10 lessons I've learned in the past 10 years working with over 10000 members
In 2010 I lost weight and have been maintaining my figure ever since.
Around 2011, a few friends and colleagues from the office started following my advice.
They eliminated sugar, flour and oil from their diet, they started exercising more, and each lost dozens of kilos.
I am extremely happy because most of them are still maintaining their figure today.
In 2013, under pressure by those colleagues who had results, I created a Facebook page.
✅ BODY ENGINEERING
I called it Body Engineering and I started sharing the things that changed my life.
It never even crossed my mind that Body Engineering would become my second job.
I never actually set out to do this.
I simply, somehow, ended up doing what I’m doing.
Even after almost 15 years of maintaining my figure, I still have childhood friends asking me:
"How the hell did you end up teaching others how to eat? You, out of all people. You used to eat 2 large pizzas in one single sitting?"
✅ FAT SINCE CHILDHOOD
I've had weight problems since the 2nd grade.
When people tell you you look like you have been inflated with an airplane pump, you realize there's a problem.
Today, when a kid in school tells another that they're fat, it's called fat shaming.
But for me, the “observations” or jokes that my classmates 35 years ago used to state were a call to action.
I was never comfortable with being fat. Not even for one second. Not then, not now.
✅ THE BURDEN OF OBESITY
I perceived those extra pounds as a burden.
It was a burden I literally carried on my back from the ages of 9 to 29, when I gave up on obesity.
Every year I went on 1-2 diets. From the ages of 9 to 29, I kept losing weight and then gaining it right back.
The diets were simple. I stopped eating sweets, flour products, and drinking juices. Losing weight was a breeze.
But as soon as I got back to normal weight, I would return to my old habits and the pounds would come back...
I basically did that for 20 years.
✅ IN 2010 I SAID “STOP”
Do you know what changed in 2010?
I was sick and tired of being in a constant state of YO-YO.
I thought:
"If I'm a wreck at 29 years old, what will I be like at 30 or 40?"
And then I did what I never thought I would do: I started studying and researching.
Since March 1st, 2010, I started studying and I haven't stopped ever since.
I think part of the success of Body Engineering is that I'm never completely satisfied.
✅ THE DIAMOND
Every day, for almost 15 years, I've been learning alongside thousands of people in the Body Engineering community.
We constantly hone the Body Engineering method together.
In 2010, I started by myself. Today, there are tens of thousands of us all over the world.
March 1st, 2025 will mark 15 years since I started and I think I could write a book with everything I've learned.
In fact, half of it is already done. 2025 will definitely be the year when I launch my book.
Let's continue, I derailed a bit.
Here are the 10 most important lessons I've learned in a decade of activity.
✅ 1. I DON’T EAT SUGAR OR FLOUR
After 20 years of losing weight and gaining it back (from 9 to 29 years old), I realized what was obvious.
There's no way you can go back to sugar and flour products without the pounds coming right back.
Of course, I occasionally (a few times a year) eat a high-quality loaf of bread or some refined sweet (which obviously contains sugar). Keyword: occasionally.
I also make sure to teach my children to distinguish between junk food and refined treats.
✅ 2. I DON’T DRINK CALORIES
A very important pillar of the Body Engineering philosophy is the following.
"We eat calories. We don’t drink them"
I never drink calories, no matter how healthy they may seem.
I never drink cream soups, fruit or vegetable smoothies or fruit juices.
I don't drink alcohol, yogurt or natural juices.
It goes without saying that I don't drink sugary sodas either.
Drinking calories through a straw is the only way you can make a child obese, in my opinion.
I’ve written about this here: CLICK.
It goes without saying that my children never drink sugary sodas, natural fruit juices or fresh juices either.
We drink Fanta Zero or 7Up Zero on weekends or on occasion, when we go to the cinema.
But never Coca Cola Zero. It will keep us up at night. And you know how much I love to sleep.
Honestly, you must be missing neurons in 2024 to drink calories when there are so many alternatives without sugar or calories.
✅ 3. I DON’T EAT CURED MEATS
I have struggled to lose weight for my entire life.
After I gave up obesity in 2010, I noticed that along with the pounds, other problems disappeared.
