Athletics have always been a big part of who I am. As a kid, I was very involved with football, baseball and wrestling. In fact, after high school I played Center Field for a semi-professional baseball league and had twenty football scholarship offers to colleges all over the nation. I ended up going to Northwestern in Illinois where I continued with both football and wrestling. At that time, I couldn't imagine not being involved with any type of physical activity.

After college I began my career in business, which for me meant traveling all over the world. I slowly drifted into a very sedentary lifestyle and I didn’t understand at the time what effect this lifestyle change was having on my body. Looking back, I can see how the dramatic change in my lifestyle affected my weight.

In January 2001, I weighed more than I ever had. I had reached 250 pounds and had 33% body fat. I was the new President of a fitness technology company that developed and marketed web enabled fitness monitoring devices and services, including the BC1 Body Composition Analyzer and CT1 Personal Calorie Tracker. I decided that it was about time that I practiced what I preached. I began wearing my CT1 Personal Calorie Tracker in January 2001 and began monitoring my body composition with the BC1 on a regular basis and I’ve been using both products faithfully ever since. Using these web-enabled devices allowed me to view my performance graphs and identify trends where my results were stored on my own personalized Stayhealthy web site. I now weigh 198 pounds and have 16.9% body fat. Even though I have worked hard and eaten right, I owe much of my success to the CT1, the BC1 and the integrated services from the Stayhealthy membership web site.

Without these products and services, I would have easily quit my weight loss program 20 days into it. I lost weight right off the bat, but when you’re carrying around in excess of 50 extra pounds, losing that first few is easy. The hard part came when I actually had to exert myself to burn calories above and beyond what I had become accustomed to. Perhaps what opened my eyes the most were the trending reports that I received from my BC1 readings. They were staggering. At first, yes, I was losing weight, but I was doing it all wrong! According to my BC1 results, I was losing muscle mass, not body fat. Something had to change. I knew I had to increase my muscle mass to a level where my body could start burning calories more effectively. I had to change my entire metabolic rate. I began Kung Fu and aerobic classes three days a week and lifted weights on the off days. In addition, I walked or jogged approximately two and a half miles every single day. I also knew that I would have to make a change in what I was eating and start eating healthy! I would have never been able to identify those negative trends and there is a good chance that I would have continued losing weight the wrong way, if I were on any other weight loss management program other than the Stayhealthy Weight Management Solution. Stayhealthy’s program helped to ensure proper continuance for safe and correct changes to my regimen for the best overall results.

Slowly, but surely, I watched the pounds drop off and my BC1 results began to look like the target model for effective weight loss. And even after a small weight gain, I could see my muscle mass steadily increasing, my body fat dropping, and my hydration level remaining consistent. This is when I understood that gaining weight can be good thing because I was gaining muscle mass and losing body fat as some of the pounds came back. Now, I don’t have to work quite so hard to keep the weight off. The increased muscle mass is helping me stay at a level where I feel fit and comfortable. I am still working toward my goal of 15% body fat and I don’t have too much further to go. It’s been a lot of hard work and at age 59, I really didn’t think that I could get my body back to the athletic state it once was. But I worked hard, and I did it. I have dropped 52 pounds, dropped from 33% body fat to 16.9% body fat, increased my flexibility, dropped 10 inches from my waist, increased inches in muscle around my biceps and thighs, and I feel great. The BC1 and CT1 were great motivational monitoring tools to keep me on track. The performance graphs helped me identify trends, and I must say that I am now a firm believer that the ability to identify trends is an essential part of any weight management program. The Stayhealthy Program motivated me to keep on going and not give up and it helped ensure that I lost weight the right way.

Duff Brace is president of Stayhealthy, Inc., the maker of the CT1 and BC1 in Monrovia, California. Duff is married and has two children, one in high school and one in college. In his spare time, he enjoys all measure of sports and classical music.

We will be monitoring Duff's progress and keeping you posted on this page. If you have questions for Duff about his experiences, email db@stayhealthy.com. If you have a story about your experiences with the CT1, please let us know!