Andrew Kam is a realist. At 27 years old, he’s been through enough to know there’s no magic pill that will make you happy, and no quick fix to getting healthy.
So he’s not letting the fact that he’s lost 90 pounds in 10 months go to his head. Because he knows the hardest part of his weight loss transformation — keeping it off for life — is still ahead.
“That was the first time I actually started to be self-conscious about like my size.”
As a kid, Kam noticed he was always bigger than other kids.
“The earliest memory I have of noticing that I was overweight was in elementary school,” Kam told MensHealth.com. At the time, his mom went to purchase him a t-shirt he needed for orchestra. The child’s XL no longer fit — instead, he had to wear an adult large.
“I think that was the first time I actually started to be self-conscious about like my size,” he said.
Though he was bigger, Kam’s weight issues compounded during freshman year of college, when his mother died after battling cancer.
“It was an awful time in my life,” he said. “That made me super depressed.”
Courtesy of Andrew Kam
Kam went to therapy to deal with his grief and other mental health issues. But as he began eating foods that comforted him, his physical health took a turn for the worse. In a way, he ate those foods to find something he could control.
Kam was already overweight by the time he graduated — and it didn’t help that he went to a job that had him sitting at a desk for hours on end.
“I just ballooned up to the mid-300s. I didn’t really realize, because I wasn’t weighing myself.”
“Now that I had money, I could eat some nicer things, and I started drinking because I was stressed out from work. I just ballooned up to like the mid-300s,” he explained. “I didn’t really realize, because I wasn’t weighing myself. I was enjoying life.”
But then, at the age of 24, Kam looked at a few photos of himself from an outing with friends and no longer recognized the person he saw in the image. “It was just like, holy shit, what happened?”
At the time, he decided to go big or go home on weight loss. Kam was able to drop a ton of weight quickly through restrictive eating and limiting his calorie intake. But, once he dropped the weight, Kam said, he got complacent.
“I said, ‘Hey, I’m going to reward myself one day a week.’ And then it just ballooned up again,” he said. “I think that was part of the whole learning process for me. This isn’t some crash course where you’re good after three or four months. It’s like a lifelong change.”
Ten months ago, he found the strength to try again. This time, no gimmicks — just hard work, dedication, and a changed outlook on what a health journey really looks like.
Courtesy of Andrew Kam
Over the course of a year, Kam began working out, lifting weights four days a week in the gym doing traditional circuit exercises. He then added in spin classes a three days a week. And though he loves exercising, Kam knows a healthy diet also plays a major role in weight loss.
“If you eat whatever you want and think, ‘I’m just going to run 10 miles to work it off.’ You’re not gonna lose any weight,” Kam said with a laugh. “It’s really about how you fuel your body.”
By paying attention to the way he ate and moving his body more, Kam was able to drop from 347 pounds to 259.
Courtesy of Andrew Kam
For Kam, what fueled his body to success is the ketogenic diet. That means he typically consumes 60 to 80 percent of his total calories from fat, 10 to 15 percent from protein, and just 10 percent from carbs. Kam is the first to admit it may not be for everyone, but it worked for him. (If you want to give the keto diet a try, just make sure to be aware of these side effects first.)
And though he’s worked hard for his weight loss, Kam was also proud to share that his blood pressure dropped to a healthy level.
Courtesy of Andrew Kam
He’s also gained more from his journey than a new body. He’s also got a new outlook in the dating game, too.
“I enjoy eating the way I do, because it allows me to cook more,” Kam explained. “Girls love when a guy can cook.”
Courtesy of Andrew Kam
And, best of all, Kam explained that he’s been able to find something more inside of himself too.
“My confidence, I can feel it in my core. It’s just a matter of persisting,” he said. “2018 is my year.”
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