Genetics isn't a excuse for anyone, just fight your war, and say **** off to genetics, that isn't excuse for anyone trust me, and adding something please people don't give all the problems to the poor thyroid lol.

There is more to this than meets the eye, and it can be confusing. There are a few things in play here, the number of calories, the types of foods consumed, and the type of exercises being performed. First, the change she made from only HIIT to weight lifting is significant. If she is eating 1,100 calories and working hard for 1.5 hours her body is likely resorting to burning lean tissue for energy which will leave the fat as is and not develop muscle definition (actually deplete). Weight training would be more equivalent to a longer, low intensity cardio session, which allows the body to burn fat while developing some muscle mass/tone. Second, she adds more calories in, while cleaning up the diet. Notice she lists foods that are lacking in carbs (disregard vegetable carbs) and saturated fats. Eating more calories based on proteins and healthy fats will provide her body with the building blocks to repair an build muscle, while depriving the body of the excess carb and saturated fat fuel sources which will lead the body to burn excess fat off (utilizing stored energy). The threshold for a "calorie deficit" changes quite a bit based on the foods (protein, fat, carbs) that make up the total calories and the exercises being performed. While #bhopejones may have ate 2x the food, she was likely still in a calorie deficit without knowing it, and made the right changes which triggered her body to transform. Congrats to her!! I was able to cut for a show averaging 2,500 - 3,000 calories a day and still made it to 4% bf without doing any cardio. I was able to gradually reduce my carb intake, replacing those calories with more protein and healthy fats, which yielded results. @Eladophir - don't be rude, you aren't exactly a model of success... Always the tool bag with no profile pic that has to be like that.

you're right. you don't have a fast metabolism. In fact I would venture to say you suffered from metabolic damage from eating 1200 calories a day and doing 1 and a half hours of cardio

Jesus christ...

Just curious... What's a typical days meal plan for you? I eat clean and have problems keeping my calorie intake high. How do you take in 2300 plus calories daily on mostly lean proteins and veggies? Any ideas what your protein/carb/fat ratio is? Thanks.