How to lose 50, 75, 100+ pounds—from 3 health coaches who’ve done it themselves

It was 2008 when Dom Matteo stepped on the scale and saw the number 300.

That’s when he stopped weighing himself.

In 2009, Stephen Box decided, ‘I’m just going to be fat forever. Whatever.’

After diligently trying to lose fat for thirty years, Katey Caswell was still morbidly obese. She wondered, ‘Is anything overly going to work?’

This isn’t a story well-nigh three people who gave up.

Rather, it’s well-nigh three people who kept going—overcoming the nearly universal setbacks and challenges during major soul transformations.

Not only did all three sooner lose 80-plus pounds apiece, but they moreover reverted in other ways: Dom, Stephen, and Katey have all wilt certified health and nutrition coaches who now help others eat, move, and live better.

In this story, you’ll discover their top mindset strategies for persevering when fat loss feels untellable (or at least just very frustrating).

Caveat: Not every strategy will finger right for you.

Our suggestion: Read this story through the lens of your personal experience. Try what feels like a good fit and set whispered anything that doesn’t.

Dominic Matteo, PN2-MHC, has been a nutrition and health mentor for 12 years. He mentors Precision Nutrition’s masterclass students. A former IT professional, he lost increasingly than 100 pounds.
Katey Caswell, PN2-MHC, NBC-HWC, is an self-sustaining nutrition, health, and life mentor who specializes in helping women reach their health and fitness goals. She lost increasingly than 120 pounds. Learn increasingly well-nigh her at KateyCaswell.com
Stephen Box, PN2-MHC, became a nutrition and strength mentor during his journey to losing 80 pounds. In wing to serving as polity engagement specialist for Precision Nutrition, he hosts the Unshakable Habits podcast as well as coaches clients. Learn increasingly well-nigh him at UnshakableHabits.

1. Get to know the future you.

Before waffly what you eat or how you move, consider this question:

What do you ACTUALLY want?

That thing you’re really after probably isn’t just a goal (for example, a smaller body), says Mentor Stephen Box.

Likely, your goal just represents what you’re really after.

For example, you might socialize stuff in a smaller soul with increasingly confidence, and stuff the type of person who takes on challenges and welcomes new experiences.

Spend time envisioning that whole person. (Not just the body.)

Take Mentor Stephen. His vision took him when in time, to when he was athletic, energized, confident, and happy.

He wanted the leaner soul he had when then, sure. But mostly, he wanted to return to that feeling of vitality.

For Mentor Dom, the vision was well-nigh who he didn’t want to be.

He’d recently wilt a father, and a tropical friend had moreover died unexpectedly of a thoroughbred clot. Mentor Dom wanted his son to grow up with his father in his life.

“I never wanted my son to see me in an unhealthy state,” he says.

These visions unliable Coaches Dom and Stephen to be increasingly resolute as they made decisions like, “Should I skip my workout?” and “Should I supersize this?”

They asked themselves, “What would the future me decide?”

Now, increasingly than a decade without losing over 100 pounds, Mentor Dom still keeps a quote from Trevor Kashey, PhD, on his whiteboard:

“Having what you want is a side effect of stuff the person it takes to get it.”

How to envision the Future You

Imagine yourself a year or two into the future. You’re in the soul you want.

  • What’s variegated well-nigh your life?
  • What are you doing that you can’t do now?
  • How do you feel?
  • What are you wearing?
  • Where are you working?
  • Who are your friends?
  • How do you spend your time?
  • What are other people saying well-nigh you?

Imagine every detail.

Capture that vision in words (such as a destination postcard), pictures (such as a vision board), or in a video or audio message.

As your fat loss journey unfolds, periodically ask yourself:

▶ What can I do today in order to wilt the person I want to be tomorrow?

Maybe it’s eating breakfast instead of skipping it, drinking an uneaten glass of water, or taking two slow breaths surpassing your first zest of dinner.

“Pick one thing that’ll make you finger like a success, everyday,” says Mentor Katey. “Once you’ve washed-up that thing, you’re good.”

▶ Has my vision shifted?

You may find that your vision becomes your reality sooner than expected.

