How intermittent fasting helped this man lose more than 100 pounds

Andy Aupperle had never identified himself as a "fat guy". Raised in Texas, he naturally turned to football, where he played as an offensive lineman and ate like such a player. The problem is that he continued to eat like a football player long after the end of his days. "Playing huge amounts of video games and eating like shit, I've gone over the scales to 280 pounds," he says.

At the end of 2017, Aupperle, 37, now lives in Princeton, New Jersey, and works as a nursing assistant. He was convinced that he was fine with his weight. But when he had to make the change from size 40 to size 42, his mood sank. "I had to change my lifestyle," he says.

In January 2018, he took the first step by concentrating first on his diet. He had read articles on intermittent fasting – the diet in which a person usually eats for 8 hours and takes 16 hours of "rest". He tried and the weight began to fall immediately – 10 pounds in the first 3 weeks. Aupperle increased his fasting window to 20 hours, while maintaining his caloric intake between 1200 and 1500.

Inserted fries, pizzas and tacos, he now ate salads, chicken and seasoned vegetables. Encouraged by his girlfriend, whom he attributes a lot to help him stay motivated, he also started running, reluctantly. "I was slow and I felt so easily," he says. "It was not beautiful at all, but I liked being outside, so I kept doing it." He set himself small goals – two minutes without stopping, then increased the time. It was not long before he was running 5K.

Yoga and weight training sessions quickly followed, and everything started to add up: he was losing about 15 pounds a month. By November, he had reached his goal of 175 pounds, losing about 100 pounds in total. "It took 11 months, but I did not stop remembering that it took me 35 years to gain that weight, it would not be quick or easy to get rid of."