420 Pounds: Where This Started

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After high school, I weighed close to 420 pounds (about 190 kg). Everything I do as a coach today traces back to that number.

I'm not telling this story for sympathy or as a before-and-after ad. The road from there to here wasn't a straight line. My first attempt at losing weight was me learning the hard way. I rebuilt it the right way through school. Then I regained during COVID, and it took an honest look in the mirror, plus a friend who's also a client calling me out, to get me moving again.

Think of it like learning to drive by sliding into a ditch, then years later drifting toward the same ditch while teaching other people to drive. Knowing the road doesn't make you immune. It means you know how to get out.

If you're heavy right now, take this from it: where you start doesn't decide where you finish. How you keep going does.

Your First Step: Weigh yourself once this week, write it down, and don't judge it. It's not a grade. It's a starting point.

The Breakdown

Getting to 420

I grew up active. Taekwondo, wrestling, football and baseball. Around 16, I walked away from team sports, but I kept lifting. I graduated high school in 2010.

In high school, my day ran on lifting and food. I'd get up around 5:00 and drink a protein shake so thick it was like cement: oats, peanut butter, protein powder and milk. I'd lift for a couple of hours before class, spend lunch in the gym, and lift again later. In between, I ate whatever I could get down. Sweet potatoes, chicken and beef doused in hot sauce, half a pack of Oreos, Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies treats, another cement shake, more peanut butter. Once in a while, an apple. Almost everything I ate was calorie-dense, and I didn't do cardio unless I absolutely had to.

After school I worked in the back of retail stores, moving pallets. The physical work was never hard for me. But I'd get winded tying my shoes. Outside of lifting, my daily activity wasn't good, and my food was worse.

I didn't even know my number. I'd had weigh-ins for wrestling, but after that I went about two years without stepping on a scale. Toward the end of the summer after my senior year, right before everybody left for college, I went to pick up a buddy from work. It was kind of our last time hanging out. His job had an in-floor pallet scale, and he had me step on it. The display was huge, like something out of The Biggest Loser or 1000-lb Life. It read 418.

My first thought was that this was stupid. How did I let it get here? I got made fun of by friends, and I went home angry. It was a jab I didn't want and didn't need, but it set off a ticking time bomb in my head. That's when I went off the deep end. I was already thinking about a police academy after college. Was I even going to be able to run a mile in under eight minutes?

At 420 pounds, I didn't need to bulk. I needed to lose weight. I wanted to see my toes and tie my shoes without holding my breath.

The Crash Diet, Alone

My first attempt was a crash diet, and I did it alone. That same night I was on Bodybuilding.com, ordering protein and reading about low-carb weight loss. My dad wasn't a big guy. He was probably 165 to 180 pounds most of high school, playing lacrosse, running and staying active. He often spoke of his father and what they did in the Marine Corps. Overweight Marines would have to cut out carbs: no white foods, no potatoes, no rice. My thinking was, if Marines had to do this through basic training on top of everything else they go through, how hard could it be in normal, everyday life?

At the time, I had little to no patience, ability or desire to cook, so I lived on protein shakes. It was short, sweet and simple. I drank five to eight a day, 30 to 40 grams of protein per shake, mixed with water or almond milk. Maybe 300-plus grams of protein a day, all in liquid form. No peanut butter, nothing added. I was taking in 1,200 to 1,400 calories a day, nearly all of it as protein. I went to bed a bit hungry, woke up hungry and went through the day hangry. I started at the end of that summer, going into my first semester of college at community college, and hit the ground running, doing fasted cardio multiple times a day all the way through that first semester. I thought it was keto. Really, it was a glorified starvation diet: no real food, just calories I drank. When I finally weighed myself, I was in the 330s. I was so tired it barely registered.

I don't recommend doing what I did. I look at it now as me learning. I tried it, I saw what it cost, and that's how I found what works. It worked on the scale because calories in versus calories out is real, but I have no idea how micronutrient-deficient I'd made myself. I wasn't paying attention to anything except the number.

Crash dieting can drop the scale fast, but it doesn't teach you how to eat once the diet ends. You learn how to stop eating. You don't learn how to eat.

