Kim Lost 42 Pounds of Baby Weight and Grew a Booty by Doing These 2 Things

Kimberley French is a 30-year-old mom of two young kids, ages 2 and 4. As is normal with pregnancy, Kim experienced some weight gain. After her second baby was born in May 2016, Kim shared with POPSUGAR, "I had put on a massive three stone [42 pounds] in weight and was 14 stone [198 pounds]." Three months after giving birth, Kim started on her goal to lose the baby weight and get back to a size she was happy with.

Kim crushed her goal by doing "copious amounts of cardio, which I thought to be the right thing to do at the time, but it left me flabby with a 'skinny fat' physique." So in October 2016, for the first time in her life, Kim decided to join a gym. She said, "I wanted to start building muscle and shape my body with curves. I knew I wanted to build my booty and upper body so I increased my calories up to 1,800 and trained four times a week."

At the beginning, Kim was doing one hour of weight training and then an additional 40 to 50 minutes of cardio with each session. Although she started to build muscle and look stronger, Kim said, "I still wasn't getting the results I wanted. I upped my calories gradually to 2,200 a day and completely stopped my cardio so I could solely focus on building more muscle."

Kim shared, "I have always eaten high-protein food and over five meals a day, but increasing the calories has been the reason for my further booty growth. Food is fuel!!"

A normal day for Kim includes five different meals spread out throughout the day, including things like protein oats, boiled eggs and avocado, protein yogurt, chicken breast with paprika and onion seasoning, brown rice, and whey protein. All in all, she consumes about 2,244 calories a day and makes sure she gets plenty of protein and carbs so that her muscles can grow in a healthy way.

Kim admitted that, at first, eating more calories was mentally a little tough — it wasn't easy seeing herself gaining fat. But if your goal is booty gains, Kim said, "In order to grow muscle, you have to be in a calorie surplus, which inevitably means you will put on some weight in other places. But it's worth it and you just have to trust the process."

Motivation happens for Kim with the help of her Instagram account. "I have 50,000 followers who look to me for guidance, and it really keeps me motivated to post workouts, food ideas, etc. to help other people on their own fitness journey."

Aside from focusing on weight training and eating more calories, one key to Kim's success is taking progress pics. "You can see your results and know your hard work is paying off." She suggests taking progress pics every month and to remember that it takes time to transform your body. "It will happen if you stay consistent and work hard for it."