Anthony Lopez, founder of Heavy to Modified training, shares with Men's Health how he went from weighing over 600 pounds and battling depression to helping others in their weight loss journeys while also working out and mountain biking every day.
Even when I was in elementary school, I was the biggest kid around. That continued into junior high, high school, and college. I just kept gaining weight into adulthood. Then, in 2018, my grandpa was given a few months to live. I decided to quit my job, drop everything, and go live at my grandparents' house to take care of him. I was with him every single day. He was a father figure to me. Then, when he passed away, I stayed there with my grandma.
And during that time, I went from 480 pounds to over 600 pounds.
I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do drugs. My drug, my release, was food. I was knocking out 2,100 calories in just my breakfast, going to McDonald's. When I ended up going home back to my house, I just looked in the mirror and everything hit me. I was in this crazy depression, and I've never been depressed before. I actually had to Google my feelings because I didn't know what was happening to me. I was always raised with confidence, everyone in my family supported me. I knew I was overweight, but I'd never let it affect me.
I don't even know how much I weighed exactly when I was at my heaviest, as my scale wouldn't go higher than a reading of 600 pounds. I knew I had to get my life together, or my family might be burying me next. So that very next day, I signed up for a gym. And I have not stopped.
Everyone's been on a diet before. So we know "eat less, work out more," that's what everyone is kind of driven by in their head. So when I first started going to the gym, the workouts I was doing were super simple, it was all bodyweight stuff. Simple pushups using my knees, a lot of band work, some kettlebells, a lot of ropes. And I didn't do fast food. I started eating chicken, fish, vegetables. I realized that food is to give me energy so I can crush it during the day, it's not to indulge myself and then go sit down and lay down and fall asleep and do nothing.
I'd always wanted to try mountain biking, but even when I first started losing weight, I was 100 percent too big. However, by the time I got down to the high 400s, I was probably still a little too big, I still had weight to lose, but I felt a million times better. So I felt like it was possible. I got a mountain bike, started pedaling, and haven't looked back. I was so excited, and I just fell in love with mountain bike riding. I was riding all through Covid; while the gyms are closed, I was pedaling four or five times a week, putting a minimum of 10 to 15 miles on my bike every single time I went out.
Today, I'm maintaining my weight at 265 pounds; that's a total loss of more than 350 pounds. I have more energy, I can do all the things I want to do, many doors have opened up for me. But by far, the coolest part of my weight loss, is that I'm happy with my body right now, and that I get to tell my story and motivate people. I am able to train people that were 500 pounds, because I know how they're feeling. I know how hard it was for them to get out of bed and put their shoes on, put their socks on, you know, to walk down the stairs. I've been in that situation. I know how crappy I felt. And it just inspires me so much to see them come into the gym to train with me, because they're trying to make a difference in their life.
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The one piece of advice I would have for someone that's just starting their weight loss journey is don't pay anyone else any attention but yourself. This is the time that you need to learn how to love yourself for who you are, and to find the problems that you have and want to fix. Put in the hard work, put in the dedication. Don't give up when times get hard, just follow it through. It's going to take blood, sweat, tears, but you are worth it.
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