Man Who Misplaced Over 100 Lbs Reveals His 1 Most Efficient Way of life Change

Martin Christiansen logs his progress in a spreadsheet in order that he can look again at his weight and blood stress for any given day.

“When I go see my weight loss doctor, I usually have a PowerPoint with me to highlight things I’ve been doing,” Christiansen tells TODAY.com.

But as we speak, he flips by his papers. According to his newest calculations, over the past 12 months, he has misplaced 2 kilos of muscle and 30 kilos of fats, bringing his whole weight reduction to greater than 100 kilos. And he’s not stopping right here.

The Weight of Stress

For most of his grownup life, Christiansen’s weight stayed regular round 180 kilos. However, in the course of the last 12 months of his Ph.D. program in 2001, to deal with the stress of writing his dissertation and 18-hour days targeted solely on calculations, he ate.

“My problem really was that I stayed hungry no matter what,” he recollects. “Yeah, I would be hungry after eating food. I would be hungry when my stomach could have no more food in it.”

The now-53-year-old’s most well-liked hang-out was a close-by pizza place he’d go to together with his spouse, Katie, of their Laurel, Maryland, neighborhood. As he continued to appease with meals, Christiansen discovered himself at 386 kilos, his highest weight.

He tried altering his habits. He began working. “That was a great distraction for me. And I really enjoyed that,” he says.

Christiansen went on to run the Chicago Marathon and saved on the sport till he tore his meniscus, a bit of cartilage within the knee. After two surgical procedures, working was now not an choice. “That was one of the techniques I was using to try to control my weight,” Christiansen says.

Then got here the diets. “I tried all kinds of various diets, as everyone does who is trying to lose weight,” Christiansen says. His approach, nevertheless, was uniquely him.

The mechanical engineer approached weight reduction very similar to he approaches many issues in life. “I’m a researcher. So, this stuff all comes with (peer-reviewed research) papers and other things,” he explains.

His data-backed strategy led Christiansen to diets that had him consuming extra meat, then much less meat, then greens, then completely different greens, till he discovered the Greger Diet, based by doctor Dr. Michael Greger, in 2020.

“It’s a diet that minimizes the intake of meat, eggs, dairy and processed junk, and maximizes the intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes like beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds, mushrooms — basically, real food that grows out of the ground. Those are our healthiest choices,” Greger beforehand informed TODAY.com.

While on the weight loss plan, at one level, Christiansen misplaced 38 kilos, however his weight fluctuated over the following three years. He caught with it till November 2023, when he discovered this system that made the largest change.

A Promising Program

“My primary care doctor suggested it,” Christiansen recollects. At the time, he was 351.9 kilos, and she or he advised he enroll in The Johns Hopkins Healthful Eating, Activity & Weight Program, which counsels sufferers trying to obtain more healthy life and handle persistent illness.

He met with a doctor who assessed his weight loss plan and health practices, and collectively they custom-made a plan for a brand new weight reduction course of. Every month, he’d meet together with his physician to verify in.

Like with most issues, Christiansen made the method his personal.

“I constantly make the joke I’m an engineer. There is no cure, (but) if there’s data, I will calculate. You know, I’m probably the only person who I know that has a linear regression of my weight loss. And people say weight loss is highly erratic. I’m like, ‘mine’s linear.’”

Since Christiansen already had a constant strolling routine — his peak is 60 miles in a single week — the plan was to proceed doing it. He additionally added weightlifting with a bodily therapist and woodworking with heavy development supplies to his weekly rotation.

Doctors additionally prescribed him a weight reduction tablet. And for the primary time in a very long time, after one slice of pizza, Christiansen was full. Soon after, his physician changed that tablet with a prescription for Mounjaro, typically referred to by its energetic ingredient, tirzepatide. It’s FDA accepted to deal with Type 2 diabetes.

It works by activating receptors within the mind for 2 hormones, GIP and GLP-1, that are produced after consuming. This results in decreased urge for food and meals consumption, TODAY.com beforehand reported.

Along together with his Mounjaro injections, Christiansen needed to match motion into his day by day schedule and make dietary modifications, together with rising his protein consumption.

“I didn’t just go to fast food and eat hamburgers,” he says. He stocked his fridge with smoked salmon, beef from a neighborhood farm and dough he made himself for thin-crust pizzas and pizza pockets crammed with greens and minimal cheese.

Christiansen in contrast his weight reduction progress to that of individuals noticed in scientific research. Though his physician elevated his dosage at a slower fee than researchers did with their trial sufferers, “I’m right on the line,” he says.

Today, Christiansen continues to be shedding pounds whereas taking 15 milligrams of Mounjaro, the best dose. “The last time I saw my weight loss doctor, where I updated him on all the things, I was losing point eight pounds per week, which is still a pretty steep clip,” he says.

What the Future Holds

Of his many woodworking initiatives, Christiansen has accomplished two aspect tables comprised of Cherry wooden, chopping boards and a bench fabricated from Baltic birch. Now, he’s engaged on a dresser.

“I try to do something every day,” Christiansen says about his health routine. With uncommon exceptions — French fries particularly — Christiansen’s weight loss plan is targeted on complete meals. His blood stress has returned to a traditional vary, and he’s greater than 100 kilos down, a 26% discount by his calculations.

At 275.5 kilos, he’s received extra weight to lose, however Christiansen says he doesn’t have a aim. “I’m going to do my best,” he provides.

“People used to ask what it takes you to get a Ph.D.,” says Christiansen. “There are only two things you need. … You need to want it, and you need to want it every day.’”