Get your diet right first.
When someone has a lot of weight to lose, it can feel like they need to fix EVERYTHING at once. Change the food. Start exercising. Fast. Track all the things. Get 10,000 steps. Sleep perfectly. Basically, become a completely different human by Monday morning.
But after talking with my friend Rad about his roughly 170-pound weight loss, I kept coming back to one beautifully simple piece of advice he shared: Get your diet right first.
I think that message could take a whole lot of pressure off people who are just getting started.
You Don’t Have to Exercise the Weight Off
At his heaviest, Rad weighed around 350 pounds. Today, he’s around 180.
He didn’t accomplish that by becoming a marathon runner. Rad walks some now, including tackling a pretty impressive ramp near a local lake, but exercise wasn’t responsible for the majority of his weight loss. When we talked about what exercising at 350 pounds actually feels like, Rad gave one of my favorite visuals: Imagine wearing a ruck vest with ten 16-pound bowling balls hanging from your body.
Well, when you put it that way…YEAH. No wonder movement feels hard!
My own frame used to carry an extra 120–130 pounds every day. When I wear a weighted vest now, I can feel every additional pound. So I understand why someone who is obese, exhausted, struggling with sleep, and generally feeling lousy might not be thrilled when somebody tells them to go walk several miles.
Rad’s advice? Fix the food first. As you begin feeling better, you may eventually find that you actually want to move.
Don’t Make Fasting Step One Either
Rad currently has a fasting routine that he loves. On Friday, he eats sardines as his final meal before fasting through Saturday and Sunday. Then on Monday morning, he breaks his fast with ten hard-boiled eggs mashed together with smoked cod liver and its oil.
Listen, after two days without food, I bet that tastes AMAZING. Hunger really is the best sauce.
But here’s the important part: Rad didn’t start there.
He specifically said that if he’d tried incorporating fasting several years earlier, it probably wouldn’t have worked. He had to work up to it.
I was SO glad he brought this up. If you’re coming off sugar and carbs, you’re already making a significant adjustment. You may be dealing with cravings and withdrawal symptoms while trying to learn an entirely new way of eating. You don’t necessarily need to pile extended fasting on top of all of that.
Eat the meat.
Seriously. Eat enough meat that the donuts in the break room start looking like trash instead of treasure. We don’t get bonus points for making the transition unnecessarily miserable.
You Don’t Have to Become Carnivore Forever Today
Rad also offered what I thought was a fantastic alternative to the usual question of whether someone should jump straight into carnivore or gradually phase out carbohydrates.
His suggestion? Try one day.
Learn how to make a really good burger. Cook some bacon and eggs. Make a steak you genuinely enjoy. Have one successful carnivore day. Then perhaps try two.
I love the practicality of that approach because sometimes the idea of “I’ll never eat bread again!” feels enormous. But making a delicious burger today? We can handle that.
Rad and I weren’t born magically immune to carbs, by the way. He loved donuts. I loved bread. I liked meat just fine when it was covered in something sweet, sitting between bread, and accompanied by a side of more carbs. This lifestyle didn’t work because we naturally hated those foods. We changed what we ate, consistently, and eventually our relationship with those foods changed too.
Start Where You Are and Build From There
Rad’s journey began after a frightening moment in 2016 when he fell in his house and couldn’t get back up. He eventually searched four words online: “no sugar, no grains.”
That led him into low carb, where he lost about 120 pounds. After eventually stalling around 230, he continued learning and made additional changes. In 2023, he removed alcohol and the remaining plant foods and went carnivore. Today, he’s around 180 pounds.
Even better, he says his depression and brain fog are gone, his sleep and circadian rhythm have dramatically improved, and he’s happier and more energetic than he remembers being before.
His transformation wasn’t one giant heroic leap. It was one change, followed by another, followed by another.
So if you’re overwhelmed by all the things you think you’re “supposed” to be doing, start with the foundation. Get your food right first. Eat nourishing animal foods. Learn what meals you enjoy. Give yourself time to adjust. Then you can problem-solve the next thing when you’re ready.
Everybody could use help figuring this out.
I created My Zero Carb Life coaching to make sure you had more than just tools–you’ll have a community, too. We work through the practical questions together, troubleshoot the bumps in the road, and encourage one another as we build lasting habits. You’ll find a community of people who truly understand food addiction, cravings, and the freedom that comes from leaving them behind.
