An Order of Chinese Food Kickstarted This Man's Dramatic 350-Pound Weight Loss

It wasnt that Moore had set out to be that big-who does? But his story, like many others, started with a slow creep on the scale. Throughout his entire adult life, Moore explained, he lived off packaged and fried foods. That unhealthy lifestyle only escalated when his wife became pregnant with their son.

View this post on Instagram Are we there yet.... A post shared by Zach Moore | Weightloss Guru (@mmazach) on Feb 22, 2019 at 1:13pm PST

She was eating for two and I was eating for three, Moore says. But in December of 2013, a few years after his son was born, Moore found himself sitting with his family and reading a book to his child. By that time, he had both high blood pressure and diabetes, all of which put him on the path to either a heart attack or a stroke. His wife took a video of the moment, which should have been a happy one. But, when Moore looked at the video, he was horrified by what he saw.

Thats when it all hit me, Moore said. I was looking at my wife, looking at my kid, and realized, I'm 500 pounds, and people that big don't live that long, and I wanted to watch my son grow up. He wanted to get healthy, but he he didnt even know where to begin. His takeout habit, it turned out, decided for him.

I got food poisoning from eating orange chicken right around New Years Day, he says. I ate the whole container on the way home because I was fat and I liked to do that. And sure enough, I was the only one that got sick. Nobody else in the house got sick. All week, Moore suffered. It got so bad that he was hospitalized for eight days. But there was one positive side effect: He was dropping weight-fast.

It was a messed up way to look at it, but I thought, Maybe this is a sign. The numbers are going in the right direction, he says. After he felt better, Moore decided it was time to kick a few of his other unhealthy eating habits for good. He started by reducing his meat intake by only eating birds and fish and no red meat. Next, he cut out processed foods. And, as he explains, he decided that everything he ate had to come from the Earth.

View this post on Instagram Hustle & Grow From calling myself Fugly to Loving myself.. Never knew losing weight could fix all the things in my world that were growing bad...yet it did, and the rewards kept coming. Falling in love with who I have become from then to now has been the biggest reward. Looking at yourself smiling is truly a reward. A post shared by Zach Moore | Weightloss Guru (@mmazach) on Feb 24, 2019 at 4:17am PST

In March 2014, Moore decided to take it one step further by undergoing

gastric bypass

surgery. Though his surgery wasnt without complications, he was able to pull through. On the first day post-op, Moore took 42 steps. From there, he just kept walking.

Instead of implementing a hardcore workout routine, Moore stuck to walking around his property and his town, kicking things up a notch until his he was walking a few miles a day. Following his surgery, Moore also stuck to a and consisting of egg whites, lean meats, and snacks like cottage cheese.

I pretty much said, this is my new life. This is me, he says. If I want to help my wife and my son, I need to help myself. Through this efforts, Moore lost an astounding 300 pounds in a single year.

View this post on Instagram How much weight have you lost on your journey? I lost 300 pounds between these images from 2014 & 2016. A post shared by Zach Moore | Weightloss Guru (@mmazach) on Feb 24, 2019 at 12:28pm PST

Now 38, Moore, who currently sits at 152 pounds, is keeping it all off by maintaining his active day-to-day life. Hes thrown out all the televisions in his home and continues to walk every day. He tries to incorporate healthy foods and routines that the rest of his family can enjoy, too. But he still faces occasional struggles.

Moore went through a multitude of corrective surgeries that his weight gain caused, including a knee replacement and a protruding hernia. There are other things he needs to work on, too, Moore says-like the way he sees himself in the mirror, his evolving relationship with food, and even physical items his weight once wreaked havoc on.

You leave a lot of shadows behind, he says. My bed broke, my couch broke, the shocks on my car are shot. The life of that human is left behind and there's just so many little things that still, even five years later, I have to go back and clean up.

View this post on Instagram I lost 100 pounds for me. I did t want to lose as much as I have. I didnt think I could. It was such an unrealistic goal that I didnt want to get my hopes up. But I did. I lost 100 pounds and it kept going. 200 pounds. Kept going. 300 pounds they put me on television. 350 they wrote about me in European magazines. Ive been on Mens Health, Yahoo, MSN, People and about anything that talks so inspired human Ive tried to share my life accolades for the enjoyment so other humans lifes that are or will be as appalling as mine yes to be can see that there is a very slim hope and in truth its best to not let yourself go as I did. Its made a helluva story but isolated my life from humans now. I smile although I cry inside knowing that obesity one day may still kill me. Till then I pound that ass till I cant take no more. I do me. I dont have anything left to care about outside my bubble. A post shared by Zach Moore | Weightloss Guru (@mmazach) on Aug 2, 2018 at 3:12pm PDT

Even as he continues to fight these battles, Moore couldnt be happier with the outcome-one set off by a bad plate of orange chicken. As for others in his position, Moore doesn't want to spout platitudes about calorie counting, the merits of surgery, or even a specific workout routine-he knows weight loss is personal. Instead, he prefers to keep his advice simple: Just keep going.