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Being half the boy he used to be has never felt so good.
17 year old video game lover Taylor LeBaron one day found himself over weight and unhappy. Using what he already knew, LaBaron created his own video game, “Ultimate Fitness Game” to help him shed the pounds.
“It has the same aspects of a video game,” the 17-year-old LeBaron told Meredith Vieira live on TODAY Jan. 14. “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.”
How did this help the Georgia boy lose more than 150 pounds?
The “money” LeBaron speaks of is actually calories. He found that “making money” rather than cutting calories made it “easier to keep track of and more fun and engaging.” LeBaron calculated how much money (calories) he had to spend each day and made his way through his real life “video game” careful not to run out of money. If he wanted to purchase a cookie, for example, it would cost him 200 points/calories/dollars. He could earn more cash by exercising.
Over the course of three years, LeBaron steadily and consistently lost weight, while having fun challenging himself.
More specifics of his video game style diet are laid out in “Cutting Myself in Half: 150 Pounds Lost One Byte at a Time,” LeBaron’s new book, which chronicles his transformation from a 297 pound 14 year old to fit 145 pound role model.
The journey wasn’t as easy as it sounds. LeBaron was teased relentlessly in school for his weight, and the taunting remains with him until this day. Taylor says of the day he knew he was in trouble, “I stepped on the scale one day, and the numbers flew up to 297 pounds. I had no idea — I was expecting something like 230. I knew I had to do something. It was a struggle for me to walk to my mailbox and back.”
The approach, and his book, is meant for overweight teens, but says it works for anyone, even his mother and grandmother who have both lost weight playing the game. Click here to read an excerpt from LeBaron’s book.
