Breakdown of Él comía mucha proteína, de ahí que adelgazara de manera saludable.
él
he
de
from / of
comer
to eat
mucho
many / a lot
Questions & Answers about Él comía mucha proteína, de ahí que adelgazara de manera saludable.
Why is adelgazara in the subjunctive here if it is stating a fact that he actually lost weight?
The phrase de ahí que (meaning 'hence' or 'that is why') always triggers the subjunctive in Spanish, even when you are stating a confirmed fact or a real outcome. Because the action of eating happened in the past (comía), we must use the imperfect subjunctive (adelgazara) to match the timeframe.
Could I use the present subjunctive (adelgace) instead of adelgazara?
Not in this sentence. The trigger clause happens in the past (Él comía means 'he ate' or 'he used to eat'). To maintain the sequence of tenses, the resulting action must also be in a past tense, which means using the imperfect subjunctive (adelgazara). If the first half were in the present tense (Él come), then you would use adelgace.
How does adelgazara translate to 'lost weight'? I thought weight was 'peso'.
Could we just say saludablemente instead of de manera saludable?