Spotlight: Caleb Hickey

I've always been a heavy guy, but after college I got a desk job and my weight got way out of control.

One day my leg started to hurt, like I had a cramp, and then like I had pulled or torn a muscle. Over the course of a couple of days it got so bad that I could barely walk without being in agonizing pain. When I (finally) went into a doctor's office, they said I probably had a blood clot and sent me to the hospital for an ultrasound. The ultrasound confirmed that I had a clot that ran from the middle of my thigh to the middle of my calf.

They admitted me through the ER, and in the ER they weighed me. I hadn't weighed myself in at least a year, and thought I was a little over 300 pounds. The scale said I was at 352, and I was shocked. I had no idea I had gotten so heavy. I knew I had to make a change.

I was in the hospital for a week, waiting for the blood thinners to kick in, and during that time I asked for a nutritionist to visit me. You can find contradictory answers for everything online (Keto is the best, or Keto doesn't work, carbs are great, or carbs will kill you), and I needed help to know what to do. I was expecting a big, long lecture on what different macros did, and how my body processed different foods, but she told me that weight loss was as simple as calories in vs. calories out. It was so encouraging because I felt like I finally had a path forward.

After I got out, I started to count calories and stay in a caloric deficit. My family was worried that I wasn't taking it seriously when I told them I just wanted to cut 500 calories per day out of my diet, but I knew that I had to make a big change, and to do so was going to take a long time. Sustainability was key.

And the weight started to come off! Over the course of a year and a half I lost 100 pounds, and am continuing to work towards a healthier weight and lifestyle.