In his 29 years as a C6-7 quad, Lee Ohnesorge has heeded a simple saying when it comes to managing his weight: If the pants are tight, something is not right.

He started to get that uncomfortable sensation eight years ago, when he moved to a power chair after two decades of manual chair use. Without the regular workout provided by pushing, Ohnesorge, 57, could feel — and see — the pounds piling on. Soon he was almost 50 pounds over his normal weight. “I was picking up a quad gut, and I was scared I wouldn’t be able to lose it,” he says. “I didn’t want to have to buy new clothes, and I didn’t want pressure sores. I didn’t like it.”

Nick LiBassi, 51, found himself with a similar problem on the 20th anniversary of his T10 injury. “I had pretty much let myself go,” he says. “I was gaining weight, and I had more and more self-doubt that I could lose weight. I wasn’t happy with the way I was looking. And more importantly, I wasn’t happy with the way I was feeling.”

Jamie Goodwin felt like she had tried everything to keep the pounds off in her 27 years as a T4-5 paraplegic and needed a new approach. “I can’t live in fear that I’m going to outgrow my wheelchair,” she says. “I can’t function that way.”

The battle of the belly (we don’t discriminate between quad and para bellies at NEW MOBILITY) is a frustrating and sometimes scary reality for many wheelchair users. The prospect of shedding unwanted pounds with reduced exercise options can be overwhelming. The knowledge that excess weight makes transfers and care more difficult and can lead to a loss of independence only magnifies the stakes.

There are no miracle cures, and the bellies won’t disappear overnight — but Ohnesorge, LiBassi and Goodwin prove you can win the battle with the right mix of routines and resolve.

A Motivating Mantra

It took a few years for LiBassi to fully commit to losing weight, but when he reached 270 pounds in 2016, he knew he couldn’t wait any longer. Previous attempts at trendy diets had convinced him to go a different route. “I wanted to change my habits and try to make it a long, sustainable thing,” he says. “I wanted to change my lifestyle, with both exercise and what I ate. I told myself that the weight didn’t go on overnight, and it’s not going to come off overnight.”

He settled on a flexible low carb approach, limiting his intake to 20-25 grams of carbs a day, but making an exception for vegetables. He built a routine of a morning protein shake, midday almond packs and protein bars, and a dinner built around a protein and a vegetable. Giving up some of the complex and refined carbs proved manageable, but LiBassi’s Italian roots presented two major hurdles: bread and pasta. “We’re Italian, man — we eat bread with every meal!” he says. Whenever a food or meal tempted his resolve, he found strength in his mantra: “Nothing tastes as good as I feel being thin.”

Instead of diving into exercise with the same zeal, LiBassi purposefully played it slow. “I didn’t want to jeopardize my focus on trying to be better about my nutrition, and I knew if I worked out, I wouldn’t be able to stay as focused.” With that in mind, he held off on working out for the first five or six weeks.

When he delved in, he focused on cardio instead of weight training. Between his handcycle, stationary bike and regular pushing, he worked his way up to exercising six times a week.

Results came quickly. Within three months LiBassi had lost 30 pounds. By the time his first year rolled around, he faced an unexpected new problem: He had lost too much weight. He was down 100 pounds to 165. “I was too thin,” says LiBassi. “I didn’t like it. I didn’t have energy, and my body wasn’t happy.”

LiBassi eventually found his body’s comfort zone in the 180–185-pound range and has maintained a healthy approach that works for him. A stint with CrossFit helped him get in even better shape, but the time commitment wasn’t sustainable so he settled into an exercise routine that was. Food-wise, he still stays away from bread, rice, potatoes and “all those really heavy carbs.” But he has learned to make exceptions, like enjoying a few fries from his girlfriend’s plate on a date. “I can enjoy a little without feeling deprived,” he says.

The Calorie Counter

As soon as Lee Ohnesorge felt his pants tightening up, he was ready to start looking for a weight loss solution. With his shoulders “fried” after 20 years of manual chair use, his daily exercise had dwindled to range of motion stretches. Without an easy way to burn calories, he knew losing weight would require cutting them. He was ready to make sacrifices but had his limits. Among them: rocky road ice cream. “It’s just awesome ice cream,” he says.