Rebuilding Through School

That first stretch took off about 90 pounds. From there, I started adding food back: egg whites, then one solid meal at dinner, and toward the end another full meal. Over the next 12 weeks, I lost about 30 more pounds. I was still in the 300s, but I was lighter and eating actual meals.

About 90 pounds in the first three months, then about 30 more in the next three. Those six months were me learning how my body adjusted to a caloric intake, and the main lesson was that calories in versus calories out has value. I wanted to see how it worked and why it worked.

Then I ran Kris Gethin's DTP, a four-week program on Bodybuilding.com. I ran it for six weeks and started making my own changes. That's when I found out how much fun it is to play around with training. I'd do 20 minutes of cardio to warm up, go hard for about 40 minutes of lifting, then do an hour of cardio after, with the same song on repeat the whole time.

My food changed too. I dropped milk and almond milk for water, either with BCAAs or with lemon. Breakfast stayed egg whites. I swapped regular ketchup, chocolate syrup and pancake syrup for sugar-free and zero-calorie versions, and used honey for certain things. I started looking at condiments and seasonings differently. I cooked a lot more chicken and turkey and cut out red meat for about six months. I finally started eating greens: big salads with extra blackened chicken. That taught me the chicken was fine, but the way it was prepared mattered, because I could taste all the salt in the seasoning.

I also learned the food stressed me out more than the early wake-ups, the schedule, the cardio or the workouts. I wanted burgers. I wanted fries. I played around with cheat meals and refeeds. Somewhere in there, I stopped being motivated and started being dedicated. It wasn't really about weight loss anymore. It was about getting out of my own head and holding on to my strength while I was in a deficit. I was my own guinea pig.

Along the way, I earned a Criminal Justice degree, then added an Exercise Science degree plus nutrition coursework. Understanding why things worked meant I could make my own decisions.

The Yo-Yo & the Turn

For a while, I yo-yoed. I'd bulk, and my strength went up, but so did my weight. I'd hit a ceiling and cut again. Then I'd lose 8 pounds, feel my strength start to taper, and bulk again. Gain 3 pounds, strength comes back. Every round, I'd tell myself I'd cut slower or lighter next time, or just add cardio.

What finally broke the cycle was simple. I weighed my food. I planned it out ahead of time and meal prepped. I stuck to the plan. No takeout, no cheat meals, no refeeds.

That consistency added up. I lost the weight, kept it off and kept my strength. That was the reinforcement I needed, because my goal was never to look good with my shirt off. It was to keep my strength. I'm built like a Mack truck, and I want to feel like one.

That was college for me. Going to class, training, losing weight, getting injured and still finding ways to work through it.

Weighing, planning and swapping foods is still what I teach. The free Macros and Meal Planner Quick Start is the place to begin.

COVID & the Regain

Then COVID hit. The plan was to keep the status quo, keep the standard and keep the ball rolling. It was supposed to be two weeks. It turned into a year to a year and a half.

My coaching moved to Zoom and FaceTime. My own programming was okay, even with the limited equipment I had. My diet was what slipped. Without seeing people in person, my own accountability dropped, and my weight went back up to about 315 pounds.

I had the degrees and the experience. I was coaching other people through the exact thing I was sliding back into. Knowledge didn't make me immune.

The Small Cue

What turned it around wasn't a new program. It started with me looking at things objectively. I could see my weight creeping up while my clients' weight was coming down.

Then one of my powerlifting clients, a friend who's my age, called me out on how much size I was putting on, and not all of it was good size. It was a small cue, but it landed. Everyone needs a friend who will call them out and bring them back to reality. I knew that in a couple of months I'd be face to face with people again, and I had to get it together.

So I dialed in my diet, did more cardio, changed my lifting and started doing two-a-days. I made time for myself to be healthy and to be the person I needed to be to keep my standard. I brought myself back down to about a 275 average.

If I expect people to show up and do the work, I have to do it too.

