Obese Man Loses Weight

A doctor told Jacob Stevenson he wouldn't make it to middle age if he didn't slim down. Now, after losing half his body weight, he feels amazing.Courtesy Jacob Stevenson

He’d have almost a full box of cereal for breakfast, five slices of pizza later in the day, two Double Quarter Pounders at McDonald’s, chicken breasts and plenty of pasta.

“I basically had a food addiction. I just liked the feeling of eating, and I would literally eat until I would throw up, ” Stevenson, 30, who lives in Adams, New York, told .

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Obese as a child, he’d always been the biggest person in the room — due to a combination of overeating, a lack of exercise and a family history of obesity, he said.

As Stevenson grew, the weight took a toll on his health: He was exhausted from the time he woke up to the time he went to bed. He developed sleep apnea so severe that his doctor said he was barely breathing at night. Stevenson said would wake up with constant headaches due to the lack of oxygen.

Stevenson said he would eat basically anything in front of me. He tried losing weight on his own several times, but it never worked.Courtesy Jacob Stevenson

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“I felt embarrassed that I let myself get to that point. I felt just nasty. If I’d go into somebody’s house, I’d sit on a couch and grab a blanket or a pillow — I would literally try to cover up my fat, ” Stevenson recalled.

“When I went to see my physician, he said, ‘You need to do something right now or else you’re not going to live to be 50 years old.’”

The future of his family was also at stake. Stevenson and his wife wanted to have children, but if he weighed so much that he couldn’t even bend over to tie his shoes, how could he chase a toddler around the house? Stevenson had tried to lose weight on his own several times, but nothing worked, he said.

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The surgery involves dividing the stomach into a smaller top portion — a pouch that’s about the size of an egg — while bypassing the larger part, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

The pouch holds less food than the whole stomach, so a person ingests fewer calories. The surgery has a “profound effect” on decreasing hunger, resulting in reliable and long-lasting weight loss, the group noted.

Almost two years later, Stevenson has lost half his body weight and now weighs 222 pounds. He credited the procedure, his fitness and nutrition coach, and his exercise regimen for the change. He now runs 5K races and is preparing for a body building competition in Texas in October. He’ll take part in a division that celebrates people who have transformed their body.

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This means counting how many carbohydrates, fats and proteins you’re taking in during a day and hitting a certain combination of these macronutrients. Stevenson follows a plan recommended by his coach. Depending on whether you want to lose weight or build muscle, your approach will likely be different from Stevenson's, so it may be best to consult a nutritionist about a customized plan. For example, a lower carb diet might mean getting 25% of your daily calories from carbohydrates, 35% from fat and 40% from protein.

“I literally measure out everything that I put into my body, down to barbecue sauces and ketchup, ” Stevenson said. “A lot of people don’t have the eye for what a proper serving size is. It’s really important to make sure you’re counting what you’re eating.”

Stevenson thinks about his menu the night before. If he is craving ice cream, he won’t deny himself the treat but plans for it and calculates how to incorporate it into his diet in a healthy way, keeping the ratio of his macros intact.

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“If I want ice cream, I’m going to have ice cream the following day. I’ve just got to be smart about my other food, ” he said. “It’s all about moderation and planning. If your family is going out to dinner, plan to have grilled chicken and veggies. You don’t have to have a burger with avocado, bacon and all this kind of stuff on top of it.”

Stevenson now works out six days a week, waking up at 4 a.m. to do so because morning exercise works best for his routine.

He typically starts with a 10-minute incline walk on a treadmill to get his heart pumping, then lifts weights for about an hour and finishes with another cardio incline walk.

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“Everybody thinks, ‘I don’t want to go to the gym. People are going to laugh at me.’ They’re not going to. They’re there to do their own thing. Don’t be intimidated by the gym at all, ” he emphasized.

Stevenson is preparing for a body building competition in Texas in October. He’ll take part in a division that celebrates people who have transformed their body.Courtesy Jacob Stevenson

Like many people, Stevenson sometimes runs out of motivation and doesn’t feel like getting out of bed to do another workout. But he’s disciplined enough to do whatever it takes to get to the goals he wants to achieve, he said.

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“It’s automatic. It’s like OK, it’s time to get up, get my lunch ready, take the dog out, go to the gym and put in the work.”

Stevenson and his wife don't have kids yet — I have a chocolate lab, and she's enough for right now, he quipped — but he's now in shape to chase around a toddler once they do have children.Courtesy Kristen Charles Photography

“What irritates me a little bit is when people say weight-loss surgery is the cheating way of losing weight. That’s not true. We made the conscious decision of having our bodies altered for life to have a healthier life so we could live longer, ” he noted.

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A. Pawlowski is a health reporter focusing on health news and features. Previously, she was a writer, producer and editor at CNN.The following 6 men dropped serious pounds—we’re talking triple digits in some cases. They all gained muscle, too, and now they’re stronger, healthier, and happier than ever. 

Palmer was always “the fat kid” growing up. In middle school, he had trouble fitting into roller coasters, airplanes, and even cars. 

After a violent encounter with bullies at school, he ran home crying. In that moment, he became determined to make a change. 

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He eliminated overeating and junk food. In his early teens, he worked his way from 267 pounds to a healthy 140. The teasing stopped, too.

“I vividly remember explaining to my friend how to use the bench press properly and I had one of those lightbulb moments, ” he recalls. 

Now 28, he maintains a lean 165-pound physique and works as a personal trainer and bootcamp instructor. His “fat-kid” past helps him relate to his clients.

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“I have been where they are, ” he says. “I have been through the struggle and understand what they are feeling and experiencing. I understand what it is like to get bullied, to be laughed out, and to fail.”

His doc told him that if he continued the same lifestyle, he wouldn’t live any longer than his father, who had a fatal heart attack at age 40. That was the wake-up call Rosa, who was in his 20s, needed.

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He also overhauled his diet: “I eat a lot less, but more often, ” he says. His nutrition plan now includes lots of protein shakes. 

(For a great protein powder that tastes good in shakes but isn’t loaded with sugar, check out the Organic Whey Protein from the

Rosa dropped 55 pounds from his starting weight of 322 in the first few months. He kept up the hard work, committing to 60-day fitness challenges to hold himself accountable.

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Now he weighs in at 195 with a size 32 waist, and is stronger and happier than ever. He’s currently working to become a police officer. 

He was overweight at 224 pounds and covered in acne. He smoked and drank excessively, and knew his unhealthy lifestyle was to blame for how he looked. 

He had tried to lose weight in the past through gimmicky infomercial products, but this time, he committed to hard work—no shortcuts. 

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But then he started to plateau, so he joined a mixed martial arts gym—and dropped another 20 pounds of fat. After that, he started powerlifting to gain muscle. 

Now he’s a lean 182 pounds and never feels more at home than when he’s in the gym. His next goal is to enter a weightlifting competition. 

After dealing with a slew of health issues—like digestion problems, shortness of breath, and an overall difficulty in moving around—Devic was tired of carrying the physical burden of his weight. 

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So he started small, giving up junk food and alcohol. He kept an eye on portion sizes. And he started filling his plate with protein and vegetables. 

In less than a year, Devic was down to 198 pounds.