Former weight: 380 pounds
Current weight: 206 pounds
Pounds lost: 174 pounds
Height: 6 feet 1 ½ inches
As a high school football coach Zachary knew all about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle yet what he taught his players on the field often didn't translate into his personal life.
"I had let myself go and I was too afraid to admit it."-Zachary Blanchard
But in April of 2018 Zachary decided he had had enough and started the process to losing what is now over 174 pounds of excess body fat.
"I started very slowly about a year ago," Blanchard said. "I did a keto diet, I took small steps and knew it was going to take a while. In December, I started lifting weights a lot. At that time, I was a heavy smoker and I also decided to quit right then and there."
Since his dietary changes, making weightlifting a lifestyle, and giving up cigarettes Zachary has gone from 275 pounds to 206 pounds where he currently maintains a healthy body weight. On the football field, he trains with his players and lifts weights six days per week and supplements his activity levels with a high monitored ketogenic diet. In the past, Zachary would do what most of us who are new to fitness and want to lose weight do, excessive amounts of cardio, but he quickly learned the benefits of weight training and has since decreased the amount of cardio exercise he does to a healthy level to maintain good endurance levels.
"(In the beginning) I was doing a lot of cardio, spin classes — which were absolutely awful to me. Now I enjoy isolating my muscles through weight lifting and it has helped reduce the inflammation that was caused by unnecessary amounts of cardio."
But the greatest thing he learned throughout his weight loss journey is that every one is different and in order to truly reach a weight loss goal one must learn what works for their body best.
"The greatest learning experience for me was realizing I don’t have all the answers, and I had to learn to trust my trainer while cancelling out all other outside noise in order to do what pertains to me. Find out what works for you and you can't go wrong."