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Ree Drummond opened up about maintaining the weight loss she announced in 2022.
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She has experienced “natural fluctuations” since then and shared how she is maintaining her progress.
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Keep reading for her tried-and-true weight loss method.
In 2022, “The Pioneer Woman,” Ree Drummond, shared how she lost 55 pounds. Since then, the Food Network star has experienced “natural fluctuations,” she wrote in a new blog post, and recently jumped back into a more regimented lifestyle to maintain her weight loss. The 55-year-old followed the same practices she did the first time around, with a few adjustments, and attests that they are “working again like clockwork.”
Most importantly, Drummond approached this second round of intentional weight loss with self-compassion. “I am, after all, a woman and a human person,” she began. “Starting at the end of 2023 I stopped exercising and kinda stopped paying attention to what I was eating. (Again, uh, this happens!).”
So, in February, she got the ball rolling again—“just not quite as high gear as the first time,” she wrote. Here’s how.
She maintains a calorie deficit that focuses on protein.
A calorie deficit simply means burning more calories than you eat—that simple equation results in pounds lost. In her initial efforts, Drummond used online calculators to figure out exactly what her daily calorie intake would look like for her, given her goal weight. “Then I tried to undershoot that number on most days,” she explained.
As with most weight loss journeys, she experienced a few plateaus and found that incorporating more protein (along with tweaks to her exercise, more on that below) helped move things along. Her daily diet consists of 30% to 40% protein, she said.
Some of her high-protein favorites are low-fat plain Greek yogurt (“add a little sugar free vanilla syrup for a sweet snack, or use it as the basis for veggie dips,” she wrote), low-fat cottage cheese, lean beef, chicken, turkey, salmon, cod, egg whites, raw almonds, 1% milk, Swiss cheese, and homemade protein balls. “Then to fill in the blanks, lots of spinach (raw or cooked), an apple a day, kale, carrots…the good stuff!” she added. She also said that eating more protein makes her feel more satisfied overall and gives her more energy.
She prioritizes portion control.
Drummond admitted that the volume of food on her plate can easily go unnoticed, so initially, she weighed her food (in grams) to give herself some perspective. “I still ate good food. I just ate less of it, and I valued the calories more and made sure I ate things that offered more nutritional bang for the buck,” she wrote. Now that she understands what works, she no longer weighs her meals or counts calories, she said in her update, but keeps those strategies in mind.
She does not use weight loss drugs, fad diets, or a personal trainer.
In her original weight loss breakdown, Drummond made clear that she lost weight on her own and at home. “I did not take Ozempic, Wegovy, or similar medications,” she wrote. However, she wrote that she poses no judgment toward those who have. She also said she didn’t do keto or intermittent fasting, and all of her workouts happened on her ranch.
She incorporates strength training into her exercise regimen.
Speaking of exercise, Drummond’s workouts are simple but effective. Six days a week, she walks her dogs on her property, does the rowing machine in her living room, and/or does mat Pilates. Most importantly, she has learned to add in strength training wherever possible, as she learned that those particular moves (plus the addition of more protein in her meals) help her push through weeks when the scale is moving in the wrong direction or not at all.
Her resistance moves focus on the lower body—weighted squats, lunges, straight leg lifts, calf raises—and she has seen and felt visible results. “I can’t emphasize enough (just to repeat) how important it is to build muscle,” she wrote in her update. “In February, the scale was pretty stubborn until I bit the bullet and started doing all the leg/butt exercises. Within a week, it kicked in.”
She is mindful of alcohol consumption.
The first go-round, Drummond abstained from drinking for over four months. “This time… well… I generally have a little white wine then top off the glass with cold Topo Chico sparkling water, so it’s kind of a wine spritzer type of thing,” she wrote.
She uses a weight-tracking app.
The Happy Scale app has been a mainstay in keeping Drummond encouraged and aware of her goals by tracking her weight and identifying its trends. “I still LOVE the Happy Scale app,” she wrote in her update. “During the year I was gaining weight, I didn’t use it very often. I’m using it again and forget how helpful it is!”
She initially lost over 50 pounds and wrote in her update that she has “gained a few back,” but has accepted the fact that she is “always going to be prone to weigh-in ups and downs.”
“I still love food, I still cook the same food for my family and me,” she concluded. The changes were a bit tricky to re-implement at first, but today, “it’s not that hard at all,” she wrote. “In fact, it’s actually rewarding as I’m feeling better and better all the time.”
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