A few years ago, if you were to look up the definition of "commitment" in the dictionary, you most likely wouldn't have seen a picture of Mehrbod Mohammadi. The Cal State alum and DJ/music producer was at his heaviest weight ever and saw no reason to change his food addict lifestyle.
Fast forward a bit ahead in the story, past Mehrbod's time on The Biggest Loser, and you'll find a rededicated man committed to losing and keeping the weight off. What led to the change? How did Mehrbod achieve his weight loss goals? 6 Pack Fitness sat down with Mohammadi and talked about his experience on The Biggest Loser, his reasons for losing the weight and how he lost his excess weight.
What was the deciding factor for you to want to change your life? What made you make you finally lose the weight?
I was about 510 pounds and I got really severe sleep apnea. One night my girlfriend at the time taped me while I was sleeping and she freaked out. The next morning she's like "I don't think this is normal. You stop breathing in the middle of the night." I told her I was probably just having a bad dream. So the next time it happened she taped it and showed it to me. When she showed it to me, it freaked me out to the point where I was like "I don't want to die."
The next morning I got up and I went to the doctor and asked him if I could get gastric bypass. They told me that they can give me gastric but things changed and the way it works now is that I would have to do a program for like three months. Once I did that program I will then qualify. I had to lose 20% of my actual weight. I was ready to do anything at this point.
So I was on it for about a month and a half, almost two months and I lost almost 70 pounds. That's when I got a call from the show and that they wanted to interview me. I ended up walking off the show and I didn't get the gastric bypass. I ended up just doing it on my own and got down to 230 pounds.
What was your thought process when deciding to do or not do The Biggest Loser?
My mindset was I am willing to do anything to lose the weight because I didn't just want to die. When you're facing death, it's a completely different mindset. At one point you have to have a rock hit your head and wake you up. My wakeup call was when I would stop breathing for 45 seconds at a time, each night.
Was there any tentativeness on your part to make such a big life change on national television?
Being filmed was kind of annoying at some points but it came with a personal trainer, Chris Powell, so it ended up being pretty good. I actually really liked it, I really enjoyed it. I loved Chris so much€¦ He is such a passionate guy.
At that time, I didn't actually care about anything else. I just wanted to utilize him as much as I could and learn as much as I can. I was actually happy to have that. The part of the show that I did not like is that you have to talk about your private life and you have to be able to put that on camera.
Despite that part, I am so grateful for the show. The things that I learned from the show and the people I got to meet were great. I made some lifetime friends with people that were on the show. I would say 90% positive and 10% negative. The only 10% negative is what I signed up for which is to have my life portrayed and who I am and my family bared on national television. To be honest, I can't ask for a better family than the one I have. They were so supportive and so, so amazing. I was one of the lucky ones.
What would you say is the biggest take away from your experience on the show? Whether it is a life lesson or has to do with actually losing weight?
One thing in my life I was never able to do is lose the weight and to hit my goal. I would always set goals like I am going to get down to 230 pounds and I would get down to like 380 or something. This show taught me that anything is possible if you just put your mind to it and the discipline to it. I am almost 100% sure that if you put your mind to anything you can end up accomplishing it.
In part two of our Fitness Feature with Mehrbod Mohammadi, our conversation turns to his experience with his yo-yoing weight, how he finally kicked his bad habits and his new outlook on life. Stay tuned!
