You’re overweight, you have zero confidence, and you don’t know what to do about it.
That was Nate Fulton’s reality most of his young adult life and the anxiety of being judged going into college wasn’t going to help his situation.
For most people, heading off to the university can be an awesome experience, but for guys like Nate, it might seem like another chance to feel embarrassed and excluded based on personal appearances.
Fortunately, Nate had amazing ambition and transformed himself on his own terms – losing over 20 lbs as soon as he adopted a fitness mindset… and totaling over 100 lbs lost by the time his college career ended!
Nate is the owner of Nate’s Healthy Habits where he shares some of the best weight loss and fitness strategies to create the best version of your body.
I want to congratulate him on this awesome transformation because I know it must have been difficult physically and mentally.
In this interview, I ask him about this journey and he tells the simple, but effective methods he used to get into great shape despite his overwhelming starting point.
I gotta say… the stuff her share is just frickin’ awesome and I just know you’re going to have some great takeaways…
The interview starts here.
Tell me about the person you used to be before you got into physical fitness.
To tell you the truth, I was the fat kid growing up. I was closing in on 300 pounds at the age of 16!
I didn’t like the way I looked, I didn’t like the way my body felt, and I was too embarrassed to go out and hang with my friends.
However, I did enjoy playing video games, but this just led to a perpetual cycle of sitting on my ass and stuffing my face with all the food that led me to my weight problem to begin with.
I had tried before to lose weight, but being so young I didn’t really know where to start.
This would lead to me eating what I thought was healthy, like “healthy” sugar filled snack bars, and celery with globs of sugar filled peanut butter.
And as you can imagine, I wouldn’t lose any weight!
Most likely I probably gained a few pounds by eating like this.
Regardless I would get mad and decide there was no point in trying, and go back to my normal unhealthy way of eating.
What triggered your need to become fit? What result did you want to have?
Everything changed for me when I went off to college in 2008.
No longer was I able to hide away in my parent’s house and play video games all night.
Instead, I was forced to go out and talk to people I had never met.
There was only one problem, I didn’t do that!
Like I said, I was too embarrassed about the way I looked, which caused me to have literally no self-esteem, which led to me being too afraid to meet new people.
Another nasty cycle!
However, it’s not all a sad, woe-is-me story.
It forced me to “look in the mirror,” and realize that this wasn’t the person I wanted to be for the rest of my life.
Oh, and there was some really good looking girls on campus that I wanted to have some confidence to talk to, too!
What obstacles did you face when you first started and how did you overcome them?
I had no idea where to start!
Also, as I’m sure most of you know, school cafeterias don’t often offer very many healthy and nutritious options.
They had a few salad options and I’d go get grilled chicken breast, cut it up, and put it in the salad.
This is literally what I started eating every day for lunch and dinner.
Looking back on it, it was actually pretty nice because it took out the guessing game of what I would eat.
I also had no idea what kind of weight lifting routine I should do, and on top of that I didn’t really want to go to the school gym because, if you remember, I hated the way I looked.
Today, I would tell you that this type of thinking is silly, if you want to go lift weights, go do it, regardless of what you think about yourself!
Most people respect the fact that you are trying to better yourself, and if anybody does say anything disrespectful, they aren’t worth the sweat on your back!
Back to the main point!
I didn’t want to go to the school gym.
Lucky for me, my roommate at the time was busy rushing for a fraternity.
This meant he was never in the room, I’d go weeks without seeing him.
This was great for me, since I had the whole room to myself, and I utilized all this extra space to do body weight exercises which I would find on the internet.
Just making the change to my diet and starting to exercise a couple days a week was enough to get me on the path to losing weight, and within the first few months I managed to lose roughly 20 pounds.
Did you have any issues with making time to workout with all the other typical college things you had to do? If so, how did you overcome them?
Oh yeah, I had some crazy college schedules!
I went to a smaller university, so they didn’t have an abundance of classes with differing times.
