Recently, I shred down to 11% body fat with a fat loss meal plan I thought was pretty easy to follow. But then Kevin, our head engineer here, comes up to me and asks… "If I ate exactly what you ate, could I get the same results?" Which got me thinking. Can the same fat loss diet really work for two people with totally different body types and lifestyles? To find out, for the next 30 days, Kevin’s going to follow the exact meals for weight loss I did, and we’ll see just how much fat loss he achieves and how you can use these fat loss meals as a cheat code for burning fat.

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So, here are the fat loss meals Kevin ate: yogurt and oats for breakfast, chicken wraps with veggies for lunch, chicken salad with an apple for an afternoon snack, peanut butter pad thai for dinner, and my Greek Yogurt parfait for dessert.

Time to get his measurements. Kevin’s starting weight is 229lbs. Based on his current activity levels, this fat loss diet should put him in a deficit of 600 calories daily. Hopefully, resulting in 46 lbs of weight loss in 30 days. But we’ll also be tracking Kevin's waist circumference, as research has found once you reduce your waistline by at least 5cm, you unlock several health and cardiovascular benefits.

On the first week of following the meals for weight loss, Kevin struggled with energy levels. And part of that was my fault. Because he wasn’t a fan of the first overnight oats I made him, he was consistently choosing to skip breakfast. This means that not only was Kevin in a higher calorie deficit than we had intended, but he was also missing out on a big chunk of his daily carbs to fuel his workout and the rest of the day. While Kevin won’t notice this right away, after about a week, the carb stores in his muscles and liver will start getting depleted. This eventually leads to what’s known in dieting as “hitting the wall”.

But despite warning Kevin about it, he was still reluctant to eat breakfast. While his weight was coming off quickly, I was getting concerned. Not only is there pretty strong evidence suggesting that those who “skip breakfast” are more likely to regain fat after a diet is over, another major predictor that somebody will regain their weight is how much muscle they end up losing during their diet. And if Kevin continues losing weight at this rate, he’s likely to start experiencing muscle loss and eventually start to crash. And on day 10 of his fat loss meal plan, Kevin finally hit the wall.

So, I decided to put my chef hat back on and test out some more overnight oats recipes.
And by utilizing members of our Built With Science team to make sure Kevin was remembering to eat each morning, Kevin was quickly having his energy bounce back while continuing to lose weight on his fat loss diet. At his 2week checkin, we found out Kevin lost over 7 lbs in just 2 weeks. While Kevin’s weight loss was on the right track, I realized there were some serious problems with how Kevin got such fast results. He’s avoided going out.

That's an area where we definitely want to improve because, again, I want Kevin to do what's sustainable for him in the long run. So I gave Kevin a few of the secrets I used to enjoy going out without seeing all my progress disappear. One of it is “preloading” his stomach with protein and veggies before going out.

Now, there’s something else we’ve been neglecting that will be key to Kevin’s longterm success. His activity levels. I got him to just be more active and take more steps per day to prevent post fat loss diet weight regain. But there’s 1 more piece of the puzzle to ensure he doesn’t regain the weight he loses. See, I couldn’t possibly expect Kevin to stick to the same meals forever, even after the 30 days were up. This is why strict “meal plans” only work in the short term until you can’t stand what you’re eating anymore. Research suggests you get the best success when your fat loss diet is tailored to your individual preferences. And luckily, with Kevin’s skills in the kitchen, he was already one step ahead of me.

Time for the final weighin. Kevin came in at 216.4 lbs — so he's down 12 lbs in 30 days. While I usually wouldn’t recommend losing weight so quickly, once Kevin upped his daily calories to our 2100 calorie target, his rate of weight loss slowed down to a consistent 2lbs per week. And the visual results are pretty striking. He’s literally starting to look like a different human. But what’s even more impressive is Kevin actually lost an entire 5cm across his waistline in just 30 days, which is a great indicator that the weight he did lose was mostly fat rather than muscle.