Why Your Weight Loss Doesn't Have to Look Like Anyone Else's

A physician who once weighed 306 pounds lost 125 of them and has kept them off for years. Today he treats obesity full time, and he's the first to say his story shouldn't be your rulebook.

Why This Story Matters

Most of us have seen a dramatic before-and-after photo and quietly measured ourselves against it. If he could do it, why can't I? That question carries a lot of shame, and it's usually built on a false assumption: that the same effort should produce the same result in every body.

In September 2026, Dr. Kevin Gendreau, an obesity medicine physician, wrote a candid essay for Medscape about his own 125-pound weight loss. What makes it worth your time isn't the number on the scale. It's that he spends most of the piece explaining why his success shouldn't be treated as a template for anyone else.

Read his full essay on Medscape →

Where He Started, and What He Changed

At 27, Dr. Gendreau was a resident physician treating patients for the same conditions listed on his own chart. The weight had built up over a decade of grief eating after his father's cancer diagnosis, plus the late nights, call schedules, and board exams of medical training. His starting point:

• Weight: 306 lb at 5'9" (BMI 45.2)
• Blood sugar: A1c of 8.7%, in the type 2 diabetes range
• Blood pressure: 165/110
• Other issues: triglycerides over 300, fatty liver, and severe sleep apnea requiring a CPAP machine every night

The turning point came in 2016, when his sister Rachel was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer at 31. She passed away the following year. That August, he cut out added sugar and ultraprocessed food, built his meals around protein and fiber, walked 10,000+ steps a day, and eventually settled into a 16:8 eating schedule (all meals within an 8-hour window).

Eighteen months later, he weighed 181 lb. His A1c dropped to 5.1%, his blood pressure and cholesterol returned to normal, his fatty liver resolved, and the CPAP machine went into a closet, where it has stayed ever since.

The Same Effort Doesn't Buy the Same Result

Dr. Gendreau has now treated about 3,000 patients, and every few weeks one of them follows his low-carb approach more faithfully than he ever did, loses a fraction of the weight, and then apologizes to him for it. The research helps explain why that happens:

• The “right” diet is less predictable than we think. In the DIETFITS trial, a healthy low-fat diet and a healthy low-carb diet produced similar weight loss at 12 months, and neither genetics nor baseline insulin levels predicted who would do better on which.
• Hormones change the math. Women with PCOS (now also called PMOS) have roughly 27% lower insulin sensitivity on average. Data from the SWAN study show fat gain speeds up during the menopause transition while muscle declines, a shift a bathroom scale can easily hide.
• Genes play a big role. Twin and family studies estimate that 40 to 70% of the variation in BMI is inherited.

Add sleep apnea, certain medications (steroids, insulin, some antidepressants), night shifts, or pregnancy, and the picture gets more complicated still. None of these show up on a food log, but all of them affect how your body responds.

Reaching Your Goal Is Only Halfway

Most weight-loss plans are built around getting the weight off. Far fewer plan for what comes next, and that's where many people get caught off guard. Weight regain isn't a willpower problem. It's the body doing exactly what it's designed to do.

• Hunger doesn't reset when you hit your goal. In one study, a full year after diet-driven weight loss, the hormone that signals fullness was still lower, the hormone that drives hunger was still higher, and people still reported feeling hungrier.
• Regain is the norm, not the exception. Across 29 long-term studies, more than half of lost weight returned within 2 years, and over 80% within 5 years.
• The fundamentals keep working. Dr. Gendreau notes that protein, fiber, movement, and sleep matter whether someone is on medication, has had surgery, both, or neither.

What One Story Can and Can't Prove

• One person is not a study. Dr. Gendreau describes himself as “a data point who survived to be interviewed.” Keeping the weight off for years without medication is far better than the typical result of lifestyle changes alone.
• He had some built-in advantages. By his own account, being young and male helped, and his body happened to respond well to cutting carbs. That's not true for everyone.
• The effort still counted. He tracked his food, walked after work, and pushed through cravings. Biology didn't decide whether that work mattered, but it did shape how much it paid off.
• Choices still matter. Habits aren't pointless. They just may not be enough for every body on their own, and needing more help isn't a character flaw.

What You Can Actually Do

• Schedule your maintenance check-ins now. Put follow-up visits on the calendar before you reach your goal, and keep them after you get there.
• Build the foundation anyway. Protein, fiber, minimally processed food, less added sugar, daily movement, and good sleep help whether or not you ever use medication.
• Stop grading yourself against someone else's results. If you've followed a plan faithfully and the scale barely moved, that tells us something about your biology, not your willpower.
• Look beyond the scale. Ask about your A1c, blood pressure, cholesterol, liver health, and sleep. These can improve meaningfully even with modest weight loss.
• Needing more help isn't failing. Some people need more support than habits alone can give. If you've put in the work and your health markers aren't moving, talk with your doctor about the full range of options for your situation.

Whether you're just getting started or working to hold on to the progress you've made, come talk to us. We'll build a plan that covers both, including regular check-ins to keep you on track.

Partnering in your care,

Dr. Kenji Taylor, MD

Torii Health & Iris Dental and Medical