For a number of years, I just simply gave up on the idea of losing weight. For the last 20 years, my story had been the same. Every year I would add more weight and at least once or twice during the year I would go on some kind of diet. Sometimes I would lose 20 lbs, other times only 10 or 15 lbs. At one point I lost 80 lbs, but no matter what, as soon as I could no longer stay on the diet the weight came rushing back on and of course I wouldn’t just gain the 10 or 15 lbs I lost rather it would be 20, 25 or 30 lbs. Finally last November (2008) I was dangerously overweight. In my 20’s I was 25 to 30 lbs overweight (225 lbs or so) by my 30’s I was 75 to 100 lbs overweight (300+) but by my 48^th birthday in September 2008 I was 440 lbs.

I had considered gastric bypass surgery for almost 2 years, and I finally made up my mind that this was the only answer for me. I truly believed I had some kind of medical condition or genetic inheritance that simply would not allow me to lose the weight without something like radical surgery. In October of 2008 I attended the orientation class which is the first step of the bariatric procedure. In my consultation with the doctor, he informed me that at my current weight (440 remember) I was too large for him to safely do the surgery. He told me I would need to lose at least 60 lbs before my body mass index (BMI) would be sufficiently small to improve my chances of surviving the surgery.

During the orientation, I came to understand that the surgery would permanently alter the way my body processed nutrients. It would be very difficult for me to get enough protein in my diet and it would mean that for the rest of my life I would be required to take supplements. I also discovered that if I went back to my old eating habits, there was every possibility that my weight would come back. This news was devastating to me. I knew that after the surgery my stomach would be the size of an egg, but I had no idea that I could eventually stretch it back to the point that I could gain the weight back. With my history of not being able to maintain a diet, I had a very strong and real fear that while I might succeed short term I could set myself up for long term failure and failure this time would not simply be weight gain, it would be weight gain on top of a surgically altered stomach that would not allow me to absorb nutrients correctly.

The doctor told me that he could put me on a liquid diet and get the 60 lbs off very quickly then he could perform the surgery in only a month or two. I decided that I needed to know whether I thought I could truly be satisfied with the small amounts and lifestyle changes I would need to make after the surgery so I told the doctor that I would lose the 60 lbs myself without the liquid diet. I left the clinic that day determined that I was going to make the lifestyle changes I would need after the surgery to lose the 60 lbs and thereby judge whether I could really do this.

The first week was tough. I was trying to lose the weight by eating like my stomach was the size of an egg. I was focused on portion control only. In every way I could see that I was starting off like every other diet I had ever started. I knew after the first week that I could not maintain this diet for a lifetime. I needed 2 things. I needed a plan, and I needed education. Thank God a friend of mine pointed me to the bodybugg. This device literally saved my life.

After I received my bodybugg it became extremely evident that not only was my food intake important, it was equally important that I needed to be moving. From the first day I received the bodybugg, I began logging my food. I remember so vividly my first excursion to do a walk. I had only made it to the end of my driveway before the pain in my back and knees became almost unbearable. I was so used to not being able to move around much or even stand for 10 minutes without my feet tingling and my back hurting that I had all but given up on any kind of exercise. That first day the bodybugg told me that I had walked 425 steps and believe it or not this was a huge amount of effort for me.

I set my step goal at 500 steps and the next day I hit that. I logged what I ate, and I maintained a 1500 calorie deficit. I finally had not only a plan, but a way to track whether I was sticking to the plan. In addition, logging my food and entering it into the website was the best education I could ever have asked for.

In the coming weeks as I got stronger I increased my step goal to 750, 1000, 1500, 2500, 4000, and finally up to the 10,000 step goal I still maintain today. My activity goal moved up in a likewise manner. That first week I kept it at 5 minutes. Over the coming weeks that moved up to 15, 20, 45, and finally up to the 90 minutes I still maintain today.

By mid December, I had lost more than 45 lbs and by mid January I had lost the 60 lbs the doctor wanted me to lose. By this time however I had become convinced that not only could I lose the 60 lbs, for the first time in my life I felt like it was within my power to not only lose the weight myself, but to also maintain this new lifestyle for the rest of my life.

I made the decision that I would join a health club and begin working with a personal trainer. Since I had come to depend so much on the bodybugg, it made sense for me to join 24 hour fitness since all their trainers know about and use the bodybugg data with the training sessions.

I have been on this journey now for a little over 7 months. I have lost almost 120lbs so far. I have lost more than 12 inches in my waist, more than 10.5 inches in my chest, and 11 inches in my hips. The most calories I have burned in any single day was a little over 8,000 but I regularly burn around 4500 calories per day. I walk more than 10,000 steps almost every day and usually swim for an entire hour. I no longer have back pain and I feel like I’m 20 years old again. My diabetes has all but disappeared. I went from 2 different blood pressure medications to ½ a pill each day and I’ve had to buy a new wardrobe *AND* for the first time in more than 20 years, I was able to buy those clothes in a “regular” clothing store  (no more big man’s stores for me).

I still have 105 lbs to lose to hit my goal weight, but again for the first time in my life I have every confidence that not only will I hit this goal but I will maintain this lifestyle for the rest of my life. I never have to “go on a diet” again. I am thankful for many things in my life, but to be absolutely honest with you, I literally owe my life to my wife, my bodybugg and my personal trainer. There are very few things in this world that have the ability to make a real social impact but the bodybugg literally changed the direction of my life and continues to be central to my goal.