Before 2010, I was losing hair, I had memory problems and prediabetes. I saw many red highlights in my medical test results. I had lipemic serum, hepatic steatosis, dandruff, seasonal allergies, joint pains, dry skin, constipation, you name it.
With each passing year of maintaining my weight and figure, I became healthier.
I realized along the way, both from practice with thousands of people and from specialized literature, that:
If you lose weight, you can get rid of most common health problems.
Studies show that you can postpone the onset of common health conditions (diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer) by decades by:
maintaining a normal weight;
staying away from tobacco and alcohol;
exercising regularly;
sleeping better.
Once you learn how to lose weight and maintain your figure, the next level of sophistication is paying attention to the quality of your food.
If I had to give you just one piece of advice after more than a decade of study…
It would be to stay away from cured meats like from the devil himself.
The first reason is because they have billions of calories from fats.
The second reason is because of sodium nitrite.
Ideally, you should eat cured meats as rarely as possible:
a maximum of 50g per day;
only from chicken or turkey meat;
without sodium nitrite;
with a maximum of 3g of fat per 100g;
and a minimum of 20g of protein per 100g.
They say it’s the dose that makes the poison.
When it comes to nutrition, frequency is the problem more than other things.
The problem is that, historically, we are not used to eating cured meats every day. Yet, we have been doing it for decades now.
Serious studies link the consumption of cured meats containing sodium nitrite to colon cancer.
You know very well that I don't like to say something without being 1,000% sure.
✅ 4. I DON’T EAT FATTY CHEESE
I grew up in the countryside.
I know what a real fat cheese means. I know what churned milk with 3 fingers of cream looks like.
I used to tend to horses, goats, cows. I used to feed the pigs.
I know how to use a hoe. I know how to cut grass, cut trees, split wood, harness a horse, ride a cart or a carriage.
I know what hard labor means. I also know what real, healthy food from the countryside means.
Fed up with work, my father left the family ranch and came to Bucharest to attend college.
And so, he gave up the shovel for the pen and the horse buggy for the car.
Unfortunately, the lack of physical effort in the urban environment also requires dietary changes.
Fatty cheese is 100% healthy but unfortunately contains many calories from fat.
In the absence of physical effort, to maintain a normal weight in the urban environment, I believe that the transition to low-fat cheeses and dairy products is necessary.
Unfortunately, not everything that is low-fat in the supermarket is also suitable for consumption.
There are a lot of marketing strategies that can fool you.
✍️ You can consult the complete list of cheeses recommended by us here: CLICK.
In addition, people with high cholesterol levels are the first to benefit from this transition.
The LDL (and total) cholesterol levels increase because of the saturated fats present in fatty cheeses.
Basically, you can only benefit from making the transition to low-fat dairy.
✅ 5. I DON’T EAT FRIED FOODS
For 2 reasons.
Firstly, in restaurants, food is fried in oils full of free radicals.
Free radicals are chemical compounds that we want to avoid at all costs.
And the second reason is simple.
When you fry food, oil remains in the composition of the food in question and that's how calories are added.
For example, there is oil in the crust of a schnitzel.
When I cook, I always look for ways to decrease the number of calories in the process.
For this reason, 90% of the time I use an AirFryer to cook.
Any piece of meat will have fewer calories after 10-20 minutes in the AirFryer.
Do you know why? Because a lot of fat is drained during the cooking.
You can use any AirFryer, they all work the same. But if you want to make the safe choice, read this article: CLICK.
✅ 6. I DON’T EAT NUTS
Peanuts, nuts and seeds are foods that fall into the category of oilseeds.
Oil can be obtained from oilseed plants, extracted mainly from seeds, fruits, roots or leaves.
In short:
oilseeds have between 500 and 700 calories per 100 grams;
by comparison, 100g of human fat contains 750 calories;
being incredibly delicious, most people can easily consume 100-150g of nuts, seeds or peanuts from a single serving.
One hundred grams of nuts or hazelnuts contain an average of 4-5 tablespoons of oil.
✅ 7. I DON’T CONSUME HONEY, SYRUPS OR JAMS
I believe any person with a minimal education level knows not to eat sweets out of hunger.
