Being a super heavyweight is the best feeling in the world. There are three reasons I feel this way. As a super heavyweight: I can easily ground myself to the bar, the general public is scared shitless of this behemoth of a thing gasping for air, and most admired (for most of us), you get to eat all the junk in the world and barely gain another pound.
I say most, as some, like myself, are genetically gifted to be big. At one point, I competed at around 400 pounds, topping out at 407 pounds. It only took roughly around 7-8k calories to do so. However, I was not consuming good calories. Ninety-five percent of my intake was fast food. I worked in the construction industry, and it was incredibly easy to head to McDonald's and pound some McChickens. Who would have thought that all those easy stops at McDonald's would take a toll on the old ticker and pancreas?
Creating the Monster
I love food. I could eat all day if I wanted to. Thirty minutes after a meal, I get hungry again. Sure, there is some underlying past that is potentially to blame, but it is just who I am. I was over 200 pounds by the age of ten. I hit 300 pounds by the age of 15. Slowly, I crept up to around 330 pounds by age 25 before I started to get serious about lifting and competing in powerlifting. At that point, all I knew was if I kept eating, I would get stronger. So, I did.
Below is an example of what I used to eat in a day. It all came down to what fast food joints were nearby that day. I saw JM Blakely's diet as a challenge.
My Fast Food Meal Plan
- Meal 1 – Three fully loaded breakfast sandwiches and three hashbrowns from Burger King.
- Meal 2 – Four scoops of protein, two huge spoonfuls of peanut butter, Gatorade.
- Meal 3 – Two footlong subs with double meat and cheese from Subway.
- Meal 4 – Same as Meal 2
- Meal 5 – Extra large meat pizza from Papa Johns
- Meal 6 – Same as Meal 2
*These meals do not include all the Mountain Dew I consumed.
Once I started eating like this, I went from around 350 to 390 pounds. I was a grotesque, beautiful mass of flesh that Nurgle would be proud of. I continued to eat like this for a year until I seriously injured my back which required fusion. But that is another article for another day for what happened there.
Controlling the Monster
Fast forward five years. I was having serious cardiac and diabetic issues flaring up. My heart was only working at 30 percent capacity and an A1C of 10.3 at its highest, among other things. Yes, I would try to lose weight but would fail and rebound. I continued this cycle multiple times, using the basic principles of taking what you eat now, dropping the calories by the amount, and going. I would be fine for two months, but the feeling of hunger and extreme drop in blood sugars caused a living hell on my body and my mental health. It just was not going to work.
After collapsing on a walk and lying there thinking, "This is where I die," a game plan came to me. It was simple. Why did I keep failing? My feelings of hunger would get out of control, and my already messed up mental health issues would spiral out of control. I had to control my hunger and eat much healthier to get my heart and mind healthy. My problem with eating healthier is that I would become even more hungry because I was not getting that dopamine rush.
Finding A Fix
Below is the checklist I created.
- Control hunger
- Eat nutritive
- Eat enough food to not crash blood sugars too fast
I wrote down what I ate throughout the week. Instead of looking at just day-to-day calorie intake, I went by a week. Also, I did not drop calories. Instead, I increased them by 1200 over the week. Why? To control the feeling of extreme hunger that was controlling me.
Regarding eating healthy and more nutritious food, I recently moved 30 miles from civilization to the middle of nowhere. That meant no pizza delivery, no short drive to fast food joints, etc. This move helped limit the easy access to my typical easy dopamine fix.
I have limited income, so that is a blessing in disguise. It forces me to buy proteins, fats, and carbs in bulk. Right now, I pick up whole pork tenderloin, cut it up, and grind it for the bulk of my protein. I know exactly what is being ground up and am not paying for the processing. Then, I buy just bags of rice, potatoes, and oatmeal. As a treat to myself, every two weeks, when I go into town to resupply, I get a donut and a slice of pizza.I am following roughly a 1.2g/lb protein and .3g/lb fat, filling the rest with carbs. Below is an example of my daily meal plans that I started with when switching to healthy eating.