Long surpassing you shed 50 pounds, for example, you’ll likely wits increasingly energy—and you’ll be worldly-wise to do a lot of things that once seemed impossible.

When this happens, you have a couple options.

Some clients segregate to re-envision their future selves. For example, if someone’s initial vision involved playing wittiness with their kids, their expanded vision might involve rhadamanthine an voracious runner, hiker, or CrossFitter.

Others, however, realize that they’re once the person they want to be. They’re happy with that, plane though they haven’t lost as much weight as they thought they would. That’s okay, too.

2. Focus increasingly on actions—and less on outcomes.

It can take a year or two to lose 50 pounds.

When your journey lasts that long, it can be difficult to alimony your sights on the finish line, says Mentor Dom.

By emphasizing your daily deportment increasingly than the final destination, however, you can unravel that months-long odyssey into several shorter, increasingly reachable day trips like…

  • Going from zero to one veggie serving a day
  • Switching from large fries to medium
  • Walking 10 increasingly minutes than last week

Another benefit: Your policies is increasingly within your tenancy than your soul size.

“By continually trying to take the weightier whoopee possible, you increase the likelihood of the outcome you desire,” says Mentor Dom.

To highlight your behavior successes, try the following.

Notice what small things you’re doing right.

“It’s so easy to focus on the negative,” says Mentor Katey.

To stay confident and motivated, however, you want to shine a spotlight on what you’re doing well, she says. Chances are, you are changing increasingly than you realize.

(BTW, our internal research shows: Doing a few things unceasingly is much increasingly important than trying to do everything perfectly.)

Instead of vibration yourself up for…Celebrate whenever you…
❌ Indulging in processed foods

❌ Hitting the drive-through on a rented day

❌ Skipping a workout

❌ Staying up late

❌ Eating mindlessly

❌ Having fries for dinner

❌ Emotionally spiraling without a triggering event

✅ Eat a whole food

✅ Plan a meal

✅ Move your body

✅ Prioritize sleep

✅ Tune into hunger and fullness

✅ Try a new veggie

✅ Manage stress

Downshift as needed.

Sometimes, you’ll finger as if you’re cruising on autopilot.

Other times, it might seem as if the unshortened world is here to sabotage your efforts to eat minimally-processed foods or hit the gym.

On top of that, some days you’ll finger super motivated. Other days you’ll require ice surf for dinner and hours of quality time in your favorite recliner.

That’s why Mentor Dom suggests you think of your effort like a dial. During easy stretches, you might alimony the dial cranked, at a seven or higher.

During increasingly challenging times, however, think well-nigh turning it lanugo to something that feels increasingly manageable.

“I decided to do the things that I deemed important to the weightier of my worthiness every single day,” says Mentor Dom. “Some days, the weightier of my worthiness was maybe 50 percent. Other days it was 80 percent. But I did the weightier I could every day.”

By scaling your effort up and lanugo based on what’s going on in your life, you’ll be worldly-wise to go from an “all or nothing” mindset to an “always something” mindset, says Mentor Dom.

The graphic unelevated shows how you might dial physical worriedness up and down, based on life circumstances. You can customize each notch on the dial, based on your skills and preferences. You can moreover create similar dials for nutrition, sleep, stress management, and any other policies you’re trying to change.

Dial shows movement options from a scale of one to ten. For example, one suggests parking remoter yonder to walk more; five suggests doing three thirty minutes workouts a week, plus two twenty minute sessions of walking; and ten suggests doing intense daily military-style training.

Read more: Never Press Pause on Your Health and Fitness Again

3. Know what you’re not willing to live without.

There are going to be some foods and experiences that you don’t want to requite up—as well as others that you’re just not willing to try.

That’s okay.

The good news:

YOU get to decide what changes you’re willing to make and maintain.

For example, at the whence of his fat loss journey, Mentor Stephen wasn’t willing to requite up fast food.

He ate it every day, a couple times a day.

Because he loved it.

And it was convenient.

Rather than requite it up, he set a very variegated rencontre for himself:

Find a way to lose fat while still eating pizza, tacos, and burgers.

First, he downsized his meals—ordering fewer slices of pizza, fewer tacos, and smaller burgers and fries.

