My girlfriend goes to the gym everyday and goes hard. Does about 45 minutes of cardio and trains muscles as well. She also doesnt drink any alcohol and eats super clean. Shes about 5'6 and weighs 180. She is mainly big boned with a muscular frame and not in bad shape but has this cellulite on her legs primarily and can't get to where she wants to be. she cant lose no matter what. Shes trying to get to 140-150 but cant budge from her weight. Does anyone have any ideas to try? We both know a ton about training and nutrition but this is just weird.
For one, she does not have to go to the gym EVERY day, nor does she need to train re cardio AND weights EVERY time she trains - RECOVERY is ESSENTIAL for progress to be made, and if she's not giving herself that recovery time, then that is just one reason why she may not be making progress.
Something else to consider is her nutrition. "Eats super clean" means nothing if she is eating too little or not enough, specific to her goals and needs.
Cellulite is like bodyfat anywhere else - it will go with leaning, which is a product of the correct nutrition and training for a specific individual.
SCALE weight should NOT be her focus - overall body mass is IRrelevant; she should be concentrating on her BODY COMPOSITION. For example, if she's relatively lean at 180, then for her to get to 140-150, she might have to sacrifice a lot of lean muscle mass to get there, which is not really desirable. If she's not that lean, then you need to find out what her body composition is, set a target body composition, and calculate her "ideal" weight at that body composition, since she wants to maintain as much (ideally ALL) of her current lean mass to get there.
If she's not able to make progress in the direction she wants to, then the first two factors to look at are NUTRITION AND TRAINING, period. Reassess what she is currently doing and adjust it for her goals NOW. She may not be eating right for her, she may be training too much or not training optimally for her goals - knowing "a ton about training and nutrition" means nothing if you cannot put your knowledge into practice.
Knowledge is also not everything, and there are many anomalies to what is "known" and "accepted" - I know this from personal experience - and whilst one can use what they know as a basis to start from, you have to experiment to find out what works effectively for YOU in getting where you want to be. Experimenting never ends either, since what worked one time does not and will not always work another, as our body is constantly changing.
I respect that you have knowledge on training and nutrition, but I recommend reviewing some of the articles at
Fat Loss for some ideas re other possible angles to attack this issue from.
~Rosie~