Ree Drummond Gets Brutally Honest About Weight Gain, Fitness Setback and How She Bounced Back

Ree Drummond has always been refreshingly open about her weight loss journey that began in 2021 —when she lost a staggering 55 lbs — and now she’s been candid once more about her ongoing battle with the scale.

In a new post on her Pioneer Woman blog, the Food Network star admitted that, after maintaining her weight loss for several years through healthy eating and gentle exercise, she struggled to stay motivated thanks to the normal fluctuations of life, and gained a few pounds. “I am, after all, a woman and a human person,” she wrote. “Starting at the end of 2023 I stopped exercising and kinda stopped paying attention to what I was eating. (Again, uh, this happens!).”

Of course, healthy eating must be even more of a challenge when you’re famous for sharing delicious recipes — but this time Drummond, 56, knew what to do to get her body back to a weight she was more comfortable with. “After a few fluctuations since my initial weight loss, I’ve found that the original method still works like a charm!” she said. It’s just that this time, she decided to take an approach that was “not quite as high gear as the first time” and says she has found it “rewarding.” She added: “I’m feeling better and better all the time.”

Drummond wanted to avoid weight loss drugs or fad diets like keto — but made it clear that she doesn’t judge those on different journeys — and instead focused on a calorie deficit, by prioritizing protein to help her build muscle and feel full, with foods like chicken, salmon, Swiss cheese, Greek yogurt and protein balls among her go-tos. “I still ate good food,” she shared. “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.”

Drummond hasn’t been thrashing it out in the gym with an expensive personal trainer either — instead, she takes long walks with her dogs, practices Pilates and has got into strength training: a crucial tool for women in midlife. “I can’t emphasize enough (just to repeat) how important it is to build muscle,” she wrote. “In February, the scale was pretty stubborn until I bit the bullet and started doing all the leg/butt exercises. Within a week, it kicked in.” She shared that she does lunges, squats, deadlifts, and floor exercises with ankle weights.

While Drummond went sober completely during her original, epic weight loss journey, this time she’s been exercising moderation, and diluting her wine with sparkling water. Like many people with successful body transformation stories, Drummond also said that tracking her progress was key, recommending an app called Happy Scale.

Refreshingly, Drummond is open about the ups and downs of weight loss and knows it’s never a done deal, admitting she is “always going to be prone to weigh-in ups and downs.”

She added: “I still love food, I still cook the same food for my family and me.”