What This Taught Me About Coaching

• Nobody should have to do it alone. I crash-dieted alone, hungry and angry. That's a big part of why I coach as both a coach and a mentor, and why I stay a mentor after coaching ends.
• Keep it simple. Weigh your food, plan it, stick to it.
• A regain isn't the end. Pick up where you left off. One bad stretch doesn't mean you quit on the whole thing.

That last one is what I mean by real pain pays later. The work, the trial and error and the comebacks you invest now pay you back. Staying stuck is pain too. It just doesn't pay anything.

Where I Am Now

Today I sit around a 275 average, working toward about 245 pounds at about 15% body fat, keeping more lean mass than I had before. The lightest I've been as an adult was about 248 to 254. I felt healthiest around 265, after refeeds, but I still wasn't satisfied with my strength or how I looked. I'm never going to be the guy at 6% to 8%. I can't maintain that, and it's not for lack of trying. I'm not trying to put 80 pounds back on and be over 300 again. I want to keep my standard of strength.

I'll be honest about my own issue. I've never been able to chase strength without putting on size. For me, the two go hand in hand. Strength is my vice. My goal has never been, and most likely never will be, to get on stage with a six-pack. My goal is to be healthy but strong. I'm still learning to prioritize my health and body composition over strength. Because I don't want to sacrifice strength for body composition, it takes me longer to reach my body composition goals. My ego won't let me give up strength to get there first. So everything takes me a little longer. I'm fine with that, but I know it's my vice.

I do everything I can to practice what I preach, so trust me: I understand that change is challenging. But it's what makes the victories that much more satisfying and gratifying.

I haven't had loose-skin surgery. It's the end goal once I reach my goal weight, and doctors have recommended it given my size and where the loose skin is. But there's no point doing it until I fix the mindset first: I can be lean, aesthetic and strong without getting heavy again chasing strength.

My eating week to week is pretty standard. I run one of two modes. If I'm not hungry in the morning, I don't eat until about noon or 1:00, then fit four planned meals into that window. If I am hungry, I eat the same food spread across the day. I train by 9:00 a.m. and I'm done by 11:00, cardio included.

A typical day starts with a post-workout shake: liquid egg whites blended with two scoops of protein, about 80 grams of protein. Then a meal I prepped ahead, like protein pasta mac and cheese or protein pasta with meatballs. A couple of hours later, another shake or a protein bar to tide me over. Then another meal, or if I'm not feeling a meal, a big bowl of yogurt or cottage cheese with berries and dark chocolate chips. When I eat with friends or family, I plan for about an 800-calorie meal. Then another prepped meal and a bedtime snack: a low-calorie lemonade, frozen strawberries or grapes, salted roasted chickpeas for crunch, or cottage cheese baked with everything seasoning, which makes a filling, high-protein night snack. I weigh it all and stay inside my calories.

I train seven days a week and aim for 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day. It's the same simple stuff I teach, done consistently.

Bro Science Check: "Once the weight is off, the hard part is over."

What the Research Says: Across US weight-loss studies, people kept off only about 17% to 29% of the weight they lost on average (Anderson et al., 2001).

Verdict: Cut. Losing the weight is the first half. Keeping it off is its own skill, and it needs its own plan.

The Research

Most Lost Weight Comes Back Without a Maintenance Plan

Who: A meta-analysis of 29 US studies following people after structured weight-loss programs.

What: How much weight people kept off years later, comparing very-low-calorie diets with balanced diets.

What Happened: On average, people kept off about 29% of the weight they lost on very-low-calorie diets and about 17% on balanced diets.

Limitation: Older, mostly clinic-based programs, and people lost to follow-up may have done better or worse (Anderson et al., 2001).

Loss, Plateau, Regain Is the Common Pattern

Who: A review of the biology and behavior behind weight maintenance.

What: Why obesity treatments so often follow the same path.

What Happened: Most interventions produce early weight loss, then a plateau, then progressive regain. Maintenance needs its own ongoing support.

Limitation: It's a review, not a new trial, and it focuses on clinical obesity treatment rather than self-directed dieting (Hall and Kahan, 2018).

Plan for maintenance from the start. What matters is how fast you notice a regain and get back on track.

Coaching applications are at pastrength.com/apply. Next: Strength Training 101: Why Everyone Should Lift.