For nation music star Nate Smith, it wasn’t one massive second that made him understand he wanted to alter his life. It was one million little ones.
“It was actually each day,” says Smith. “I didn’t like the best way I regarded. I didn’t like the best way I felt. I didn’t like how I used to be out of breath on a regular basis and the way I’d get dizzy simply tying my footwear. I felt like I used to be slowly killing myself, and I didn’t know what to do about it.”
By the summer time of 2024, the singer-songwriter was seeing his music profession catch hearth, racking up blockbuster hits like “Whiskey on You” and “World on Fireplace” and heading out on the highway as a part of Morgan Wallen’s record-breaking One Night time at a Time tour.
However away from the crowds, it was a unique story. He was overeating, consuming an excessive amount of and sinking into despair. “It was tough,” he recollects. “I knew I used to be hurting myself, however I couldn’t cease. It was like taking a look at this mountain and questioning, ‘How do I stand up there?’ I didn’t even know the place to start out.”
Smith, 39, is questioning no extra. In November 2024 he kicked off a plan to get wholesome by dialing again his consuming, upping his protein consumption and reducing his every day calorie consumption to 2,100. In simply 4 months he misplaced 55 lbs., down from 280 to 225.
“I’m not out of the woods but, however rattling if I ain’t completely satisfied how far I’ve come!” he stated in a March 23 Instagram publish revealing his transformation.
Even higher, he says, is that he’s discovered his weight-loss journey has motivated his followers to get wholesome too.
“Individuals come as much as me at meet and greets and say, ‘Dude, I’m doing the identical factor, and I’m down 30 lbs.,’ ” he says. “It’s been actually enjoyable and completely significant to have the ability to encourage individuals.”
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Weight has at all times been a wrestle for Smith, who grew up in California’s Butte County, north of Sacramento. “Whilst a child, I used to be slightly pudgy,” he says. Whereas his mother, Karen, a licensed nurse’s aide and aerobics/Zumba teacher, tried to get the household to eat wholesome, it was typically a shedding battle with Smith, his youthful brother Kyle and his dad, Alan, a lieutenant with the sheriff’s workplace. “My mother at all times labored out, and she or he and my sister Courtney had been at all times wholesome and match,” he says. “However my brother and I, we ate Ding Dongs or no matter we wished. There have been occasions once I was getting slightly thick and I’d strive a eating regimen, however I’d acquire it again. I used to be a yo-yo-er.”
After studying to play guitar at age 13, Smith began writing songs and acting at church providers. At 23, he moved to Nashville, the place he discovered some success as a songwriter for modern Christian artists like Royal Tailor. He additionally fell in love and obtained married, however when the wedding fell aside after two years, he moved again dwelling to California. “The divorce was exhausting,” he says. “I principally stop music. I didn’t wish to be there anymore.”
Which is how Smith got here to be working as a nurse’s aide at a hospital when the 2018 Camp Fireplace wildfire decimated his hometown of Paradise, Calif. His condo and his brother’s dwelling burned down, even his church burned down. “That’s what kind of modified every thing,” says Smith, “as a result of primarily I misplaced every thing I’ve ever owned.”
Rocked by the tragedy, Smith cowrote a tune, “One in every of These Days,” that envisioned the city’s eventual rebirth. Uploaded to social media, it shortly went viral, resulting in tv appearances, invites to carry out at profit live shows and in the end a report deal and a return to Nashville.
“The entire expertise made me understand that I may make music that might assist individuals,” says Smith. “It was freaking superb, and it simply impressed me.” However his return to the highlight additionally introduced with it a number of insecurity. “As an artist, we’re in entrance of individuals so much, doing movies and footage, and while you’re not feeling comfy in your pores and skin, it’s not a enjoyable place to be,” he says.
Alcohol and binge consuming grew to become his escapes — which solely made the scenario worse. “My mother and father would come to reveals and see me drunk and overeating and stuff, and so they’d be scared with the best way I used to be dwelling,” he says. “They had been fearful I’d have a coronary heart assault or a stroke.”
When he got here down with a extreme higher respiratory an infection within the fall of 2024, Smith noticed a possibility for a reset. “I knew I wanted to get some wholesome meals, or I wasn’t going to get higher,” he says. “So I threw out all of the unhealthy meals in the home and purchased some juices and fruit and issues to provide my physique some gas. Then I used to be like, ‘Effectively, heck, what if I simply form of maintain making an attempt to eat higher and possibly eat much less?’ ”
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As he recovered, Smith reduce on alcohol — “these are sneaky energy,” he says — and began making small modifications in his eating regimen. He switched out his Gatorades for sugar-free Gatorade Zeros and started ditching the buns when he had a burger or a sandwich. He additionally overhauled his morning Starbucks order, changing his beloved 390-calorie white mocha with a easy Americano with sugar-free vanilla and a splash of half-and-half. “That’s a reasonably low-calorie drink, and it tastes nice,” he says.
His greatest cheerleader was his brother Kyle, a former sheriff’s deputy turned social media persona who had undergone his personal weight-loss transformation, shedding 78 lbs. with a high-protein, low-calorie routine he created himself. (His @tastyshreds account has greater than 2 million followers on Instagram.)
“Kyle actually inspired me,” says Nate. “He stated simply begin with 2,100 energy a day, and attempt to eat 200 grams of protein, and that’s what obtained me right into a routine of being conscious of energy and what I’m consuming. So long as I’m consuming a number of protein, I’m feeling actually good, and it retains me full.”
It didn’t take lengthy to get outcomes. “All my garments began to suit higher, and other people began telling me, ‘Like, dude, half of you is gone!’ ”
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Smith insists he isn’t completed. He’d wish to lose one other 20 lbs., and he has plans to start power coaching to construct muscle mass and get rid of his love handles. He additionally admits that he nonetheless wants to include extra greens into his meals. However he permits himself some wiggle room, too.
“I don’t consider it as a eating regimen, as a result of if I do, I’m going to wish to break the eating regimen,” he says. “I additionally don’t wish to limit myself from the issues I wish to eat. If I wish to have a macaroni and cheese meal, I’m going to try this; it’s simply I can’t eat mac and cheese after which go drink a bunch of soda and have an ice cream bar after. I’m simply conscious of the energy in every thing.”
And for now he’s having fun with the advantages of his transformation. “I’m happier and extra assured,” says Smith. “It’s modified the best way I carry out onstage. I’ve much more power.”
Even higher have been the emotional results of the load loss.
“I believe that the bodily stuff has actually affected my psychological well being in a optimistic means,” he says. “It’s an idea I heard one million occasions: ‘You gotta love your self earlier than you’re keen on another person,’ nevertheless it’s kinda true. As a result of I’m not so insecure about myself, it’s helped me be extra current. And it’s modified the best way I can love individuals. I be at liberty.”