The shape of our hips is something many people think about when looking in the mirror. You might notice a slight inward curve on the side of your legs, just below the hip bone. These are commonly called hip dips. If you’ve wondered, is it possible to fill hip dips naturally?, you aren’t alone. Thousands of people search for ways to create a rounder silhouette without resorting to surgery.
In this guide, we will break down the science of your body, what you can actually change, and how to feel more confident in your own skin.
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Almost every week, a woman shows me a photo of the side of her hips and asks if she can make the little inward curve go away. So let’s settle it properly, the way I’d explain it to a client on day one: what those curves are, what you can change, and what no amount of training will touch.
What Hip Dips Actually Are
Hip dips are the inward curves on the side of your hips, where your pelvis sits wider than the top of your thigh bone and the skin tucks into the gap between them. They are a bone-structure trait, not body fat, and not a sign you are out of shape.
The anatomy is simple once you see it. There is a vertical distance between your iliac crest (the top of your hip bone) and the greater trochanter (the bony knob at the top of your femur). When that gap is wider, the soft tissue dips into it and you get a visible indentation. Two things decide how noticeable yours is: the width and shape of your pelvis, and how your body stores fat around the area. Both are largely genetic.
I say this to clients constantly: having hip dips says nothing about your fitness. Some of the leanest, strongest women I coach have the most obvious ones, which brings me to a point most articles skip over.
Can You Fill Hip Dips Naturally?
Partly, yes. You can’t move the skeleton you were born with, but you can build the muscle that sits on top of it, and that changes how deep the dip looks.
The muscle that matters here is the gluteus medius, the one on the upper outer side of your hip. Think of it as filling material. You can’t shrink the bony gap, but you can grow the muscle around it so the line from your waist to your thigh looks rounder and smoother. That is the entire game with filling hip dips naturally: more side-glute muscle, better-looking transition. Everything below is how you actually do it.
The Exercises That Hit the Side Glute
The dip is covered by the gluteus medius, and that muscle responds best to hip abduction, meaning movements that drive your leg out to the side or rotate it open. Those are the exercises worth your time.
Here is what I program for it:
- Side-lying leg raises: the simplest and one of the most effective. In an EMG study comparing common exercises, side-lying hip abduction produced the greatest gluteus medius activation of all of them. Slow and controlled beats high and fast.
- Clamshells: great for finding the muscle and waking it up, especially as a warm-up before heavier work.
- Fire hydrants: good for the outer hip and easy to add a band or ankle weight to.
- Curtsy lunges: these load the side glute from an angle a normal squat misses, which is exactly why I include them.
A note from the gym floor: standard squats are a great exercise, but they mostly build the gluteus maximus (the big rear muscle), not the side. If hip dips are your priority and your whole routine is squats, you are training the wrong part of the glute. If squats are also giving you trouble, that is usually a setup or hip issue rather than the exercise itself, and it is fixable, which I cover in hip pain from squatting.
The same abduction work also matters if you are dealing with signs of weak glutes, since the gluteus medius is one of the first muscles to go quiet when people sit all day.
Why Nutrition Decides Whether the Muscle Shows Up
You can’t build muscle you don’t feed. To fill the side hip, you need enough protein to repair and grow the muscle, and enough total food to support that growth.
Three things I make clients get right:
- Protein: lean meats, eggs, dairy, beans, or a quality plant source at every meal. This is the raw material your side-glute muscle is rebuilt from.
- Enough overall fuel: you cannot grow muscle in a steep calorie deficit. Trying to lose fat fast and fill your hips at the same time usually does neither.
- A bit of body fat is your friend here. Very low body fat often makes hip dips look deeper, because there is less soft tissue padding the gap. Lean is not always the look people expect it to be.
I see this trip women up all the time: they cut calories hard, lose the small amount of fat that was softening the area, and the dip looks more pronounced than when they started. Underfeeding is not the path to rounder hips.
How Long It Realistically Takes
Give it 8 to 12 weeks of consistent training before you judge anything. Visible gluteal muscle growth shows up on that kind of timeline, not in a couple of weeks.
That is roughly what the research shows too. In a controlled MRI study, several weeks of structured resistance training measurably increased gluteal muscle size. The side glute is a smaller muscle, so train it two to three times a week and slowly add load or reps over time. That progressive overload is what forces the muscle to thicken. If you want a grounded sense of what a focused block actually produces, this breakdown of 12-week glute transformation results sets honest expectations, and the same principles carry into glute training for women over 40, where consistency matters even more.
The Honest Part: What Training Can’t Do
Training can reduce how deep a hip dip looks. It cannot erase the bone structure underneath. Anyone promising to make them disappear completely is selling you something.
