“Just having that revelatory advice from Penn Medicine was such a huge asset for me.”
High School history teacher Robert DiMedio dramatically changed his lifestyle the moment he connected with the Penn Bariatric and Weight Loss Surgery Program. It wouldn't take long for it to change his entire life.
How much did it change? He went from being a bariatric surgery candidate to earning his certified personal trainer and nutrition coach license and helping other people through the process.
No surprise, a dramatic change such as that happened in a rather drastic fashion and it all started in a doctor's office.
"I went to see my pulmonologist, and he essentially told me that I was burning out a medical grade CPAP machine and I said, 'we'll just get the next size up,'" Robert said.
His doctor explained another machine wasn't the answer, pointing out that he was burning out the CPAP and, ultimately, it wouldn't be able to regulate his breathing. The doctor told him he needed to make changes in his life.
"So I was said, oh, you mean when I'm 50? And he said, no, you need to make immediate changes," Robert recalled. "And that was three years ago, the summer of 2019."
He dove right into it researching "how to lose weight fast." Eventually, he came upon bariatric surgery and learned all he could, which led him to his primary care physician. He shared with his doctor that he was considering bariatric surgery. Apparently, the doctor had the same idea year prior.
"He said I actually recommended this to you last year at your annual checkup, and you left the slip in my office. I still have it in your folder," Robert said. "He recommended Penn Medicine."
Meeting the Team
He met with the team at Dr. Alan Schuricht's office and they started the paperwork.
"The surgery was six months out but the bariatric team said, until then, I needed to start doing some basic behavior goals like chewing your food 25 times, tracking what you eat, and knowing how many steps you take in a day," he said. "If want this to work, I want to be a 100 percent in on it."
He might have been a bit more than 100 percent in.
He started tracking his steps. Dr. Schuricht's team suggested 10,000. He walked 15,000. He started tracking his food intake and through working with Penn's program, he went from 365 pounds in October to 315 pounds in March.
Everything was moving in the right direction. He received approval for surgery in March 2020, then the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down. He said he remained committed to doing everything as if he was going to get called for surgery tomorrow. As it turns out, his surgery was scheduled the day he hoped for, the first Monday of summer vacation which worked perfectly with his teaching career.
After Surgery
Three months later, he had his surgery and continued to follow the plan provided by Dr. Schuricht's team, eventually hitting his lowest weight of 210 pounds. The pre-surgery support continues to help him and he holds up a binder he has used since the beginning of the journey.
"I still have my bariatric bible and I keep it near my desk," he said. "I still use it today and refer to the things I highlighted during my first visit with the team. And I use it when I work with my coaching clients."
That first visit was a real eye opener. Dr. Schuricht's team shared with him that the process of changing his lifestyle could be overwhelming — to pick two or three goals. As someone who likes data and being on his phone, he decided tracking calories was a good place to start.
The data shocked him.
"I realized I was spending 8,000 calories on an NFL Sunday," he said. That's nearly three times the recommended intake for an adult male.
The simple action of tracking the calories hit home.
"I was able to see my own mistakes and I made my own adjustments," he said.
Robert did his own math and realized he would consume more calories during an NFL Sunday than he did the first two weeks after his surgery.
"Just having that revelatory advice from Penn Medicine was such a huge asset for me," he said.
Social Media Support Group
While he had achieved the initial goal of losing significant weight, he knew that the surgery would not be enough. He said tracking his steps allowed him to fall "back in love with movement. Food prep became a passion as well."
He lost the weight and was keeping it off with the help of Penn support groups (which he continued to participate in), healthy eating through consistent meal prep, and rekindled the love of movement. It was a drastic change in lifestyle and his life; the next step would change the lives of many others.
An avid social media user, he used Instagram to find men who had gone through a bariatric procedure, but he mostly found women. Eventually, he came across a post of a "shout out" to five men who undergone bariatric surgery. He reshared it and received many comments.
This led him to connect with a few other men who had gone through the process. He asked them to join him on Instagram Live with the goal of creating a Men Support Monday series, and for each participate to "share what it's like being a male bariatric patient."
To learn more about Rob's journey follow him on Instagram @myweightishistory.
If you'd like to learn more about the Penn Bariatric and Weight Loss Surgery Program, sign up for a free online information session.