Man Drops 70 Pounds With Weight Loss App

From nothingness, the universe was created. From a simple caterpillar, a butterfly emerges. A dorky teen grows up to be a fashion model, or a bodybuilder. The one constant in life is change, and in our Transformation of the Week series, AskMen is celebrating men who have turned their lives around through dedication, commitment and hard work. Is that you? Email us your story and pictures at askus@askmen.com and you could be featured next week!

Brad Jackson had been overweight for more than 20 years. He didn’t have a problem getting motivated. Jackson tried all the diets. He picked up running. The problem was staying motivated.

Jackson, at 264 pounds, didn’t need a fix. He needed a lifestyle change. And the 51 year-old father of three found it in an unlikely place – on an app on his phone. He credits the Lose It! App for helping him drop 69 pounds and start battling back from a health condition that would alter his life.

In January last year, Jackson was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and he knew his health habits had to change. “I knew at that point, it was all up to me,” he said. “If I wanted to cut my life short, I just had to continue to throw caution to the win. If I wanted to live longer, and avoid some major health risks (kidney failure, loss of limbs, loss of eyesight, to name a few), I knew that I needed to balance things better and take an approach of maintaining a much healthier lifestyle.”

Jackson, a Larmine, Wyoming resident, used to work in the restaurant business as a “quality of operation” manager, travelling to more than 200 restaurants, tasting, testing and evaluating food and working long days. That’s when he remembers the weight gain starting. Then he later worked as a disc jockey – lots of hours sitting down, spinning music and eating poorly.

Jackson already tried the Atkins Diet, the South Beach Diet and Weight Watches. He started running 5Ks and other recreational races but all of it resulted in limited – and inconsistent – success. Jackson found the Lose It! app on Twitter, which led him to a couple online reviews and soon he was using the app to measure his calories and monitor his portions. Lose It! sets users up with a personalized daily calorie budget and weight loss plan and allows you to track meals and exercise as well as connecting users to an online community of others on the same weight loss journey.

The app offers a food database with more than 7 million foods and even allows you to scan the barcode on food packages or snap a photo of the food to track your meals. The premium

“It was instrumental in teaching moderation for me,” he said. “It all started with Lose It!, and a commitment to daily exercise to go along with proper eating habits. It came down to common sense. If you have fewer calories going in than what you’re using, you are going to lose weight. It wasn’t about being that extreme for me and the Lose It! app helped me set calorie intake goals that I focused on beating every day.”

Almost from his diagnosis and Jackson is down to 195 pounds and is no longer on medication for his diabetes. He’s also joined a local gym commits himself to 30 minutes of exercise every day, no matter what. He walks to run errands, rides his mountain bike and plans on joining an adult soccer league. He even recently completed his first half marathon.

“A year ago, I could have never imagined running 13.1 miles,” he said, “and now I plan on running one every other month. It was so much fun and such a great feeling.”

How’s that for moderation?

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