute muscles to get ready for the exercises you are about to do. Glute activation also boosts mind muscle connection. 

Mind muscle connection (MMC) helps you activate the correct muscle group you are targeting while you are doing the workout. When you are doing glute workouts and you feel it mostly on your legs, it could be due to several factors. One being, that you are not using your mind muscle connection (MMC). 

This may sound weird but one way to improve your MMC is to think of the muscle/s you want to engage while you are doing the exercise. If you are doing hip thrusts and your form is right but you are still not feeling the soreness on your bum, try to think of your bum or think of your glutes being sore. Sounds odd, but it works!

Glute Isolation

Isolation workouts specifically target one specific muscle group. Glute isolations exercises particularly target the glutes without targeting other muscles such as your hamstrings or your quads.

There are many reasons why glute isolation workouts are beneficial. The best perk (at least in my opinion) of glute isolation workouts is that it is the most effective type of workout to build your booty. 

Doing other kinds of workouts are important too, of course. But if you are specifically trying to look curvier, don’t forget to add glute isolation exercises into your workout routine!

Here are some of the best glute isolation exercises you can do to grow your booty:

1. Hip Thrusts
2. Single Leg Hip Thrusts
3. Glute Kickbacks
4. Hip Abductions
5. Glute Bridges

Compound Exercises

Compound exercises work several muscle groups at once. One of the most popular compound workouts out there is the squat. Not only do squats engage your glutes but they also engage your quadriceps, and your hamstrings. 

Some of the benefits of doing compound exercises are: improves strength, helps gain more muscle mass, elevates heart rate, and burns more calories.

Here are some examples of compound glute exercises:

1. Squats
2. Deadlifts
3. Lunges
4. Sumo Squats
5. Romanian Deadlifts

Don’t Be Afraid to Tone Up Your Legs

Why should you tone up your legs, not just your booty and hips? Having nice sculpted legs help achieve the hourglass look, especially when you are starting off from a skinny figure. You will see excellent results if you work your legs, not just your hips and booty. 

Upperbody 

Don’t forget about your upper body! Toning up your upper body is just as important as your lower body. Would you want a lice tones lower body and a flabby not-so-toned upper body? No? Didn’t think so.

Include upper body days in your weekly routine. Do arm workouts together with abs workouts on your upper body day!

Keep Your Core Tight

An hourglass figure requires you to keep your waist smaller than your bust and your hips. So, even if you are naturally skinny, it is best to still work out your core to keep it tight while you are trying to grow your hips and your butt. 

Do different ab workouts that target all of your ab muscles. Make sure to target your upper abs, lower abs, and your obliques.

To Cardio or Not To Cardio?

If you want to get from skinny to curvy, doing cardio won’t be necessary. You can still do cardio, if you enjoy it. But when it comes to getting thick, cardio won’t really help much with getting you closer to your goal. 

So, it’s really up to you if you want to do cardio or not.

Do You Need Weights or Equipment?

Will you need to buy equipment in order to get curvier?

When you want to see results, you will need to continuously challenge your body and your muscles. 

Beginners who haven’t workout regularly, will see results just by doing bodyweight workouts. This is because the exercises will be challenging for their muscles. 

However, once their bodies get used to the bodyweight exercises, they’ll need to increase the intensity of the workout. By either increasing the reps of the workouts and/or by adding equipment. This is the perfect time to incorporate resistance bands and weights.

How Long Does it Take to Go From Skinny to Curvy?

Results will vary from person to person. Some people see results faster than others. If you do all of the necessary steps, you will usually start seeing changes around 2 – 3 weeks. But keep in mind that these will be minor changes, not drastic. 

Your body will transform gradually. Just remember to aim for progress! Be consistent and aim to see steady minor progress. These tiny victories will all add up into one big win. So trust the process and don’t give up! Usually around the three month mark is where you will see a huge difference.

Relate Questions

Just to make sure you don’t leave with any unanswered questions, I’ve answered some of the most commonly asked queries about reshaping bodies and figures. 

How Can I Get an Hourglass Figure in a Week?

It is not impossible to get an hourglass figure within a week, however, it is highly unlikely to transform a body in that short amount of time. It usually takes weeks to start seeing results, and it takes months to fully see a big transformation. 

The only ways to get quick results are through surgery and wearing shapewear or a waist trainer. 

Can I Change My Body Shape?

You can change the shape of your body by working out and eating clean nutritious foods. Lifting weights or doing resistance training are excellent ways to mold your body and transform its shape. Through these workouts, you will be able to target and shape the specific muscles, like your glutes. You can make your butt appear bigger by eating right and doing resistance exercises. You can alter the way your body appears by gaining and losing muscles and fat.