My Healthy Meal Plan
- Meal 1 – One scoop protein isolate, 7g coconut oil, coffee
- Meal 2 – Six fresh eggs sunny side up, four slices of toast
- Meal 3 – 12 oz pork tenderloin, 90g dry weight rice, 7g coconut oil
- Meal 4 – 12 oz pork tenderloin, 90g dry weight rice, 7g coconut oil
- Meal 5 – 12 oz 90/10 hamburger, 454g potato, 7g olive oil
- Meal 6 – 2 scoops protein isolate, 80g oatmeal, 80g blueberries, 20g honey, 16g PB
The structure of the "diet" was simple. I ate this amount, adding 1200 calories to it and spreading it throughout the week. And I did not mess with carbs, as my carbs were going towards training. I had to eat this amount of protein, fat, and carbs every meal, relatively the same throughout the day, to keep my blood sugars from spiking or crashing, except for when I woke up, as my gut no longer likes solid food first thing in the morning.
Did I gain weight right off the bat? Yep. However, I do not have hunger issues anymore. I only lowered calories when I could control my hunger. Once my hunger was under control, I dropped my calorie intake by 300 over the week. Depending on my weight, I took out either carbs or fats.
The hunger would take over along the way, and mentally, I would start crashing. I would let it teeter a little to see if it would subside. Sometimes, it would. Other times, I would make an emergency run and pound some calories at a local burger joint that uses local beef and potatoes, like Five Guys, but better. I would then add 700 calories back in throughout the week. Then, the process would start over. My weight would stay constant for four to six weeks, and then I would lose 10 to 15 pounds for about a week. And then my weight would stagnate again. Why? I am not smart enough to figure that one out. That is just the way it was. It took 18 months, but I went from 407 to 299 pounds. That was the first time I had seen the 200s in over 20 years.
It took me a while to figure this plan out, but to keep my blood sugars in better ranges, keeping my fats around .3g/lb of my body weight works the best for me. Carbs take too long to process in the body. If I go above .3g/lb of my body weight, my blood sugar stays high—the same with fiber. We are all different, and a lower fat/fiber and higher GI carb approach is the complete opposite of what the experts say to do for diabetes.
Not So Fat Anymore
Currently, I weigh around 308 pounds. I will still be as big as possible because I have this psychotic idea that I can get my squat back to where it was before my back injury while keeping my health markers in check.
Am I perfectly healthy? No, but I am not too worried about another mini-stroke or going into heart failure again. My heart is back to 55-60 percent functionality, and A1C is in the mid 5's.
I have energy. My recovery is a million times better. I can keep my conditioning up. Hell, I went on a 10.5-mile hikeway into Glacier National Park up a mountainside this fall. Two weeks beforehand, I peaked my lifts to see where they were.
For those of us gifted to be giants among the masses, we must be more vigilant with our food choices if we want longevity, as we do not need to eat junk all the time.
Conclusion
If you are trying to lose weight, remember that you are not trying to get to five percent body fat. I learned to use my mental health as a gauge instead of relying on what my body looked like or a scale. Food was my escape as a kid dealing with the shit I was put through. I went cold turkey with quite a few substances, but food is not one I could quit. I had to, at my own pace, learn to turn food from a dopamine fix to something that fueled me. If you do not want to eat a meal because it will be boring, but you know you have to, add some BBQ sauce. You can stock the pantry with spices and herbs. Make shit interesting.
I will end it with this: you will not know what too big is until you hit it. The ability to know when you hit it and reassess the game plan is up to you. Make a checklist of things you still need to be able to do and ride that edge.
Joey, raised in rural NE Montana, developed a strong work ethic and passion for his pursuits. He channeled these into powerlifting, training under Josh Bryant and later at EHOP in Fargo, ND, while learning from top strength athletes. Now residing on Montana's Rocky Front, he trains to enjoy the mountains and outdoor activities. Joey also manages Dave Tate's Table Talk Discord, sharing his accumulated knowledge with the community.
