Joe De Sena Helped a Man Go From 600lbs to 265lbs

So, the kettlebell, you bring this fucking thing everywhere you go? Literally everywhere? I do. I lived overseas and I started it. You know why I started it? I had a 696 pound guy come to the farm six years ago. And he wanted help losing weight. And I helped him over 18 months get down to 265 pounds. Wow. And one of the methods I used to motivate him was I said, as you lose weight, I'll carry weight. And eventually I was carrying a 100 pound sandbag. Fast forward and we can get into it. I moved overseas with my family and I tried to carry that 100 pound sandbag because I had made that commitment to them. And they wouldn't let it through TSA. So, when I landed in Asia, I asked my wife, I said, hey, can you order a 20 pound, it's stupid that I'm carrying a sandbag. Can you order a 20 pound kettlebell? I'll just carry a 20 pounder around so I'm not a complete fraud. And she confused pounds with kilograms. And I ended up with a 44 pounder and it just became my shtick, my thing. So, when you say you carry it everywhere, you mean you go everywhere with it? I go everywhere with it. So, what were you doing over there? Why were you there for a year? So, after I helped that guy lose that weight, the company- How did you do that, by the way? He lost 400 pounds? Yeah. Close to it? Close to it. In a year? 18 months. That's amazing. It was amazing. You're not going to be, we may be at odds on this, but I went, and I'll tell you why. We went raw fruits and vegetables only. And here's a guy that was eating eight egg McMuffins a day for breakfast and two two liter sprites. Right? So, he gets, he balloons to 696 pounds. How long did it take him to get that big? To get back to- No, as big as he was. Oh, you know- Was he always big? When he, yeah, when he left, he said, he was crying. He said to me, this is the first time, as far as I can remember, where I fit in one airplane seat. Oh, wow. So, this was over a long period of time. But he, we did raw fruits and vegetables, and then we did it, we started with a 10 mile hike every day. 10 miles every day? 10 every day, and then it went to 20. Went to 10 in the morning, 10 at night, raw fruits and vegetables. We got to a point where he was losing two to three pounds a day. That 10 in 10 is, that is, that's a long hike and a lot of time. Like, how much time was that taking him every day? He gave up work. He worked for Comcast. They were kind enough to say, you're on leave. I covered the expenses, which was like two stalks of celery and a glass of water every day. It was not, you know, it wasn't much of an expense. And he spent the whole day basically hiking. So, he hiked all day, and what kept him motivated, just this idea that he was going to lose weight at the other end? I took his keys. I took his wallet and he had no plan. Like, what was he going to do? How was he going to get out? Where was this? We have a farm in Vermont. So, we basically had him on lock and key. How did you know this guy before this? I got a phone call that somebody had just finished one of our Spartan events that was extremely overweight and showed me the photo. And I said, get in touch with this guy right away. This is our Jared. This is our Subway star. I don't want to say Jared now. That's right. Right. Let's let that go. You remember. Yes. So, got in touch with him and he said, game on. Wow. That's amazing. It was amazing. So, he completed the race at 600 pounds? He was tricked. He was told that it was a 5K walk. So, normally that 5K Spartan would take, let's say, 90 minutes for the average person. He took seven hours. So, tricked into it, fought through it, probably would have never come back. But then I found out about him, called him and said, hey, you're invited to the farm. I want to help you. Dude, we documented it. We actually filmed it. So, you didn't know this guy at all before this? Didn't know him. That's incredible. So, you just looked at it as, okay, this is a project. Yeah, I tend to, I like broken wingers. So, this guy, you find this guy, he's 600 plus pounds. You whittle him down to, what'd you say, 260? 