I lost 43 pounds in just FOUR MONTHS!

Here's what's happening on the ranch: Ree Drummond, a.k.a. The Pioneer Woman, is living her best, healthiest life with Ladd and the kids. The blogger and cooking show host, 52, is opening up about her 43-pound weight loss journey on her website.

"I'm writing this not as a self-celebration (since it's still very recent, and since I'm still working on it), but (hopefully) as inspiration—because as a 52-year-old lover of food and avoider of exercise, I just really want to share what worked for me," she wrote.

Ree got real with her readers about her health and fitness goals: "'Skinny' has not been my primary goal," she wrote. "What motivated me the most was just wanting to feel better and have more energy."

So, how exactly did she do it? Here are the 10 tips and tricks that helped Ree lose weight, build muscle, and see real results.

1. Ree maintained a calorie deficit.

Ree was honest when she told her readers that diets like Keto and intermittent fasting didn't work for her. Instead, she maintained a calorie deficit, meaning "I expended more calories (through exercise and just basic daily activity) than my body required to maintain my then-weight."

Ree said she used an online calculator to get a rough estimate of her daily calorie count and tried to undershoot it each day. "I'd completely lost track of the calories I was consuming on a daily basis, so it was very helpful to get a handle on what I was looking at," she said.

2. She weighed her food.

Ree also used a digital food scale to weigh everything she ate. "It really woke me up to the portions I had grown accustomed to eating!" she wrote. As she lost more weight and had a better idea of what portion sizes looked like, Ree stopped relying on the scale.

"I still ate good food," she said. "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."

3. She incorporated exercise into her daily routine.

Ree also said she made exercise part of her day-to-day. "I learned that making time each day to exercise simply had to be done," she wrote. She stopped letting her busy schedule get in the way and instead focused on small moments in her day when she could exercise, like walking her dogs.

"During the past few months, I just chose to be late on a deadline or put off work until the next day so that exercise could happen. It was a simple shift in mindset, but it was important!" she said.

Her favorite ways to get moving? Walking, using a rowing machine, and Pilates. "I exercised 6 days a week," she said. "Sometimes twice a day (morning walk, evening rowing machine), sometimes just once."

4. Ree focused her workouts on strength training.

One of Ree's fitness goals included muscles, so she started building strength training into her workout routine. Ladd (her husband) helped her come up with a rotation of exercises that targeted Ree's legs and butt.

"I had zero strength in my lower body and my legs trembled and gave out," she said. "And I couldn't walk for the first few days!" But now, after lunging, squatting, and deadlifting for four days a week, Ree is seeing real improvement.

"It feels good (as someone who isn't a spring chicken) to actually see and feel new muscles in my bod," she said.

5. Ree added more protein into her diet.

Once she was comfortable with her calorie deficit, Ree also started tracking how much protein she was eating. "Turns out that on a typical day, I had been landing at around 15% to 20% of my calories from protein...so I pivoted and steered my eating so that I was around 30% to 40% protein," she wrote.

Some of her favorite new high-protein foods are low fat plain Greek yogurt, low fat cottage cheese, lean meats, fish, egg whites, and almonds. ad of Texas."

You still look like something that crawled out of the primordial Appalachian ooze, so sit your ugly hillbilly ass down.

6. The cookbook author also ate less sugar.

Ree wanted to get the most out of the foods she was eating. "Most days, I made choices that didn't involve a lot of sugar," she said. "Over time, it really resulted in quite a reduction of wasted calories."

She still treated herself to a slice of cake every once in a while, "but the piece of cake was the size of Rhode Island instead of Texas."

7. Ree completely cut out alcohol.

That's right: Ree went dry. She lists a few reasons for going booze-free. Alcohol is a bunch of empty calories, she reasoned and Ree wanted to give her body a break from drinking while she ramped up her daily exercise.

"Bottom line, I didn't drink a sip of alcohol for over four months," she said. Now, she still drinks occasionally, but she steers clear of high-calorie cocktails.

8. She used an app to track her progress.

Ree also used Happy Scale, a weight-loss-tracking app that shows you your progress toward your goal weight. "It doesn't tell you how to lose weight, and it doesn't track calories, exercise, or anything other than your daily weigh-in," she said.

She says Happy Scale was a big part of her motivation. "It's not ideal if you just want to lose five or ten pounds, but since I had a larger target to hit, it was the right kind of tool for me," she wrote.

9. Ree switched to a standing desk.

As part of her plan to make exercise part of her daily routine, Ree set up a standing desk. "The sheer amount of time I had to be on the computer at my desk was shocking," she said. "I knew that would translate to a lot of sitting, so I dragged an old standing desk out of our mud room and stuck it squarely in our living room."

She says the desk helped remind her to take more breaks and move around throughout the day. "It made a huge difference," she said. Fun fact: Ree was writing another cookbook while losing the weight.

10. She's still losing weight.

Ree says her journey won't be ending any time soon. "I'll keep weighing in every day to have all the information I need going forward, but the number isn't what I'm paying attention to now."

[quote] 7. Ree completely cut out alcohol.

[quote] That's right: Ree went dry. She lists a few reasons for going booze-free. Alcohol is a bunch of empty calories, she reasoned and Ree wanted to give her body a break from drinking while she ramped up her daily exercise.

Don't let her fool you.

This bitch is a HUGE lush!

You mean her face will be even saggier now? I didn’t think that was possible.

BITCH!!!!!

Most of my exercise comes from when Ladd FUCKS ME FOR HOURS!

I'm as skinny as I was on my wedding day!

