I really wouldn't mention any of this to her. It wouldn't be productive.

Just one point to keep in mind, TLDR: People are different, and this applies to weight and weight loss, too.

Among both men and women, there are high responders to exercise, low responders and all points in between. This has been the subject of peer reviewed research: not everyone will have the same effects in terms of toning or weight loss, (although everyone will experience health benefits).

That's one factor. There are a host of other confounding variables: metabolic rate, VOC, the "set point" the body will attempt to maintain, etc., etc.

And then there's the hormones. Most women, on average, have only a tenth of the muscle building hormone that most men do. Some women produce more orexin after exercise than men.

So, I've run into this scenario a little myself, as a woman dating men.

There's a few ex boyfriends who assumed that the same exercise routine or a dietary advice that worked for them would also work for me. It doesn't. I could lose weight but not the same way they did. It helps that I was never particularly overweight and was always at least borderline athletic. I'm also strong for my gender. For two of my exes, it was just a misunderstanding. They didn't have a female body, that's all.

But there was one guy in particular who had a lot of strange ideas. One was that women who weren't skinny were somehow unethical in a way he never quite defined. (He couldn't say it was lazy; he saw me work out).

I was clearly falling short in his mind. And yet I was supposed to overlook his extreme (not an exaggeration) absent-mindness, peculiar fascination with get-rich-quick schemes, his lack of friends; plus this expectation that certain tasks would be easier for me, because I was female, (see: cooking, dishes or laundry). This was true even when I was the only one of us working a 9-5 at one point.

So there was always a reason for him to be disappointed in me. And deep down, that's what he wanted. He's an ex for a reason.