Can You Actually Get Rid of Hip Dips?

Search for hip dips on any platform and you'll find two completely opposite answers sitting side by side.

One video promises to eliminate them in 30 days with the right exercises. The comment section is full of people saying it worked. The next article explains that hip dips are entirely genetic and nothing can change them. That comment section is equally convinced.

Both can't be fully right. And the confusion between them is exactly where most people get stuck — either chasing a result that isn't possible, or giving up on changes that actually are.

The honest answer sits between those two extremes. And it starts with understanding what hip dips actually are.

Hip dips aren't something sitting on your body. They're the shape your body naturally creates.

Hip Dips Aren't Something You Have

Most articles describe hip dips as indentations — as if they're something sitting on the body that could, theoretically, be removed.

They're not.

Hip dips are a shape. Specifically, they're the visual result of where your pelvis, femur, muscles, fat, and skin all meet. When the iliac crest — the upper ridge of the pelvis — sits higher or wider relative to the greater trochanter of the femur, the bony point at the top of the thigh bone, a depression forms in the tissue between them. That depression is what people call a hip dip.

It isn't a gap in muscle. It isn't excess fat. It isn't a sign that something is missing.

It's the surface expression of your skeletal geometry. Which is why trying to “fix” it with exercises is a bit like trying to change your cheekbones by adjusting your skincare routine. The approach isn't wrong — it just isn't addressing what's actually creating the shape.

Why Some People Have More Visible Hip Dips Than Others

No single factor creates hip dips. It's the combination that creates the shape.

The width and angle of the pelvis affect how much lateral surface area exists between the hip crest and the thigh. A wider pelvis with a higher iliac crest tends to create a more visible depression.

The position of the greater trochanter relative to the hip crest determines the depth of that transition. The volume of the gluteus medius — the muscle that sits directly in the area of the hip dip — fills in that space to varying degrees depending on development. Body fat distribution also changes how softly or sharply the underlying structure is expressed at the surface.

Someone with a high iliac crest might have a well-developed gluteus medius that fills the area significantly. Someone with a lower pelvis might have minimal fat distribution that makes a smaller structural difference look more pronounced.

This is why two people doing identical training for identical amounts of time can end up with completely different-looking hips. The underlying geometry was different before they started.

What Training Can Actually Change

Here's where honesty matters more than optimism.

Training cannot change the shape of your pelvis or the position of your greater trochanter. Those are fixed by bone structure, and no exercise program modifies bone geometry.

What training can change is what sits on top of that structure.

The gluteus medius runs directly through the hip dip area. When it develops, it adds volume to exactly the region where the depression appears. The gluteus maximus, when it grows, changes the overall shape of the posterior hip and affects how the lateral line transitions visually.

Body fat distribution, which shifts with overall body composition changes, also affects how softly the underlying structure reads at the surface.

You can't train your bones. You can only change what sits on top of them.

The movements that most directly develop volume in the hip dip area are those that load the gluteus medius through abduction and external rotation:

• Side-lying hip abductions. The gluteus medius works as a primary mover here with minimal contribution from other muscles, making this one of the most direct ways to target the area.
• Lateral band walks. The band creates continuous resistance through the abduction range, keeping the gluteus medius under load across the entire movement rather than just at the endpoint.
• Clamshells. These are particularly effective for isolating the gluteus medius and external rotators in a range that compound movements don't reach.
• Cable or band kickbacks. These load the gluteus medius through hip extension and external rotation simultaneously, which develops both depth and the lateral shape of the hip.

Structured programs focused on glute development, like the Twerk Program, build volume in this area progressively over time. But the changes are in expression, not in anatomy. The structural shape underneath remains the same.

Why Some Before-and-After Photos Look So Dramatic

This is the part most articles skip — and it's worth understanding, because it explains why the internet produces such contradictory evidence.

The same body can look completely different in two photos taken five minutes apart. Several factors can change the appearance of hip dips without changing anything about the body itself:

• Lighting direction. Side lighting creates shadows that deepen any surface depression. Frontal lighting flattens them. The same hip dip that looks dramatic in one light can be nearly invisible in another.
• Camera angle. A slightly lower angle widens the hip silhouette and reduces the appearance of the lateral depression. A higher angle does the opposite.
• Pelvic tilt. A small anterior tilt pushes the hip points forward and upward, changing the entire lateral line. Most people don't consciously control this, but it can shift dramatically between relaxed and posed standing.
• Muscle pump. The gluteus medius holds more blood volume immediately after training. Post-workout photos therefore show more volume in exactly the hip dip region than photos of the same person taken the next morning.
• Body fat percentage. A slight increase in body fat softens the surface and makes underlying skeletal features less visible. A cut that reduces body fat can make the same bones look more pronounced.

None of this means before-and-after photos are dishonest. It means they're capturing moments, not permanent states.

A dramatic-looking transformation photo may be showing real muscle development, a different lighting setup, or both — with no way to tell from the image alone.

What Progress Actually Looks Like

The question “did my hip dips go away?” is almost always the wrong question to use when tracking progress.

More useful questions to ask include:

• Have the glutes become visibly fuller, particularly in the lateral hip area where the gluteus medius sits?
• Does the transition from the waist to the hip look softer or more continuous than it did before?
• Has the overall silhouette changed when viewed from the front or back?
• Does clothing, particularly fitted bottoms, sit differently?

These are changes that training can produce. They don't require the underlying depression to disappear. They require the tissue surrounding it to develop enough that the contrast between the bony point and the surrounding area becomes less sharp.

For many people, that change is significant. The Body Transformation program approaches this from exactly this angle — building the muscle and body composition changes that shift the silhouette, without overpromising what bone structure will allow.

The goal isn't to erase your anatomy. It's to improve what your anatomy already gives you.

What the Anatomy Research Confirms

If you've wondered whether the bone structure explanation is just an excuse, it isn't.

Anatomical studies confirm that the position of the iliac crest and greater trochanter varies significantly between individuals — and that this variation directly affects the lateral hip contour.

Research on gluteus medius hypertrophy shows that targeted training can increase muscle volume in this region, with measurable effects on hip width and contour. Studies on body fat distribution also confirm that fat patterning is largely determined by hormonal and genetic factors, meaning two people at the same body fat percentage can have very different surface textures in the hip area.

The honest summary is simple: structure is fixed, but expression isn't. The same skeleton can produce a noticeably different silhouette depending on what surrounds it.

Your skeleton sets the outline.

Your training changes how that outline is filled.

The people who get the best results stop fighting their structure — and start building on it.