If you were to meet Dr. Jacob Ott today, you would find yourself in the company of a fit and healthy Emergency Room Physician. He promotes fitness and healthy foods – much like you would expect coming from a doctor. But behind his passion for health is a story of tremendous victory. A story that will challenge you to start on your own journey to weight loss, and also one that will encourage you with his words of wisdom and hope. When I learned of Dr. Ott’s story, I knew I had to interview him. So I contacted him and he graciously agreed to share his weight loss experience with you.
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VT: When did you start experiencing problems with your weight?
JO: I had problems with my weight for most of my life. I started being mildly overweight in junior high. The same continued in high school. Then when I went to college, I did undergraduate studies in three years rather than four years in order to get done earlier. I did double course loads and summer courses, so as you can imagine, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to exercise. I also didn’t eat very well because you know, you’ve got all of that cafeteria food and such and I didn’t have anybody telling me what I should and shouldn’t eat for the first time in my life. I ballooned up to 270 pounds at that time.
VT: Is that the heaviest that you ever got?
JO: No. I got all the way up to 350 pounds by the end of my residency. Undergrad was rough, but medical school and residency were even harder. Sometimes we were working up to 100 hour weeks and we were on call every few nights, so the exercise schedule was nonexistent and eating consisted of eating whatever was available – doughnuts, pizza, that kind of stuff. Pretty poor dietary choices.
VT: You mentioned that your weight problems started in your youth. Was that because healthy food choices were not available at home? Or were you just not that concerned with eating well? Were your parents very conscious of the food choices that were being made?
JO: My mother is Italian and she loves to cook. My whole family is foodies. So there was always delicious food around, most of it pasta, heavy sauces, that kind of stuff. But my parents were able to control the amount that they ate. I just made poor decisions when it came to the amount of food that I ate. They would try to help me by keeping my food portions under control, but at that time I really wasn’t in control of my own decisions, and so I would eat more than I should have, and more of the wrong things than I should have. Then I would go to school and make poor choices as well because there was nobody watching out for my choices. I had not learned how to eat the right foods at that time.
VT: At what point did you decide that you needed to do something to change?
JO: I was at 350 pounds for probably two to three years. Really what changed is that my daughter was born. When she was born, I had a hard time even picking her up off the floor or anything like that. I guess that was my rock-bottom moment. The realization really hit home that if I didn’t change something, I may not even be around to see her graduate. That was the motivational push that made me want to change.
VT: Were you successful once you decided that you wanted to change? If not, how many attempts did it take before you started noticing a change in your weight?
JO: In the past, I had tried just about everything. I tried multiple commercial weight loss programs. I was even on Phen-Phen before they pulled it off the market. And I had never had success at that time because I didn’t have the motivation inside me. Basically, I wasn’t ready. Change is not easy. I had plenty of backslides and I made plenty of mistakes along the way. It was slow and steady moving downward from 350 pounds once I finally made the decision in my own mind that I was actually ready. I started changing my diet. At first it was slow. Then I started making more progress and added in more exercise. Like a snowball effect – you start making changes, and those changes add up.
VT: What kind of support system, if any, did you have that helped you lose weight?
JO: I am fortunate to have a wonderful wife who not only is also a physician, so she knows as much as I do about health, but was very supportive of me. She stuck by me even when I was very overweight. Of course she didn’t like that I was very overweight but she was supportive of me. Once I decided to change, she helped in every way that she could. She encouraged me to exercise on days where I just wasn’t feeling it. She would get me to the gym so that I could put in my time. I think everybody needs a support system. Nobody is an island. Everybody is going to have days where they are not at their best, so you’ve got to have that support – whether that’s a friend or a spouse. Somebody who can say, “Maybe you shouldn’t eat that,” or “You need to go exercise today. You haven’t done it.” That kind of thing.
VT: What did you do in terms of diet to lose the weight? Did you count calories? Did you get on a specific eating schedule or diet?
