A college student who lost 220 pounds began his weighloss regime by only eating unseasoned potatoes for TWO WEEKS.
Dylan Wall, 21, was 425 pounds when he graduated high school in 2017.
When he visited Austin Peay State University for new student day, he knew he had to make a change.
“During a tour of my college, I lost my group because I couldn’t keep up,” said Dylan, of Dixon County, Tennessee.
“I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to my classes on time if I stayed on that course.
“Around the same time, my sister also gave birth to my nephew.
“I didn’t want to set that example for him.”
The first step of Dylan’s weight loss was curbing what he called his “flavor addiction.”
“I started by doing a taste bud cleanse. I ate only potatoes with no seasoning for two weeks.
“It really helped with my cravings.
“I then cut out all dairy and red meat.
“For the most part, I just counted my calories. I didn’t try to make my healthy food taste good. I just ate to fuel myself.
“I wanted to break my flavor addiction and didn’t want to eat for pleasure.”
Before his weighloss Dylan had survived on a diet of fast food, meat and processed carbs.
“I’d usually get something from McDonald’s on the way to school. I would get more than a normal portion for sure.
“For lunch, I’d get a double portion of whatever the school lunch was.
“I didn’t really have a set dinner. When I got home, I’d eat on and off until I went to sleep.
“Usually I’d have two or three sandwiches.
“Other than when I left to go to school, I didn’t really leave the house all that much.
“It was pretty much like that until the day I graduated high school.”
Dylan then switched his breakfast to egg whites with two pieces of low-calorie toast and for lunch, a turkey sub with no cheese.
“For dinner I would have something like chicken breast with three types of veggies and rice.
“It took just under a year to lose 180 pounds.
“I didn’t step into the gym until I lost that first bit of weight.”
Once he was ready, Dylan started off slow, beginning with only cardio.
“I really wanted to be able to do cardio.
“It was the bane of my existence.”
“At 425 pounds, it wasn’t easy to run in gym class, so I did cardio everyday when I started.
“Eventually, I got down to a 7:30 mile. Gradually, I also added some upper body stuff, squats, and deadlifts.
“After the weight loss, I was left with a considerable amount of extra skin. I wanted to fill that up with muscle mass. I wanted to bulk back up the right way.
“The last 50 pounds came off a little bit slower.
“It took another year to get down that last 50 pounds.”
Dylan is now planning to have an operation to remove his excess skin.
“I would do the surgery.
“I don’t think I knew how mentally taxing being left with the skin would be.
“After coming this far and losing so much I’m still left with that reminder everyday.”
Now, Dylan has begun concentrating on helping the people in his life with their weight issues.
“I met my current girlfriend 50 pounds into my weight loss.
“Since we got together she’s lost 75 pounds.”
“My dad also bet me 100 dollars to see who could lose 60 pounds the fastest. I won but he lost the 60 pounds too.”