265. He's a big fella already. Must be, right? Yeah, you got to see that. I probably could find the photo of the pants that he wore coming in versus the pants. He left with. I mean, you could fit three people in the pair of pants. How did you organize his diet? So, I didn't tell you. When I was a kid, on one hand was raviolis, gonoles, and guns. On the other hand, my mom got into yoga meditation, health food. She was like, bohemian, crunchy. So, while you were working for the mom, your mom was a yoga? Yoga. Had monks in the living room. Very embarrassing. And the reason that happened was because her mom died of cancer. And she walked into a health food store to kind of figure things out. This is like in the 70s. It's probably one health food store in New York at the time. There's no yoga journals, no whole foods. People don't even know what a health food store is now. I didn't say health food store. They'll be like, what are you talking about? Health food. There was incense burning. That's exactly right. So, she walks in. There happens to be an elderly yogi that just landed in JFK from India in the health food store. She strikes up a conversation with this yogi. Changes her whole life. Comes home, throws away sausage, peppers, eggplant, parts all out of the house. Parents get divorced for obvious reasons. She's going to go in a different direction. And I am trying my best for the next 10 years to have my friends not come over because I'm embarrassed. There's Indian pictures on the wall. There's beads. There's chanting. There's monks. And I want to be a gangster. Yeah. So, anyway, so she, maybe through just repetition, would just instill this idea that you got to eat healthy. You got to get all the raw foods. We're going to go vegan. All the things that are somewhat popular now. And you got to do yoga. And you got to sweat every day. Cold showers way before Wim Hof. She was into the cold showers. Really? Oh my god. This was like proper food combining. This idea of intermittent fasting. We were fast. My mom fasted for 30 days. This is back in the 70s. While meditating. So, anyway. What was that like? You were at home while she was doing that? Yeah. My grandfather, her father had to come to the house and rip her out of the room because he thought she was going to die. Like she was getting thin. She's sitting meditating. She was pretty extreme. And so I had to balance these two things. Like, and so, yeah, I guess what I do now is a little tough guy, a little yoga. I guess that's what it is. But this guy's diet. Yeah, so it came from my mom. Right, but you're dealing with a man who obviously has an extreme health condition. He's morbidly obese. Like, how do you know how many calories to give him? What's healthy? What's safe? Like, how do you know how to proceed there? So if there's doctors listening, they're probably going to say that I'm crazy. And then I'll answer the question more succinctly. Mom introduced me to a guy named Dr. Fred Bichie. You could look him up. He's 92 now. He decides 55 years ago that he's only going to eat raw fruits and vegetables. That's it. This is an Italian guy that was a weightlifter. He's only going to eat raw fruits and veggies. And he's going to test on himself like a guinea pig. Does it work or doesn't it work? Is this the best diet or not? I'm just going to test it on myself, he says. And what he finds is that he feels better, all the things that people agree or don't agree with. So I wasn't necessarily knowing that and meeting Dr. Bichie and seeing my mom. And I wasn't necessarily into like how many calories it was just like, if you eat good, healthy food, less ultra processed food, you're not going to starve yourself. Eat what you need. You could eat 40 salads. I don't really care. Where's my message to the guy? But you're not going to. You get tired of salad, right? Once you're tired of salad, then you want the other thing. Then you want to go to have a cookie. But if you only eat salad, you're never going to overeat salad. So all he's eating is fruits and salads. Fruits and veggies. That's it. Does raw, everything raw? Everything raw, not cooked. Because the theory was if you cook it, you kill it. And I don't know how many months into it we are, but he's probably down to 350 pounds, 400 pounds. And he says to me, I got to go to the doctor. And I said, what are you talking about? I got to get my liver levels checked. You're not a doctor. And I'm really worried. You got me on this ridiculous diet. And I looked at him and I said, you stupid motherfucker. I said, you were eating eight Egg McMuffins every day and drinking two two liter sprites. How many times did you get your liver levels checked when you were doing that? You're worried about eating fruits and vegetables? That that's fucking up your liver? Anyway, I talked him out of it. And he stuck it out. But we would have battles like that. Well, sure. He was in agony. Oh, pain. Serious pain. I mean, losing that much body. Your body's probably freaking the fuck out. Like we can't do this. I mean, think of this is like a 300. This is a 720 degree turn for him from from what he was. Did you ever hear about that guy? We brought it up a few times. Was it in the 60s? Jamie, the guy who he fasted for a whole year. He did just vitamin drips and he was enormously obese. And he just did vitamin drips and fasted for a whole year. But the crazy thing about it was he didn't get stretched out. His body absorbed the skin. I mean, maybe it's just his personal genetics. You