Eventually he made variegated choices altogether, such as getting baked potatoes instead of fries and grilled yellow sandwiches instead of burgers, as the graphic unelevated shows.

Graphical depiction of several fast supplies options: Double cheeseburger (740 Calories), regular cheeseburger (520 Calories), grilled yellow sandwich (350 Calories), large fries (490 Calories), medium fries (320 Calories), baked potato with sour surf (310 Calories), baked potato without sour surf (270 Calories), 10 tacos (1800 Calories), 6 tacos (1000 Calories), yellow quesadilla with sour surf (540 Calories), yellow quesadilla plain (520 Calories).

“I lost the first 40 pounds that way,” Mentor Stephen says.

Over time, Mentor Stephen was willing to make worthier changes, like cooking some of his meals at home.

His fast supplies burger turned into one made from lower fat beef. The refined bun became a whole grain one.

And he stacked it with lots of veggies.

“Rather than aiming for the best choices, all you really need to do is continually make slightly better choices,” says Mentor Stephen.

To do that, consider these questions:

  • What tiny changes are you okay trying?
  • What somewhat healthier foods are you willing to eat?
  • What portions are you willing to shrink, just a tad?

4. Expect to plateau.

When you eat less and lose weight, you shrivel fewer calories, thanks to an worrying miracle tabbed “metabolic adaptation.”

(Read more: Can eating too little forfeiture your metabolism?)

That ways it can wilt increasingly difficult to lose each subsequent pound.

For some people, that ways weight loss might slow—maybe plane stall.

Be patient.

If you started your weight loss journey with a specific scale weight in mind, plateaus can finger like getting stuck in standstill traffic.

That frustration, however, often comes from putting too much accent on the outcome, says Mentor Dom.

“When I was losing weight, I kept telling myself that the outcome would victorious if I did the work,” says Mentor Dom.

“Rather than hit a specific weight, I tried to show up and do my weightier each day for a year. By shifting my goal to something I could totally control, I negated the feelings that used to come up for me when my soul didn’t behave as expected.”

Do some accounting.

Remember the Future Me vision we told you well-nigh above? A plateau is a unconfined time to revisit it.

Are you still making choices that uncurl with what the Future You needs?

How unceasingly are you eating slowly until satisfied, exercising, and including whole foods? Has emotional or stress eating crept when into your life like an ex-lover? How well-nigh mindless calories?

Double lanugo on skill building.

Coach Stephen hit several plateaus during his journey to losing 80 pounds.

Each time, he shifted his focus yonder from what was out of his tenancy (the scale) to what was within his control: his behavior.

“I got really focused on making small improvements and improving my skills,” he says. “Even when the scale wasn’t moving, I felt like I was improving in those other areas and that kept me focused and motivated.”

Consider: What spare skills might you add or expand?

For example, if you’re walking consistently, maybe you add strength training to your exercise routine. Or perhaps you lean into eating slowly and mindfully, seeing if you can stop eating when you finger just satisfied, plane if there’s supplies left on your plate.

Question the scale.

At some point, you may find you’ve embraced all of the skills you’re willing to embrace. Maybe you’re living your vision, too.

At the same time, maybe you haven’t reached the weight you initially thought you wanted.

Consider:

Is that scale weight really the right weight—for YOU?

After all, many people’s “goal weights” are, well, a little arbitrary. Perhaps the number just sounded good to you. Or it’s what you weighed during a time in your life when you felt good (but not necessarily considering of your weight).

A scale number is just that—a number.

It’s not a measure of your worth as a person.

Rather than judging yourself by a number, focus on your daily actions. Are you still doing your weightier to make healthier choices, most of the time? If so, that’s something to finger GREAT about.

Take a moment to gloat your leaner, stronger, healthier body—and how it’s reverted your life.

What can you succeed with this soul that you couldn’t before?

Chances are, it’s a lot—and that just might be enough.

If you’re a coach, or you want to be…

You can help people build nutrition and lifestyle habits that modernize their physical and mental health, perpetuate their immunity, help them largest manage stress, and get sustainable results. We'll show you how.

If you’d like to learn more, consider the PN Level 1 Nutrition Coaching Certification.

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