Weight Loss Success: Aaron Detweiler Cut Out Fast Food And Lost 75 Pounds

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Name: Aaron Detweiler
Age: 26
Height: 5'11"
Before Weight: 263 pounds

How I Gained It: In my early 20s I was in really good shape, but after I started working full time I lost all ambition for working out. I would eat fast food almost daily for lunch, and even had more days than I wish to count where I had it for lunch and dinner. I work in an office, so on top of my horrible eating habits, I was in a chair eight hours a day and after work would just go home and eat dinner and watch TV. The scale slowly climbed -- first to 220 then 240, and I kept telling myself I wouldn't get heavier than that. In June of 2010, after a vacation to Texas, I got home and the scale read 263.

Breaking Point: After a few months of telling myself I was going to lose all the weight every Monday only to be back to my old habits by Tuesday, I got to the point where it all clicked one week in November of 2010, and I haven't looked back.

How I Lost It: The first few months were just eating healthy and completely eliminating fast food and snacking at night. I dropped around 30 pounds in six weeks by just doing these simple things. The first week was really difficult, but after I developed my new eating routine it never even fazed me.

During the week, my dinners are either chicken or fish with rice or pasta and a lot of raw veggies. On the weekends, I will loosen up a little with what I eat, but I try not to overdo it on portions if I do eat something unhealthy. Usually lunch is either a tuna sandwich or a leftover chicken breast and veggies from the night before. I always eat breakfast, either eggs or oatmeal, and I hardly ever snack between meals. I found hrough logging food on myfitnesspal that just a handful of snacks here and there throughout the day can easily add up to 300 to 400 calories, and you don't even know it.

Once I began to see my body changing it kept the fire alive and pushed me even harder. After the first few months I began lifting weights and running, which sped up my weight loss. I was down to 210 pounds by March of 2011. I have slowly been losing the last 20 pounds by working out five days a week, running and lifting. I started the process wanting to get to 200 pounds, and when I got there, I wasn't satisfied. Now I want to get in the best shape of my life.

Now, I have 20 times the energy I used to have. At my heaviest just playing nine holes of golf, even with a cart, would make me tired for the rest of the day. I can run around all day and rarely get tired. I'm so thankful I finally committed to doing this now, because I was going down an unhealthy path that could have led anywhere. I've completely rebooted everything I knew about eating and will carry these principles with me for the rest of my life. When I think back to how I used to eat and how lazy I was, I still get mad at myself, but I am thankful I was given the strength to correct it and start over before it was too late.

After Weight: 188 pounds

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Comments

[stdman]

09:43 PM on 05/29/2012

i eat food late nigth around 1 - 3 am too much!! i dont have the time to work out ....but i will try to cut the calories!

[bassasaurusrex]

08:21 PM on 05/29/2012

First, congrats to Aaron. I know all too well how it feels to wake up one day and realize you've been torturing your body. Unfortunately for me, I found out a little later than I would have liked.
I had (note the tense) Type II diabetes. A1C of almost 9 (yikes) the only change I made was lifting 4 days a week and walking to the gym and taking the subway home. (the walk to the gym is about 30-40 minutes)
I'm off the meds and my A1C is low for what a 'normal' person is. I changed precious little about my diet. I eat 8-10 times a day and enjoy the occasional 'indulgent' dessert. I'm healthier than I've ever been and my doc has asked me to help counsel other people who are having trouble.
Eating well is important but it will do absolutely nothing for your weight loss or health goals if you don't lift weights and do some cardio. Lifting weights absolutely TORCHES the sugars in your blood at a pace that is hard for a person to keep up with replenishing. You won't get 'huge' or 'gross' if you lift. Believe it or not you have to actually 'try hard' to get really big and huge.
Once you start lifting you'll feel great and your dietary habits will follow. You'll want to keep that endorphin rush feeling you get from pounding out a 300+ lbs bench press.

[LadyMarine0426]

07:51 PM on 05/29/2012

Ugh, fast food is so disgusting! I don't see why people eat it or allow their children to ingest all of the toxins in it!

[stdman]

09:44 PM on 05/29/2012

cus when kids are young its hard to say no and you just want to shut them up!

[LadyMarine0426]

09:11 AM on 05/30/2012

No, it's not that hard to say no. I have a 5 year old...and I just say...'no'...or turn up the music in the car so I don't hear it. Shutting your kid up with fast food is a cop out.

[thenewgirl]

04:33 PM on 06/14/2012

I think it has addictive qualities. I've especially noticed this with soda - I hardly ever drink it, but if I have one I will soon have the urge to drink another. It's really weird because I don't even enjoy the taste that much. So I just avoid it completely. But I think the same happens (at least for me) with fast food.

[LadyMarine0426]

09:43 PM on 06/14/2012

Very valid point...I can certainly relate with the soda situation. I quit years ago, but if I drink ANYthing bubbly...champagne, soda water....I crave one. 

[Ian Welch]

07:40 PM on 05/29/2012

Great story, I think it is about getting up and having a plan. One little change at a time.

Day 1 - Drink 8 large glasses of water
Day 2 - Drink 8 large glasses of water
Cut out one thing.
Day 3 - Keep doing this for a month. That's 30 new good habits.

My plaque is reversing less than a year after my quadruple bypass surgery.