For the classes I needed to take, there was generally only one section offered per class, and my classes were usually spread sporadically all over the day.
It wasn’t uncommon for me to have classes from 7 am to 3 – 4 pm, sometimes with a 2 or 3 hour break in-between classes.
On those semesters where I was lucky enough to have a couple hour break in-between classes, I’d utilize that time to go to the gym.
On those semesters where I didn’t have any significant breaks between classes, I’d wake up at 4:45 am and, you guessed it, go to the gym.
For me, working out in the morning made more sense than working out in the evening.
I had a part time job after school, so by the time I got back from work it was time to eat, study, then sleep. Some of you may think 4:45 am is early, let me tell you…it is!
But, waking up that early only really sucked for a week or two. By the second week I was hopping up out of bed pretty easily.
It’s a habit that has stuck with me too! Five days a week, I’ll wake up at 4:45 am and go to the gym and train. This has been my schedule for the last 4 years!
Here’s the bottom line! Pick a time that works for you.
If you’re really not a morning person than make time either in-between classes or in the evening.
There is no perfect time to work out, what works for me, isn’t going to work for everybody. I know plenty of people who prefer to work out in the evenings, because that is when it best fits into their schedule.
The most important thing is to be flexible with your time!
What was the total amount of weight that you lost during college and how did it make you feel to achieve that?
During college, I managed to lose 115 pounds. I went from 280, at my heaviest, down to 165 pounds, at my lightest.
I got really into long distance running during the last few years of college, so that really helped me hit that low number.
To tell you the truth, I look back at pictures of when I was that thin, and it just wasn’t a good look for my body type.
For the last 4 years or so I’ve been really into lifting, and I think the weight I sit at now is much more realistic for my body type.
The last time I took my measurements I was 5’11, 187 pounds and about 7% body fat.
So, in those 4 years I’ve managed to put on right around 22 pounds of muscle, which is pretty standard, in terms of being able to put on muscle, naturally.
Needless to say, I feel great! I look in the mirror and I realize this was the person I was supposed to be all along. It’s closing in on a decade since the start of my weight loss journey.
I’ve learned a lot about myself along the way, and I’ve grown tremendously as an individual. Like you, I’m extremely passionate about helping people achieve their fitness dreams, and improving their health along the way.
I know for a lot of people just starting out, it’s intimidating looking in from the outside. I’ve been there, I know! But believe me, anybody who is worth your time wants you to succeed!
What advice would you give someone now just starting college, wanting to change their body for the better, with no idea where to get started?
I can’t stress enough how important diet and nutrition are to losing fat and gaining muscle.
I’m sure most of you have heard that abs are made in the kitchen, and for the most part, that’s true!
Sure you could probably put on tons of muscle while eating & drinking whatever you choose, but what would be the point when that muscle is hidden under a layer of fat?
This is not me telling you that you can’t go out and have fun on the weekends. Do it!
Go out and have fun, but eat responsibly during the week to minimize the damage you do on the weekends.
Also, while you can lose weight by just doing cardio, it’s not nearly as beneficial as having a workout routine that promotes muscle growth.
Muscle tissue has been observed to burn roughly 7 to 10 calories per pound per day, compared to the 2 to 3 calories per pound per day for fat.
So, if you replace a pound of fat with a pound of muscle, you can expect to burn approximately 4 to 6 more calories a day.
Simply by adding more muscle to your frame, you’ll be burning more calories at rest!
End of Interview
Here’s What You Should Do Next
Head over to nateshealthyhabits.com and subscribe to Nate’s blog posts if you want to learn more about his personal methods of becoming a healthier version of yourself.
Next, leave a comment below and tell me how Nate’s story resonated with you and if you see yourself somewhere in his journey.
Maybe you’re starting where he used to be… not happy with your body and without any direction.
Maybe you’re struggling through the first obstacles of fitness.
Or maybe you have an awesome transformation story of your own.
Whatever it is, tell me in the comments below.
And I’ll try to get Nate to answer any questions you might have directly for him too!