Success Story: Eric West
Read about how this Army veteran rebuilt his body to take off 70 unwanted pounds
by Dean Stattmann
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Name: Eric West
Hometown: Paducah, KY
Age: 32
Height: 5'11"
Weight Before: 246 lbs
Weight After: 175 lbs
Body Fat Before: 23.8%
Body Fat After: 9.5%
It's not that hard to stay in shape
while serving in the Army. Someone
designs your grueling workouts,
prepares your meals, and keeps
you on a strict schedule. Without that
rigid routine, however, it's also easy to
pack on additional weight.
Take former U.S. infantryman Eric
West of Paducah, Ky.
Before |
After |
He gained 50
pounds after being honorably discharged
in 1999. If that wasn't bad
enough, on what was supposed to be a
routine visit to the doctor, he got some
even grimmer news. "[He] told me I
was a Ding Dong and a Twinkie away
from diabetes," says West, 32. The
words hit home—West had a family
history of the disease. At nearly 250
pounds, he was resigned to contracting
it too—until he arrived at home and
saw his wife and two daughters. "That's
when I realized I wanted to be healthy
for myself and for them," he says.
Though he now had the motivation,
West wasn't well-informed about what
to do next. Initially, he tried fad diets.
"I would lose weight briefl y," he says,
"but it would come right back when
I began eating regular meals again."
West was as clueless about fi tness as
he was about his nutrition. Although
he joined a gym and began lifting, he
went too heavy, too
soon, and ended
up with a hernia.
"I
didn't know what
I was doing when
I first started," he
recalls. "It was like I
just kind of grabbed
stuff and lifted it."
Surgery repaired
the injury, but West
was laid up for eight
weeks, which he spent on the Internet
and buried in fitness magazines, like
Men's Fitness. "That helped me probably
more than anything," he says. "It
kept me pumped up, so when I was
cleared to get back into the gym, I was
ready to go."
Empowered with knowledge, West
fi rst swore off foods like pizza in favor
of protein shakes made from yogurt,
oatmeal, skim milk, and peanut butter.
He stopped snacking, worked more
veggies and chicken breasts into his
meal plan, and also gave up smoking.
In the gym, he kept his reps to no
more than 12 per set and focused on
good form. He also used downtime at
work to burn off extra energy by shadowboxing.
He even started running
(something he hadn't done since his
military days), covering two to three
miles a day, a few days a week.
By last July, West had lost more
than 70 pounds and dropped down to
9.5% body fat, and he was stronger
than ever. "Even in the Army, I'd never
been able to bench 100 pounds over
my body weight," he says. "The fi rst
time I put 315 pounds up, I was like,
'alright, let me get a calculator because
this can't be right.'"
Today, the threat of diabetes has disappeared,
but West is more proud to
have come through for his family. "The
other day, my daughter reminded me
of why I do this," he says. "She called
me her superhero daddy."
Eric's Tip for Success:
"Never give up. In order to get into shape, you have to keep yourself moving. Don't ever stop. If you do, it's too hard toget moving again."
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