Fastic user Don Gunton loses over 100 pounds to save his life

In a new episode of the Feel Good Podcast with Fastic founder Phillip Wayman, 48-year-old Fastic app user Don Gunton shared how he lost over 100 lbs with the help of intermittent fasting and the Fastic app to save his life.

Don, a painter by trait, who loves outdoor activities and lives with his wife and son in New Glasgow Nova Scotia, Canada had been overweight all of his life. His being overweight was culminating in a life threatening health condition in 2020. Don’s weight had gotten to over 276 lbs, while he came in at just 5’7”. After having had several large scale hernia operations, Don was diagnosed with another two hernias that needed immediate surgery. The surgeon in charge gave Don the choice to lose 50 lbs within three months for the operation to have a chance of being successful, or to likely suffer an early death.

Don knew that it was almost impossible to lose so much weight in such a short amount of time, considering his age, and what he would later describe as “an addiction to eating.” From desperation and encouraged by his faith in God, he started on his personal life or death mission to shed as many pounds as he could.

Within one week he had enrolled in the local gym and simply stopped eating, only supplying his body with nutrients by drinking juices. He knew this would get him some success, but he quickly realised that this wasn’t sustainable for him. He was miserable at all times and needed to find a better way to lose weight and still be able to eat, enjoy life, function at work and as a husband, father and grandfather.

By pure coincidence he was introduced to the idea of intermittent fasting at his gym. He went online and found the Fastic app as a first choice to guide him on his fasting journey. What immediately convinced him of intermittent fasting was to be able to eat without cutting food groups and to also stay part of social events, that for most of us is an important element of sharing food with family and friends. Don went on a strict eating regime allowing him to eat three meals between 1PM and 4:30PM and having one full day of fasting once a week.

Reducing his daily eating window was not the only change Don made. Realizing that only eating for a few hours a day was enough to nourish his body, Don started questioning his eating habits and what it meant for him emotionally. It enabled him to differentiate hunger from the desire to eat. In addition he stopped eating processed foods wherever he could and replacing it with whole foods, a lot of lean proteins and drinking a lot of water.

The results were astonishing. In just the short amount of time from July to October 2020 he had lost 86 lbs, and 1 month later when it was time for his surgery, he was down over 100 lbs averaging a weight loss of five to seven pounds per week.

Now, a little over two years later, Don is a new man. Not only as a surprise to long term clients, colleagues, friends and family, but sometimes even to himself. One of the many funny encounters with his new self he describes as follows: “I'd be out shopping someplace and I'd walk by a full body mirror and I'd be like, somebody walking too close to me and you know, that's me.”

Don states he has gained a little weight back since his all time maximum weight loss. But as he says, this is mostly due to his daily exercises, and that he has gained a lot of muscle. Since his early start of intermittent fasting Don has opened his eating window now starting around 8:30 AM and ending 4:40 PM and losing weight is no further a goal for him. Nonetheless he sticks with an intermittent fasting routine as it helps him to eat consciously, sleep well and feel so much more energized. Don says that he has learned to develop a healthy relationship with food and is now able to enjoy meals with his family without feeling guilty.

This story is an incredible demonstration of the power of dedication, hard work and commitment to our health and the transformational power of healthy intermittent fasting.

To see the full podcast Interview with Don Gunton click on the video below.