I lost 17 pounds quick — from 191 down to 174 — by picking a balanced diet, letting the Carbon app set my daily calories and macros, and tracking every single thing that went into my body. This Physical Friday is a celebration, because I hit my weight loss goal. I am not a diet expert, but I am good at discipline and figuring out a way to reach the goal, and in this episode I show you exactly how the system works.
Watch now: press play in the player above and follow along.
I went from 191 pounds to 174 by tracking everything I ate in the Carbon app against a balanced diet plan. The app set my daily targets — around 2,204 calories with 171 grams of protein, 209 grams of carbs, and 76 grams of fat — and recalculated them as my weigh-ins came in. No extreme diet, no eliminating foods. Just a plan, tracking, and the discipline to do what the app said. The weight fell off, and I felt great doing it.
Carbon is a diet coaching and macro tracking app. You pick the style of diet you want — plant based, ketogenic, low fat, reduced carb, or balanced, which is what I chose — answer questions about your activity and how fast you want to lose, and it builds your plan. You log food by scanning barcodes, weighing, or manual entry, and it adjusts your targets when you plateau. This is unpaid and unsponsored — I just believe in the product.
It sounds like a lot, but it is about one gram per pound of body weight, which is a standard, well-supported target. My plan was not extreme in any direction: 2,204 calories, 171 grams of protein, 209 grams of carbs, 76 grams of fat. A very balanced diet. I did not want to be the weird person at the party who cannot eat anything — I wanted to eat basically whatever I want and still match my goal.
Because without it you are driving without a speedometer. You look around and think you are doing about 35, and then you find out you were doing 60 in a 25. That happens with eating constantly: if you do not measure, you are doing what everybody else does, and what everybody else does is not working. Know the calories and macros going in and staying on a plan becomes easy.
No. Carbon, MyFitnessPal, any food tracking app, or even a notebook — whatever works for you. The two things you need are a plan, from a nutritionist, dietitian, or a book you trust, and a tracking system so you actually follow it. The app I use happens to do both: it builds the plan and tracks against it. All you supply is the discipline.
Keep tracking. When you hit your goal, Carbon asks whether you want to stay at that weight, and if you say yes it recalculates your calories and macros for maintenance — you stop losing, you do not regain. It seems like magic, but it is just continuing to keep track of what you are doing. I am heading to 168 next, and then I will hold there.
Here is the exact sequence I followed from 191 to 174. I demo the app on screen in the episode.
Plan plus tracking plus discipline. That is the entire system, and the app handles the first two. Watch the live demo in the episode above.
All winter I trained for strength and ate basically whatever I wanted, and that crept to 191 pounds. I decided I did not want to weigh 191. The fix was not keto or fasting or cutting out food groups — it was a balanced plan and a log. Seventeen pounds came off, and aside from a couple of tough days, I was eating just enough and never really hungry. I walk through the numbers in the episode above.
Imagine driving a car with no speedometer. You guess you are doing 35, and the officer who pulls you over says you were doing 60 in a 25. That is most people's relationship with food — no instrument, just vibes, and the results around us show how well that works. Tracking is the speedometer. Once you have it, staying on the plan is almost boring. I tell the full story in the episode above.
In the episode I literally scan a Black Rifle Coffee espresso with cream on camera: three and a half grams of protein, 15 carbs, one fat, added to my lunch in seconds. Here is the powerful part — if I look at the day and realize those carbs are better spent at dinner, I delete it and the app recalculates instantly. Every food choice becomes informed instead of accidental. See the demo in the player above.
The goal behind the goal was getting back to running. I figured 20 pounds lighter would make running dramatically easier, and so far that has been exactly true — running feels better, I am sleeping better, everything seems better. Weight loss for its own sake never stuck for me; weight loss in service of something I want to do is different. I get into the why in the episode above.
I am not a nutrition expert and I will not pretend to be one. What I am good at is discipline and finding a system that reaches the goal. The system here is simple: pick a plan, track everything, do what the numbers say. The app makes the first two automatic, and the third one is on you.
Bikini season, lake season, dad bod season — whatever brought you here, you can absolutely reach your goal this way. I am headed to 168 next. Press play above to see exactly how the app works.
Carbon app · macro tracking · balanced diet · MyFitnessPal · Black Rifle Coffee · protein targets · weight loss plateau · maintenance calories · running · Physical Friday
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's Physical Friday series I share the training, nutrition, and mindset that keep fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong for life — short, practical episodes you can put to work in your next workout.
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