[quote]She still treated herself to a slice of cake every once in a while, "but the piece of cake was the size of Rhode Island instead of Texas."

Hahahahahahahaha! Oh, you comedienne, you!

OP, getting diabetes isn't something to be proud of

It's because Ladd couldn't pick up her FAT ASS before that!

Losing 43 pounds in 4 isn’t as easy as she makes it sound. Everything she says is spot on, but her cake slices are the size of Pickens County instead of Texas, and she must exercise quite a bit.

You took 4 10 lb shits??

Heh well, it's a lot more common sense than most rapid weight loss stories (to the point of boredom, but hey, it's what most people wanting to lose weight should do)

If this skank didn’t come from money, she’d be working at Subway.

I'm skinny, y'all!!!

All the weight will come back because she's doing it wrong. A low fat diet and tons of exercise is a short lived solution. Just ask every single one of the biggest loser winners. They have all gained the weight back because their basil metallic rates plummeted by eating the wrong foods at a caloric deficit combined with over-exercising. She's right about eating higher protein, but she needs to cut out the carbs and raise fat.....and switch to strength exercise, not tons of cardio.

And no Rea, keto won't "work for you" if you continue to indulge in your DOC (drug of choice) by refusing to give up poisonous foods like cake.

Is she still stealing recipes from other people and passing them off as her own?

I’m partly responsible for #3 and #5!

[quote] but she needs to cut out the carbs and raise fat.....and switch to strength exercise, not tons of cardio.

Is rowing more strength based than cardio?

I’ve never read one of her recipes that hasn’t already appeared on the internet in virtually identical steps.

R17, there’s nothing healthy about keto.

People are less likely to lose muscle mass - read heart mass - on keto.

OP = Chrissy Metz

I always look at these celebs with a side-eye when they lose this much weight in such a small period of time.

She's still ugly as sin.

I wouldn't take any part of her life if I had to wake up to with that face every morning.

Have Mauricio and Cowboy Josh hooked up yet?

If I lost 43 pounds I'd be dead.

I hope she didn't lose the weight in those giant titiies!!

[quote] They have all gained the weight back because their basil metallic rates plummeted by eating the wrong foods at a caloric deficit combined with over-exercising.

You sound so qualified to talk about weight loss and metabolism since you watched The Biggest Loser. They should give you an honorary MD!

r28=Darfur Orphan

It's called AIDs, OP

This thread is gold.

[quote][R17], there’s nothing healthy about keto.

It is if you do it right. For ex., if your sources of fat are mainly things like olive oil and avocado. I can't do it right now because it's watermelon season and I devour one every day.

[quote] Have Mauricio and Cowboy Josh hooked up yet?

You make it sound as though Mauricio is some sort of closeted SLUT WHORE, sleeping around with every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the ranch!!!!

Mauricio is a devout christian man of the lord, you sinners!!!!!

He would never have carnal relations with another man.

He loves my pussy and we are MARRIED now!!

Do you think that Ladd rubs on Mauricio's furry chest, while riding his cock?

Poor deluded R22.

[quote] I can't do it right now because it's watermelon season and I devour one every day.

You'd better be careful. That's what killed Liberace.

I fucked Mauricio in the ASS off the Gulf Coast all summer.

R38, I do that, too. Are there any specific 'brands' (stickers) that are consistently good right now?

There's nothing like getting high and eating cold watermelon.

That wasn't her real before pic. Losing 2 pounds a week will get you a 32 pound weight loss in 4 months, so that's feasible.

What in the fucking HELL did Ree wear to the wedding???

Talk about "mother of the bride!"

Bitches, do I look GAY to you???

43 lbs is a crazy amount to lose in 4 months especially when she wasn't severely overweight to begin with. I realize she's lost weight but I call BS on the numbers or the method.

Mauricio is a ZADDY!

I thought Mauricio and cousin Stuart were cowboy lovers.

Dear lord, that wedding cake was a monstrosity!!!!

Did Ree make it?

R40, I don't check brands. I just buy it when I see it. Some are hit, some are miss.

[quote] I lost 43 pounds in just FOUR MONTHS!

I'm sorry, OP, but I just don't find that remarkable.

I lost 43 pounds in a single night! And at the holidays, too!

I think Mauricio's brother Carlos is cuter.

His mother looks really young, too.

Cousin Stu is looking rode hard and put away wet!

Damn!

Still, I wonder if he and Mauricio fucked in the barn after the wedding?

Who's the gay boy in the bottom left of the photo?

Mauricio's lover?

r43 Ree must have been testing out multiple batches of cookie recipes that day.

Stuart is a hottie.

[quote] Stuart is a hottie.

Stuart WAS a hottie.

There, I fixed it for you.

She will be fat again in a year if she does not kiss carbs goodbye.

Don't let this bitch fool you. We had to hog tie her ass and leave her out on the prairie for the first month. The rest of the time, Ladd and I hitched her to the horse plow and rode her hard and put away wet (and then I did the same to Ladd)!

I don't see the sexy in Ladd. Is it the cowboy thing that does it for you?

Ain't nothin' better than grade A prime, gin-u-wine cowboy dick, R58. That's the attraction, plain and simple.

Jealous?

[quote] Ain't nothin' better than grade A prime, gin-u-wine cowboy dick

I agree with you, Ree/R59.

And your husband just LOVES mine!

Poor Stu! He went from hot to not in a matter of months! He looks like Gordon Ramsey in that wedding pic.

Cowboys are hot, this guy is not

This thread went from gold to platinum!!!!

Ree just seems to get more smug as the years go by.

She knows that she has the PERFECT life, and she lets everyone know it.

Fucking bitch.