I’m writing this blog with full transparency in mind – no matter who you are reading this, I’d like to be honest about my experience and relationship with weight loss, my relationship with food, and my journey for the next 3 months.

This particular post covers why I’m pursuing a VLCD (very low calorie diet), which is admittedly very aggressive.

I’ve had issues with weight since middle school, partly because my family has never prioritized healthy eating, but mostly because I loooooove junk food. I’ve always gravitated to the food that tastes good and is satisfying in the short term, and because of that I’ve been in varying states of good and bad shape for the majority of my adulthood. I seek out food for comfort, out of boredom, and to keep myself busy while I’m concentrating – for almost every reason other than nutrition.

The main decline of my health and fitness started when I got a job with a significant commute. I was used to training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu between 3-5 nights a week, which burns at least 1k calories an hour (science dictates you burn more calories when someone is trying to strangle you.)

Almost overnight, I was missing classes because I was stuck in traffic for an hour and a half each way and completely drained from the day – but my eating habits never changed. I tried lifting weights sporadically, and occasionally went for a run, but I learned the hard way that it’s impossible to out-exercise a shitty diet.

After a couple years of lackluster exercise and full-luster eating, I was the heaviest I had ever been. I felt hopeless. I would try to diet and would see short term progress, but ultimately would stop because it was inconvenient.

When I got married in 2018, I was clocking in at 220 lbs. I’m 5’9. To contrast, Tom Brady is 7 inches taller than me and is a super lean 225.

Leading up to my wedding, my mother in law had just gone through a program called Enara Health that offered a medically supervised VLCD program where she lost a TON of weight. At the time, I thought it sounded crazy – because it is.

Essentially, the VLCD program allows for 800 calories a day – total. They set you up with a licensed nutritionist who monitors your meals, a Physician to watch your vitals throughout, and a personal trainer to help tailor a workout plan. It sounded BRUTAL.

Eventually, I admitted to myself that doing it on my own wasn’t working, and decided to try it out for myself. I committed to doing the VLCD through Enara and ended up going from 211 pounds (my weight fluctuated down a bit right before I tracked through Enara) to 165. I lost over 45 pounds in the course of 3 months, and managed to keep most of my muscle mass through weight lifting.

So, why am i doing it again?

Well, you’ve all been alive for the past 2 years, right? I fully admit that I’m a stress eater, and on top of the absolute shit-show that was the United States during COVID, I also have 2 children (who are beautiful and the best part of my life, but definitely stressful), a shitty garage-gym, and a panic/anxiety disorder.

Essentially, the past couple of years have been the perfect storm for a person who stress eats. I’ve gained a ton of the weight back, and again find myself in a situation where I need to commit fully to a program to get myself back on track.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll be eating 800 calories a day until I hit my goal of 160 pounds (or until it becomes medically unsafe).

Moving forward, I’ll start a series of posts documenting my daily/weekly weights, my vitals, my body-fat and visceral fat levels, and my skeletal muscle mass.

I’m both dreading the process and looking forward to the results. Keep an eye out for the next series of posts in the next couple of days, and follow along with me!