In this episode, Adam is back and we’re talking about the X physique, body recomposition, training quality, scale obsession, and why so many women keep trying to diet their way into a body that actually needs to be built.

if another diet was going to give you the body you want, wouldn’t it have worked by now?

not in a mean way. in a “let’s actually be honest with ourselves for a second” way.

We get into the stuff that most fitness content skips over — like why your clothes might not always get looser when you’re building muscle, why the scale is a terrible recomp coach, why influencer “shreds” can mess with your head, and why feeling wrecked in the gym doesn’t automatically mean you’re giving your muscles the right stimulus.

Because yes, fat loss has its place.

But if you want that lean, strong, feminine, “she actually lifts” look, you need muscle. And you don’t build that by constantly cutting, program hopping, under-fuelling your sessions, panicking over water weight, or using the scale as your main source of validation. If you want to stop that cycle, and learn WHERE to focus so you can progress – in a way that compounds – let me teach you.

Let’s see what could be missing from your approach and how we can make your efforts actually count

You at least deserve that!

DM me “episode #483” on Instagram @transformxruby… and lets talk about it

because if you keep losing weight, gaining it back, cleaning things up, chasing the scale, feeling soft, panicking when your clothes feel tighter, then going back into another deficit… maybe the issue is not that you haven’t pushed hard enough.

maybe you’re trying to diet your way into a body you haven’t built.

6 mini wins from this episode:

1. ask yourself if you’ve built enough muscle first.. And what happened last time you told yourself the same answer
2. stop using the scale as your recomp coach when the goal is shape, strength and muscle.
3. look at your training and ask, “was that actually the right stimulus, or did it just feel hard?
4. notice where you’re still using fat loss behaviours to chase a muscle-building outcome.
5. stop treating “smaller” as the only proof that your body is improving.
6. take your next workout seriously enough to ask, “am i building the muscle, or just surviving the session?”

• 
  

• find me @transformxruby on instagram

  Apply for a free consult:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqaxMDfbPYPYVui3BgSClnDXTj4BWjRvPkbBHuK5CP7SQsIw/viewform?usp=sf_linkDirect link to DM me on IG:https://ig.me/m/transformxruby

  
  PS ------

  → if you struggle with losing fat, building muscle and seeing the tighter, toned look

  It COULD actually be your lack of discipline. Maybe even lack of willpower.

  But what it is NOT – is your fault. 3

  You’ve burnt that shit out because of the mental purgatory you’ve been in –

  trying to see results, lean up, diet…

  And that’s exactly what we, as women especially, have been sold endlessly. Ruthlessly,.

  You’d be even more damned if you are 40yo +

  … bc now you’re really targeted by marketing wanting your $$

  And this is where my best clients win…

  → they learn what matters and start chasing something exciting again

  That? Creates the buy-in that leads to the stay-in

  I WISH you could know, you can experience, how much smoother the process can be, how much less of a headf*k

  Until you finally get to experience a fat loss phase that works as it should… and you STILL feel in control by the end of it.

  
  ---

If every diet feels harder than the last one, this episode is for you.

An effective fat loss phase needs to be deliberately set up, deliberately executed and deliberately exited - because repeatedly half-dieting from the wrong place is exactly why every diet feels harder and leaves you softer, more frustrated and more likely to start again.

Especially if you’ve been doing this for years… trying to be sensible, trying to make fat loss “balanced,” trying to find something sustainable, then somehow ending up right back at: okay, I’m uncomfortable again, I need to tighten things up.

You are not the woman who needs another lecture about trying harder.

You’re probably already training. Thinking about protein. Watching the scale. Trying to be good. Starting again. And wondering why all that effort still doesn’t seem to create the lean, strong, athletic body you actually want.

In this episode, I’m digging into the part almost nobody talks about: there is an entry criteria for fat loss.

Because a proper fat loss phase needs more than lower calories. It needs a body and a life that are actually set up to handle it, a strong enough training signal to protect muscle, food structure you can rely on, a defined reason for the phase, and an exit so you don’t end up right back in the same yo yo dieting cycle.

This is especially relevant if you’re a woman over 35 or 40, you’re navigating perimenopause concerns, you feel stuck between losing fat and building muscle, or you’re terrified that eating more means losing control.

Cos how many more times do you want to have that exact same conversation with yourself?