But do you know what happens?
Most people who are concerned about their health and are at the beginning of their research process fall (just like I did in the past) into the “natural, therefore healthy” trap.
Honey, maple or agave syrups are 100% healthy.
But that doesn't mean they don't have sugar in their composition and that those calories don't matter.
Honey is 82% sugar
Agave syrup is 76% sugar
Maple syrup is 68% sugar
A lot of people fall into the “natural, therefore healthy” trap and unknowingly continue to consume sugar in various forms.
For example, they consume jams or jellies “made by grandma” without a drop of added sugar.
Fruits have 90% water and 10% sugar on average. When you put them on the stove, some of the water evaporates.
Jams without added sugar contain at least 50% sugar in their composition.
The more you reduce the quantity of fruit, the more sugar the jam will have in its composition. Logical, right?
Crystallized sugar from cane or beet or fruit is still sugar.
✍️ Read the most appreciated Body Engineering article to understand why there is no difference between them: CLICK.
It's okay to eat a piece of fruit, but if you have extra pounds, I don't think it's okay to eat jams, even if the label says “without added sugar”.
It's like eating sugar by the spoonful.
One more thing. Companies make a profit by fooling the consumer.
By disguising stuff on the labels as “no added sugars” or “no added fats”. Keyword: “added”.
There are sugar-free, low-calorie jams that you can find at the supermarket. Just read the label properly.
✅ 8. I DON’T EAT HOMEMADE CAKES
You read that right.
Over 90% of the composition of commercially available cakes is composed of: sugar, flour and oil (or butter).
Over 90% of the composition of homemade cakes is: sugar, flour and oil (or butter).
You can say that "commercially available cakes are not healthy" - if you eat those cheap ones from the supermarket. You know, those that contain food dyes, margarine, preservatives, additives, etc.
But if you respect yourself, you’ll eat cake made by a reputable bakery that only uses basic ingredients: sugar, flour, butter, cocoa, nuts, seeds, etc.
Homemade cakes only have disadvantages:
they have billions of calories;
they are made in large trays;
they have to be eaten because it's “a shame to throw them away”;
children have access to them for days on end.
When you eat cakes made by reputable bakeries, you only have benefits:
the ingredients are premium-level;
they don't contain chemicals;
and most importantly, the portion is fixed (200g).
Go out for a walk with your whole family on a Sunday afternoon. After the walk, go for a nice cake at that high-end bakery and make it a culinary experience.
Those trays of homemade cakes are unsuitable for us. We're not in the countryside anymore.
✅ 9. I DON’T EAT FAKE FOODS
The fear of sugar and gluten has generated a new industry. Or, if I may, that it has degenerated into a new industry:
"Our sugar-free, flour-free and gluten-free cakes are healthy and will not make you fat."
Make no mistake: most of them contain tons of butter, peanuts, nuts, seeds, mascarpone, coconut or almond flour (calorie bombs) or bamboo flour (cellulose).
No thanks, I don't eat paper, and I certainly don't feed it to my children.
One more thing: keto or low carb cakes will never have the authentic taste of a classic cake.
You will just end up eating something that tastes fake, that has as many or even more calories and paying 3x more. (Meaning you lose 3 times).
✅ 10. I DON’T EAT JUNK FOOD
Contrary to popular belief, junk food is not unhealthy.
Consuming it in large quantities can lead to weight gain, and extra pounds can make us sick.
In other words, junk food is indirectly unhealthy.
You know that there are people with normal weight who eat junk food every day.
They have a normal weight and are healthy because they can effortlessly practice moderation.
But I can't practice moderation. I'm a glutton. So, as a consequence:
I never keep junk food in my house. My house is not a garbage dump.
I don't have junk food in my house because I don't buy junk food.
I don't buy junk food because I don't add junk food to my shopping cart.
I don't put junk food in my shopping cart because I don't go to the junk food aisles. What should I look for in there?
I don't give my kids junk food because they're not mini human dumpsters.
They're my kids and it's my obligation to take care of their health.
I don't buy junk food because I want to be the best example for my kids.
I don't buy junk food; therefore I don't have it in my house. I don't eat junk food because I respect myself.
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