At age 51, Chris Cornell weighed 278 pounds and had resigned himself to what many obesity medicine experts told him—that sustainable lifestyle-driven weight loss wasn’t realistic. Today, at age 60, he is living proof that those limits can be broken.

“Lifestyle change isn’t sustainable,” Cornell recalled hearing from doctors in a post on X. “It wasn’t just disheartening. It was paralyzing.”

For years, Cornell believed the grim statistics about long-term weight loss failure. But in January 2018, one practitioner quietly handed him a book—no pressure, no promises—simply suggesting a new way of thinking about food, health, and mindset. That small act sparked a transformation.

Since then, Cornell has lost 80 pounds—29% of his total body weight—and rebuilt his life around strength, endurance, and resilience. Now at 60, he has run a full marathon and several half marathons, bench presses over 300 pounds, and can perform 12 pull-ups with good form.

He credits his turnaround to rejecting the limits others placed on him. “This happened because I stopped accepting other people’s limits as my truth,” he wrote. “If someone tells you it’s not sustainable, consider the possibility that they just haven’t seen what’s possible.”

Chris S. Cornell is a health and fitness advocate who transformed his life by losing 80 pounds through a low-carb lifestyle. After overcoming head-and-neck cancer in 2018, he became a marathon runner, accredited Metabolic Health Practitioner, and Primal Master Health Coach. He shares his journey and strategies through his platform, The Biggest Comeback.