“How To Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps” is a short film is based on a true story from my life: I went through a bad breakup, then hit the gym as a way to get over the heartbreak - and ended up losing 90 lbs in the process. Then I did what anyone else in this glorious age of the Internet we live in would do:

I wrote a blog post about it.

Published on my small personal Tumblr as just a cathartic way to somehow make sense of my heartbreak and what I had gone through, The Little Blog Post That Could surprisingly went massively viral and struck a chord around the world with millions of people: It turns out (unfortunately) that there are a lot of people out there who have gotten their hearts broken, and almost all of those people turned to the gym to get over it. I wasn’t alone.

One of those people who had gotten their heart broken and stumbled across the “4 Easy Steps” blog post was director Ben Berman, who contacted me through a friend. He said “let’s make a film!”. So we did. 

When Beck Bennett signed on to the film as our lead, he pitched the idea of actually losing weight during the course of filming to add a sense of authenticity & real transformation to his role. This had been Ben & my hope from the very start, so we couldn’t have been more thrilled at Beck’s desire to actually lose weight for the film - or more awestruck at his commitment when he did so. We shot the first half of “4 Easy Steps” over a weekend, then held production for three months before shooting the second half - during which time Beck lost an incredible 30 pounds. The day that Beck walked on set after losing the weight and getting ripped was quite a sight to behold (and we made sure there were no carbs at craft service that day).

Beck’s motivation and amazing dedication to getting so fit in such a short amount of time is not only an impressive feat to see onscreen, but as the person who went through this whole process in real life, really meant a lot to me personally - and I think really hammers home the point of the film: that getting healthy (both physically and mentally) is something positive that any of us can do. Even you.

Thanks for reading, thanks for watching, and if you’re out there and are going through something tough, just remember: Change takes time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. This, too, shall pass. 

And stay away from the fruit juice. ;)

- Aaron Bleyaert