Well, I have consumed mostly clean food as well in the past, but now I allow myself a lot more things and obviously my progress is going as good as ever.

Getting back to the topic, what I love the most are: tacos and tortilla. I also love to have a good tequila or some Mexican beer on top of that.

I actually love Mexican food overall and I don't even consider it as a junk food that much as it has pretty good nutritional values.

I also love to have some spicy pizza with habanero peppers as well from time to time. I should add that I drink diet cola pretty often as well, I don't know if it counts as a cheat meal though

I prefer it to normal one with sugar, so I tend to drink a one or two bottles per week

I have also noticed that, new veins don't always mean that I've lost some fat. As I have different goals than most of you,

I usually keep my body fat percentage considerably higher and quite often I can see increasement in my vascularity without losing a pound or without even being on a calories deficit.

So, basically it's also the effect of getting your diet more balanced in macroelements and vitamins.

I've also read an very interesting article recently and I have learned that sodium can greatly impact visibility of veins and actually so does well-balanced diet as well.

By the way, arms and shoulders are the place where new veins tend to appear most often, due to the lower body fat in this area.

Well, for me personally both SPLIT and Push and Push and Pull have worked, so I'm basically rotating between those two methods.

By the way, what is your goal? Do you want to increase your strength or do you just want to be more fit?

In my first year I did the biggest progress on a program called "Texas Method" - it's an FBW workout, but it's really amazing. I'm a bit too experienced to follow it now, but if I were in your shoes

I wouldn't hesitate at all and I would go for it right away It's amazing for increasing both strength and endurance - obviously it will get you in a decent shape as well.

It's just a matter of preference and to be honest, it doesn't suit everyone.

I don't imagine my good friend from gym to have any tattoos for example - it just wouldn't fit.

As for me, I think I could find some interesting projects that would look good on me, but I don't see a reason to do so.

I rather beautify my body by lifting iron than by doing tattoos.

Madam Nelline has already told you the sad truth. I'm sorry, but as you said, that you were genetically petite woman and you have greatly increased in size due to hard, regular working out for 4 years then you simply don't have genetics to have the butt you desire.

I'm an total opposite to you - I have a big ass, big legs and I was always overweight and generally bigger than my peers.

I've lost weight, but I can still see genetic predisposition to grow in size. I'm sorry, that you will most likely never experience it.

There is only one way to achieve what you want to achieve though - steroids.

You have to modify your hormones and give your body a new setting, so it can grow accordingly to your desire.

It's not my area though, so I can't help you much here.

Amazing post, Elephant! Good luck on journey, that I hope will last for a long time!

I have also noticed this tendency - gyms are mostly occupied by men and if I see a woman, she isn't really training as hard as she should.

They are taking selfies, doing cardio, but not really much of an actual workout - seriously, we women are really slacking off at gym from what I have noticed

I agree. During weight loss eating clean is much more important, especially when you are just an beginner, usually heavily overweight.

Body of such a person is reacting very differently in comparison to ours, that are in shape for a while already.

It has to do with glucagon/insulin levels. You can eat more junk food the less overweight you are.

I stick to this rule and also during any weight loss, I tend to cut my junk food consumption significantly.

So, just like others I believe in moderation Eat relatively clean, but don't go crazy on yourself, if you eat some extra burgers.

We are not pros, we are not on heavy cycle aiming to get 101% out of our bodies. We can cut ourselves some slack and it won't really make a difference for us.

It's very important to feel both good physically and mentally, if you want to last in this sport

I eat like 70% clean, 30% dirty and so far I feel really great.

As for processed food, that is worse than typical McDonald or KFC food - I rather spend some more money to make sure that what I eat is relatively healthy.

Yeah, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned stiff-leg deadlift. It's very similar to Romanian Deadlift with only difference being, that you actually have straight legs in stiff-leg one for whole movement, while RDL is much more resembling original deadlift in this manner.

I actually prefer stiff-leg one over RDL, it literally makes my hamstrings explode, especially as annbee already said, that women are more quad dominant, so we need to provide more volume for hamstrings to grow at the same rate as quads (by around 20-30%).

Hey, I know what you mean. I don't receive any negative comments in a direct way as well, but I hear some stuff.

I'm not that ripped as you are. I'm one of these women, that like to keep some extra fat and are focusing much more on strength and lifting, so I have never heard anybody telling me that I'm too shredded, that I'm a pro bikini fitness wannabe, but I have heard other stuff.

