Spotlight: Roger V.

This January, I stood on the scale and saw the biggest number of my life, 253 lbs. I thought to myself, how did I get here, but I knew exactly how I ended up here.

As a middle schooler, I was "husky". Anyone else hate the word "husky'? I was chubby and I was pretty self conscious about it. This was pre-puberty and I needed a growth spurt in the worst way! I wasn't quite what you would call fat, but I was far from thin. I ate a good deal of junk food during this time and I wasn't very happy.

Fast forward to puberty, oh sweet puberty! I thinned out! I grew and I was 135lbs in high school with a metabolism to die for! I couldn't gain weight! Yes! While in high school I met my true love. The short version of that story is, we were married at 15 (her) and 16 (me) and our first child was on his way. We will save that story for another time. During the first years of our marriage we were poor, so I didn't have to worry about over eating! I stayed thin until I quit smoking around 25, and it was at that point I noticed that I no longer had the metabolism of a humming bird and that I could put on mass with ease. When you first gain weight as a skinny kid people compliment you because it looks like you are getting big, as in lifting weights at the gym big, but that wasn't the case. I would struggle with my weight from that time on in my life, riding the weight loss/gain roller coaster as I would diet, then fail, and diet, then fail, over and over and over.

I really noticed my eating habits getting really bad during the pandemic. We didn't have anywhere to go and we had food, so I ate, and ate, and ate. I ate dessert before bed. I ate whatever I wanted really, and I felt like crap.......

In this pic I am 238 lbs, and had already lost 15 lbs

I had listened to the podcast prior to January and I was becoming more and more motivated by Ethan's journey. I thought if he can do it, why can't I do it? He overcame a much larger mountain than I needed to. But I didn't want to diet. I didn't even want to use the word diet, so I didn't. I took a different approach, one that I had not taken before.

I began to look at eating as caloric intake and I then decided I would use caloric intake to achieve whatever goal I wanted to when it came to weight. I first needed to find the calories I needed to eat in order to maintain my current weight and then I could branch off from there. If I wanted to lose weight, my caloric intake would be 500 calories less than the level I needed to maintain my weight. If I wanted to gain weight, my caloric intake would need to be 500 more. If I wanted to maintain, I needed my caloric intake to be at that level, but what does that look like?

Pausing for a moment, it is also important to note that I am 46 years old and that I also had blood panels drawn to see where my hormones levels were at and also to check my thyroid. I did have some thyroid issues that required medication, and that also has helped me during this journey. I would highly recommend that anyone entering into this same journey also get blood work done. Weight loss can be a real challenge and there is no need to increase the difficulty of it due to issues you can't see.

I also find simplicity much easier to follow. I started out using an app to track all of my food but I found that to be a little overwhelming, especially since I was eating a lot of different foods. I decided to pay a nutritionist to make me a simple and easy to follow meal plan that would allow me to reach my goal, which had become the weight I need to be in order to see six pack abs! Yes, I have the same goal that Ethan did, because I have never had a six pack! Simplifying my meal plan has allowed me to really stay on track, and I also pre-cook my food. I eat a lot of ground turkey and rice and I carb cycle. I do 3 days of low carbs with 1 day of higher carbs (more rice) and it has been working for me! I am down 42lbs and I can sort of see some abs peeking through!

To be honest, in January this seemed like a huge task. How could I possibly get to see a six pack with this big ole keg of a gut? How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. With this mentality my caloric intake has been on point!

From today, 09/19/2023, and I weight 211 lbs

In addition to nailing down my caloric intake, I have also used weights to get these gains! Yes, as Ethan has shown, you can build muscle mass while on a caloric deficit. You need fuel (protein), work (weights), water, and rest. I approached weight lifting much like I would approach investing. What is the least amount of effort for the most gain. I know on its face this sounds like a lazy mans approach, but trust me, it isn't. While I am not a body builder, I began to look at what some of the most successful body builders did to build muscle and I also began to read studies on the topic. This led me to Dorian Yates. If you do not know who he is, look him up! I find him to be a very interesting person and he is the first of what people called, the mass monsters, in body building. Now, I know what you are thinking, I am not going to be Mr. Olympia, and he took anabolics in addition to working out, and you are correct in both of those areas. Dorian Yates wanted to add muscle mass and so do I. I looked into how he did it and it goes against what most of us have learned over the years, 1 set beyond failure, versus the 3-6 sets we do per exercise. The science backs him up on this. 45 mins in the gym can yield excellent returns!

Using my "caloric intake" approach along with the principles outlined by Dorian Yates (and those before him in the field) I am achieving my fitness goals, at 46 years old!

What is possibly the coolest thing about all of this is, that I get to workout 4 days a week with my wife, our 18 year old daughter, and my 29 year old son! We all lift weights together in our garage gym! How cool is that? They are the best training group and they keep me motivated!

Dr. Roger V.

@thetattooedphotographer

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Simple boiled (poached) chicken breast.