Be Wary of Your Wiggle Room
It’ll Get You Every Time.
I know this pattern like an old shortcut I shouldn’t take anymore.
A few days of momentum. The scale nods back, “Nicely done.”
I smile, loosen the shoulders, and the whisper arrives:
You’ve earned a little wiggle room…
And just like that, the thing I wanted most, progress, starts leaking out the side door I left cracked open.
Nothing dramatic happens. No “cheat week.” Just a handful of earned allowances, tiny, reasonable, defendable. The kind we tell ourselves are no big deal. The kind we don’t even count because we were so good earlier.
But what’s most secret is most common: wiggle room is where results go to stall.
Not because the foods are evil or the treats are forbidden. But because unplanned permission is a slippery slope, especially for those of us with a long, creative history of negotiating with ourselves.
We don’t usually say, “I’m abandoning my plan.”
We say, “I’m adjusting.”
Or, “I’ve got this.”
Or the classic, “I’ll tighten things up tomorrow.”
Wiggle room is sneaky because it wears reasonable clothing.
I hit my steps, so I can eyeball dinner.
The scale moved, so I’ve earned dessert.
This is a special night, so the rules don’t apply.
None of those sentences are crimes. But together, they create a fog. And in that fog, boundaries blur. When boundaries blur, averages drift. When averages drift, outcomes change, even if nothing feels “off the rails.”
Wiggle room isn’t one big choice. It’s ten 5% choices that cancel your 50% effort.
The Hidden Cost of “Earning It”
The truth is, wiggle room doesn’t show up when we’re struggling, it shows up when we’re succeeding.
It’s the mental math of momentum:
“I’ve done great; I deserve this.”
And it makes sense. Progress feels like permission. The problem isn’t the treat, it’s the timing.
Because when permission sneaks in unplanned, it starts rewriting the system that made the progress possible.
It’s like taking the guardrails off halfway up the mountain, right when you’re finally climbing steady.
The Check-In That Tells the Truth
Here’s what keeps me honest: body composition check-ins.
Weight alone is noisy; body comp is a signal.
Water bounces. Muscle trends slowly. Fat creeps.
Those numbers don’t judge, they teach.
When I “check in,” I’m not asking, Am I good or bad?
I’m asking, What is my body showing me today?
And when I share those check-ins publicly, when hundreds, thousands, and eventually millions can see the reality I see, my wiggle room shrinks to the size it always should have been: a conscious choice, not a default habit.
When Wiggle Room Was Eliminated
During my time on The Biggest Loser Ranch, we lived in a world where every possible piece of wiggle room was removed.
We didn’t have to go to work.
We didn’t juggle stress, kids, commutes, or calendars.
We didn’t drive past fast food on the way home or open cupboards full of snacks whispering our names.
We had quality food, great calories, counted carefully.
We walked constantly. We trained for hours.
We slept deeply because our bodies were spent and our minds were clear.
And, of course, we had one very real motivator: the fear of elimination.
Each week, the lowest number on the scale meant going home.
That combination, structure, accountability, limited temptation, and constant feedback, created the perfect storm for success.
But here’s the truth most of us had to learn the hard way:
When we went home, wiggle room came back.
It was waiting for us in drive-thru lanes, in old routines, in late-night boredom, in the belief that we could “handle it now.”
And for many alumni, the call of wiggle room stayed away for a while… until it didn’t.
For some, it came back quietly.
For others, it came roaring back, stronger than before.
That’s not failure. That’s human nature.
The environment changed, but the mindset had to evolve too, and that’s where most of the real work begins.
Two Things Can Be True
Let’s hold two truths at once:
1️⃣ Flexibility is healthy. Life has celebrations. Food is joy. Memories matter.
2️⃣ Vague flexibility is costly. If it isn’t planned, it accumulates interest.
The goal isn’t to outlaw treats. It’s to decide them in the light, not bargain for them in the dark.
From Wiggle Room to What’s Next
After all those years of learning where wiggle room hides, and how structure, data, and accountability change everything, I realized I needed a new experiment.
One that wasn’t about chasing perfection, but about understanding what really happens inside the body when you trade fat for muscle, water for balance, and confusion for clarity.
That’s when My Last 100 LBS was born.
How My Last 100 LBS Began
Because everyone I know has a version of those “last” LBS they’d love to lose, and never see again.
For me, it was both literal and symbolic.
