Jeff Macht is the featured contestant on the September 9 episode of Extreme Weight Loss, along with his high school-age daughter Juliana.
Before going on the show, Jeff weighed 423 pounds at 55 years old.
Juliana weighed 265 pounds.
Chris and Heide Powell challenged them to lose over 33 pounds together.
Though the specific totals of how much weight they lost haven’t been revealed yet, Jeff’s wife Michelle Macht told the Denver Post that six members of the family–including Juliana’s brother and sister–have lost more than 530 pounds.
Jeff was working as the director of education for the Independent Electrical Contractors Rocky Mountain before being cast on Extreme Loss.
He was so overweight that he was considering bariatric surgery, but it’s an option the family is grateful didn’t end up happening.
“If he’d gotten the gastric sleeve, I’m not sure that Juliana would still be here with us,” Michelle said, referring to Juliana’s suicidal tendencies due to being bullied.
“This whole thing has been about truth in transformation,” Jeff said.
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“When people ask me what’s important, I tell them, ‘What’s most important is examining my heart, followed by exercise and eating healthy.’ I got that epiphany on what I call my wonderful, terrible Tuesday.”
A big turning point came when Jeff lied to Chris and Heidi about completing his workout that Tuesday, but they knew he was lying.
“They knew! And that made me stop and think” about who really loses when he skips a workout, he said.
At that point in the program, I’d only lost six or seven pounds after the Phase 1 boot camp. Once I faced the truth, then the pounds started falling off. And it changed the way things taste. Last week, we were at a comedy place, and I’d asked for something without salt. But I couldn’t eat it. Everyone else thought it was wonderful. But to me it only tasted like sodium.”
Even after being on the show, the Machts workout at least two hours a day, including running.
