Hello, welcome to my website. My name is Rob Cooper and I will be your host during your visit here. Formerfatguy.com has been online since about 1996 when it had no domain name and was hand coded using microsoft note pad. In 1998, I bought the domain you’re now visiting and my “handle” or moniker forever etched into internet history. Many people can be proud to call themselves a former fat guy, but I alone am, THE Former Fat Guy.
In short…
I once weighed 475 pounds
… Now I don’t
The longer story is that I had always struggled with my weight, being on one weight loss program or another since being in grade 5. I reached 320 pounds in December of my graduating year of high school, and went on my first diet. I dropped 80 pounds by graduation time and kept it off for an entire year after graduation. When I began university at the U of Saskatchewan in 1986, majoring in french, minoring in psychology, I quickly regained the weight.
I left University in Dec of 1987 and moved to Edmonton to become a cab driver and quickly set the land speed record for the quickest amount of weight gained in the shortest period of time and ballooned up to 475 by December of 1989.
It was then that I had my “episode” after a night of driving taxi.
My Heart Freaked Out and I Almost Died
My heart freaked out on me and I thought I was going to die. I did nothing about it, so two days later, it happened again, but this time 10x worse. My life flashed in front of my eyes and I saw my parents finding me dead, at 22 yrs old and weighing 475 pounds.
I did not think my weight was problem funny enough.
I immediately took a different approach to the “episode / heart attack”
I Decided I Had To Do Something About My Health
I did not plan to lose 300 pounds, but I did begin to learn about natural methods to improve my health. The results I got from implementing these new tactics inspired me to keep going.
I was running a great big physiological experiment on my own body.
I’d learn a new natural health tactic, apply it, get a result and keep going. If it didn’t work, I’d let go of it and find another one.
The basics of this I’ve incorporated into the free report “How I Lost 300 Pounds” that is available to subscribers to my natural health and weight loss newsletter. The report outlines 7 strategies you can apply right now and begin down your own road to releasing 10 pounds a month, every month, until you reach your goal weight.
After coaching many people over the years on natural foods, supplementation, the critical importance of cleansing and exercise, I finally wrote my own book and called it Fat Loss Fundamentals. FLF is a 12 week guide to better eating. In it, you’ll learn how to duplicate what I did, by learning and applying one single habit or method each and every week, resulting in rapid weight loss, but in a healthy manor. Many people say that rapid weight loss is not healthy, but one has to understand the context of that statement.
Healthy Rapid Weight Loss
If you’re 180, lean and trying to make weight for a fight, a wrestling match or what have you and need to lose 10 pounds rapidly, techniques employed to drop water etc, usually result in muscle loss as well, but rarely fat. That type of method for that type of athlete can do damage on organs, and especially the heart.
If you’re 400 pounds, of which 250 of it or more is fat, learning how to improve your eating habits, eating more food than you ever thought possible on a typical diet and learning how to hydrate your body more efficiently, improve your skin, get rid of candida all while releasing 10 pounds a month is not a problem. Eating food that results in a rapid weight loss is not a problem. In fact, it’s something your body wants to do.
That’s what Fat Loss Fundamentals is all about.
A common complaint is that the participants once starting week 1, can hardly finish that which they’ve been assigned to eat and then have increased energy throughout the day, while getting thinner.
We Each Have Different Metabolic Makeups
Formerfatguy.com started as a place to keep my before and after photos because nobody believed that I was that heavy. Then I used it to keep track of various nutrition articles and methods that I used or was trying. Some times there seems to be contradictory information on the site, but that might be because I simply tried a lot of things. I use the letters BTDT after my name to indicate “Been There, Done That”.
After researching so many types of nutritional principles, and coaching so many people, I realized that the most common thing is that no two people have exactly the same metabolic profiles and each needs food designed specifically for them. If you try to follow the diet program laid out by a body builder but you’re not the same body type as them, you may not get the same results.
Raw food has it’s place and benefits, but it’s not for everyone.
Vegetarian food programs have their place, but not for everyone.
Some body types actually function better on meat and fat, with little carbohydrates and no grains, but other body types would get sick eating this way.
