“I’m proud to say Nutrisystem helped me get here.”

Having always been active and never struggling with his weight in the past, Brian Hodge didn’t have to worry much about what he ate. But he says his not-so-great eating habits eventually caught up with him. As he got older, the weight started creeping on—until one day, he realized he was overweight. Though he tried a variety of diets, nothing seemed to work. When his dad started Nutrisystem, Brian says he was skeptical but decided to give it a shot. After he hit his goal weight in fewer than six months, Brian was sold—and decided to continue on with his amazing weight loss journey.

Here is Brian’s amazing weight loss story:

By Brian Hodge

I couldn’t believe I had gained so much weight. I love to eat, but I was always active so it never really seemed to impact me growing up. At six-feet tall, I managed to remain around 145 pounds all through high school. I was active in sports, including football, wrestling and track. Weight never seemed to be an issue, and I would have never guessed it would become one. It was only a few years after high school that my struggle with weight really began.

All of my bad eating habits came back around to get me with a vengeance, and I found my weight climbing rapidly. I was forced to cut weight when I joined the Marine Corps. However, after I separated from the Marine Corps four years later, my weight became a serious issue once again. My level of activity had decreased, and my weight started to increase. I used my busy work schedule as an excuse not to exercise and before I realized what was happening, I weighed more than 240 pounds. So, there I was in my early 30s and extremely overweight.

I tried increasing my level of activity, changing the foods I consumed and even attempted all sorts of trendy diets to cut the weight. Some worked better than others. Most of the time I would get my weight down to about 215 pounds before falling back into my bad eating habits again and gaining the weight right back. It was a constant battle and extremely frustrating. At one point I just gave up on what seemed like a wasted effort to lose weight.

I had a serious wakeup call when I suddenly fell severely ill and spent more than a week in the hospital. The doctors ran multiple tests trying to figure out what was happening to me. My health had deteriorated to a point where I was not sure what to expect. However, these events made me finally realize that I needed to lose the weight I had gained and get back on track with my health again. I wasn’t sure yet how I would do this, since everything I tried up to this point did not work for me—but I knew I had to do something.

The light at the end of the tunnel began with a call from my dad. He told me he was on a diet again, but that he was actually losing a significant amount of weight this time. He is not able to be very active, having had knee surgeries, hip replacement surgery and constant back issues, but he said he was still able to lose weight. This piqued my interest since we both have similar body types. I asked him how he was able to lose the weight, and he told me he was doing the Nutrisystem program. I had never previously considered Nutrisystem. I thought it was targeted for the over 50 group. However, my dad needed the extra support, and I needed to lose weight—so I thought I should at least try it.

There I was at a little over 235 pounds and kicking off the Nutrisystem program, determined to lose the weight for good this time. I set my initial goal at 190 pounds. My dad and I teamed up to motivate each other, making it a healthy competition. I followed the food schedule, increased my activity as recommended, and the weight began to melt away. I noticed a significant difference right away. Kicking off the program with the first week of weight loss shakes really helped.

The program was working, but I was still skeptical I wouldn’t get below that 215 pound goal that haunted me from previous dieting attempts. My mind was quickly convinced when I blew past the 215 weight mark in only a couple of months. In less than six months, I was able to hit my target goal of 190 pounds.* The program was working so well that I reset my goal to a lower weight of 175 pounds and then reached that goal, too.

Today, I am at 165 pounds, having lost over 70 pounds* through the Nutrisystem program. I feel great and love the way I look again. My friends, family and colleagues ask me how I did it, and I’m proud to say Nutrisystem helped me with my amazing weight loss. My only regret is that I didn’t try it sooner!

What are you waiting for? Start your amazing weight loss story with Nutrisystem today!

*Real Success Story. Weight lost on prior program. Expect to lose an avg 1-2 lbs per week.