What I ate to lose 27 pounds in 4 months (and don’t gain them back)

Whether 27 pounds sounds like a lot or a little for you, what matters is the way I did it to lose that weight…

and how you can do the same to finally lose weight and keep it off.

That being said, you should know something.

This isn’t a magical diet or some type of super restrictive protocol (or fad diet) to lose fat.

If anything, it’s the opposite.

You won’t really see me telling you things like “I ate one apple at noon, followed by a meal where I ate oats mixed with protein powder, 7g of walnuts and some cinnamon” for a simple reason.

What I ate isn’t what made me lose that weight as much as it is how I ate (and why).

Once you know that and truly accept it, you’ll lose all the weight you want.

Now, it’s time to show you what and how I ate to lose those 27 pounds in 4 months.

Let’s start with my initial weight… which was 181 pounds.

It was until I realized I had a big belly that I couldn’t “hide” that made me say “I can’t believe I let myself get this far. I need to do a change.”

I was already exercising and was tracking my food, but I was going to actually start a fat loss phase.

So I started with a 500kcal deficit.

That means I went from eating about 2,600kcal to 2,100kcal.

The first changes I did wasn’t in terms of getting rid of fast food or restricting myself with the number of meals.

What I did was start reducing both carbs and fats (while keeping my protein high).

So yes, I was eating less rice, pasta and some cheese, but…

just because I needed to cut calories from some food, not because there was something particular about this food that made the difference.

In fact, to avoid hunger while still allowing me to actually feel satiated, I added more fiber and protein to my diet.

In terms of fiber, I ended up consuming about 25g of fiber per day… while going around 150g of protein per day (nothing crazy either, as you can tell).

With this…

For the first 2 weeks, I didn’t see any significant changes in my weight or in my shape.

So that meant I had to then cut another 500kcal out of my diet?

Not at all.

I didn’t change a thing for the next week…

and I didn’t have to, because that week I dropped about 3 pounds.

From there, I kept eating the same in terms of food options (some burger here and there, some ice cream every now and then…) while sticking true to my total calories and macronutrients.

But, what happened when I got to a point where I stopped losing weight with that deficit?

I made some adjustments (they were minor).

I probably dropped just another 100kcal to my current deficit and stay there for another 2-3 weeks, until my metabolism caught up and adapted to it…

which meant I needed to repeat the process.

I followed this until I finally lost 12 pounds from my starting 181.

Then, I decided to stop there for 2 months and do a reverse diet until I got back to my new maintenance calories.

Why?

Because I wanted to lose 20 pounds in 2 “sprints” rather than make it a marathon.

So once the 2 months went by, I repeated the exact same process that I did before.

But this time, I didn’t lose 10 or 12 pounds…

I lost 17 pounds!

That put me from the original 181 down to 153 pounds.

And right now, I am just finishing my reverse diet for the second diet… 

and haven’t gained any weight at all since then.

And when I look back… I didn’t feel like dieting at all.

In fact, no one around me knew I was “on a diet”, just because I was still eating my favorite food and was able to go out and socialize (no need to stress when you are going to eat out).

Now, guess what?

You can do the exact same thing.

There’s no reason why if you get into a real caloric deficit and only eat about 20% of your daily intake from processed food you can’t lose weight.

Who knows, and you can lose even more than 10 pounds in the same amount of time.

It all depends on your current situation, but know that it’s possible.

The point of this is to show you that there’s no magical diet, food or supplement to lose weight.

When you know what it takes to lose weight and keep it off… you just know you’ll lose fat.

There’s no other way.

And now, you should know what it really takes to lose weight.

But if you’d like to have more tips on how to make the next diet you make the last one you’ll need to lose that weight you want, you’re gonna want to sign up below to get daily email tips that make it happen:

www.fitnessthetic.com

For your success,

Ivan @ Fitnessthetic