Patrick Turcotte – Flo

Pat Turcotte doesn’t start his first meal until after noon. He doesn’t eat past 9 p.m. And in that 9-ish hour window, he aims to hit his macronutrients – and stay in a caloric deficit.

The approach is called intermittent fasting, and while it isn’t for everyone, Pat has found success with it. Combined with his regular work-out routine, he has dropped more than 45 lbs since graduating university in 2015.

“I knew that I had gained a bunch of weight,” says Pat, the founder of Flo, a social platform that helps users discover, learn, and implement positive lifestyle changes. When he finally stepped on a scale, “I saw a number that scared me. And so I decided it was time to change.”

But where to start? Pat didn’t know. He took a few lessons with a Crossfit trainer, but the cost became a barrier. He tried weight-lifting, but didn’t understand the impact his nutrition habits were having on his body – so ultimately, the effort in the gym was wasted.

YouTube influencers were a big help. Through searches and video recommendations, he found an approach that he calls his “optimal approach.”

“Now I’m eating a salad for lunch, and then vegetables, rice and a big protein shake for dinner,” he says. But it didn’t happen overnight. “Your regime should evolve over time as you learn about your options, understand what you can handle, what makes sense, what feels good.”

Here’s what made this approach different for Pat: once he started, it genuinely made sense to him. And he was motivated to keep going.

Everybody is different, and that natural fit plays a big role, he says. “I think any approach can work . . . you have to find the one that you genuinely enjoy, the one that resonates, which is likely the one you consider sustainable over the long term. Otherwise it’s going to be extremely difficult to achieve and maintain results.”

Next came the realization that others were in the same boat – lost in a sea of information with no map to navigate through it.

“When I started doing research and talking to people about their perspective on health, I realized how misguided we all are,” Pat says. “The information exists for all of us to deal with our challenges and achieve our goals, but there’s a reason we’re approaching a 50 per cent obesity rate. The information is partial, conflicting and unstructured, and that’s something most people can’t or aren’t willing to deal with.”

But it all comes back to the individual. “Whether you’re making a substantial change in your physique or general health – or whatever your goal is – it’s impossible until you change your psychology to understand that this is a lifetime journey,” says Pat.

Though we’re talking long-term change, it shouldn’t take a lifetime to figure out. “Every single human being who has access to technology should know exactly what they should be doing on a day-by-day, month-by-month and year-by-year basis to optimize how they deal with their issue or achieve their goal. Anything else is unacceptable,” says Pat.

“And that’s why I’m creating Flo.”