Podcast INSIDER: How To Lose 75 Pounds by Eating Plants - Premium Podcast!

SPEAKER_1 (0:03)

Welcome to the bengreenfieldfitness.com Podcast. We provide you with free exercise, nutrition, weight loss, triathlon, and wellness advice from the top fitness experts in the nation.

So whether you're an Ironman triathlete, or you're just trying to shed a few pounds, get ready for non-run-of-the-mill, cutting-edge content from bengreenfieldfitness.com.

Ben Greenfield (0:27)

Watching . Hey, folks, it's Ben Greenfield here. And sometimes we get folks onto the podcast who really are out there in the trenches, living life, getting things done, and getting some really cool and interesting results. And today, I have a listener on, also a guy who is really out there and involved in the nutrition and the health community.

As a health advocate, he's a family man, a father of five. He's been married for 28 years. He's got a lot of stuff going on, and his name is BJ. Tucker.

Now, BJ has an interesting story that we'll delve into today, because he used to be very overweight, and I'll put a picture of B.J.'s former weight as well as what he looks like now over in the show notes at bengreenfieldfitness.com.

But he was out of shape, overweight, really into alcohol and some other things we'll get into today, and then he lost a lot of weight. He lost 75 pounds, and he did it by eating plants and running. And BJ actually recently featured an article that I wrote called Ten Steps to Mastering a Plant-Based Diet over on his website, which I'll link to in the show notes. But BJ was interested in that topic because he is a self-described plant-powered athlete. And so in today's podcast, we're going to get into how to lose weight by eating plants, B.J.'s fitness philosophy and some of the things that he's done to successfully lose weight and where he's at today. So that being said, BJ., thanks for coming on the call today, man.

BJ Tucker (2:22)

Thanks, Ben. Glad to be here. Thanks for that great introduction. I really appreciate it.

Ben Greenfield (2:26)

Yeah, no problem. Well, let's jump right into your journey. You lost 75 pounds over the past two years, I think it was. And I'm curious how you did that, and if possible, if we could jump in to kind of like how your diet and exercise routine looked like before and what it looks like now.

BJ Tucker (2:45)

Okay. Well, before, it was certainly the standard American diet, you know, lots of fried food, lots of fatty food, very few fruits, very few vegetables, if any at all.

And just, you know, rock and rolling, you know, as long as a sales guy who, you know, did a lot of lunches with clients, did a lot of traveling, and you know, basically, I just let what I call it, let life happen, and just didn't really care. And I mean, I cared, but I didn't care enough to do anything about it.

Ben Greenfield (3:18)

And did you like to play sports or anything growing up, or was it kind of a sedentary lifestyle for you from the get go?

BJ Tucker (3:25)

I played a little bit of soccer growing up, but I was not a big predominant athlete by any stretch of the imagination. I wasn't overweight as a kid. I was fairly thin. I wasn't skinny, but I was fairly thin. I was, you know, when I started running back in my 20s, they always called me a, you know, Clydesdale runner just because of my size.

But about 15 years ago, I really started packing on the pounds and, you know, I hovered anywhere from 225 to 250, you know, for many years and no activity. And as far as sports or any type of endurance activity.

Ben Greenfield (4:03)

Gotcha. So, so what happened then?

BJ Tucker (4:06)

About three, almost three years ago now, I'm coming up on the three-year date.

And there was not really that one transitional moment, but it was just the thought of, I can't continue to live this way if I want to live, you know, past 50 or 55 My dad was diagnosed with cancer and he was passing away. And you know, I've had, you know, a couple of friends that have gotten really ill and, you know, having five kids and, you know, all of them still being in the house, I thought, I just can't continue to live this way and be able to chase grandkids at some point in the future.

Ben Greenfield (4:41)

So it was based on longevity for you, huh?

BJ Tucker (4:44)

Exactly.

Ben Greenfield (4:45)

Now, you started into, obviously, you know, an eating and an exercise protocol. And where did you kind of put together the pieces as far as what you wanted to do? I mean, were you one of those guys just headed out of the door and started running and eating more vegetables because you heard it was healthy for you? Or did you do some research to look into what was the way to achieve your weight loss and fitness goals as quickly as possible? Or what exactly did you do at that point?