Our Story

My name is Michael Cecchin, and I created the The Fat Loss Authority in the winter of 2008 to help people looking to get back in control of their body and their lives.  In 2010, through a fateful meeting at a conference in Washington, I met Alex Miller.  Alex’s own struggle and victory over his weight prompted me to invite him onboard as Co-Owner of TheFatLossAuthority.com.

Here are our personal stories…

Michael’s Story:

Prior to 2008, my life looked like this; I sat in an office all day, answering emails, making phone calls, and managing those around me. I would usually have a cream cheese bagel for breakfast, the biggest sub-sandwich I could find for lunch, and then a huge dinner. After dinner I would be so stuffed I would just plop myself on the couch and that would be my day.

I remember looking in the mirror one day and thinking, what happened to the athletic guy from university? Where did all of this extra ‘me’ come from?

{Mike then…}

It was not until I experienced another shift in my life that I realized it was time to take my body back. I had no idea where to start. I was completely uneducated on nutrition and exercise and I thought to get back into shape I would have to starve myself and go to the gym seven days a week, this was very daunting. But after further examining my own inner motivations and reasons for WHY I wanted to get into shape it gave me the mental power and motivation to look for answers.

So, I began running.  Every morning I got onto my treadmill whether I liked it or not, and I would jog until I couldn’t jog any more.  This started with 2 minute jogs (haha, seriously) and eventually I worked my way up to 40 minutes at a time.  And at the same time I started eating less of the empty calorie foods that I already knew I should not have been eating. Instead, I focused on the healthy foods I liked.  Fruit smoothies. Tuna sandwiches, and a whole lot of stir-fry.  I had to get my eating under control first before I could start trying new foods. This might not work for everyone, but it did for me.

During my first two months, still making time for myself to eat ice cream, chocolate, and go out for a drink with my friends was very important to me.  But I never overdid it like I did before.  So though my fat loss progress could have been faster, I wanted to make sure my new lifestyle didn’t totally end my old lifestyle.

Sure, I may have not liked my weight, but I still enjoyed the rest of my life.

My goal, was to keep all of the things I already enjoyed in life, and make them better with my new body.   I quickly learned that the difference between 5 pieces of pizza and 1 piece, or 3 scoops of ice cream and 1 is just the math.  Those extra portions didn’t make any more happy than smaller ones did and never felt lethargic and run down after my meals anymore.  This was a huge A-HA! moment for me.

As I started to see the fat melt away consistently every week it gave me even more motivation to eat within my limits because of the very real fear that I had of being overweight again.  And that fear, even now, helps to keep me smart with my food choices and always looking for ways to be more active.

TheFatLossAuthority.com is my way to “pay it forward” to everyone else that doesn’t like what the mirror says every morning and are ready to make a change. Losing nearly 30lbs might not seem like that much, but for me, it was life-changing.  And believe me, it will be the most amazing gift you’ve ever given yourself…. and whoever else you choose to show your new body to.  :)

{…and Now!}

Alex’s Story…

Before the age of 22 (2007), I was “chubby” and even though I regularly played numerous sports and kept an active lifestyle I still couldn’t get anywhere near my  goal weight and it was always on my mind.  To be honest,  I was extremely self-conscious about it.

{Alex in 2006}

Back at middle school and later on at University, while my friends seemed to eat and drink whatever they wanted and get all the attention from girls I thought I would always be destined to be the “chubby one” , and this really bothered me.  As vain as it sounds, I longed to get a six pack and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t even remotely get a 2 pack.  I always had closer to a keg, and it drove me crazy.

I thought I understood weight loss, exercise and food intake…and therefore it had to be “my genes” that let me down. I actually convinced myself that I couldn’t lose more weight because of my slow metabolism and my bad genes. The fact was…I hugely over complicated the whole process of losing weight and got so distracted by the ever-increasing “noise” of the weight loss industry.

When looking to lose weight and get the six pack I had always wanted, I remember going online and searching , “how to lose weight”, haha, what a joke.  I was bombarded with everything from pills to cleanses to surgeries and all of them seemed too good to be true (or simply ridiculous) so I dismissed them right away. In hindsight, I was lucky as it probably saved me thousands of dollars.

I started doing my own research into what was working and what wasn’t.  And so I started to simply “cut down” on eating, not so much the types of foods I was eating but “HOW MUCH” I was eating.  Of course, this meant that my intake of carbohydrates dropped dramatically as this amounts to such a large percentage of our daily diets. Once I looked at what I was eating and what I could do without, extra helpings of potatoes, pizza etc were the first to go.  And if i ever did have them, it was in drastically smaller portions.

{Alex 2008 }

With this method in place I started losing weight, but when I stopped losing, I realize that something HAD to change.  So I literally stopped going for long runs, or getting on the cross-trainer for 45 minutes everyday and instead I increased the intensity of my exercise, and by a lot; I did this because I had read a lot about the benefits of interval training and more importantly….mixing it up and full body training.

As I increased my workout intensity by doing sprints and more full bodyweight exercises with shorter rest periods, the pounds seemed to melt away faster and faster everyday. I also spent ¼ of the time exercising which is awesome for most people, right?

{Alex today.}

I can say now, it was one of the happiest times of my life.  Knowing that the effort I was putting into exercising and eating less was producing the results I wanted was life-changing for me. And yes, eating less, takes an incredible amount of effort at the beginning.  But once you are used to eating the amount your body is supposed to eat, it’s the easiest thing. Plus, there are so many ways to eat less and remain full. I can’t remember the last time I went to bed hungry, or even remotely so. It’s really back to the basics… like eating more protein and high fiber foods (because they keep you full) vs eating high calorie junk food or gallons of sugary fruit juices and sodas that leave you hungry soon after.

Take a look around our site for plenty of delicious and sensible food choices

Anyways, when I met Mike in Washington, we seemed to be almost at the same point with our fitness goals.  We had both lost the weight we wanted and we were both ultra confident and looking for a way to help other people that need to overcome the same problems, and so when Mike asked me if I would be interested in running TheFatLossAuthority.com with him, it was an easy decision.

Now (2012) with our brand new site, we are both excited to share with you the new vision of the next step for TFLA.

  If you have any questions or want to help us grow the site with whatever means you have to offer, please contact us.

We’re always looking for amazing new members to add to our team and help more and more people achieve the body they’ve wanted their entire lives.  Just like Mike and I have…