Do you REALLY want to spend your life so fixated on losing fat, feeling restricted and like there is literally something wrong with your body for not responding how it ought to

The goal is to build a life, metabolism, training base, food structure, and body that does not need another duscomfort/panic diet

Or dieting because ‘you need a goal to keep you motivated -

You do not need to become better at suffering through diets. You need to become the woman who understands what her body needs, chooses the right phase, commits to it properly and knows what she is returning to afterwards.

fat loss has entry criteria, a defined phase, and an exit That is how you stop starting over.

find me @transformxruby on instagram

Apply for a free consult:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqaxMDfbPYPYVui3BgSClnDXTj4BWjRvPkbBHuK5CP7SQsIw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Direct link to DM me on IG:https://ig.me/m/transformxruby

Michelles podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/4fN2lRXqTRdbI6GTAE601l

AMYs podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/1cIHFoaFvGzrTYJd8v9sSo

Leannes podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/3PeOjGKyqyEy5MS4JjcX4b

Sharons podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/7jMbxS68hYYxSTJoRVjhq4

And if youre someone who;

• always dieting but not losing
• every diet gets harder
• scared to eat more
• stuck between losing fat and building muscle
• training hard but still feeling soft
• not lean enough to stop dieting
• afraid of gaining weight back
• doing all the work without the payoff

I’d love to be the one helping you break through all that <3

what i want you to realise after this?

“Oh. Maybe I don’t keep failing diets because I’m shit at consistency. Maybe I keep entering them with no runway, no real structure, no effective training signal, no defined end point and nothing to return to afterwards.”

That is the oh fuck moment.

STOP WINGING THIS!

The flex is building the body. Body re-composition! not Diet after diet or yoyo dieting or chronic dieting full of scale obsession And thinking perimenopause fat loss is absolutely impossible

if you’ve been trying to lose fat for what feels like your whole life…

or you’re in that weird place where you’re technically trying to just build muscle, get your metabolism up so you can diet better next time… but youre clinging to the next fat loss phase… wanting to do both now even, but it just feels like youre in between the 2 - this one’s going to hit.

“I’m consistent, I eat healthy, I train, why am I not seeing more?” and “I’m definitely in a calorie deficit, why am I not losing?

This episode challenges the usual fast versus slow fat loss debate and asks the question most women are skipping: should you even be in a fat loss phase right now?

I break down why “slow and sustainable” can sometimes become a trap, especially for women who have spent years dieting, restarting, trying to be consistent, fearing weight gain, blaming hormones, and still not seeing the body composition changes they want.

The episode covers mental dieting, tiny deficits, why fat loss needs an exit plan, why faster fat loss is not the same as crash dieting, and why the body many women want may require more muscle, better training and more capacity before another deficit.

Everyone talks about how fast fat loss is hard.

And yes, it is.

You will probably be hungrier.=

You will probably need to make harder decisions for a period of time.

But no one talks about the cost of going slow. of following the popular advice out there

Because if you drag a fat loss phase out over 6..9..12 months.. how is THAT sustainable? especially if theres still little to show for it

i talk

• Why “I feel like I’m dieting” is not the same as actually being in an effective deficit

• Why sustainable does not mean the deficit lasts forever

• The problem with trying to diet your way into a body that needs muscle

• Why women over 35 and 40 often need better training, recovery and structure, not just fewer calories

• Why fast fat loss is not automatically reckless

• Why slow fat loss is not automatically safer

• Why the exit phase matters as much as the deficit

3 action steps

1. Ask whether fat loss is actually the right phase.

Before starting another diet, ask: is my training progressing? Am I recovering? Am I sleeping? Do I have enough muscle to reveal what I want to see? Am I choosing fat loss from strategy, or because discomfort has made dieting feel familiar?

2. check: if youre physically dieting or mentally dieting.

If you feel restricted, guilty, food-focused and constantly restarting, but your body is not physically changing, you may be living in diet-brain without being in a clean enough deficit to create the result.

3. Choose the next step

Do not default to fat loss just because you feel uncomfortable. If your training is flat, recovery is poor, calories are already low or food noise is high, the next step may be building capacity first.

links

Find me on Instagram: @transformxruby

Apply for a free consult: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqaxMDfbPYPYVui3BgSClnDXTj4BWjRvPkbBHuK5CP7SQsIw/viewform?usp=sf_link

DM me directly on Instagram: https://ig.me/m/transformxruby

---

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS

IMPORTANT: adjust these after the final audio export. These are estimated based on the final assembly map.

