About me

My name is Brandon Burkman. I’m 40 years old (soon to be 41), I live in Katy, Texas, and I’ve been carrying too much weight for most of my adult life.

Not just the physical kind — though that’s real too. At my heaviest, I was over 570 pounds. In December 2023, I had gastric bypass surgery. I lost weight. Then I gained a lot of it back.

That’s the part nobody talks about.

This site exists because I got tired of pretending the story was cleaner than it is. The restart. The regain. The therapy. The 4 AM gym sessions when everything else in life feels like it’s on fire. All of it.

I’m married to my best friend, Melinda. We have four rescue dogs — Cali, Stella, Astro, and Socks — who I consider my kids. I’m a marketing professional by trade, a big thinker by nature, and an early riser by necessity.

I’m not a doctor. I’m not a fitness influencer. I don’t have a program to sell you.

I’m just a guy doing the work — the physical work, the mental work, the kind of work that doesn’t photograph well — and writing it down honestly as I go.

If that sounds like something worth reading, stick around.