You cannot solve weight solutions by killing yourself for nothing. It doesn’t matter how desperate you have become. Derek Young broke off the food addiction after learning from his own calls.

Derek Young was almost succumbing to morbid obesity. At his twenty third age, he was around 355 pounds accompanied by 50 per cent of body fats. He had developed an addiction of food from his childhood and had specifically delving on fast foods. He said that his go-to Taco Bell was a 4 beef quesaritos served with potatoes, a two ranch Doritos Locos and about 4 to 8 Cinnabon Delights.

After his doctor’s screening, he was found with numerous life-threatening diseases that sprang from his weight. Young could not find a solution after many years of food-fondness and complete reliance for his daily body processes. He felt absolutely helpless landed in for despair. And failing in his attempt to commit suicide, he backed onto his reclamation journey for a positive change. He first of all tried therapy. A therapy is a tool (perhaps a life changing one) for those breaking from food addictions. However, Young never found the freedom he desired from the therapy. This was the moment that defined him with a turnabout power. He simply pulled into a Taco Bell drive-through, ordering a quarter of what he normally eats. 

Young said, that rush with exclamation of, ‘Holy crap, I can do this,’ remained a powerful confession at that time. He added that he was for once in his life proud of himself and it marked his pivotal moments in his recovery. It definitely changed. He had capitalized on his small, profound merry-time. Generally, he focused on eating less which basically saw him losing 205 pounds each year.

He nowadays advises that no one should convince himself that he is a prisoner of mind and body for lifetime. He expresses further that only an individual can save himself and they just have to dedicate their lives for self-rescue process and time.

Each and everybody’s turning point is always different. As for Young, it had begun with his willingness and decision to lend himself the help he himself needed.

Derek Young’s Bio Data

Pesonal Info

He is currently aged 24 years with 5 feet 11 inches tallness and weight of 205 lbs (20% body fat). He lives in Tyler Texas and he is personal trainer. His social media sites include You Tube, Instagram and BodySpace. At his 23rd year, with a height of 5 feet 11 inches, he had weighed 355 lbs and had a body fat of 50%.

Life Before Transformation

When he was growing up he used to eat anything he wanted and had a deteriorated diet health. He had then started gaining weight at 14 years and had a sequential increase in substantial appetite. Before the transformation he used to work with a security industry but had nothing worthy of a transformation. He felt he was failing at everything he ever did until that point. His source of happiness was solely derived from destroying some mountain of food all day long. The food he was taking per day was enough to feed four entire families. He lived to eat!

Surprise Moments Initiating Young’s Change

When he stepped on scale around 28th October of 2017, his weight reading 355 pounds initiated a heart-stop moments. His doctor had diagnosed him with acid reflux, fatty liver disease, high cholesterol, pre-diabetes and sleep apnea. With these diagnosis, he was informed that he was on the verge of death. He attempted to commit suicide being impatient with his sickness and tiresome. He thanked his escape of death to his weapon malfunction.

He had then put his gun back in the case and became the last time ever he had set his hands on it. For his own safety, he had to discard it through selling. He noticed that his transformation ought to start with his mind and knew that time was pointing on him to make that change.

His First Step

In his bid attempt to break the eating and weight gain cycle, he had made up his mind to attend the Food Addicts meeting. His first one on one meeting had them introducing and when his turn had arrived, he said his name and directly revealed his state of food addiction.   After introducing, there was a main speaker who gave an hour-long speech on how he overcame his abnormal habits and conquered. Young was surprised by the fact that no one could say the name of food but just describe. The speaker had said the food was round and spongy. That whole thing left Young struggling to restrain laughter. He meditated of what people and how many have been successful with that method. After that meeting he had seen no drive that would impact on him for a change.

As he felt vacant and hopeless on his way home, he just needed his hit so badly. He distinctively heard Taco Bell calling on his name. He then pulled into the drive-thru, braving off his racing heart. He struggled his thought of good and evil figuring whether he wanted his weight off or on. But, cars being behind him, he had no other way except get in. The speaker ushered him with an immediate oral platform ‘Welcome to Taco Bell. And what do I get you?’ Young hesitantly said he would take one beef quesarito mixed with potatoes in it, one Doritos Locos taco, and a two-pack of Cinnamon Delights. That marked a significant progress for me and that felt amazing.

Accomplishing His Goals

It was all diet related. Though, people may get shocked when told how little Young worked out. He only spent three hours a week working out. However, he firstly had to break the food addiction. And when the meetings hadn’t worked he figured out what would work by himself. He ate a meal per day most times and gotten a method to use – flexible dieting. This meant zero restrictions from certain food groups. His intake was always over 2,000 calories per day. He had also included multiple number of unrestricted cheat days throughout his journey.

He used to take pasta, chicken, and mixed vegetables. By the 27th October of 2018, he had slashed his weight to 205 pounds and had reduced from a 48 size jeans to a 34 size jeans. He had then felt so free.

Young’s Training Regimen

He used to do 3 workouts per week engaging the body. The workouts had involved 3 sets of 10 reps per exercise. Below is a basic template from where he would choose a different exercise for every category on every workout:

  • Horizontal press
  • Vertical pull
  • Triceps
  • Biceps
  • Weak points
  • Horizontal pull
  • Vertical press
  • Squat, lunge, or leg press
  • Hinge exercise, hamstring dominant

Biggest Motivators

One of Young’s greatest motivations to losing the extra weight grew from helping inspire other individuals who used food as their drug. He had comforted them and made them aware that they were not alone in that battle and that they would probably find a way out. Secondly, he was tired of not being able to do stuff of the normal sized people like fitting in airplanes seat and walking without collapsing after a few minutes later. Thirdly, he was tired being lonely. By losing weight, he had significantly increased his confidence and had become more comfortable talking to people he met. And this had made it easy to make friends.

Biggest Challenge He Faced

There came to him mind games that constantly battled him into anxiety and depression, and had to deal with emotional and binge-eating challenges. He had thought that this mind game was damn near to impossibility after some years of diet experience. The nightly fast-food runs held him hostage for three damn years. It was an obsession if not addiction. He would do anything to get to the next hit.

How did Shredded Academy Help with your goals?

The training programs offered me massive help. The programs helped me keep me on track because they did the hard work for me (calculating my macros and building a proper routine for me)

Future Plans or Goals

His aim and mission in life has modelled to helping people who are overweight to defeat this battle of mind games and charge them for good health security. This, he does by providing them with assurance, guidance and accountability, and would be doing his best keeping them motivated.

A Piece Of Advice To The Overweights By Young

He says, even though you may feel trapped, you must know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Try to find people who can relate to you and who can keep your accountability even as they provide guidance. Don’t avoid seeking for help from a therapist, especially if you need to. If you weight is accompanied by depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, just know you are not alone. And don’t use food for the purpose of coping up with trauma – it is not a better solution to resort to. Young had eventually learnt that negative feelings would subside after some time and this helped him change his life. So he comforts saying, ‘yours too will pass’. It should not be a life sentence struggling with your mind and your body.