At his highest weight and lowest point, Nicolas Garratt was 400 pounds and just 15 years old.
Garratt, now 19, told TODAY.com last week that he had always struggled with his weight. He started eating junk food and fast food at age 5, and the habit caused him to pack on the pounds over the years.
Faced with relentless school bullying, the UK resident welcomed the pandemic lockdown. “I was relieved when COVID happened because I didn’t have to leave the house,” he told the media. “We had to quarantine and I was relieved that I could just stay inside and not have to see people. I would only go out at night when it was dark.”
Isolated from his peers and feeling like “a freak, a monster”, Garratt distracted himself by eating and drinking alcohol. Barely able to walk around the block without pain, he saw a doctor to help with his anxiety — he was told he was at risk of a heart attack.
Determined to change, Garratt first experimented with extreme fasting. However, losing weight without gaining muscle didn’t quell his self-loathing: “I was very unhappy. I thought, ‘I’ve done all this for nothing. What was the point?’ I lost all the weight and underneath, it’s just this ugly person that I still don’t want to be,” he recalled to TODAY.com.
Shifting his approach to weight loss, Garratt stopped fasting and joined a gym in January 2023, lifting weights and sticking to daily hour-long walks outside or on the treadmill.
Now, he’s down to 196 pounds — and he’s an aspiring fitness influencer on Instagram.
“I want to help people do what I did,” he explains. In the spirit of helping others, Garratt recently shared his four tips for weight loss.
Count your calories
Garratt maintains that diets are secondary to calorie counting. He aims for 1,400 per day, which may be enough to satisfy some people’s needs.
His devotion to calorie counting has scientific backing. A study published last year in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that counting calories is more effective at shedding unwanted pounds than fasting for certain periods.
Garratt says she’s also found that adding vegetables and salads to every meal has helped her feel fuller and more satisfied while still being in a calorie deficit.
Carbs are not bad
Although carbs are often maligned by those in the know, Garratt points out that they are not evil and are, in fact, necessary fuel for exercise.
This advice echoes the advice of nutritionists who suggest that workouts should be carb-loaded to maintain energy and maximize effectiveness.
Use an app like MyFitnessPal
Garratt credits the fitness tracking app MyFitnessPal with helping him reach his health goals.
Meanwhile, a writer who lost 30 pounds in a year found success with a scale that displays body composition data, a smartwatch to record steps, and a Google Doc to track progress.
Exercise is only one tool to help you achieve your deficit
Garratt cites a change in mindset as the single biggest contributor to his accomplishments. He encourages others to embrace iron determination: “Even when you’re not motivated to exercise, you can still be determined to go to the gym.”
He hopes his fitness journey will inspire others to make changes and, more importantly, to keep going despite obstacles: “You’re going to fail 100 times, but it wouldn’t be a real journey without getting back up. Determination it’s what keeps you coming back.”
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