How One Man Lost 121 Pounds and Added 20 Pounds of Muscle

When Angel Rodriguez knocked on his mother’s back door, she quickly retreated from the entrance and walked into the main part of the house. She didn’t recognize her son of 48 years.

“Mom, it’s me, Angel.”

Rodriguez hadn’t visited his mother, who was living in Miami, in 7 months. In that time, he had lost 121 pounds of fat, taken 20 inches off his waist, and put on 20.5 pounds of solid muscle. He looked nothing like her big-bellied son. She thought he might be an intruder, and a well-muscled one at that. For a moment, she considered calling the cops.

“I hesitated for a few seconds,” says Rodriguez, “then I knocked louder and yelled, ‘Mom, mom!’ . . . and grinned at her in my special way.”

Then it clicked and she responded in her Cuban accent, “Angel, me parece mentira. [I can’t believe it.] What have you done to yourself?”

What Angel Rodriguez had done is nothing less than remarkable. He had lowered his body fat percentage from nearly 50 percent to just 11 percent in 30 weeks. He looks like an entirely different man—a younger man, a healthier man. Most important, he probably saved his own life by losing the weight using Rodale’s The Body Fat Breakthrough a rapid weight-loss system developed by fitness researcher Ellington Darden, PhD.

“The dirty little secret of most popular diet plans is they don’t combine muscle-maintaining exercises with calorie reduction,” says Darden.“More muscle is your ticket to a better body.”

For Rodriguez it was the key to not only dramatic, life-altering weight-loss but a sense of confidence in his inner strength to accomplish what he set out to do.

“I avoided doing anything about my weight for such a long time because I was afraid of failing and confirming that this [overweight body] was going to be my life,” says Rodriguez. But then he went to an information session about Darden's new weight-loss program being offered at Gainesville Health & Fitness Club, and the researcher picked him out of the crowd to join his test panel.

“I just figured, okay I’m going to do whatever this guy tells me to do and we’ll see," says Rodriguez, an animal control officer in Gainesville. "The weight started to come of quickly and that gave me the momentum.”

Rodriguez enjoyed the challenge of the tough workouts and the way they made his body feel but he found cutting out his beloved chocolate and other sweets difficult, especially in social settings. “At a Valentine’s Day party at church, everyone was eating every chocolate desert imaginable, and I had to say no. I felt, like, ‘I hate you people!’”

He credits his wife Gigi with helping him make the change from processed foods and snacks to whole foods, lean proteins, and lots of fruits and vegetables. She cleaned the house of all temptation, the chocolate chip cookies, the ice cream and other junk food.

He also believes his strong faith in God helped him on his journey to wellness. “I believe He wants good things for us and presents us with opportunities. You just have to recognize them.”

Angel’s Weight-Loss Revelations:

Eliminate temptation: “It’s one thing if cookies are hiding in he pantry—you’ll sneak them—it’s another if you have to drive down to Publics to buy them,” says Rodriguez.

Find low-cal replacements: “If you must have ice cream, you can find better choices. It doesn’t taste like Hagen-Daz but it’s not going to give you 1000 calories a shot either.”

Be mindful about portion sizes: “You don’t have to deny yourself. You just have to realize that you don’t need to eat three helpings of anything.”

Recruit teammates: It’s a huge help to have people who support you, says Rodriguez. “Give them the authority to get in your face and push you.”

Angel Rodriquez By the Numbers

Before

Body Weight: 281.5 Pounds

After 30 Weeks

121 Pounds of Fat Loss
20.125 Inches Off Waist
20.5 Pounds of Muscle Gain

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