Breaking the Nutrition Barrier

Jassim Zayed weighed 198 kg (436 lb.) when his thoughts turned toward the macabre.

“I kept imaging myself dead and people carrying me to my final resting place. And I kept imagining them complaining about this heavy person that they need to carry. … I didn’t want that to be my legacy,” he explains.

He had gastric-bypass surgery, but when he started to quickly regain the weight he had lost, he knew he needed to change his lifestyle.

He tried personal training but soon grew bored, so a friend recommended he try CrossFit. He joined CrossFit T23 soon after.

“I loved everything about it,” he says.

But even after two years of hard training, he still struggled to lose weight.

“I think I was compensating by saying, you know, ‘I work hard so I can eat whatever I want,’” he says, remembering the moment when he knew he needed to dial in his nutrition.

He began working with Liam Holmes, a nutritionist who trains at CrossFit Shapesmiths.

With Holmes’ help, Zayed learned to follow the CrossFit prescription to eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.

The pounds began to fall away.

“Every time you eat, you have a chance to take yourself closer or further away from your goal,” Holmes says.