I Decided to Do Something About It
It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint success story. Many thanks to Albert for sharing his inspirational account of how he grabbed control of his health and lost nearly 100 pounds at an early age.
If you have your own success story you would like to share with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thanks for reading!
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Hey Mark,
All my life I had been a “chubby” boy, was happy, had friends and all but I knew something wasn’t right when I couldn’t run a set of stairs or catching the bus was a complete struggle…. I always had an emotional relationship with food and whenever I felt depressed or down I would reach for coke, chocolate, ice cream…..you get the picture.
One cold Monday morning while getting ready to go to work I looked in the mirror and the guy looking back wasn’t happy….it wasn’t me, I had topped at 270 lbs at age 21 and was heading towards diseases, joint pains and a sure early death.
I decided to do something about it, joined a gym and started swimming because it was the only thing that I liked back then (I’m originally from Spain and we enjoy the beach as much as we can!). Asked for advice from trainers at my gym and all of them suggested the same thing, increase cardio, eat whole grains, lean meats, egg whites, the whole thing….
While I lost some weight doing so, I was also feeling bloated, heavy and tired everyday, coffee became my best friend and I was simply struggling to get on with my life. I was counting every single calorie (taking in 1800 a day religiously) and macro nutrients (typical 40/40/20 kind of diet). Around May my weight was around 240 lbs and while I was pleased with the progress it didn’t seem to be realistic given the effort and the amount of work I was putting in…. I became obsessed with food and diet and would never go out with friends because I couldn’t eat anything that wasn’t cooked at my kitchen. You can imagine what happened, lost motivation, depressed, no social life, and the worst COMPLETELY obsessed with food.
I made the worst mistake of my life by decreasing my overall calories to 1500 a day (still on a 40/40/20 split) and my metabolism just couldn’t take it anymore, I was holding water weight and possibly had adrenal fatigue due to all the stimulants (fat burners, coffee, you name it…) and the overtraining.
Finally through a friend found open skies, he told me about dropping all grains and sugars and trying to eat more veggies and protein at every meal, he also suggested I googled “The Paleo Diet” and “Primal Blueprint”…..
That’s where my life began to make sense, I dropped down to 175 lbs by mid-July and measured my body fat at 10%, yes I had lost a lot of muscle mass during my stupid “healthy diet” trial but Primal eating, weight lifting and HIIT was getting me where I wanted to be….
Until today, I’m studying to be a Personal Trainer, currently looking to run my own business (a restaurant based in Primal eating) and willing to spread the word about these newly found lifestyle that matches my genes and makes life so much simpler, tastier and rewarding!
I just wanted to say thank you to you, to all the people that research about paleo lifestyle and to my family for all the support they’ve given me.
Grok On!
Albert
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
Awesome, Albert. I won’t be there til next week now as I am off to Paris on Friday (it’s a hard life, I know) but hopefully I will catch you there in the future. Tell ‘em I sent you over. Get me in the good books. Enjoy…
I certainly will. The classes were full this week though, so I’ll be in next week.
I’ll see you around! oh! and enjoy Paris
Alberto,
Estas guapo como un tren!!
Bravo.
OC
loving your nickname btw
how many carbs do you think you were and are now getting a day?
im 3 weeks in to primal w carbs around 50-75g, and didnt lose as much fat as i thought i would. today i lowered my carbs down to about 25 and am hoping i can keep them this low for a while
….and by “were”, i meant while you were noticing good fat loss
It’s not how many it’s the type of carbs I believe.
I am now at 100-150 grams a day, mostly veggies, sweet potato here and there and some berries. I’ve noticed that on days I do a lot of fructose I get gassy and tired so I would keep fructose in check while eating good carbs without over stressing about it.
On a side note if your carbs are religiously on the 50g level I’d suggest you start watching how much fat you are intaking and what kind….. If you are eating 50 grams of carbs a day but downing a can of coconut milk and several handfuls of nuts on top of your meals everyday it’s gonna be tough for your body to tap on your bodyfat for energy!
What do you mean by dropping the amount of fat consumed? The PD is about fat and protein and whole carbs!!! “the type of carbs I believe…” is that true from personal experience, science, or this website or are you just talking out your ass to answer a question?
Yes, yes some of his comments are contradictory. He’s half PD and half paleo diet. He mentiions both in the article. Some confusion there which is unfortunate for such a good result. Need to mix and match both to get his results.
Nothing fancy here. Being realistic if you want your body to burn your own bodyfat you need to reduce your fat intake at some point. After all calories do matter and if you are supplying your body enough energy (calories) it’s not going to burn your own reserves….
So yeah, stick to a primal diet and you’ll burn bodyfat, taper your fat intake as well for short periods of time here and there and you’ll get to 8-9% bf effortlessly. Hope this helps!
Damn! You look amazing! I just started eating Primal today after searching for a healthier way of eating; I, too, have been battling with the bulge for as long as I can remember. Little did I know that it was this EASY to lose weight and get healthy! I can’t wait to post my own success story. Good luck to you–and I hope your restaurant is a success!! That seems like such an awesome idea!
You have a totally new life. Congratulations; you look wonderful!
Hello;
I just wanted to add to all of your other positve comments about your great work and how healthly you now looking. Thank you for sharing your story. You’re a great inspiration and role model to me as someone that is just begining PB.
( one question: if you had any loose skin, how did you firm it up? This is something I’m currently dealing with! M.)
I’ll help you out there! Sometimes people get uppity and ignore their fans.
In the shower loofah up the skin to get off the dead skin cells. Before getting out turn the water cold to tighten the skin. Afterwards, slather on some coco butter or shea to moisterize up.
Sorry I hadn’t checked the website in ages! Thanks for the nice comments. Loose skin is slowly going back itself but cocoa butter helps a lot (smells lovely too). Take hot/cold showers and apply cocoa butter always afterwards. You’ll see differences quickly. It helps with stretch marks too!
Grok on!
Cool! Thanks, Albert.
You just made my boyfriend jealous .. AWESOME lol
Congrats on your success and new found happiness!
LOL! Everyone can do it! Thanks!
Dios mio Albert, que buen trabajo!
I know this post is already a few months old but I just recently found out about this blog and it takes me a while to work my way back trough the posts. LOL.
Long story short: I justed wanted to congratulate you to your success. This is an amazing story! I wish you all the best for your restaurant idea!!
Jen
Thanks Jen!
Awesome to have you here.
x
Can’t agree more with this article totally usefull information and straight to the point, congrats to the author
Thanks a lot, I’m glad you found it useful!
Great story! I have been thinking for quite some time about the joys of owning a primal restaurant…I hope you can make your dream a success!
I’m working on it! Thanks!
hey Albert, We’ve wrote eachother shortly two years ago and if i remember well, you gave me your email address which i can’t seem to find. So i hope this mssg reaches you. Sauvage is a success here so far! We’re almost celebrating our two years existance! We have a proposition for you – if you are still thinking of running a paleo restaurant, and you are still liviing in london – so write us! sauvage@live.de