GQ Magazine How I Dropped 40 Pounds in 8 Months

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Your weekly wellness check-in.

Kevin, who feels great but still hasn’t achieved a “normal” Body Mass Index, asks: Does BMI matter? —Nick Catucci, site director

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What’s in a Number?

By Kevin Schlittenhardt

Last year, my wife started training for the New York City marathon. I couldn’t exactly be ordering in Taco Bell while she was eating clean and running double-digit miles everyday, so I set out to make some much-needed changes to my diet and exercise habits.

The inspiration paid off handsomely. I started off 2024 with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 32, which is officially considered obese. And honestly, that’s how I felt. I got winded climbing the stairs to our third-floor apartment and was constantly ordering in very salty, unhealthy food for every meal. My mind was hazy, my clothes didn’t fit great, and I was pushing my suits to their sartorial limits at weddings. This was me about a year ago.

I’ve never been great with restrictive diets, so in order to give myself some flexibility with meals, I decided to try intermittent fasting, and (successfully) committed to never skipping even a single day of my push/pull weight training regiment. I threw in some other activities like riding the stationary bike while I watched soccer and walking home from work, and I started dropping pounds pretty rapidly. Here’s what I looked like approximately 40 pounds lighter late last summer at my wife’s sister’s wedding in Italy.

As I shed weight, I checked two numbers religiously every morning. One was my weight, obviously. The other was my BMI. Having something clinical—albeit frequently debated—telling me I was obese grounded me in a reality that I couldn’t run away from. It also helped me track progress that wasn’t always easy to see in the mirror. When I finally ticked down from “obese” to simply “overweight,” I felt good. 

But while I’m proud of the progress I made, it doesn’t feel totally complete, because I never achieved what, in terms of BMI, is considered a “normal body weight.” That’s why I have resolved in 2025 to go the distance and get my BMI under 25. Then, I will finally be “normal.”

But is striving for a “normal” BMI the healthiest goal? Is it even a good goal at all?

Read on for what the experts have to say.

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