The problem was never losing it. It was that it kept coming back, and each time it came back it seemed to bring a little extra with it.
So let me say the thing you probably haven’t been told: that isn’t a willpower failure. It’s what happens when the method is built to fail.
The first hour here is free. A full movement screen and an honest conversation, at no cost. More on that at the bottom.
When you lose weight through food restriction alone, you don’t only lose fat. You lose muscle alongside it — sometimes a quarter of the total, sometimes more if the deficit is aggressive and you’re not lifting.
Muscle is metabolically expensive tissue. It’s where most of the glucose in your bloodstream ends up. Lose it, and the body you’re left with burns less at rest than the one you started with.
Now the weight comes back — and it comes back as fat, not muscle. So you end up at your old weight with a worse composition than before. Which is why the third round is harder than the second, and the fourth harder still.
That’s not a character defect. That’s arithmetic. And it’s the predictable result of a method that treats the scale as the only number that matters.
Over twenty years I lost and regained more than 400 pounds. Every diet. Thirty-, sixty-, and ninety-day challenges. In 2023 I hit 8% body fat and the six-pack I’d chased for two decades — and held it for three days before it fell apart completely.
I wrote about how I finally broke out of it in detail, including the seven things I’d tell anyone starting over. You can read that here: the identity shift that finally made it stick.
The short version: I stopped chasing motivation and changed what I actually was. But underneath the mindset piece there was a mechanical one too — I started lifting seriously and eating enough protein to keep what I built. Both halves were necessary. Neither worked alone.
1. Build muscle while the fat comes off. This is the whole difference. Resistance training during a deficit tells your body to hold onto the tissue it would otherwise burn. You end up lighter and with more of what keeps you that way.
2. Protein first, before anything else. 0.8–1 gram per pound of bodyweight, daily. At 200 pounds that’s 160–200 g. Nearly everyone I assess is eating half that. It’s the single biggest lever for staying full, holding muscle, and not white-knuckling your way through the week.
3. Track it, without moralizing about it. Log your food for a couple of weeks. Not to restrict — to see. You wouldn’t spend from an account you never check. Awareness does most of the work before any rule does.
4. No banned foods. Energy is energy. The question isn’t whether something is good or bad, it’s whether this choice moves you toward the person you’re becoming. Plan a couple of intentional treats a week and you stop having the all-or-nothing weekend that undoes five good days.
5. Two sessions a week, indefinitely. Not a challenge with an end date. Challenges are how I gained the weight back, over and over — there’s always a finish line, and past every finish line is a version of you who stops.
6. Measure more than the scale. Bodyweight lies on any given day. Strength numbers, how clothes fit, waist measurement, energy, sleep — we track things that tell you the truth when the scale is being unhelpful.
I design every program. My master trainer, Shamira Levy, delivers it.
I’ve coached more than 15,000 sessions over fifteen years and I write the progressions. Shamira runs your sessions and reports back to me every week, so the plan adjusts based on what’s actually happening rather than what was written a month ago.
We’re a small private studio on North Glenoaks. One client at a time, by appointment. No crowded floor, no mirrors full of strangers, nobody watching you learn.
That last part matters more than people admit. A lot of our clients hadn’t set foot in a gym in years before they came here.
Our clients rate us 5.0 out of 5 across 16 Google reviews.
The assessment — free, about an hour. A full movement screen: I’ll take you through specific positions, watch what your body actually does, and explain what I find. We’ll talk through your history, what you’ve tried, what worked temporarily and what didn’t, and what you’re actually after.
You’ll leave knowing something concrete about how you move that you didn’t know walking in. Yours to keep, whether or not you ever train here.
Weeks 1 to 3. Learning the lifts properly and setting baselines. We start conservative. Technique before load is why our clients are still training in year three instead of quitting in week six.
Week 4 onward. Load climbs, and the numbers in your log start moving. Body composition follows — usually noticed by other people before you see it yourself.
If you want to lose twenty pounds in six weeks for an event, I’m not the right choice. You can do it, but you’ll do it by losing muscle, and you’ll pay it back with interest. I’d rather tell you that now than take your money.
I’m also not going to sell you a supplement, a cleanse, or a challenge. I bought all of those from myself for twenty years.
What I can tell you is that the people who succeed here aren’t the most disciplined ones. They’re the ones who show up twice a week, eat enough protein, and let the thing run longer than they think it needs to.
I’ve lost weight and regained it before. Why would this be different?
Because the method is different. Dieting alone strips muscle along with fat, which lowers what you burn at rest and makes regain almost inevitable. Training through the process protects that tissue. It’s slower on the scale and far more durable, and durability is the entire point.
Do I have to go on a diet?
No. We start with protein and awareness, not restriction. Most people find that eating enough protein and actually seeing what they eat changes things substantially before any rule gets introduced.
Will I have to give up the food I like?
No. Plan a couple of intentional treats a week rather than banning things outright. Banned foods are what create the binge, in my experience and in most of my clients’.
How fast will I lose weight?
Slower than a crash diet and it will stay off. Most people see meaningful composition change over two to three months. If someone promises you dramatic results in weeks, they’re describing muscle loss and water.
I’m heavier and more out of shape than most people. Will I feel out of place?
You won’t — the studio is private and you’ll be the only client in it. Plenty of our clients hadn’t trained in years when they started. One of them came to me at 285 pounds, lost 100, and has kept it off since 2017.
Is nutrition coaching included?
Yes. Training and nutrition guidance run together, because neither one works properly on its own.
How often would I come in?
Twice a week for most people. Enough to drive real progression, and sustainable for years rather than weeks.
One hour in the studio: a full movement screen and an honest conversation, at no cost and with no pressure. No weigh-in, no lecture, no pitch.
And if I don’t think we’re the right fit for you, I’ll tell you, and point you toward someone who is.
Body Engineering by JD · 2811 N Glenoaks Blvd, Burbank, CA 91504 · (562) 279-3330 · Mon 7am–7pm · Tue–Fri 7am–8pm · Sat 7am–1pm