Josh Deese Changed His Life for Love and Lost 160 Pounds

After a lifetime of obesity and depression (and losing and regaining weight), Josh Deese found the motivation to finish his transformation.

Raised in South Carolina on classic Southern foods like fried chicken, biscuits, and grits, Josh Deese carried extra weight during his entire childhood. Low self-esteem and depression had him swinging from high school dropout to pursuing a GED in order to go to college, to dropping out in his freshman year.
By the time he turned 22, Deese had reached 360 pounds and was confronting even more distress with the passing of his grandfather. Instead of giving in, he was able to use the experience and his grief as an opportunity to change his perspective.

“I knew that my grandpa wanted me to do better, and my whole family wanted better for me,” he says. “I decided to make a serious attempt at college again.”
When he thought about it, he realized there was something that scared him more than the schoolwork: not being able to walk the campus. It motivated his first attempt at weight loss.
Deese stopped smoking and started small by walking for just 10 minutes a day. Over the course of a year, he shed an impressive 120 pounds, but like many who achieve giant weight-loss goals, he found it didn’t last. Eventually, his body rebelled, and he hit a wall that he couldn’t seem to break down.

“Life was great, I felt in control, and I was making progress, but I hit a major plateau because I had over-restricted my calories for too long,” he says. “I spent countless hours each week on a treadmill and was basically eating nothing but small chicken breasts and salads. I didn’t realize the damage I was doing, so I kept pushing forward.”

That turned out to be the wrong approach. Rather than adjusting his training and nutrition properly, Deese became discouraged. Combined with all of his other life stressors, it got the best of him, and he succumbed to the diet rebound phase.

“I graduated from college and got my first job, which required me to relocate to Kansas City,” he recalls. “I was away from everyone I knew, I wasn’t enjoying my job, a lot of changes had occurred in my life very quickly, and I let the depression take over. I couldn’t get past the plateau, so I stopped working out. I was ordering delivery food all the time again, and before I knew it, I was back up over 300 pounds.”

In an attempt to plant himself in a better environment, Deese moved his job to Atlanta, closer to home. If he hadn’t done that, he never would have met the woman who became his wife. After Deese proposed, he jumped back into working out, this time with more focus on strength training and researching the right way to meet his goals. His efforts led to progress that lasted beyond his wedding day: a 155-pound weight loss and a newfound obsession with weight training.

“I’m just an average guy from a small town who dropped out of high school and was completely lost in life,” Deese says. “If I can make these changes, I truly believe anyone can do it. You just have to get your mind right first and your body will follow.”