After a Conversation With His Doctor, This Texas Man Started Running—and Dropped 91 Pounds – runnersworld.com

Name: Chase Kimbrough
Age: 36
Occupation: Regional Sales Manager
Hometown: Fort Worth, Texas

Start Weight: 296 pounds
End Weight: 202 pounds
Time Running: Three years

My weight-loss journey began when I weighed 296 pounds in April 2017. During a routine visit, my doctor expressed concern: “You’re one holiday meal away from 300 pounds,” he said—and he was right. He told me, with a caring tone, if I continued down the path of obesity, it would be a path I’d regret filled with congestive heart failure, diabetes, and other health issues.

To this day, I’m grateful he had that conversation with me, and I knew I had to do something. I had a hard time fitting exercise into my schedule—I had a desk job during the day, and my wife and I had two children at the time (we now have three). On top of that, I had a poor diet—lots of overeating and sweets.

A month or so after that visit, I mentioned to a coworker that my doctor said I needed to lose weight. He, an avid runner, invited me out to join him during our lunch break for a run. I think I said yes because it just seemed like a good way to just start doing something. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose.

On that run, I had no idea what I was doing. I dressed in an old cotton t-shirt, basketball shorts, and some four-year-old shoes that had little cushioning.

My coworker showed me a couple of landmarks and their distances to use as a guide. I started off okay, but at the quarter-mile mark, I was miserable. My calves were on fire, and I was out of breath. I thought there was no way I could this. I had never felt this out of shape.

I walked to the half-mile mark and decided to start running again. I made it about another quarter mile then walked the rest of the way back. I waited for my coworker to return. He asked how it went, and I told him it was terrible. He laughed and told me that I had lapped someone on the couch. That’s exactly what I needed to hear—and the next day, I went running again.

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A couple of weeks later, I was running Monday through Friday, even in the Texas heat. Over the ensuing months, I hit milestones of a mile without walking, then three miles, and then a half marathon after nine months.

There were many ups and downs to get to that point. I remember getting pretty upset and thinking why I had to work so hard to lose weight. The key was to give it time.

As I went farther, the weight came off; I lost about 25 to 30 pounds. But then I started cleaning my diet up, and that was a game-changer. I started getting my portion sizes under control and eating more vegetables, fruits, lean protein, and good carbs, while cutting out bad carbs, high-fat foods, and sweets. The pounds started falling off.

By January 2018, I had lost 80 pounds, and I weighed 215. Since then, I have gotten down to 205 and maintained that weight for about the past year. I’ve gone from 3XL shirts to large and sometimes medium. I also went from size 42 pants to size 36.

There’s still work to do. I want lose another 10 pounds to get to 100 pounds lost, and I’m also thinking about a marathon—a distance I never even imagined when I took my first running steps in 2017 with my coworker.

Down so much weight, I have so much more energy. I have more confidence in myself and I don’t get winded when I play with my kids in the backyard. I also feel proud that I was able to lose so much weight. I can also walk into a store and find clothing that actually fits.

My advice to anyone wanting to go on a similar journey is don’t wait until tomorrow or New Year’s Day. Start now. Don’t worry about what other people think of you. The running community is so amazing and encouraging regardless of skill level. It doesn’t matter if you run 12-minute miles, five-minute miles, 5Ks, or ultramarathons. We are all in this together, and remember, you’re lapping everyone on the couch.

Also, if you have a bad workout day, miss a workout, or eat a bad meal, don’t feel ashamed. It happens to all of us. Brush it off, and get back on the wagon.

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