At our 10-year Biggest Loser finale reunion, I stepped on a scale at Dr. Robert Huizenga, a.k.a.,“Dr. H” office weighing in at 247 pounds. That number carried meaning, not shame.
I’d maintained most of my weight loss from the show, down -181 pounds from my heaviest, and I was proud of that.
But I also wanted data, not just memories. So, “Dr. H” did my third DEXA scan.
He studied the results, smiled, and said something I’ll never forget:
“Jay, you’ve done what very few people have ever done, you kept it off. Now let’s fine-tune it. Keep the same scale weight but trade -15 pounds of fat for +15 pounds of muscle.”
That prescription planted a seed.
A few months later, while continuing my one-on-one body composition consultations at VaynerMedia, I couldn’t stop thinking about Drew Manning’s Fit2Fat2Fit experiment, how he intentionally gained and lost weight to better understand what his clients experienced.
I thought, What if I did my own version? But instead of just using a regular scale… I used a medical-grade body composition scale to share the planned weight increase, weight maintenance, and then body re-composition?
So, I did.
But my version wasn’t about proving a point. It was about deepening understanding.
I knew from thousands of consultations that most people quit not because they lack willpower, but because they misunderstand what’s really happening inside their bodies.
The number on the scale confuses them. The mirror lies. But the body composition scale tells the truth, about water, muscle, fat, and what’s actually changing.
That’s where the idea for @my_last_100_lbs was born.
It represents both the final 100 LBS I ever plan to lose, and the end of the confusion, frustration, and self-blame that so often comes with it.
So, on September 20, 2025, I officially launched My Last 100 LBS.
Not as a show. Not as a stunt. But as a reality share, a public journey in persistence, transparency, and metabolism-in-action.
I couldn’t think of a better way to show people how fascinating, interesting, and yes unpredictable it is to see what shows up every day that to share with everyone in real time, with insights and explanations vs, trying to get people read a book about it.
So that’s why each day, I share my results on Instagram (@my_last_100_lbs), and every Friday, my LOSE THE WEIGHT… GAIN THE WORLD newsletter includes a weekly recap, what I call The Tale of My Scale.
There’s much more to the genesis of @my_last_100_lb story, but for now, I hope this glimpse helps you see what’s possible when you stop judging your body by a single number and start learning what it’s really made of.
Because The Tale of My Scale isn’t just my story, it’s a reflection of what’s possible for you, too.
The Meaning Behind… Lose The Weight… Gain The World
So where does LOSE THE WEIGHT… GAIN THE WORLD, come in?
It’s the umbrella. The canopy over all of the roots I’ve been exploring over the past 15+ years.
GOING BEYOND THE SCALE was the disruptor.
IT’S THE SCALE, NOT YOU was the reframe.
MY LAST 100 LBS is the embodiment.
I needed something simple. Something people would immediately recognize and respond to.
Here’s the paradox: I resisted the word “lose.”
Many thought leaders encourage people to say “release” instead of “lose.”
And there’s truth to that.
However, culturally, when someone says, “I lost weight,” we perceive it as a positive statement.
So, I leaned in...
LOSE THE WEIGHT… is literal. Fat down. Muscle preserved or gained. But it’s also metaphorical. Lose the WAIT. Lose the shame. Lose the stories that never belonged to you.
GAIN THE WORLD… is the promise. A bigger life. More energy. New experiences. Inner peace. Freedom to move, to play, to show up. To live fully in your body and beyond it. That’s what ties it all together.
What’s In It For You?
For over six years at VaynerMedia, I watched hundreds of associates step on my InBody body composition scale—not because they had to, but because they were curious.
They came back month after month, year after year. Not to lose weight, but to gain understanding.
That’s the shift.
When you stop obsessing over one number and start seeing the bigger picture, you gain more than data; you gain direction. You gain awareness. You gain agency. You gain the possibility. You gain yourself.
And that’s what’s in it for you.
Because this mantra, Lose the Weight… Gain the World, isn’t just about fat, muscle, or the scale. It’s about perspective.
Whatever plan, program, or protocol you’re living into, keto, intermittent fasting, strength training, walking more, taking medication, or simply trying again after failing—what you measure determines what you make possible.
If you measure the wrong thing, you’ll quit.
If you measure the right thing, you’ll stay the course.
Because your story doesn’t end with the scale, it begins when you finally understand what it’s been trying to show you all along.
Start here…
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