300-Pound Weight Loss All Started With 'The Walmart Diet'

When most people think about weight loss, they don’t think about Walmart. But what if we told you that one man began his journey to lose over 300 pounds with what some are calling the Walmart Diet? But it’s not what you think.

Pasquale “Pat” Brocco, 31, was called “Fat Pat” his entire life. But now, people call him “Possible Pat” on all his social media because of his incredible weight loss journey and his unique fitness plan that helped him lose more than 300 pounds. And many of you have been emailing us about featuring him because he’s such a motivation. He’s living proof that no matter how big you are, you CAN lose weight. And it all started with him walking to and from his local Walmart.

Years ago, a doctor warned Brocco that his weight, which was then 605 pounds, as well as his high blood pressure and high cholesterol, were extremely dangerous, according to ABC News. Brocco took a quick photo of himself after his appointment and realized just how big he had become.

“At 605 pounds I was in a dark hole, nothing motivated me,” says Pat. “Until the doctor spoke to me and said ‘Pat if you keep on going this route, you will die. That was it for me. That scared the hell out of me. Maybe that won’t motivate you because you’re not facing death, But your motivation doesn’t have to be that. Your motivation comes from anything you chose it to be. If it’s your wife, husband, kids, friends or simply wanting to feel better. At the end of the day, you need to find what’s going to push you that extra mile when you feel like giving up.”

Determined to make a change, Brocco decided that every time he was hungry, he would walk to the closest Walmart near his Avondale, Arizona home, which was one mile away, and then walk back home to eat. “You walk to Walmart three times a day, and you end up walking six miles,” Brocco said to ABC News. “It’s amazing because I never walked six miles in my life, and I was doing it every day.”

Walking can totally transform your body. No matter your current step count, increasing it is totally possible. Fitness experts recommend up to 15,000 steps per day, seven days a week, to lose weight. Then try to double it slowly. Unlike increasing your workouts overnight, doubling up your step count won’t stress your body or make you prone to injury.

Brocco changed his eating habits by loading up on healthy food—like vegetables, meat, sweet potatoes, steel-cut oatmeal, and quinoa—while finding other foods that were holding him back. “Once I figured out dairy was my downfall, I took it out of my diet, and instantly I started losing weight again,” he said.

“You may look at this transformation and say DAM! How did he do it?” explains Pat on his Instagram. “Everyone wants the secret to weight loss, everyone wants ‘the quickest way’. The truth is, it took me over 4 years. It took consistency of not only working out but to get out of bed every morning to do cardio, go home and eat clean whole foods, it took countless hours of prepping my meals for the day, working out. That’s something you don’t see here, what I want you guys to understand is that it’s going to take some time, maybe a month, 6 months, a year, 3 years but whatever your goal is remember why you started and stay to consistent.”