How I Lost 26 lbs (12 kg) Naturally — The Honest Truth About What Finally Worked
There wasn’t some magical day where I woke up motivated. It started with something a lot more uncomfortable, I looked in the mirror and hated what I saw.
Not just how my body looked — but how I felt. Sluggish. Bloated. Tired.
Worse than that, I felt disappointed. In myself. In the choices I kept making. In the loop I was stuck in.
And one day, without anything dramatic happening, it finally clicked, I had to make a choice.
And hating myself wasn’t working.
The First 6 Months: Carnivore, Discipline & A Brutal Reset
I’m not going to sugarcoat it — the first six months were rough, because I chose to go carnivore. That’s a whole journey in itself, and probably worth its own story.
I didn’t choose carnivore because it was trendy. I chose it because I needed simplicity and control. My relationship with food was honestly pretty crap at the time.
I was snacking a lot on convenience food and constantly giving in to cravings.
Carnivore forced me into discipline:
- No snacking
- No sugar
- No pantry raids at 9 PM
- No convenient excuses
It gave me a reset button. And whether or not someone else should do carnivore is irrelevant — what mattered is that it helped me break my patterns.
The biggest thing I learned in this phase was:
Removing the yummy food from the diet, removed the desire for that yummy food. Carnivore actually made me crave steak and eggs.
Building Momentum: The Power of Walking
Nothing extreme. No marathons. No punishing cardio.
Just moving more.
I started walking in the afternoon after work instead of going to the fridge for a beer. My afternoon work was 1 lap around our local lake which put my daily steps around 8000.
This alone boosted my energy, improved my sleep, and actually reduced cravings.
Walking became a way to clear my head after a day at work, connect with my partner.
And as simple as it sounds, those extra steps helped pull me out of my own slump, and started feeling better about my self and the choice i was actively making.
When I started becoming consistent, I bumped my daily steps from 8,000 to 12,000.
Fixing My Nutrition: A Realistic Calorie Deficit
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After my carnivore phase, I shifted into a more balanced, sustainable way of eating.
Nothing extreme — just real food, real portions, and real honesty.
I settled at around 1,800 calories a day (200 calories below maintenance). It took some trial and error to get to this. When I stall, I will need to drop the calories again.
Not starving myself.
Not binging.
Just consistent.
One of the biggest changes I made was switching to counting calories properly. Not guessing, not eyeballing — actually tracking what I was eating. And the more I learned about it, the more I realised calorie counting isn’t random at all. It’s based on something called your BMR — your Basal Metabolic Rate.
Your BMR is the number of calories your body burns every single day just to keep you alive:
breathing, circulating blood, digesting, thinking, maintaining body temperature — even if you stayed in bed all day doing absolutely nothing.
From there, you add on the calories you burn from daily movement (steps, chores, training, work), and that gives you your TDEE — Total Daily Energy Expenditure.
Once you know:
- BMR (your baseline burn),
- TDEE (your total burn),
…you can finally see how much you need to eat to lose weight.
And that’s when it hit me:
I wasn’t in a calorie deficit at all.
I felt like I was dieting, but the numbers showed I was just maintaining.
Once I tracked honestly, reduced the mindless eating, and kept myself accountable, the weight finally started dropping again.
This is where fat loss really clicked for me:
- You don’t need extreme diets.
- You don’t need to be perfect.
- You just need to be honest about what you’re consuming — and for me, that started with understanding my BMR and counting calories properly.
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Strength Training: The Accelerator
Here’s the truth:
Lifting wasn’t just about building muscle — it made fat loss easier.
Strength training:
- increased my metabolism,
- improved my posture,
- made me look better even before I hit my goal weight,
- and gave me a sense of progress that wasn’t tied to the scale.
On the days when fat loss felt slow, numbers in the gym kept me motivated. The PUMP, the increased in muscle definition in the mirror shows the progress, even when the scales don’t.
And as a short guy, building muscle makes a visual difference fast — the frame is more compact, so every bit of progress shows.
Taking Breaks (Without Losing Momentum)
A lot of people don’t talk about this part, but I will:
I took diet breaks when I needed them. Not huge binging, just increased the calories a bit naturally, by not tracking everything.
I took deload weeks when training got heavy or life got stressful.
Both actually helped me keep going.
They didn’t ruin my progress — they protected it.
What Losing 26 lbs (12 kg) Actually Felt Like
It wasn’t linear.
It wasn’t always fun.
It wasn’t glamorous.
But it was empowering.
I didn’t just lose weight — I lost shame, guilt, and a stack of unhealthy coping habits.
My clothes fit better.
My confidence shot up.
I moved better, trained better, slept better.
And for the first time in a long time… I felt proud of myself.
What I’d Tell Anyone Starting Out
Here’s what I wish I knew at the beginning:
- You don’t need a perfect plan — you need an honest one.
- Your goals must be bigger than your cravings.
- Walking is underrated. Do more of it.
- Strength training will change your body and your mind.
- You’re allowed to take breaks. Just don’t quit.
- Self‑hate isn’t motivation. Self‑respect is.
- Make the choice to start, don’t wait for motivation
Disclaimer:
The information in this guide is for general informational purposes only and should not be taken as personal medical or professional advice. Always consult a qualified health professional before starting any new training or nutrition program, especially if you have any medical conditions or concerns.
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