From 400 to 170, Bill’s Incredible Weight Loss Story
July 14, 2025
Bill’s Incredible Weight Loss Story: 404 pounds was Bill's weight when he had gastric bypass surgery. 15 years later, he maintains his weight at 170 pounds and knows what it takes to be successful in this life-changing journey. As a consultant, Bill traveled for 35 years, often on the road 200 days a year. During his career, he went from 170 to 404 pounds prior to his surgery. One year down the road from surgery, Bill weighed in at 202, half his pre-surgery weight. Within another year, Bill hit his personal goal of 170 pounds and has maintained it.
When I interviewed Bill for my podcast, he said that he did a personal assessment and asked himself a lot of the really hard questions before he decided on bariatric surgery. Questions such as “How did I get here?” “What's going on with me?” “What do I need to deal with?” I asked Bill about his most important insight. Bill shared, “When I was considering weight loss surgery and very close to a final decision, a friend named Gene, who had been through it before, said, ‘Bill, you're going to get a lot of advice. I'm not going to tell you anything except this. When you're wondering, why did I do this? I want you to walk over in front of a mirror, look at yourself, and say, Bill, I did this for you, and you're worth it. You will win at this game.” Continually throughout the years, Bill has repeated to himself that bariatric surgery was for him and he is worth it.
Bill’s Incredible Weight Loss Story
When asked, "What's your secret?” Bill says that there is no secret, but there is a mandatory requirement. Your mind has to be in the game in a positive way with positive self-talk versus negative self-talk, where you consistently beat yourself up. As Bill said, “The main thing is to educate yourself and understand that your surgeon's awesome, the program's awesome, and they've got great advice to help you out. But ultimately, you are the one that's going to do it or not do it. So find your reason why. Establish the values that you're going to use to lead a life that will get you to where you want to be. Then elect to follow them.” Words of success to live by that work.
Another of Bill’s secrets to success is that he found an activity that he loves. He started bike riding right after surgery as his form of exercise since he had enjoyed it as a young man, and these rides soon became 65 miles or more. He was named the 2017 male “bari” athlete of the year. As a way to give back to others, Bill founded the Tour of Hope, an annual bike ride that raises money to issue weight loss surgery grants.
Nutrition And Bill's Weight Loss Story
Nutrition also plays a major role in Bill’s success story. With the small pouch, he has a limit of what he can load into his system at any one time. So if he plans to ride 65 miles that day, he has learned that he needs three times his normal calories. And he knows he can only put it in at a slow pace. So he makes a day-long plan that looks something like this: wake up at five in the morning even though not riding until seven, as he needs a couple of hours to get in enough food/calories. When he takes off and starts riding, he’s burning a lot of calories and can't bottom out. And he’s on a bike, so he can't bring a refrigerator with him.
His ride requires him to do a lot of detailed thinking about how many calories he needs and try to keep ratios of protein high but still include the carbs needed for energy output.
Bill told me that you get in a habit for these rides, but you don't want to eat the way you would for a 75-mile ride if you're not riding that day or you're only doing 20 miles. It means you need to be detailed, but at the same time, Bill has learned that he no longer needs to sit down and plan it out as he did in the beginning. He has learned the right proportion for what he is doing that day. As Bill said to me, “The secret is to learn all you can and incorporate it in your life.”
No Real Regrets
I asked Bill if he had any regrets. He said, “I have no real regrets. I did have a small band of skin taken off my stomach. I would have waited on that and done it later because I have some back fat. If you are going to have skin removal surgery, I would tell you, I know you're happy. I know you're excited. You've lost the weight. You want to go out on the beach. You don't like that little flap of skin. I get it. But in addition to losing weight, as you move, your body's going to change size-wise, even if your weight doesn't. You build muscle mass. You get less water retention, things like that.”
In Bill’s book called Simple, Not Easy: Escaping the Prison of Obesity, he shares how bariatric surgery is a tool he chose to use and how he used it for a successful journey. Bill details how he came up with his plan. A bariatric lifestyle is a lifelong event, but Bill refers to it as a life-wide event. Life-wide means you have to realize you have this bariatric lifestyle whether at work, with family on vacation, at a wedding reception, or out to lunch with your boss. Every single thing that can happen in life will have an element of what your bariatric lifestyle is going to be affected by. So it's every touchpoint of life, life-wide.
As an example, remember the power of visualization and the power of role-playing. If you're pre-op, go into a restaurant and pretend you just had surgery. What are you going to order? How are you going to eat it? Role-play it and visualize it. And it will help you because most of this journey is about reacting to events that are coming at you non-stop, life-wide. It's your reaction that's going to matter most.
Bariatric dietitian Dr. Susan Mitchell is host of the podcast Bariatric Surgery Success.
 | ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bariatric dietitian Dr. Susan Mitchell is host of the podcast Bariatric Surgery Success. Selected as one of the Best 35 Dietitian Podcasts, Bariatric Surgery Success was chosen from thousands of podcasts on the web ranked by traffic, social media followers, domain authority, and freshness. With a focus on nutrition before and after bariatric surgery, I help you eat for success while you conquer cravings, emotional eating, and weight regain. Read more articles by Susan! |
