My story
I'm Renzo.
I weighed 326 lbs.
I got down to 190. It took two years and it wasn't pretty. This is the full version, including the part that doesn't make it into the videos.
Results vary. This is what happened to me, not a promise of what will happen to you.
I was 30, I weighed 326 lbs, and I was living on autopilot: work, video games, order delivery, sleep. Repeat. Food was my safe place, the one thing in my day that made me feel good for fifteen minutes, and I paid for it for months.
There was no big moment. No doctor told me I was dying, and no viral photo crushed me. I was in a relationship I always knew wouldn't work, and I never had the courage to end it. In late January 2024 circumstances pulled us apart, and I felt free.
I was still in my apartment, working from home and playing video games, but I knew I had to build a new life: meet someone, travel. I didn't want to date someone with habits as unhealthy as mine, and I knew that to attract someone different I had to change too.
I started small, by trying to eat a little better.
What didn't work (for years)
Before that I tried everything and failed many, many times. Two-week diets. January at the gym. Banning bread. Buying the expensive app and never opening it. Every attempt started on a Monday and ended on a Thursday.
About seven years ago I even had bariatric surgery. I regret it. I gained all of it back and ended up heavier than before. My problem was in my head, not in my stomach. If you've had it or you're thinking about it, that's between you and your doctor, and I won't judge you for it.
I was always looking for the perfect diet instead of a change I could actually keep. And when the perfect diet broke (it always breaks), I used that as proof that I was the problem.
What did work
The first thing I got right was eating smaller portions and going for walks. I wasn't weighing every ingredient yet, and the weight still started coming off.
Around month two or three I started measuring and wrote down everything I put in my mouth. Butter and mayo added up to way more than I thought.
From there everything got boring, and that's why it worked. None of this is a secret:
- Calorie deficit. Eating less than I burn. It's the only thing that takes fat off.
- Walking, not running. About 10,000 steps a day. At 326 lbs, running was an injury waiting for its turn.
- Protein at every meal. It kept me full and protected my muscle while I was losing.
- Weights, done smart. I walked into the gym dying of embarrassment and started on the machines.
- Mind first. Obesity doesn't get fixed from the body. If you don't change why you eat, the weight comes back.
Oh, and I lost those 132 lbs eating almost no vegetables and almost no fruit. It's a real limitation I've had since I was a kid, not advice. I mention it because what really moves the needle is the deficit.
What I'm not going to sell you
No title. Just proof. I'm not a dietitian, I don't have a diploma to hang on the wall, and I won't pretend I do. I'm a guy from Lima who was very overweight, who got obsessed with the subject for two years and wrote down everything that happened along the way.
So you won't find “lose 20 lbs in 10 days” here, or a tea, or a miracle supplement, or photos edited so the before looks worse than it was. The photos are mine: on some I adjusted the light and the contrast. The body is never touched.
I'm also not going to tell you it was fast or easy, because that would be a lie, and that lie is exactly what kept me stuck for years.
Where I am today
I got down to 190 lbs. While recovering from surgery I put a little back on, and I'm already working on losing it again. My goal is to see that number by February 2027.
I lift weights, walk every day and still weigh myself daily, but I look at the weekly trend, never at a single day's number.
I was left with loose skin, and I didn't hide it: it's the real price of losing that much. On July 22, 2026 I had surgery to remove it (a 360 tummy tuck, gynecomastia correction and a chest lift). It went well, and it didn't make me lose weight: I had already lost the 132 lbs before.
I still have bad days, anxiety and the urge to order delivery. The difference is that now I have a system instead of willpower.
Why I write all this
When I started, almost all the useful information came from people who had never been overweight. Correct advice, written from a place I didn't recognize. Nobody talked to me about the shame of walking into a gym at 326 lbs, or what you do when it's 11 at night and the anxiety is winning.
This is what would have helped me: what I learned, told by someone who was actually there. It's what I did, mistakes included.
No title. Just proof.