For most women, the dip will always be at least slightly visible, and that is fine. The realistic, achievable goal is a softer, rounder transition and stronger hips, not a flawless straight line from waist to thigh. The bonus is that the same work that improves the look also improves balance, posture, and how your hips handle running, lifting, and daily life. Chasing one curve in the mirror is a weak motivator. Building hips that are genuinely strong is the one that lasts.
Filling Hip Dips Naturally vs. The Alternatives
| Method | Effort | Natural? | What it actually does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side-glute resistance training | High | Yes | Builds gluteus medius, softens the dip over weeks |
| Nutrition (protein + enough fuel) | Medium | Yes | Supplies the muscle to grow and keeps soft-tissue padding |
| Posture and stance changes | Low | Yes | Shifts how the hips present in the moment, no real structural change |
| Fillers or surgery | Very high | No | Alters shape artificially, with cost and risk |
If you want this programmed for your body instead of guessing, that is exactly what 1-on-1 glute coaching is for, since the right plan depends on your pelvis, your starting point, and your goals.
The Short Version
Yes, you can fill hip dips naturally, within limits. Build the gluteus medius with abduction work, feed it enough protein and food to actually grow, give it a couple of months, and accept that the goal is softer and stronger, not gone. Start with side-leg raises, stay consistent, and judge it at week 12, not week two.
Scientific References for Filling Hip Dips Naturally
- Anatomy of the Pelvis and Hip Depressions (High Trochanteric Pressure): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9944621/
- Gluteus Medius Activation and Growth (The “Side Booty”): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32851163/
- Effective Exercises for Hip Width (Clamshells and Abductions): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7039033/
- Role of Body Fat Distribution in Female Hip Shape: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21496030/
- Muscle Hypertrophy for Shaping vs. Bone Structure: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20847704/
Impact of Resistance Training on Gluteal Muscle Volume: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31934445/
FAQs
Is it possible to fill hip dips naturally?
You can fill hip dips naturally by growing the gluteus medius muscle through targeted resistance training and maintaining a caloric surplus. While bone structure determines the depth of the indentation, increasing muscle volume in the “side booty” area creates a smoother, rounder transition from the pelvis to the thigh.
Which exercises target the side hip dip area?
To effectively target the hip dip area, focus on abduction movements like fire hydrants, clamshells, and side-lying leg raises. These exercises isolate the gluteus medius and minimus, which sit directly under the “dip,” allowing you to build thickness that masks the underlying skeletal gap.
Why do I have a gap between my hip bone and thigh?
This gap, often called a hip dip, is caused by the vertical distance between your ilium (hip bone) and the greater trochanter of your femur. At Booty Center, we explain that this is a skeletal trait where the skin “dips” into the space between bones; it is not a flaw or a sign of excess body fat.
Can squats get rid of hip dips?
Standard squats primarily target the gluteus maximus and quads, which may not fill the lateral indentation of a hip dip. To see results, you must modify your routine to include curtsy lunges or wide-stance sumo squats, which engage the lateral glute muscles more effectively for a wider hip appearance.
Does losing weight make hip dips more visible?
Weight loss can sometimes make hip dips more prominent because the fat stored in the “love handle” area or the outer thigh (saddlebags) is reduced, revealing the natural bone structure beneath. To maintain a smooth silhouette during weight loss, Booty Center recommends a high-protein diet to preserve side-hip muscle mass.
How long does it take to fill hip dips with exercise?
Muscle hypertrophy generally takes 6 to 12 weeks of consistent resistance training to show visible changes. Because the gluteus medius is a smaller muscle group, you should train it 2-3 times per week with progressive overload—increasing weight or reps—to see a natural “filling” effect.
Are hip dips caused by high body fat?
No, hip dips are actually more visible on individuals with lower body fat or high muscle tone because there is less subcutaneous fat to “cushion” the space between the hip bone and the thigh bone. They are a structural anatomical feature, not an indicator of your fitness level or fat percentage.
What should I eat to grow my side hips?
To fill the hip area naturally, you must consume enough protein (roughly 0.8g to 1g per pound of body weight) to support muscle repair. Booty Center experts suggest pairing this with healthy fats and complex carbohydrates to provide the energy needed for heavy lateral hip training sessions.
Can yoga or stretching fix hip dips?
While yoga improves hip mobility and flexibility, it rarely provides the mechanical tension needed to grow the gluteus medius muscle enough to fill a dip. For a visual change, you need to transition from stretching to weighted resistance exercises that force the muscle fibers to thicken and expand.
Is there a permanent way to hide hip dips without surgery?
The most permanent natural solution is building a “muscle shelf” through consistent strength training. Unlike fat, which can fluctuate with diet, well-developed muscle provides a stable shape that rounds out the hips, providing a long-term aesthetic change without the risks of fillers or implants.