know, like some women, they get pregnant, they have massive stretch marks. Other women, they snap right back like a rubber band. It's there's no rhyme or reason. It seems to be genetic. But this man who was really fat, he lost all this weight, but he lost it everywhere. Like his skin came back normal sized. He didn't have to have any of his skin removed. I would I would bet if it wasn't genetic and unique to him. I've I've done very long distance races where we had limited food. And I've read about people that have been stuck at sea, let's say for 72 days. And their teeth get extremely white and their skin get, you know, if they're not getting sunburned, it's beautiful. I think I think I'm speculating. I'm not a doctor. Your body eats any excess. So that I'm making that up. I don't know if that's right. That might be it. Because I mean, if you obviously were both morons, but if you think about this guy's skin, that's the thing that always happened. I mean, I've had friends that lost a ton of weight, and they would have these big flaps of skin. He had it. And they wanted to get it removed. But this guy didn't this guy, his whole body shrunk. Was this Dom Di Agostino told us about this or was this someone? I recall I'm looking for pictures to see. I heard about it. And stuff. Yeah, I heard about it. But that was the fascinating part of the story to me was like, whoa, like this guy, not only did he live off of his fat and IV vitamin drips, that's what he took for a whole year. So he lived off of his fat. His body had hundreds and hundreds of pounds of fat to lose. He lost it all. But that his skin shrank was fascinating to me. I'm like, man, if we could convince people to try that. Yeah, but again, I don't know if that's the healthiest way to do it. I mean, what kind of long term damage you're doing, if any. So I'm a believer, again, no scientific. I go back to like ancient times and I say to myself, we never had an abundance of food. You and I couldn't walk into a grocery store and have access. If we had food, we had food. And so I would think our stomachs and our digestive system needs time. It's not used to just constantly taking food on demand. Like wake up, coffee, donut. I don't think our stomachs are made for that. So I don't know about fasting for a whole year. That's a different right. But also, you have to get to that crazy state to be able to do that. You've already abused your body to the point where you're hundreds and hundreds of pounds overweight. That's not normal anyway. That's a tough one. That doesn't even like you want to go back to hunters and gatherers. That wasn't even possible. No, no, they wouldn't have been able to do that. I mean, and he was probably laying in a bed and probably not very active. Right, probably. Yeah. So this guy, you just say you're just gonna eat as much salad as you want and as much fruit as you want, but that's it. That's it. And just by doing that on these long walks, and how long are these walks taken? You're doing 10 mile hike. Well, in the beginning, as you could imagine, those were really long hikes. Yeah. Right. And probably two miles an hour, so five hours to get that done. But as he lost weight and he got more fit, he hustled. And on the farm, on our farm in Vermont, it's hilly. So I could either send them through the fields, which we did in the beginning, but eventually now he's climbing mountains too. And then I started adding weight. Now he's got to carry a little 10 pound sandbag and a 20 pound sandbag. So we just kept upping the ante as his body adapted to what we were doing to him. And he just kept, boom, kept taking off weight. Wow. Yeah. And so after 18 months, do you let him have a cake? No, do not let him have a cake. But I'll tell you what, somebody heard about what I did. And this guy shows up, number two, we'll call him. And he's 300 pounds and he wants to get to 200. And I said, all right, head up the mountain. You're going to sleep in the cabin because I just went through all that time with the other guy. And we're going to be much more efficient here. First week, you're only eating apples and clean out your system. I gave him a giant bushel of apples, put them on top of the mountain. 