Being alkaline is important, but it’s not the specific food that makes you and I alkaline, its how that food creates an alkaline environment once inside our bodies. Where meat may create an acidic environment in some people, it’s alkaline forming in others. The same food has a different effect on different people.
What I hope to achieve here on formerfatguy.com is a place with natural health information that results in the reader being better educated about food, what food is, what food does and how the body uses food. Also, as an outlet to inform readers about what governments and food manufacturers are doing to our foods so that we’re better informed.
What Now?
One common question I ask the people I interview about health, fitness or bodybuilding is “now that you’ve built this body, or regained your health, what do you do for fun?”
When I was 475 pounds, you’d never find me in an amusement park ride.
Now that I’ve dropped the weight and have spent the time creating a fit and healthy body, I like to use it. I like adventure, travel and doing fun things I would not have done before. Things I may have missed out on if I had in fact died at 21 years old.
I skydive.
I white water raft.
I’ve climbed to the top of the tallest mountain in Africa, Kilimanjaro at 5895 metres.
I’ve trekked the Himalaya’s and gone to Mt Everest Base camp.
I’ve snorkeled in various oceans around the globe,
I’ve bungee jumped 6 times (to date).
I’ve hiked the west coast trail.
I like to challenge myself and enjoy adrenelin in a safe manor. I post pictures and video of my adventures here on the blog and when asked why, it’s because I like to be an example to others what is truly possible if you want to go after it.
Check out my list of 100 things about me for more statistics and points of interest. If you’re missing out on fun, travel, adventure, sports, recreation or anything else because of your weight, then lets do something about it together!
About Formerfatguy.com Site Layout
as for the site layout, it’s changed over the years. First hard coded with microsoft notepad, I then began to use MS Interdev and switched it from .html pages to Active Server Pages using include files. Still Web 1.0 when everything on the web was 1.0. In 2004, I added a blogger blog to the back end of it publishing blog posts to a very obscure url https://www.formerfatguy.com/weblog/blogger.asp (I had no idea where blogging was going to go, or how naming the blog page the way I did was going to affect anything). The self hosted Blogger blog at least allowed the use of comments, taking me a little bit to web 2.0. Front page of FFG was still static, 1.0.
Then after running a few wordpress blogs, I decided to turn Formerfatguy.com into a WordPress blog. A little tricky given that Active Server Pages (ASP) and WordPress PHP dont mix well together. One is Microsoft and the other Apache. After moving through 3 hosts, I was finally able to find one that would blend them together so I could run them both. And so here we are.
Being fully Web 2.0 on the new wordpress platform, with the old website behind the scenes, I’ve moved forward once again.
I’m here to answer your questions. So leave a comment, ask away.
If you want to take immediate action on your weight, if that’s why you’re here, begin by getting Fat Loss Fundamentals. It’s your starting point and practically assures your success.
At the very least, subscribe to my monthly natural weight loss newsletter and get your copy of the report “How I Lost 300 pounds” and how you can start with the 7 strategies I outline there. The same ones that got me started.
Contacting Me
I read my email.
I’m not always able to respond, but most times I do. Sometimes, emails get lost in the shuffle, or I get to it a few weeks or months later. I often don’t check email for a week or 10 days when I’m focused on projects or traveling.
I also recommend you have a look in the community section where you’ll find various discussions going on and where you can take part in the challenges. Might be something about food in there you’ve never heard about before, or something that inspires you to get your body moving. It’s called talk for a reason
A few last items of interest (if you’ve made it this far):
1. A list of 100 Things About Me
2. You can contact me the easiest through my contact form
3. You can also follow me on twitter or find me on facebook
Oh, and before you sign up for the newsletter, be advised that I occasionally say “shit” or “holy shit”, and sometimes use the words “crap” and “holy crap”. I am quite spiritual, but don’t subscribe to any particular ideology. I dont go to church, the whole world is my church. As for politics, I’m proudly Canadian, but the world is my country. Also, I dont believe any government has our best interests at heart. They don’t give a shit about us, and we have to take care of ourselves (see, I’ve already used the word shit).