25 year old looking to get lean - please help!

[Blackbird1234]

Hi everyone, I'm really hoping that someone can help me with this.

Over the past couple of years I've lost a fair bit of weight. I was never big to begin with, but I went down 3 dress sizes and am now very happy at a size 6, but I'm not lean.

I'm 25 years old, work out most days (strength training mainly), eat very healthily and am overall very happy, but I'm a bit "bulky" when I would rather be lean.

Is mainly cardio with some strength training the way to go?

I don't think that my diet needs any changes, as it's already very good, I love cooking so mostly cook from scratch, love fruit and veg, avoid processed foods etc but welcome to advice.

If anyone can help me, I would be very very grateful! Thank you!

It might be worth giving pilates a go - it helps to lengthen the muscles and improve posture - if you can find somewhere that does reformer pilates then even better
Hard to advise on diet without an idea of what you're currently eating in a typical day

try Spin for cardio and yoga for body weight resistance

Could I do the pilates at home? Absolutely no extra cash for classes at the moment.

Diet-wise, I'm a grazer, so a typical day would be 3-4 pieces of fruit, some rice crackers with salad as a snack, a dinner of usually a mixture of lentils/chickpeas/beans with tomatoes/courgettes/mushrooms (sort of a veggie bolognaise without the pasta - I make a big batch a couple of times a week), a handful of nuts, maybe a hard boiled egg, maybe some carrot and cucumber sticks. All pretty healthy and I usually only eat when I'm hungry and don't tend to overeat. I'll have the odd treat every now and then like a pizza night but it's not very often.

There's not enough protein in there really.

Try looking at Chloe Madeleys plan, the gym plan is designed to achieve a lean toned look and the diet plans are really good. On Instagram there are lots of people showing great results from it.

Thanks @Elzbells, I'll have a look at her now.
Would just having an extra hard boiled egg/some tofu per day make a change in my body, do you think?

No, you need to really nail down your nutrition, work out your macros and get a really good training programme in place.

That's why I like Chloe's book as she pretty much works it all out for you, all you need to do is be consistent.

I've lost 3 stone and now have abs coming through following her plan and I'm a former fat couch potato.

I would try some Callanetics and boxing
I find that too much weight training bulks me up, so I only weight train twice a week for thirty minutes.
Try reducing the amount of weight training

Three things to consider- gut health, hormones and genetics.

Gut health is about all the bacteria in your digestive system that helps you process food effectively.

www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zq7nj6f

Ditto hormones, especially insulin. I've had really good results from bioprint but it is ££££

the-real-gym.com/services/bioprint/

Finally, and connected with hormones, your genes play a big part in your body shape. Are your family lean shapes? We are at short with a tendency towards dumpiness, DH is a lanky beanpole.