“I was extremely competitive,” he remembers. “I ate very healthy with a lot of protein, and was dedicated to working out. I weighed 275 pounds, but I was all muscle.”
But 15 years ago, things changed. Fred stopped eating well and working out. He fell into a sort of depression and a pattern of poor eating habits and not enough exercise.
“I was getting heavier and heavier,” remembers the Belmawr, NJ resident. “It was hard to keep up with the girls I was coaching through my softball pitching clinic, and I began having health problems creep up like high blood pressure and sleep apnea.”
Fred tried every diet – Weight Watchers, The Cabbage Soup Diet, Atkins – he even mixed and matched diets to try to make them work for him, but nothing worked long term.
Then, Fred fell. He couldn’t get back up.
“I laid on the ground, not able to get my 472-pound body up off the floor, and I thought long and hard about where my weight had led me, and how I needed to reverse this cycle I was in.”Fred knew he needed to make a change, but it wasn’t until he met Bruce Sachais, a Penn physician who had weight-loss surgery, that he decided to learn if weight-loss surgery was right for him.
“I met Bruce through the softball clinic, and I hadn’t seen him in a while. When I did see him, he’d lost so much weight I hardly recognized him. It was Bruce that really helped me take the first step,” says Fred.
Taking the First Step
Fred went to a free information session at Penn Medicine in February, and after speaking with his surgeon, Noel Williams, MD, director of the Penn Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery Program, Fred was scheduled for a vertical sleeve gastrectomy.“I felt like this was the right thing for me, but at the same time,” says Fred. “I know this is a tool and not a quick-fix strategy. For me, I needed to give myself a no-option way of life. I knew this surgery would change the way I would live forever.”
Fred began his weight-loss surgery journey by meeting with a team of physicians including cardiologists, pulmonologists and, of course, members of the bariatric surgery team at Penn including his surgeon, nurses, dietitians and psychologists.
“Everyone was amazing and made me feel like part of the team,” says Fred. “There were no surprises, and I everyone was always on the same page. It was a great feeling knowing I was in their care.”
Fred had surgery on July 18, and soon thereafter, began to see the weight come off – and his health come back.
“In the first month, I lost almost 70 pounds,” says Fred. “I completely changed the way I eat and look at food.”
Fred also was able to stop taking his blood pressure medication, and started exercising again.
“I’ve followed my team’s instructions to tee, and the weight just was melting off,” says Fred. “Weight-loss surgery has changed my perspective on everything I eat. I used to have six eggs for breakfast every morning, and now I am totally satisfied with some yogurt, or one egg. I never want to go back to the way I used to be.”
To date, Fred has lost 93pounds, and continues to lose. He is no longer on medications, and no longer needs his CPAP machine to sleep.
“I have five grandchildren and I want to see them have children,” says Fred. “I feel like I’ve already added 20 years to my life.”
Lose Weight at Penn Medicine
Penn can help you lose weight.Learn about medical weight loss in Philadelphia, and the Penn Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Program at a free information session about weight-loss surgery in Philadelphia.
There, you will hear about your weight-loss surgery options, and how Penn can help you lose weight and get healthy for good.
Register for a free information session today.
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