How Teacher and Dad of Two Eric Gandhi Lost 31.6 lbs by Building a Plan Around His Real Life

Eric Gandhi used to have three hours a day to train. Back then he worked in business analysis, played basketball after work, lifted weights whenever he wanted, and never had to think much about his diet. He didn’t realise how much of his shape depended on that spare time until the time itself disappeared.

Marriage, kids, and a move into teaching changed the maths. He still believed, every year, that summer would be his chance to catch up. As a teacher, he had the break. He’d make some progress, get closer to how he used to look and feel, then the school year would start again and slowly undo it.

“During the summers I would see progress, but it wouldn’t be to where I wanted to be or where I used to be. Then over the school year, as I get busy, it was just not working out the way I wanted.”

Start: 23 February 2026, 190.4 lbs

Checkpoint: 17 May 2026, 158.8 lbs

The Winter That Changed His Mind

The moment it became undeniable wasn’t dramatic. It was quiet, and it happened over the same holiday he’d been counting on to fix things.

“After winter break, after the holidays. I’m not even getting to where I left off at Christmas. It’s like I’m worse off where I was, and I’m not getting anywhere, spinning my wheels.”

His wife had already been looking into coaching programmes and had mentioned RNT to him more than once. Eric had brushed it off, telling himself he could manage it on his own if he just found the time. That January, after another cycle of stalling instead of progressing, he stopped brushing it off.

“I don’t have enough time to do this on my own, and I’m not making progress. She’d been telling me I should try a program. Let me try something different.”

Finding a Plan That Didn’t Ask Him to Give Anything Up

What made RNT the right fit wasn’t a sales pitch. It was that the method didn’t ask Eric and his wife to abandon the food they’d built their family life around. They’re vegetarian, Gujarati, and had explored veganism without fully committing to it. The last thing Eric wanted was a plan built on food he’d have to abandon the moment life got busy again.

“Being Gujarati and having that Gujarati aspect and Gujarati meals was really important to us, to make it really easy to plug and play with our diet. One thing I didn’t want to do is completely change my diet where it’s something that doesn’t feel sustainable.”

They joined together in February 2026, Eric on fat loss, his wife on maintenance. Doing it as a couple became one of the biggest reasons it worked. They trained together when they could, shared feedback from their coaches, and eventually restructured how the whole family cooked, building one base of meals for the household and splitting portions to fit each of their plans.

Their kids noticed before anyone had to explain anything. Watching their parents eat tofu, tempeh, soba noodles and quinoa, both children started asking for the same food.

“My daughter loves quinoa now.”

Building a Plan Around a Real Life, Not an Imagined One

The shift wasn’t about finding more hours in the day. It was about changing what he did with the hours he already had. Instead of chasing long cardio sessions or gym trips that never quite fit, Eric built a home gym, a rack, dumbbells up to 45 lbs, an adjustable bench, and trained in short windows before school or whenever five or ten minutes opened up.

Chicago winters made outdoor cardio difficult, so he improvised. His kids had an inflatable bouncy castle from a party. Eric ran laps around it in the basement while they jumped.

“They would be jumping in the castle and sliding down and I’d be running. Now my daughter runs laps with me too. She’s like, wait, wait, wait, I want to run this lap with you.”

Being on different plans to his wife brought its own friction, splitting meals when their macros didn’t match, working out what to cut as fat loss got harder near the end. His coach Ed was honest about it: some weeks would be more difficult to keep perfectly aligned as a couple, and that was normal, not a sign anything had gone wrong.

Travel didn’t derail things either. On a trip to New York, Eric and his wife leaned on the same principles they used at home: planning meals ahead, filling up on lean protein and vegetables, getting their steps in. They came back and both had lost weight on the trip.

“I was very surprised by that. But it makes sense if you’re following those principles.”

The Results That Went Past What He Thought Was Possible

190.4 lbs to 158.8 lbs. Down 31.6 lbs in 3-4 months.

Eric had set himself a goal weight early on. When he reached it, he spoke to his coach, and together they decided to push 10 lbs further. He smashed through that too.

“Being able to shoot past that was really exciting. That kind of puts you in the mindset of, I can keep going, why should I stop?”

His waist, he says, is now smaller than it was six or seven years ago, a version of his body he hadn’t seen since before he stopped watching his diet at all.

The bigger shift shows up outside the mirror. As a maths teacher, Eric spends his days trying to keep a room of kids engaged, something he says takes real energy. Since training and eating differently, that afternoon energy dip has all but disappeared.

“I feel like I’m able to bring my best to my students. They’ve noticed the changes too, and that reinforces it, gives that confidence.”

He no longer worries about explaining his food choices at social events, and where he once expected judgment for bringing his own meals, he’s mostly been met with curiosity.

“Most people are like, oh, I see you look really good, what else do you do?”

His TrustPilot review, written a few months into the programme, sums up the shift plainly:

“I felt full and pretty good through most of the fat loss period. I would tell people I felt full and didn’t feel like I was ‘dieting.’”

Four months in, Eric and his wife have moved into maintenance, learning to hold their results steady through a full school year rather than chasing another number. He’s already planning to add more weight to his home gym before he outgrows it again.

“Whatever you think is possible, you can probably go beyond that. If you had something you’re holding on to in the past, I think you can get there and more. So just do it, see what happens.”

🎧 Listen to Eric’s full story on RNT Fitness Radio