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" Even if you work out regularly, it&amp;#039;s easy to feel flabby backstage at the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness New York Pro Show. Everywhere you look, there are professional female bodybuilders with buns of steel and glistening biceps getting spray-tanned a deep Oompa Loompa bronze (it increases muscle definition under the bright stage lights). Bedazzled bikinis are being glued to butts, and the only form of sustenance in sight is peanut butter, the go-to, protein-packed preshow snack. It&amp;#039;s jarring at first, seeing just how much the human body is capable of. &amp;quot;People say we&amp;#039;re gross or that women shouldn&amp;#039;t have abs,&amp;quot; says Nissan Weaver, 25, a competitor in the glamorous &amp;quot;bikini&amp;quot; category. &amp;quot;But it&amp;#039;s beautiful, and it takes a lot of hard work.&amp;quot; Many women spend years lifting double their weight at the gym and weeks cutting out sugar and alcohol, all for the few seconds they&amp;#039;ll strut out on stage, strike a pose, and hope for the No. 1 ranking. At stake is prize money ($6,000, in some cases), qualification for the Olympia, the so-called Super Bowl of the sport, and, of course, glory. Cosmopolitan.com spoke with some of the competitors as they got ready. Laurie &amp;quot;Freak Diesel&amp;quot; Green, 32 Sarasota, Florida  How did you get into competitive fitness? My husband is a personal trainer, and we were at the gym together, and another bodybuilder asked me if I competed. He told me, &amp;quot;You got what it takes.&amp;quot; So I started training and did my first show in 2011. You vs. your husband: Who&amp;#039;s stronger? That&amp;#039;s easy. Me. I squat 255; he squats about 215. Do you brag about it? He brags about it! He&amp;#039;s proud. He&amp;#039;s like, &amp;quot;My 5&amp;#039;1, 110-pound girl lifts more than me.&amp;quot; How did you get the nickname Freak Diesel? A bodybuilder I used to train with said I was a freak because of how strong I am for my size and like a diesel going full speed ahead. Do you ever get criticism about the way you look? All the time. On social media they say, &amp;quot;Oh, you look like a man,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Too much muscle, that&amp;#039;s gross.&amp;quot; They just don&amp;#039;t get it. Or some of them are jealous. What do you think when you see super-skinny runway models? I feel kinda bad, to be honest. I&amp;#039;ve been there, done that. Some of them are naturally like that, but some of them have issues. I get that. I was anorexic for 15 years. This has changed my life. I used to be 68 pounds. I was in the ICU for three weeks. I have permanent mitral valve prolapse. The doctors told me I have a weak heart and I&amp;#039;d never be able to exercise because they were worried about my heart rate getting up. That motivated me even more. When you look back at the person you were, what would you say to her? Hang in there. Don&amp;#039;t give up. You&amp;#039;ll make it. Teresita Morales, 42 Jamaica, New York  Is this your full-time gig? No. I actually have a private law practice. Do you tell your law clients that you&amp;#039;re a bodybuilder? It&amp;#039;s so funny. Every time I get a private client, and we have our consult, they say, &amp;quot;By the way, I Googled you, and my god, you look amazing!&amp;quot; I get that a lot. How do you balance bodybuilding with your work schedule? When I have long trials, I crush my rice and chicken into little balls and keep it in my briefcase and just pop it in my mouth when I need it. Do colleagues ever make inappropriate comments? In the summertime when I wear my blouses, they say, &amp;quot;Oh my god, Terri, you look so big.&amp;quot; But it&amp;#039;s not negative. It&amp;#039;s just different. I&amp;#039;m not the norm. Being called big would be an insult for some women. Not for me. It means I&amp;#039;m doing the right thing. Tamara Sedlack, 39 New York, New York  What do you do when you&amp;#039;re not bodybuilding? I&amp;#039;m a mom ... a domestic engineer. I have four kids, two boys and two girls. Our youngest daughter, she&amp;#039;s 10, she wants to be a fitness competitor now. When she hugs me, she&amp;#039;s like, &amp;quot;Oh my gosh, Mom, you&amp;#039;re all muscle.