00:00 — doing all the hard parts with none of the payoff

01:00 — Why this is not just “fast vs slow fat loss”

03:00 — The woman who feels like she is always dieting

06:00 — Why “slow and sustainable” can quietly keep you stuck

09:30 — When slow fat loss does make sense

12:00 — The difference between fat loss and body recomposition

15:30 — Why tiny deficits disappear so easily

18:30 — Women over 35, perimenopause and the wrong fat loss assumptions for your hormones

22:00 — The real cost of dragging out a diet

25:00 — Why fast fat loss is not automatically reckless

31:00 — Progress photos, scales

37:00 — food noise, chocolate, bread fear and structure

43:00 — Why carbs can support the process instead of ruining it

52:00 — Build capacity before you try to reveal the body

Your shorts feel tighter. You feel hotter, puffier, stickier and more exposed.

You catch one bad reflection or try on something you haven’t worn since last summer

Suddenly your brain has a complete nervy breakdown

(idk why this reminds me of angus thongs and perfect snogging… but kinda that crazy)

But you?

You drop calories. Add cardio. Clean everything up. Get back in control.

Yep… summer has a weird way of making your body feel like an emergency

But is fat loss actually the phase your body needs right now? Or is it the thing that will be the reason behind your belly being a huge problem after 40? After 50?

-----------------Find me @transformxruby on instagram and tell me what IS PLAYING OVER IN YOUR HEAD about this whole body transformation thing... where you are getting tripped up...

i will do my best to help you with a free assessment :)

** just say you came from the podcast**------------------

You can lose weight without ending up with the lean, strong and defined body you pictured

You can become smaller without creating more shape.

And you can keep trying to reveal muscle that you have never given yourself enough time, food or effective training to build.

In this episode, we’re talking about:

• why summer can make you feel physically fuller without proving you have suddenly gained body fat

• the difference between strategically choosing fat loss and emotionally reacting to discomfort

• why dieting feels so reassuring when maintenance feels uncertain

• why “toned” is not a number on the scale

• how repeated summer shreds keep cutting your muscle-building phase short

• why eating more only works when your training creates a genuine reason for your body to adapt

• what effective training, progressive overload, carbohydrates and recovery have to do with the shape you want

• why maintenance is not a break from progress—it is where so much of the useful work happens

This is not an anti-fat-loss episode.

Some women need a fat-loss phase. Some women are completely ready for one.

But if every tight pair of shorts, bad photograph or uncomfortable body day sends you straight back into restriction, that is not strategy. That is emotional relief dressed up as a plan.

The body you want is not just a fat-loss outcome.

You cannot keep cutting the building phase short and then wonder why there is nothing new to reveal.

I was talking to a client about this yesterday, and I could hear the desperation in her voice. She’d spent three years—three years—white-knuckling her way through summers because she felt like if she wasn’t "tightening up," she was losing control.

We forget that we are allowed to take up space. You do not need to earn the right to exist in the summer. You don't need to shrink before you participate in your own life.

I shared this episode because I’m so tired of seeing brilliant, capable women interrupt their own progress because they got scared by a photo from a barbecue. If you’re feeling that urge to cut right now, listen to this first. I want you to build something that lasts, not something you’re just trying to survive until September.

I’m in your corner. Let’s stop letting the shorts be the boss.

Apply for a free consult:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqaxMDfbPYPYVui3BgSClnDXTj4BWjRvPkbBHuK5CP7SQsIw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Direct link to DM me on IG:https://ig.me/m/transformxruby

And if this episode hit home, follow 100% real with ruby, leave a five-star rating and share it with the woman who thinks she needs another summer shred.

If you’re scared that building muscle will make you bulky, but you’re also frustrated that dieting harder still isn’t giving you the lean, defined look you want… this episode is the mindset shift.

In this episode, we’re talking about the difference between losing weight and actually building a body that looks lean, strong and shaped.

Because if you’re training hard, eating low calories, avoiding carbs, doing more cardio, chasing more control, and still feeling soft or stuck, the answer probably isn’t “diet harder.”

It might be that you’re under-fuelled, under-recovered, practising the wrong things, and expecting your body to perform without giving it what it needs to build.