Like I usually lift pretty heavy weights - as for a woman of course, but I'm pretty often lifting more than men at my gym and I get those looks from men as well.

Unlike in your case, they are not always showing admiration in an sexual way, but they tend to view me as their rival. Mostly those men that are just starting and are out of shape - they don't want to be weaker than a woman. Pretty hilarious to be honest, but I have never seen any negativity from their end either, just a little bit different looks.

As for women - well, they often like to remind me that I'm BIG. That my legs are too big, that I'm getting too big overall and they think that it's time to lose some weight.

I'm already on relatively low body fat compared to them, but they don't see it cause I have a lot of muscle as well.

To look as skinny as them I would have to get to 10% body fat or below and that wouldn't be achievable without tons of hard work and possibly steroids.

So, just like Katyaa said - it's jealousy. I have twice as big bootie as my peers, which is also more round and better looking overall, so they can't stand it and very often

I become the main subject of their gossip over the glass of wine.

Hi! So, basically the workout for men and for women doesn't really differ that much. The only difference is weight you use.

You should remember to not overtrain her at the beginning. Let her start slowly and let build some stamina, before you introduce her to heavier workouts.

There is plenty of those, that are perfect for beginning women, just pick some for her or better yet - let her pick some

As for diet - depending on what she eats now, don't make any sudden changes to her eating habits. Beginners don't really require much to start progressing.

If she eats unhealthy, just make a diet for her, which will be healthy, calculate her calories from TDEE calculator and cut like -10% from it.

Then slowly add some cardio etc. As you have already successfully lost weight before, you must know what I'm talking about.

You should guide her the same way as you did guide yourself.

Just like neomeena said, our bodies tend to adapt to cardio. I've even found some knowledgeable guy saying that.

I'm not stating facts based on his opinions alone and I'm actually not saying that our bodies adapts for sure, but I have even noticed it basing on my own experience.

After like 6 months of constantly doing cardio it simply stopped giving any effect. I was doing weight loss diet very slowly with very low calories deficit - at first I did only cardio with my calories deficit at 0 and it really was giving less and less effects. I don't want to clearly state that HITT is superior, but from what I have noticed and neomeena did also - in this regard, due to adaptation which is following pretty quickly, I got to admit that it is.

Yes, muscles tend to grow much better when we are eating a lot, but that leads to gaining weight, so after you gain some weight, you have to lose it.

When you lose it, you will be able to calculate your % of muscles gained. Don't worry so much. Do 3 months of bulking, then 3 months of cutting and repeat this process, you should note a big improvement in your looks.

How big of a belly really is it by the way? You can't expect to have visible 6-pack unless you really bring yourself to very low BF, but if you have a beer belly like an overweight 50 years old male, then there is something wrong.

Hey, sakura! This is a very delicate matter - every one of us has some genetic tendencies to which parts of your body will accumulate more fat.

For example most of my fat goes to my legs and my butt, but my waist is fairly slim. So, no matter how much I have tried losing fat from my legs or butt, nothing worked.

I have done tons of squats and other leg exercises - but it has lead to only one thing - they grew even bigger! At least it was mostly muscle, not fat..

But, the point is that we all have regions on our body from which losing fat is extremely hard. There is not many people who don't have such areas - everyone has some, even if they are skinny, they have those regions, that will collect fat pretty quickly once they start gaining weight. For women this area is usually legs or butt.

I find big belly to be mostly the issue for men, but every one of us is unique, so you will probably have to learn to live with it..

That is bad indeed, MissBaine. I can't blame you for losing motivation and I totally understand your reasons. Just get back to normal eating - eat those burgers and pizza, even if I would never recommend consuming junk food to anyone - you should do that.

Trust me, mental health is very important factor here as well. So as you said, you should let both your mind and body rest.

Then, when you regenerate both mentally and physically, you will come back much more stronger. You really did a lot of cardio and a lot of HITT.

On top of that you were on really low calories - I can even see the reason for why you are not losing weight anymore. It's simple - you have overtrained your body.

Even if your metabolism is slow - in your case it's actually VERY slow, it doesn't mean that you need that much less calories than other people with faster metabolism.

How did you start your diet by the way? Did you add all those activities at once or did you spread it in time? From what I've understood from your post - you took an slower approach with adding activities, am I right?