&amp;quot; She just thinks it&amp;#039;s awesome. What do you tell her about body image? I&amp;#039;m teaching my kids to eat healthy. That&amp;#039;s more important than trying to be skinny. Not to knock being skinny \u2014 I was actually skinny-fat. I was barely 100 pounds after I had all my kids. But I didn&amp;#039;t feel healthy. I didn&amp;#039;t have any muscle. I was tired just going up the stairs. Now I feel younger than when I was in my 20s. My husband is the president of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) Gym. We&amp;#039;re a healthy couple. How does bodybuilding affect your love life? Well, we have four kids. That should say it all. The bikinis are so small. You must always be waxed ... Oh, I wax everything. My whole body.  Like a Brazilian? It depends on your style. I like a little &amp;quot;hat.&amp;quot; Tara Chandler, 33 Spokane, Washington  Why did you become a bodybuilder? Growing up, I always had thicker thighs. I never felt like I was the skinny girl. I was always more muscular. I did gymnastics and soccer, and doing this is the first time I appreciated my thicker legs the way they are. I thought, &amp;quot;This is where I belong. This is where the size of my figure is appreciated.&amp;quot; When you look in the mirror, how do you feel? I feel like I&amp;#039;ve achieved the goal I&amp;#039;ve been working for \u2014 to be here. I have a lot of women who look at me and say, &amp;quot;Oh my gosh, you look so great.&amp;quot; I say, &amp;quot;I look like this for a small snapshot in time, and then I come out of the show and I eat brownies and I put body fat on.&amp;quot; You can&amp;#039;t stay this way year-round. I have a chunky butt half the time and that&amp;#039;s OK. This is not how I always look. Kelly Keiser, 31 New York, New York  How long have you been training for this day? Two years \u2014 for the nine seconds that I&amp;#039;ll be on stage. It comes down to one moment. But that&amp;#039;s with any athlete, right? How do you describe this scene to people who have never been? It&amp;#039;s a little bit of a beauty pageant, little bit of a dance recital ... just a lot of super-fit, toned Barbies. If someone called you a super-fit Barbie ... I would take that as a huge compliment. Do you guys hook up with the male bodybuilders here? Everyone back here is just too fucking busy. How does bodybuilding play into your dating life? I&amp;#039;ve found that guys are either threatened by me because I&amp;#039;m so strong or they&amp;#039;re completely turned on by it. Either you love it or you hate it. There&amp;#039;s a sense of dedication and pride that comes with training for a competition and transforming your body that I think men are attracted to. If they don&amp;#039;t like it, I don&amp;#039;t care. I probably wouldn&amp;#039;t want to date them anyway because they don&amp;#039;t have the same drive as me. Could you date someone who didn&amp;#039;t go to the gym and just lay on the couch? No. I couldn&amp;#039;t. Do you think the mainstream is accepting of female bodybuilders? When I started a few years ago, people were more critical. With the explosion of social media and having fitness pictures and women who are very inspiring to others posted online, I think we&amp;#039;re drawing in a more accepting crowd. More people are striving to be like us. Jill St. Laurent and Christina Mehling Evanston-Alberta, Canada, and Winnipeg, Canada  How did you become BFFs \u2014 best fitness friends? Christina: We&amp;#039;re both from Canada and we were both at a show in Pittsburgh in 2006, and I phoned her up and said, &amp;quot;Hey, I&amp;#039;m out here too.&amp;quot; We just clicked from then on. It&amp;#039;s huge because our families don&amp;#039;t really understand. It&amp;#039;s just nice to have Jill. Jill: All the stresses and the emotional roller coaster of the diet, no one understands better than a girlfriend going through it at the same time. How are you guys going to celebrate tonight? Jill: Sleep. We both have a competition again next weekend. Christina: She&amp;#039;s lame. I&amp;#039;m going to have some pizza and wine and some ice cream, and then sleep. RELATED: 3 Exciting Treadmill Workouts That Only Take 20 Minutes 14 Habits of People Who Always Stay Fit 9 Times You Should Shut Up About Your Weight Follow Michelle on Twitter. Photo credit: Tyler Joe "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/health-fitness/advice/a6881/female-bodybuilder-photo-essay/>