Talk about doing what you know.
17-year-old Taylor LeBaron created his own real life video game, “Ultimate Fitness Game,” to help him shed over 150 pounds, transforming him from a nearly 300 pound obese preteen to a 145 pound healthy living role model.
The video game loving teen made his own weight loss game, where he used “the same aspects of a video game.” LeBaron told Meredith Vieira live on TODAY, “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.”
The “money” he speaks of is actually calories. The goal of the game is to rack up the most money he can while navigating his house. Purchases drain his funds, such as a cookie, which would cost him 200 points/calories, and exercise allows him to earn more cash. Over the course of three years, LeBaron shed his weight steadily, while having fun.
There is no one-size-fits-all strategy to losing weight. LeBaron is wise beyond his years, and is the perfect example of the true to key to lasting successful weight loss — do what works for you. Some people do well with strict guidelines, some need flexibility. Some people can kill it in the gym, some need their calories to be the main focus. Mail order diets, low carb, no carb, cabbage soup, even simple magazine diet plans don’t work for everyone, and to truly find what will get you to your goals, you have to devise a system that fits with your schedule, your style and yhat works for you.
The specifics of Taylor LeBaron’s video game style diet are laid out in his new book, “Cutting Myself in Half: 150 Pounds Lost One Byte at a Time,” which chronicles his transformation.