JO: The name of my company is DevolveHealth. The reason I named it that is because my diet started out as the typical American diet of mostly fast food. Lots of fried stuff, lots of burgers and meat. The meat was really bad – the high fat kind. I started out just by eliminating fast food altogether. And I almost immediately lost 20 pounds just by doing that. After that I started eating more whole foods and less processed stuff (stuff that comes out of a box or can) and more stuff that you buy at the outside aisles of the grocery store – the fresh vegetables and fresh fruits. Then after awhile I decided to become a vegetarian. That was after I read a couple of books talking about the connection with meat to various chronic diseases. I stopped eating meat altogether about a year-and-a-half ago. Since then I’ve lost another 30 pounds.
VT: I actually tried to be a vegetarian once. I only lasted 30 days.
JO: It’s tough. The first two weeks I had cravings that would give me the shakes. Literally.
VT: I just can’t do it. I love chicken too much. And you know, as long as I am able to get toned to where I want to be, meat is okay for me.
JO: I think that’s the key. You’ve got to find the diet that works for you that is also nutritionally balanced. I never tell anybody to completely abstain from any certain foods. As long as you find what works for you – and it’s nutritionally balanced – I think that’s fine.
VT: When I was on my journey to drop seven sizes, I got on a really strict diet schedule (eating at certain times of the day, everyday). Did you ever do anything like that when you were trying to lose weight?
JO: Doing something like that would be really tough with my work schedule. I did Weight Watchers for a little while, which doesn’t require you to eat at specific times, but you have a point system. The problem is I work all around the clock, so my meal times are so up in the air sometimes.
VT: What did you do in terms of exercise to lose weight? How often did you exercise? What kinds of exercises were you doing? Were you doing things by yourself or with a trainer / instructor?
JO: When I first started out, I was so heavy I could barely do more than walk. So I started out by walking three times a week. I walked in my neighborhood, gradually increasing how far I would walk. Eventually, I started getting lighter. And I always envied people that I would see out running. They look so fast. And I thought to myself, “Man, I want to do that.” So I started run-walking, and I couldn’t last even 90 seconds. But I stuck with it. Running is still my primary form of exercise. It’s what I do the most. I trained up my running to prepare for a 5K. And I added in strength training because even though I was big, I didn’t have a lot of muscle mass. Adding muscle mass increases your metabolic rate. In 2008 I ran my first marathon. I try to exercise now everyday. I run most days, but I like to mix it up as well. Some days I’ll do strength training for my legs, upper body, or core. I add variety so that my body never adapts to it and doesn’t get tired of it.
VT: How long did it take you to get to your current weight?
JO: It took about four years.
VT: How much total weight did you lose?
JO: 150 pounds.
VT: When people lose a lot of weight, they sometimes need surgery to get rid of excess skin. Did you find that that was an issue for you?
JO: No, although being a doctor I know a little bit about this. The younger you are, the more elasticity your skin has, the more likely it will stretch back. I was fortunate that I was still relatively young, so my skin stretched back okay. But that is true that some people need to have surgery to remove excess skin because their skin did not have enough stretch-back.
VT: Now on to one of my favorite questions. What did you do with your old, larger clothes? Do you still have them?
JO: That is an interesting question. I donated most of them. Some of them were in poor condition so I threw them away. I did keep a couple of my old favorites so that I have reminders of what I don’t want to go back to.
VT: I got rid of everything. I never wanted to be able to fit into it again.
JO: I’m with you. I never want to fit into it again but some days when I’m not feeling motivated I take a look at it and say, “That’s what happens when you’re not motivated. You’d better get to the gym.”
VT: What are your new favorite foods or snacks?
JO: My favorite snacks are fresh fruits now. I eat very little sugar. I eat very little processed foods. That’s part of my eating philosophy – to try to eat foods as close to how they are in nature. I love bananas and apples. I also keep fresh vegetables around because they are low in calories and make great snacks. And they taste good.
VT: And you said that your favorite exercise is running?