30 days, we had them down to 200 pounds. And what? 30 days. Almost 100 pounds in 30 days. That seems scary. Scary. Hiking raw fruits and vegetables. And here's a guy that was sad and terry, a truck driver, not really moving around much, eating shit foods. I mean, it's not rocket science, right? You eat shit food, you're not active, you're gaining weight. You eat good food, you're very active, you lose weight. Right. And his girlfriend picks him up, he has 30 days, and they fucking leave the farm. Unbeknownst to me, they go straight to Ben and Jerry's. And he put on like 18 fucking pounds in a day. Oh. Right? Yeah. So, I mean, there's psychological issues that I, that's not what I'm fixing. I'm doing the physical part. Well, I gotta think that a person willing to do 18 months, is that what you said with that, John? He hung in for a while. The 18 months is just psychologically, you're building up some pretty spectacular endurance. Yeah. Just raw fruits and vegetables for 18 months and hiking 20 hours a day. I mean, you're putting some miles on your mind there. I mean, that's strengthening that muscle of discipline in a way that he probably had never done in his whole life. He got tough. He finished a big event with us. That was like the big moment for him at the end and got in a single seat in an airplane when he left. Got a girlfriend. Like stuff started to come together for him. So, does he maintain? He was at 265 at our best and my latest understanding is at 350. He bounced back. Oh, that's not good. Better than 696. Yeah, but 100 leads to 200. What did he do differently? I mean, you come off the raw fruits and veggies and you stop walking 20 miles a day. Slip a cake in here and there. That's got to suck though. Like you get them down to like this really amazing weight. You gotta, I mean, what am I gonna do? I can't keep all these people on the farm. Nothing you can do. No, but still. You get them there and then they gotta fly. They gotta do it. Yeah, it sucks that you got that far and then you see them put 100 pounds. How long did they take them to put 100 pounds on? I'm sure it was 90, 100 days. But they snap back. I mean, it's that pendulum swing, right? Like, oh my God, I get regular food now. I don't have to hike as much anymore. Yeah. I mean, I'm a believer. I don't know if you are. I'm a believer, the number one motivator for human beings is the avoidance of discomfort, right? Because if we didn't avoid discomfort, we'd freeze in the snow, we'd fall off a cliff, we'd get in cold. So we're always constantly, even subconsciously, avoiding discomfort. And to be healthy, you gotta be uncomfortable. You gotta train, you gotta eat health. Those are hard things to do. Go to bed early, not drink as much. And so unless somebody's holding you accountable, or unless you're, like obviously you're a high performer, I'm a bit of a maniac in that. Like, I'm more uncomfortable if I'm not optimal, if I'm not being my best. But most people, that's not the case. No, you have to kind of make your mind into... Your mind has to seek discomfort. It has to seek these difficult tasks. You have to enjoy it. And you have to figure out a way to make your mind enjoy those things. And some people comes easy, and some people it doesn't. Some people it takes a long time. I always tell people the best thing you could ever do is force yourself to a schedule. Just write it down. Today I have to do an hour on the treadmill. I have to do an hour. No matter what. Even if you're fucking walking, you're doing an hour on a treadmill. The next time you're doing to do it, just... Okay, you did an hour and this is the amount of miles you got in. Next time you're going to add three miles. Put an extra three miles in that one hour. And just keep doing things like that. Write down. Today I'm going to do 100 pushups, and I'm going to do 100 sit-ups, and I'm going to do 100 chin-ups. That's today. And then force yourself. Force yourself to adhere to a schedule. Make a Monday, Wednesday, Friday workout schedule. Give yourself some time off, you know? Don't even crush yourself to the point where you can't do it. Make it so that you really appreciate those Tuesdays and Thursdays. But on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you're going to fucking get after it, and this is what you're going to do. Most people just try to go work out. And you're kind of aimless, and you show up, and you pick up the jump rope, and you jump a little rope. Maybe you hit the heavy bag a little bit. Maybe you do some curls. But you don't really have an aim, you know? That's why people like to hire trainers, because a trainer will tell you what to do. Well, you can tell yourself what to do. If you don't have money for a trainer, you don't even have to have fucking equipment. You know, with bodyweight squats, sit-ups, chin-ups, push-ups, you can kick your fucking ass. You could give yourself a brutal, full bodyweight workout. And you could find these for free on YouTube. There's a ton of them. There's a ton of these bodyweight workouts you could do. Just force yourself. Write it down. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I'm going to do 100 push-ups. I'm going to do 100 chin-ups. I'm going to do 100 sit-ups, even if it takes me all fucking day. Even if I have to do 10 and 10 and 10 and keep going all day, just that's what you do. Do 10 push-ups, take a break for 20 minutes, do another 10. But get those 100 in.