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Good morning or afternoon or evening or night! If you’re reading this at night, you’re a real trooper.

Heads up! I’ll be taking next week off. I’m headed out to visit some friends for St. Patty’s Day (prep your green now) then rolling right into a work trip.

Now that we have saved the daylight once again, there is much to do. Go enjoy it! 🌅 

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How I lost 13 pounds in 13 weeks

I’ve been excited to write this one since I first had the idea.

Spoiler alert: I haven’t lost 13 pounds. It also hasn’t been 13 weeks. It’s been two, and I’ve lost ~two.

However, I know that the power of stating your goals and intentions out loud—especially to an audience—can help them become reality. Some may call it manifestation. Others may say it’s backed by science (it really is). Any way you view it, it’s clear that some magic happens when we speak something into existence.

So, rather than this being a historical account of how I lost 13 pounds in 13 weeks, this is a future-predicting, manifestation-stating, goal-setting broadcast of my game plan so that I will have lost 13 pounds in 13 weeks.

I was inspired (am always inspired, honestly) by Dirk Germon. He’s a fitness influencer who’s legit, educated, and hard-working and not gimmicky.

He recently posted this transformation on his socials. Granted, he wasn’t starting from all-fat/no-muscle. He had an amazing physique before this bulk. But the fact he got so shredded in three months with just a reasonable amount of effort was inspiring to me.

So, since I’d put on about 13 pounds over the cold months (some of that being muscle, thank you), and Memorial Day was ~13 weeks away, I recently decided it’s time to lean out. This is primarily an aesthetic-based goal and just an experimental challenge to myself, but I do expect some health markers to improve in the process as well.

Okay, enough background. So what’s the game plan? How do I plan to do it? First, a little math. *Yay, we all shout in unison*

Losing one pound a week is a very reasonable goal for most people. Depending on where you’re at, 0.5 to 2 pounds per week is a good target to aim for. As one pound of fat = approx. 3,500 calories, that breaks down to a 500 calorie-per-day deficit to lose a pound each week. 

• My weight was actually pretty stable through Jan and Feb, so that tells me I was about at maintenance calories. That means I was burning about the same amount as I was consuming on average.

• Thus, I needed to find 500 calories per day in my routine to either eliminate from my diet or burn from activity.

That feels kind of nebulous, especially if you don’t know where to start. So the primary way I’m conceptualizing it is by making five 100-calorie decisions a day. These are small, easily stackable wins that can have a large effect over time. By attacking it with multiple tools and not just trying to eat 500 fewer calories or burn them through cardio every day, I’m combining strategies.

Here are some examples of 100-calorie decisions I’m utilizing to reach my goal:

• Walk an extra ~1 mile or ~20 minutes a day

• Substitute a sweet treat for a zero-calorie one (Coke Zero ftw)

• Utilize my standing desk for a couple hours a day

• Substitute sauces like ranch or BBQ for buffalo, hot sauce, or mustard (seriously!)

• Eat until I’m 80–90% full instead of 100–110% (hugely effective)

• Increase protein and decrease carbs/fats at my first meal of the day

• Opt for grilled over fried meats

• Halve the portion of dessert you’d normally eat

• Drink green tea & eat spicy foods (maybe not a full 100 cal., but some effect!)

• Take my normal walking path 5–10 minutes further twice per day

• Use smaller plates/bowls and eat more slowly

• Replace regular chips with protein chips like Quest

• Trim or drain fat from your cooked meats

• If drinking, go for lighter options like gin + tonic or seltzers over beers or sweet cocktails

• Impose a “No eating after X pm” rule

• Walk or pace while taking a phone call

• Choose a veggie-based side instead of a carby side when eating out

Keep it up, buttercup

All the while, I am maintaining my regular exercise and dietary habits. This approach isn’t about a complete overhaul. It’s about fitting ~5 small but cumulatively meaningful decisions into my everyday life for three months.

A few necessary habits I’m maintaining:

• I am still resistance training several days per week. I’m focusing on the 6–8 rep range to still promote hypertrophy and preserve my lean mass as I cut weight, while also building up strength a bit. (Ask me about my recent bench and squat PRs 😏)

• I’m still training for a 10k and working to improve my rowing time with both intervals and distance cardio

• I’m still aiming for 0.75 to 1+ gram of dietary protein per pound of my body weight every day

• I’m still taking regular walks

• I’m still staying hydrated

• I’m still prioritizing 7–9 hours of sleep per night

The goal is for most, if not all, of the weight I lose to be from fat. By resistance training consistently and eating high-protein, I’m far less likely to lose muscle mass in this cut.

The good thing about being in a calorie deficit is that it’s not permanent! You can’t stay in one forever; you’d waste away to nothing eventually. (Or more realistically, you’d tank your metabolism and be unable to resist the hunger and cravings.)

• A healthy fat loss phase typically ranges anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months tops.

• It’s important to take breaks and let your body recover from the stress.

Thus, after 13 weeks, I get to bump my calories back up to maintenance level again! While one’s metabolism does slow a bit from weight loss (moving a lighter body takes less energy), it’s not by much—especially if it was fat loss and not muscle loss. That means after the cut, I can add back in probably ~450 calories to every day and should be able to maintain that weight from there.

The good thing about setting and stating ambitious goals is that even if you don’t hit them, you still make progress toward them! Even if I am only halfway successful and lose 6.5 pounds, that’s still 6.5 pounds of fat I wouldn’t have lost otherwise! 

• Technically, even if I just do that and maintain my muscle mass, I’ll be at the lowest body fat percentage I’ve seen in at least a decade. So a win is a win, no matter how small!

I’ll check back in with you in about 11 weeks to let you know how it went!

I hope this week’s article helped you conceptualize how you can make meaningful changes to your health and body composition by stacking simple, consistent 100-calorie decisions over time. Brick by brick, you can build the body you want! 🧱 

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: Looking to cut weight? Start with a realistic goal weight and reasonable timeline. Put parameters on it.

Level 2: Know it’s not forever! Weight loss and weight loss maintenance are two very different things. The former is better done with diet strategies. The latter is better done with exercise & lifestyle. Both important.

Level 3: Launch your game plan! If you have aesthetic goals by summer, you’ve got plenty of time to lock in and make them happen!

✍️ Drew's Picks:

• And keep it off!: Dr. Lyon’s podcast was very fitting this week.

• Then unpack some trauma: I almost skipped this episode of Dr. Attia’s podcast, but I’m so glad I didn’t! So much psychological treasure in this one. Highly recommend!

Remember, I’ll see you back here in two weeks! Wear green next Monday so you don’t get pinched! 🍀 

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).