I have outlined some of the pitfalls of filling our guts with guts; how the sun will shine brighter and the water will taste better if we eat lots of plants. I have not shared results.

I am due for my next checkup at the Cardiologist in the next month. This is from my last visit in November.

My results are here: http://wholefed.org/2012/05/03/reversing-plaque-maybe-its-the-aluminium-foil-hat-i-made/

Anyone can pick apart how long humans have been eating meat or how or brains would be the size of peas without animal protein. There are thousands of studies and experts that will refute any effort that promotes focusing your diet on grains, vegetables & fruits.

I take 10mg of Crestor a day. Maybe that is the cause of the Plaque reversal? Maybe it is the baby aspirin? Maybe it is the 30 mile run I ran on Sunday?

I say: try it. Try eating nothing but Plants & Grains for a week. Two weeks. One month.

There is no downside… only upside.

Ian Welch
www.wholefed.org

[Dancenownzen]

07:22 PM on 05/29/2012

It is common sense and simple........................eat healthy and exercise WHAT IS SO HARD???????????????????????????????

[thenewgirl]

04:33 PM on 06/14/2012

bad habits are hard to break. I suppose you don't have any.

[TXASGUN]

06:50 PM on 05/29/2012

WAY TO GO,,,GOD BLESS.........................

[reedinaz]

06:38 PM on 05/29/2012

I used to eat a lot of fast food when I was really young. If you go into taco bell and they say "hi! the usual?" you know you have a problem. I never got more than 20 pounds over weight but I'm only 5'3" so that is a lot to look at. what I noticed most as well was that I like dairy. I would consume 7 servings of dairy a day and not eat anything else. I ate what I craved. Since I stopped doing that i dropped the rest of my weight

[Popopnano]

05:48 PM on 05/29/2012

You started with a good foundation because I can see the muscle under the fat in the before pic. That is a lot of weight to lose and you did a great job. I lost 60% of my muscle mass since I've gotten fat and getting motivated has become so much harder.

[La2592]

04:33 PM on 05/29/2012

Wow! I am so inspired!!. I have worked at the same office for 32 years & have eaten FAST FOOD every day for 32 years..not just at lunch..but at nite too...and weekends especially! I am not obese but if I did what Aaron did, I could have an Awesome Body...losing about 40 lbs would make quite a difference on this 5'4 body! I DO like to exercise & work out...but not consistant enough to make a big difference. That Drive-Thru routine will definitely be hard to break...but thanks to Aarons Story...I am on my way! Thanks Aaron! U R AWESOME!

[Another Random Guy]

03:42 PM on 05/29/2012

Now it all makes sense to me why I've been seeing Weight Watchers and NutriSystem advertisements all over HuffPo lately...

[sirpuffsalot]

04:06 PM on 05/29/2012

i dont see anywhere in this article where it says he used either of those sounds like he just used common sense and a little bit of what most americans have forgotten called work ethic.

[Another Random Guy]

09:58 AM on 05/30/2012

I was making a joke.

[erinbliss]

03:30 PM on 05/29/2012

That after photo must be the one he's texting girls on the dating site.

[bmitche]

02:51 PM on 05/29/2012

WOW, you look great Aaron. Want fries with that ? Just kidding . lol

[Marthacares]

02:33 PM on 05/29/2012

I credit the movie 'Supersize me' for ending fast food eating for me. I lost 15 lbs in just a couple of months from that change alone. And I didn't eat it that much. Just a small entree a couple of times a week- no fries or soda.

[mcinnisja]

06:13 PM on 05/29/2012

I credit the smell outside fast food restaurants for alerting me to the quality of the fare inside.

[RuffyofLA]

12:09 PM on 05/29/2012

Everybody seems to have a little "secret" to losing weight. There isnt any. Its a simple process, burn more calories than you take in. Unless you get outdoor exercise thats not going to happen. Walking, jogging, biking are the easest. You have to keep calories under 1700 per day for men and 1200 for women. That cant be done eating out at ANY time or having sweets or fatty foods.

[erinbliss]

03:30 PM on 05/29/2012

Why outdoor exercise? I exercise inside and burn as many calories as I ever did outdoors.

[ljohn333]

04:12 PM on 05/29/2012

Wouldn't nessesarly go by those numbers especialoly if you are already consumming 4000 calories. You are right in the easiest way is to increase your exersise while consuming less calories

[reelchick]

04:37 PM on 05/29/2012

1200 calories? I'm 6' tall. I don't think so.

[Dontneedtoknow]

12:04 PM on 05/29/2012

One reason I gained weight was because of High Blood Pressure medicine Hyzaar I was taking. I took it for 6 months and will say it definately controlled the blood pressure but my craving for food was off the charts! I would eat all day and night and would stay in bed all day, all night. Medication isn't the solution to alot of peoples problems but doctors get big bonuses and checks for pushing pills on us. Luckily I had a good friend tell me I was getting really fat and she probably saved my life...I quit taking the medicine and started working out and cut out fast food and SODAS and now I've lost 30 lbs and feel better....I still have side effects from taking the medicine but I'll never take any pills ever again. Good luck everyone.

[LadyMarine0426]

07:58 PM on 05/29/2012

Being thin/thinner than you were doesn't mean you're healthy.

[LadyMarine0426]

07:58 PM on 05/29/2012

Crap, sorry, that wasn't mean for you, posted to the wrong person.