At the age of 14, Taylor LeBaron channeled his love of videogames into an ambitious weight-loss program that helped him shed 150 pounds in 18 months.
He didn’t just pick up a copy of Wii Fit. Instead, the formerly obese Georgia teen (pictured above) devised a fat-shredding system, dubbed “The Ultimate Fitness Game,” to help motivate himself to eat right and exercise.
“It has the same aspects of a videogame,” LeBaron told The Today Show Thursday. “You have enemies, you have allies, and you have money. You have to play smart; otherwise, you run out of your money. Your score needs to be high at the end of the day.”
Now 17 years old and still very fit, LeBaron lays out his method in a new book, Cutting Myself in Half: 150 Pounds Lost One Byte at a Time. LeBaron looked at calories as “cash” that could spent on eating or banked as weight loss. He then formulated ways to earn that “money” by exercising — approaching the problem of weight loss the same way he’d attack a difficult videogame.
“When I get a new videogame, one of the first things I do is check out the opponents to see what I’m up against. When I know the enemies, I can create a plan of attack,” LeBaron writes in an excerpt of the book posted on the Today Show website.
His list of the top five enemies of physical fitness — inactivity, food choices, large portions, liquid calories and stress — are mostly just good common sense. But his novel approach, and his dedication to losing weight, have definite roots in his gamer lifestyle.
LeBaron set his sights on solving the problem of his weight, just as he determined to collect every achievement in Grand Theft Auto IV . That kind of determination is something you can’t necessarily get from a strategy guide.
Image courtesy Taylor LeBaron