We cover:

• why building muscle does not mean getting bulky
• why carbs matter for training performance, muscle, energy and body recomposition
• why low calories can make you feel like you’re working hard but not actually progressing
• the difference between scale weight and how your body looks, feels and performs
• why the basics work — but only if you stop getting bored of them
• why getting lean is not just about shrinking, it’s about building enough muscle to create shape

This is for the woman who wants to look lean, toned and defined — but is tired of living like fat loss is the only answer.

Find me on Instagram: @transformxruby

this episode is for women over 30 who want bodyrecomposition, glute growth, a more defined stomach, better muscle tone, andless frustration with fat loss — but keep getting stuck between wanting tobuild muscle and panicking every time the scale, stomach, legs, or jeanschange.

We explain how you CAN have glutes and abs…

But the way there demands a new way of thinking aboutbody recomposition

Because frankly, its taught wrong

We will talk through the body recomp mistake women makewhen chasing glutes and abs

… because the reason you struggle to see the definition ANDshape youre trying so hard to build Is because you keep using the same mindset,metrics, and methods that made you scared to build in the first place – well forlong enough anyway.

Fatloss can reveal ONLY the tightness you built

While you can diet and diet your way to a smaller waist –ESPECIALLY in your younger years… its not going to have the definition there …especially not without being HANGRY and starving on little to no calories

that was never an approach you would have wanted to liveanyway

You want energy, strength, capacity and the ability tothrive in your family, relationhips and at work

Plus once you hit 35, 40? You cant wing it anymore

STOP constantly interrupting the muscle-building processwith panic dieting. abs and glutes are both influenced by genetics, fatdistribution, training quality, nutrition, time, and body fat levels —

the biggest mistakeis trying to reveal shape before you’ve built enough muscle to reveal EVEN WHENIT FEELS SOOOOOO logical to. Like it makes sense in the moment.

• visible abs are not just a dieting outcome

• glutes need time, food, progressive training, and enough patience to actually grow

• your legs can feel bigger from glycogen, water, swelling, and finally training properly

• muscle gain can feel emotionally confronting when you’ve spent years trying to stay small

So… can you have glutes and abs? YES, but the answer is more complicated after 35

you say you want muscle… but are you okay not lookingflatter every friday?

you say you want body recomposition… but are you stilltrying to measure it like a diet?

mini win 1:
before you start another cut, ask: am i dieting because it’s strategic, or because i got triggered?

mini win 2:after your next workout, write down one thing that improved that had nothing todo with the scale, calories, or progress photos.

if this episode hits, share it with a woman who keeps tryingto shrink the body she’s trying to build.

and if you want to come on for a chat about your own bodyrecomp journey, scale obsession, fear of building muscle, or the messy middleof changing your body, message me. i want these conversations to be real.

find me @transformxruby on instagram

apply for a free consult:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqaxMDfbPYPYVui3BgSClnDXTj4BWjRvPkbBHuK5CP7SQsIw/viewform?usp=sf_link

direct link to dm me on ig:
https://ig.me/m/transformxruby

listen in as we unpack the messy middle of recomposition: glycogen and water can make legs feel bigger, muscle gain can come with some body fat,and changing your body often means changing your relationship with the scale, clothes, and old body standards.

This episode is for the woman who is training, tracking, trying to eat better, trying to progressively overload, trying to do the right thing… but still looking at her body but still wondering why her body doesn’t look as lean, toned or defined as she wants it to.

Still thinking, “Why do I not look like I train yet?”

PS; if you want to stop the overthinking and stressing this stuff;

Heres a direct link to DM me on IG:https://ig.me/m/transformxruby

and/or Apply for a free consult:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqaxMDfbPYPYVui3BgSClnDXTj4BWjRvPkbBHuK5CP7SQsIw/viewform?usp=sf_link

I realized something halfway through recording this episode

— and it’s probably one of the biggest reasons so many women get stuck in that frustrating cycle of dieting, losing a little, then gaining it all back.

OK. Actually, I take that back two things.

the first one was the obsession with the scale. but one huge overlooked factor in all of this is just how much you body check yourselves

and it’s hardly ever in a positive light so obviously the negative is going to be enhanced because what you focus on grows,….

I can’t really think of a greater cause of sabotage, can you?

You know that feeling?

