After Regaining All His Weight, He Lost It Again With a Different Approach. Now He Stays Lean Despite a Worrying Appetite

In a recent YouTube video, a fitness creator who once weighed 210 pounds shared the lessons that finally made his fat loss stick.

His first attempt relied on cardio, bodyweight workouts and extreme calorie restriction.

Within a year, most of the weight had returned.

Round two went differently, and he now stays lean despite what he calls a “worrying appetite.”

Curious which strategies flipped the script?

Every Diet Works the Same Way

Keto restricts carbs, low fat restricts fat, and carnivore restricts the amount of friends you have.

His point: every approach that leads to fat loss does so through a calorie deficit. Fasting helps some people simply because eating less becomes easier.

It’s not like diets fail to work, it’s that you fail to stick to them.

The goal, then, is finding the sweet spot between effectiveness and enjoyability.

Build the Base: Calories, Protein and Fats

Start by estimating a weight loss calorie target with an online calculator. Then set protein first.

• Protein: around 1 gram per pound of body weight daily, which keeps hunger in check and helps protect muscle
• Healthy fats: enough for vitamin absorption and hormone regulation
• Everything else: spread remaining calories however suits you

Why Tracking Won Him Over

I tried to do this without tracking but I found I’d just eat far too little some days and then far too much on others.

Tracking also exposed surprising calorie counts in foods he ate regularly. He argues that most influencers who preach intuitive eating tracked first, then leaned on that knowledge.

It takes 15 minutes a day and once you’ve done it for a couple of months it either becomes a more automatic habit or you can estimate things a bit more.

He weighs daily but judges progress weekly, since scale numbers bounce around. Dislike tracking? The remaining steps still work, but a stalled scale signals it may be time to try something new.

Eat Bigger Portions for Fewer Calories

Cutting foods entirely isn’t required. Gradual substitutions do the heavy lifting.

• Sugary drinks become sugar-free versions
• High-calorie condiments become lighter ones
• Fattier foods become leaner options

With a ferocious appetite, volume is the secret weapon. Bulk meals with salads, fruit and vegetables, and make them taste great.

I used to be against any form of artificial sweeteners but if you’re overweight you’ve probably got your priorities in the wrong order. It’s best to lose the weight and then worry about nutritional intricacies.

His staples include frozen berries, low-fat yogurt, oats and protein powder, rotated between porridge, yogurt bowls and protein ice cream. Chia seeds in a shake add fullness because they expand in the stomach.

Trick Your Brain With Smart Swaps

• Takeaway burger: a homemade version with lean meat
• Domino’s: a flatbread pizza
• Ben and Jerry’s: Greek yogurt, fruit and honey, or protein ice cream

Taste buds adjust over time, so these swaps feel less bleak with repetition. Consistent meal timing matters more than any rigid meal plan.

The 80/20 Rule

Do this 80% of the time and you can make excellent progress. The other 20% of the time you can do what you want.

That might not win bodybuilding shows, but it got him seriously lean. Supplements? He jokes that the only thing one helped him lose was money from his wallet. Caffeine and protein powder are his only picks, mainly for fullness.

Train, Play a Sport and Walk More

Muscle makes you look leaner and supports metabolism. Three resistance sessions weekly is enough for great progress, as long as progressive overload or strength maintenance is the aim.

His own mix includes running, martial arts and weights. Running keeps his diet tidy, not because of calories burned, but because performance suffers if he eats junk.

Find some form of sport which gives you more of a reason to be in shape, whether that’s football or hobby horsing.

Daily Movement Matters Most

Workouts cover a tiny slice of the day. His own weight gain traced partly to switching from a manual job to a desk.

• 10,000 steps is a brilliant goal for most people
• Extremely busy? Add 2,000 steps daily
• 1,000 steps equals roughly 10 minutes of walking

Sleep Well, but Don’t Obsess

Poor sleep can sap willpower and raise hunger hormones. He suggests at least 7.5 hours, a good sleep environment and a 60-minute wind-down with work emails muted.

There’s a growing trend of orthosomnia, the obsession with perfect sleep. Don’t be that person.

Better sleep tends to follow healthy eating, exercise and stress management.

Kill All-or-Nothing Thinking

This mindset fueled his yo-yo cycle. Chasing 100% adherence meant one chicken select meal felt like total failure.

The vast majority of this weight is just water weight, so before you give everything up, just get back to it the next day.

His rule: never miss twice. Flexibility sounds mediocre but delivers through marginal gains. Improving 1% daily compounds, mathematically, to roughly 37 times better after a year.

• Ordering three McDonald’s wraps instead of four
• Choosing stairs over the elevator
• Learning one healthier snack

He calls this the biggest secret behind his transformation.

Rewrite Old Beliefs, Reshape Your Environment

Childhood lessons about cleaning your plate left him eating other people’s leftovers. He also believed bigger portions meant being stronger or more manly.

It turns out an African child will not die because you didn’t finish your lasagna, and devouring big portions didn’t make me more manly. It made me fat.

Small tweaks help: smaller spoons, half the sauce, lighter breakfasts. Identity shifts take time, so build systems meanwhile.

Citing the famous Mike Tyson line about plans and punches, he admits willpower collapses under pressure. His fixes were practical:

• Backup meals: a decent ready meal or a leaner chicken kebab
• Lunch prep: real food beats a shriveled chicken breast
• Breakfast: something assembled in two minutes

Plan the Phase After Fat Loss

Regain happens because people treat dieting as a temporary event. He cites coach Ben Carpenter:

Diets don’t work, habits do.

Because he loves food and strength training, he lets his weight drift upward slowly each year, then spends a few months cutting. Staying put would be easy, since his routine now mirrors his fat loss diet.

His biggest early mistake? Lacking gratitude for his starting position.

There’s someone in a hospital bed who would love to be in your position right now.

When motivation dips, he says, flip the order: action creates motivation, and motivation fuels more action. Start small today.