The Pioneer Woman Finally Reveals How She Really Lost 48 Pounds

For cookbook author and TV personality Ree Drummond, known to her millions of fans as The Pioneer Woman, it wasn't about the pounds. It was about feeling better. With that said, she did mention on her blog that when she set a target weight in January for daughter Alex's wedding day on May 1, she hit that target exactly — to the pound. "And again, it wasn't about the exact number," Drummond emphasized. "But since my weight loss was a reflection of my body feeling better and better, it was one of the gauges I used."

More recently, on TikTok, Drummond gave her fans a weight-loss update: She said she had lost 48 pounds since beginning her journey to a healthier self at the start of the year. "Honestly, I didn't expect to feel this good at age 52 but I'm loving it," Drummond said on the TikTok video. "And while skinny is not my goal, I'm glad my jeans fit better."

On TikTok, Drummond offered a quick summary of her approach to losing weight. She went into much more detail in the blog post. At first it was relatively easy, no-brainer type stuff: Make sure the number of calories burned is greater than calories consumed. But after hitting a plateau, Drummond realized she needed to build on this simple formula.

Ree Drummond recounted in The Pioneer Woman blog that she started taking pounds off simply by controlling portion sizes and exercising more — mainly walks and a rowing machine. But she hit a plateau six weeks into her regimen. She learned she could add two more wrinkles to her eating and exercise routines to break through. She worked on adding muscle with a focus on the legs and butt, since those are our biggest muscles. "Muscles burn more calories than fat," Drummond pointed out in the blog post.

Secondly, Drummond increased the amount of protein she ate, relative to carbs and fats. She was already counting calories, she said, so tracking protein wasn't a big hassle. She went from a diet consisting of 15% to 20% protein to one with twice that amount by eating high-protein foods she liked: plain Greek yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, lean meats, raw almonds, and some others.

Drummond had tried diets like keto and intermittent fasting before, she said on TikTok, but she didn't incorporate any of these fads into her current push toward healthier living. "Those things work for a lot of people, but they just stopped working for me after a while," she said.

Drummond also wanted to emphasize that she's no weight-loss guru. "If any of it helps you or inspires you, that's wonderful. But don't take it as gospel, and definitely talk to your doctor before starting anything new," Drummond wrote in her blog. "You know your bod and yourself better than anyone!"