JO: Yeah. It’s funny. It grows on you. It was torture when I started. Almost literally. But now I love it. It’s one of my favorite things. When I’m feeling stressed or when I have a problem that I need to think through, I’ll go for a run and eventually the answer comes to me.
VT: How do you keep your diet and exercise routine with your busy schedule? In particular, this is a really important question because a lot of people that visit my site have families. They have children. Some of them stay home, some of them work outside of the home. Either way, they’re busy. And it’s hard. Sometimes, they don’t know how they can work in a diet and exercise routine into their lives. How do you do it?
JO: That’s a great question. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone who has too much time on their hands. Usually, they never have enough time. My schedule can get even more limited because I have shifts all over the place, and a wife and kids. I completely understand. That’s probably one of the things that people ask me the most too. But my answer to that is: you make time for things that are important. Even though we say we don’t have enough time, the average American watches 35 hours of TV a week. The point being, yes you have time, but you’re squandering it. If you look carefully at your time, you can find half-an-hour to one hour a day to exercise. That’s a cakewalk. In terms of the meals, that takes some planning. It’s much easier to go to a fast food restaurant on the way home. That’s what I used to do. I was a drive-thru fanatic. So you have to plan ahead for your meals. I always take food to work with me. I always have fruits and vegetables handy in case I get hungry. I can just grab an apple and eat it. It certainly takes a lot more planning than the exercise does, but it’s doable. You have to be committed to it and you have to think ahead.
VT: What advice would you give to someone who has a lot of weight to lose?
JO: The first piece of advice I would give is be patient. People too often start out with the New Year’s resolution syndrome. They are ready to go, and are going to diet and lose weight. And they do great the first week because the body tends to lose quite a bit when you first start. You lose water weight and a bit of actual fat. But when they hit that first plateau, people are quick to give up. I always tell people when they ask me, “You did not gain it in a day, you aren’t going to lose it in a day”. It’s a fight. It’s a struggle. On the other hand, the more you have to struggle with something, the more you are going to value it when you’re done. As long as you have that understanding that it is not going to be easy and it’s going to take time, you are going to be more prepared when you hit lumps. I plateaued for more than a year at 250 pounds. If there was ever a time to give up, it would have been then. The biggest thing to remember is that it is a process, not a sprint.
VT: Tell me about your business and what you hope to accomplish with that.
JO: My business is DevolveHealth, and my philosophy is that we have gotten away (in terms of diet and activity) from what our ancestors were probably like. Granted, I don’t know a whole lot about cavemen, but imagining what they were like – they certainly didn’t eat processed foods and sit in front of a TV. That is how I changed my life. I went back to a more simple way of eating and activity, so that’s the model I want to represent. Really, I just want to help out. America is in an obesity crisis. Two thirds of people are overweight or obese and it’s not getting any better. We’re looking at people getting Type 2 Diabetes and High Blood Pressure in their early teens. I’ve seen eight-year-olds with Type 2 Diabetes, which is insane. Things are getting worse rather than better. I try to put my finger in the dam wherever I can and help out. I help people by counseling them both in my official job in the ER and those who contact me through my website or email. I do my best to provide advice, and I don’t charge for it. Eventually, I would like to do motivational speaking because I have some talent for teaching. I also am working on a book both about my struggles and my system and how it’s used, so you can apply it to yourself and lose weight.
VT: You’ve given some terrific answers today. Do you have any last minute words of encouragement?
JO: To everyone reading this that is overweight, believe me, I understand how you feel. I’ve been there. And it is doable, even though it seems like it isn’t. It seemed that way to me when I was 350 pounds. Find your support system. Find a diet and exercise system that works for you. And trust. And you’ll get there.
Dr. Jacob Ott is 35-year-old Emergency Room Physician and is married with three children. He owns DevolveHealth, a company dedicated to helping you lose weight and keep it off with a focus on simplifying your lifestyle with natural foods and basic physical activities. You can also visit his blog, where he shares his thoughts on his journey of fitness.
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