Ohnesorge started by cutting out some easy calorie culprits, like anything with high fructose corn syrup and sodas. When the weight stayed on, he started looking at how many calories he was consuming. “I realized that I was eating anywhere between 1,800 and 2,500 calories a day,” he says. “I didn’t realize how much I was eating.”

His eyes opened, Ohnesorge became an expert in counting calories, keeping a dietician’s eye on how much he was putting in his body. He focused on eating healthy, natural foods like chicken and spinach and built an eating schedule around two meals a day. “It really took discipline at first because you’re counting, and then you kind of get sick of counting,” he says. “You’re going, ‘Damn, I can’t even eat that.’”

He targeted 1,500 calories per day initially. “It took me a long time of lowering my calories to find the right amount,” he says. He learned what worked to maintain his energy levels and avoid low blood sugar through trial and error.

After a couple of years, Ohnesorge settled around 1,000 to 1,200 calories per day. He allows himself the occasional splurge, whether it’s a beer or two with friends or some of his favorite ice cream, as long as he’s been otherwise vigilant. “Now I’ve got a good two inches underneath my belt,” he says.

Looking back on his early calorie counting days, Ohnesorge wishes he hadn’t been so tough on himself about missing his targeted calorie counts. While his approach is not for everyone, he believes in it. “It might take a month or two to get your diet down,” he says, “but once you do get it down, then it’s cool because you can do your ice cream.”

A Fresh Start

If the battle of the bulge gave out commendations, Jamie Goodwin would be a highly decorated commander for her 20 years of service. Ever since she tacked on 50 pounds the year she married, she has been pushing for a victory that has narrowly eluded her multiple times.

She just missed becoming the first wheelchair user cast on NBC’s weight-loss reality show, The Biggest Loser, and made it deep into casting for another weight loss show before being cut. She later lost 50 pounds through a regimen of calorie counting and committed exercise, only to regain the weight after suffering a wrist injury that impacted her ability to push her chair. After three children and 20 years, the former 120-pound cheerleader weighed 247 pounds.

She hoped the skills and habits she’d developed would help her re-lose the weight once she healed, but when her family moved to an 11-acre farm on the side of a mountain, Goodwin lost access to easy recreation and the structure on which she had relied. The added weight complicated transfers and took a toll on her self-image.

The turning point came in 2015 when Goodwin hosted a retreat for three other female wheelchair users. One of the women had bariatric surgery and raved about how it had improved her life. There are several different bariatric surgery types that involve making changes to your digestive system to help you lose weight. Goodwin started doing research and eventually scheduled a sleeve gastrectomy. The surgery removes around 80% of the stomach, with the idea that limiting the size of the stomach restricts the amount of food you can consume. “It’s not something that I did lightly because it does have risks,” she says. “For me, the need to lose weight was more than the risks of the surgery.”

She had surgery in December 2020 and has lost 80 pounds. As a para, Goodwin didn’t experience any pain after the surgery, but she did lose all of her hair a few months later—a common side effect caused by nutrient deficiency post-surgery (it grows back). Recipients take vitamins for the rest of their lives. Still, Goodwin says the physical side effects have taken a back seat to the emotional ones.

“You have to emotionally look at your plate and think, I can’t eat as much as I used to,” she says. “It is a mindset … In the back of my head, I know that a lot of people gain the weight back. It’s a constant reminder of the good food choices I have to make.”

She still has to be hypervigilant about what and how she eats. She always eats protein first, consumes few starches and stays away from sugar. She intentionally chews her food and paces her bites and drinks.
Goodwin knows many people look at bariatric surgery as an easy way out. “It’s really not,” she says. “It sucks at the beginning because you have to do a liquid diet, and then a soft food diet. Watching everybody around you crunching solid food is hard. The first month is very hard. But after that, it becomes easier.”

Goodwin points out that she didn’t reach her goal weight, but she has kept the weight off and feels infinitely better. “It’s the best — I feel great,” she says. “I got a new car, and I’m able to lift myself into it. Being able to lift yourself is a big thing in the disability world. That’s freedom.”