CrossFit athlete Noah Ohlsen lost 20 pounds in 2 months. Here's how he did it.

• CrossFit athlete Noah Ohlsen lost 20 pounds in two months.
• His nutrition coach Dr Mike Molloy told Insider that this is abnormally fast weight loss.

CrossFit athlete Noah Ohlsen lost 20 pounds in under two months at the end of 2021, and his nutrition coach told Insider how he did it.

After the summer 2021 CrossFit Games, Ohlsen said he felt that his 205-pound weight was too heavy and had prevented him from performing at his best.

A post shared by Noah Ohlsen (@nohlsen)

Ohlsen went to Dr Mike Molloy of M2 Performance Nutrition for help losing weight, but neither expected the number on the scale to drop so rapidly, Molloy said.

A post shared by Noah Ohlsen (@nohlsen)

A large part of this was water weight due to stress reduction, he explained.

Ohlsen ate 2,400-2,500 calories a day

Molloy set Ohlsen a "steep deficit," aiming to eat 2,400-2,500 calories a day. Previously, he was eating at least 3,600, as he told Insider's Gabby Landsverk.

To lose fat and hold on to as much muscle as possible, Ohlsen kept his protein high but dropped his carbs and fats more: He ate about 150 grams of protein, 60 grams of fat, and 240 grams of carbs daily, he told Men's Health.

"My goal was for Noah to complete this cut in a pretty rapid fashion, so we were looking for about a 25-33% deficit on a daily basis," Molloy said.

Ohlsen's default weight loss breakfast was:

• Whole eggs with extra egg whites
• Sausage
• A bagel

Previously, he might eat:

• An apple
• A banana
• Eggs
• Sausages
• A bagel with fruit spread
• Overnight oats
• Potato pancakes

A large amount of his lost weight was water

Part of the reason Ohlsen lost so much weight so quickly was stress reduction, Molloy said.

After the Games, Ohlsen's body was carrying a lot of stress, which leads to water retention. So as well as dropping his calories, Molloy set the athlete stress reduction strategies.

"His body was holding onto a good bit of water weight from the stress of the previous season and dealing with the social isolation aspects of covid etc," Molloy said.

Ohlsen reduced his training volume dramatically to one hour a day, focusing on having fun rather than perfection.

A post shared by Noah Ohlsen (@nohlsen)

"I also asked Noah to go for long daily casual walks (not runs, no weight vests, sled drags, etc), just to help increase his calorie output in a low stress way," Molloy said.

He believes 10-12 pounds of Ohlsen's weight loss was water, and the rest mostly body fat.

"Simply giving his body a little rest from the high intensity, high volume training would allow for a substantial amount of water weight to be lost," Molloy said.

He said Ohlsen also stopped supplementing with creatine, a naturally occurring amino acid in your body's muscles (also found in red meat) which the body converts to phosphocreatine to help muscles produce energy.

Creatine leads to intramuscular water retention, so coming off it resulted in 1-2 pounds of further water weight loss, according to Molloy.

Most people should not strive for such rapid weight loss

Molloy wants people to know that Ohlsen's story is the exception not the norm, and it was a "perfect storm of events" that led to his rapid water loss and body recomposition.

The reasons were:

1. Ohlsen had a lot of water weight to lose
2. He was OK with losing some muscle mass
3. He was willing to cut back on training
4. He has spent years eating in a calorie surplus or at maintenance, which meant his body was well poised for weight loss, Molloy said.

Ideally, Molloy would have liked Ohlsen to lose weight slower, but he said the athlete just wanted to get it done.

"His weight loss was much faster than I would want for an average client," Molloy said.