You don’t feel as lean.

You don’t feel as toned.

You don’t feel as defined.

And when you compare yourself to the goal bodies you save on Instagram, it feels like everyone else has figured something out that you haven’t.

Because this is where so many women get stuck.

You want body recomposition. You want to build muscle, lose fat, feel leaner, feel tighter, feel more defined, and finally have your body reflect the work you’re putting in.

But you’re still judging the process by the same things you used in every fat-loss phase.

The scale. Progress photos. Pants fit. Whether your stomach feels flat. Whether you were “good” with food this week.

And yes, those things can have a place.

But they are not the whole game.

In this episode, I’m talking about why training quality, strength, reps, range of motion, form, execution, bracing, training videos and progression matter so much more than most women realise when the goal is to actually change your shape.

Because if you want to look like you train, your training has to become the main thing.

Not the thing you tick off in the background while all your focus goes into calories, cardio, the scale and whether your body looks different this week.

The goal isn’t just to weigh less. Or buy the smaller pair of pants…

You can have both and still hate the way you look…

The goal is to build the body that makes fat loss worth revealing.

And thats the thing

we get sold on these glamorous timelines where dropping pounds or hitting a specific size is our only measure of progress.

When I talk to women about body recomposition, every single time I find the trap to be in that direction

Which reminds me of what my clients keep saying.. when they finally learnt what it feels like really up the ante on training…focusing on building strength and improving form, they finally felt a sense of real progress that their past xperiences never captured

They’re feeling more confident, more in control, and their bodies respond when they prioritize the actual work of training.

Over and over – it has proven to be the gamechanger. not just in the women I coach, but it’s the #1 foundation of my own success

And training and your log books?

they arent a nice to have – they,. are,. the.. everythings to have. the needs to have. the painkillers not the vitamins…

cos without it? changes in body shape or fat loss are slow, delayed, and often fleeting. Progress depends on the effort, the focus, and the quality of training.

find me @transformxruby on instagram

This is the episode for the woman who is training, dieting, walking, tracking and trying so hard… but still doesn’t understand why her body isn’t changing

your body needs, a reason to adapt. It needs the right reason.

In this episode of 100% Real with Ruby, I’m joined by coach Jace Lopez for a no-fluff conversation about what actually builds muscle — and why so many women are training hard, sweating, chasing the burn, doing high reps, adding more circuits… but still not seeing the body change they want.

Because here’s the truth: you can’t diet your way into muscle you haven’t built.

We break down why body recomposition happens through what you do in the gym, why progressive overload is not always this perfect straight line upwards, why reps and weights will fluctuate, and why feeling sore, pumped or cooked after a session does not automatically mean you’ve created the stimulus your body needs to build muscle.

We also talk about effective reps, mechanical tension, high motor unit recruitment, lower rep ranges, fatigue management, bracing, execution, and why women don’t need “softer” training or completely different training to men — they need training that actually gives the body a reason to adapt.

If you’re a woman over 35 or 40 and you feel like you’re doing everything — eating less, walking more, training often, trying to “tone up” — but your body still feels soft, stuck or like it just isn’t changing the way you want it to, this episode will help you understand what your workouts might be missing.

This is your reminder that training is not just something you “add on” to fat loss.

Training is the thing that builds the shape.

This episode is for the woman who feels like she’s doing all the things ... training, walking, eating less, trying to be consistent

but her body still isn’t changing the way she wants it to.

I’m chatting with coach Jace Lopez about what actually builds muscle, why so many women are chasing the wrong things in the gym, and why burn, sweat, soreness, high reps and feeling exhausted after a workout aren’t always signs that your training is effective.

We get into progressive overload, strength training, body recomposition, effective reps, mechanical tension, motor unit recruitment, bracing, execution, fatigue management and why learning how to train properly matters so much if you want to build lean muscle, feel stronger and actually change your shape.

And especially if you’re over 35 or 40, tired of dieting, tired of scale obsession, tired of feeling soft despite working hard, this episode will help you see training differently.

Because the goal isn’t just to burn more calories.

The goal is to give your body a reason to build.

find me @transformxruby on instagram

Apply for a free consult:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqaxMDfbPYPYVui3BgSClnDXTj4BWjRvPkbBHuK5CP7SQsIw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Direct link to DM me on IG:https://ig.me/m/transformxruby