By Eliminating This Foods, Man Lost Over 140 Pounds!

By Eliminating This Foods, Man Lost Over 140 Pounds!

It’s unfortunate, but sometimes it takes drastic life events to realize something about yourself. One of these experiences happened to Patrick Delaney in 2015 when his father died of a heart attack. Patrick was 30-years-old at the time and weighed about 340 pounds. With a body and lifestyle not unlike his father’s, Patrick feared the same thing would happen to him which urged him to steer his life in another direction and take back control of his health.

The early-thirties computer engineer from Atlanta, Georgia had always been a big teenager who struggled with his weight. Although he spent his high school and college years working with an incredible ethic, the work itself wasn’t the problem. It was the location. During his Chick-fil-A years, Patrick would eat a fried chicken sandwich with fries and a soda five or six days a week, every week. After work, he often stopped off at Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. His order? Three chicken burrito supremes and an order or bread sticks. The combination of hard work and the immediacy of fast food at your fingertips may have been convenient, but it was deadly. Now, couple this with social drinking at an average of 10 beers a night and no exercise; the picture becomes quite clear. By the age of twenty-one, Patrick hit 300 pounds. He attributes this largely to 3 things:

1. Skipping breakfast and only eating two meals a day, we led to strong appetite and overeating
2. Knowing almost nothing about nutrition or the diet-weight relationship
3. Not realizing how many calories he was actually consuming

There are people who consume 4000 calories a day, which is what Patrick was doing withoutbreakfast. However, he was leaving out a key component: physical activity. In college, he went to a gym and used the treadmill a few times a week, but the lack of results discouraged him and he stopped.

“I always thought I was just a big guy due to genetics or a slow metabolism,” said Patrick. “I never thought there were other factors.”

What About Patrick Delaney’s Weight Loss Journey Worked?

It was while Patrick prepared for his father’s funeral that he realized he needed to make a change. In particular, with his diet. He started by immediately eliminating soda cold turkey. This seemingly minor change “easily cut about 600 calories a day. [He] start seeing results almost instantly.”

However, the eating problem remained. It’s not easy going from eating fast food almost every single day, multiple times a day, for years, to eating healthy. Patrick’s self-awareness led him to download MyFitnessPal, an app which allowed him to track his calories on a daily basis. The simple app helped put his calorie consumption into perspective and hold him accountable, even when things got tough.

After soda, Patrick drastically cut his fast food and restaurant meals. Instead, he spent more time in the kitchen cooking meals such as chicken breasts and vegetables that would carry him throughout the week. He also went from eating two meals a day to five or six smaller ones which he filled with nutritious snacks like Greek yogurt, almonds, and grapes.[2] It makes a huge difference when you’re filling your body with more foods with healthy carbs and fats as opposed to less food that is barely food in the first place. In theory, some may think that Patrick’s habit of skipping breakfast would have helped his weight. Less food equals less weight, right? Not exactly.

Other Habits Patrick Delaney Uses to Stay Fit

As of July 2017, Patrick weighed in at 199.6 pounds and has a goal of reaching 180. Contrary to what he thought before, he now realizes why hitting the gym won’t necessarily do anything if you aren’t balancing it with a healthy diet. Over the last two years, he has found an active routine that works for him which balances cardio and strength training. What’s incredible is that this all started with just 30 minutes of walking on a treadmill. Now, he’s graduated to his personal favorite, a rowing machine along with bicep curls, tricep dips, pullups, bench press, lunges, squats, and planks.[2]

“Now, I want to get out and move instead of sitting around all day… I crave healthy foods, not junk. I had a soda recently for the first time in two years and it just didn’t taste good anymore – I didn’t want it.”

“It’s a bit shallow, but the attention from women has been mind blowing to me,” Patrick exclaimed. “I remember a girl staring at me at the store and, for like five minutes, I thought there was something on my shirt before it hit me that I got checked out.”

Patrick Delaney’s Advice for Anyone on Their Own Weight Loss Journey

It has taken Patrick two years, but he started seeing results instantly from the moment he cut out soda. Those same results are possible for you, too.

“Before you even start making changes to your diet, track all the food you’re currently eating. That way, you’ll have a baseline and know what you need to do going forward.”

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