Yeah, it sounds good on the surface. But you see enough of this and you learn to bitterly read between the lines. The first red flag comes from the fact that he claims to have fluctuated between fit and fat for a while. Fit seldom happens by accident in our culture. Worse, he does have the same "curvy" thing. His whole tough guy bit is the male fat version.  Next, the fact that he's putting it on his depression. Sure, depression can contribute to behaviors associated with weight gain. Similar thing with medications used to treat it. But it's more how he phrased it. When people put their negative actions on something out of their full control than they've also given themselves an out. Where a lapse isn't their fault, it's the depression or the meds or whatever that 'made' them overeat. And then they an't just skip those calories later because eating disorders/depression trigger/whatever.  Then there's just his age. H  7ffa  e's needed to make the change for decades. If someone hasn't done it by 40 I'm pretty skeptical it'll happen at all. Past early 20s people seldom make those changes. Every year I see people like him begin to make those changes. In almost every place I've lived. It's a predictable thing. They show up, they might even get active encouragement. But they give up pretty quick. New years and the start of summer it happens like clockwork.  And finally, there's his reasons for doing it. He's not getting the body he's talking about by starting this at 40. At least not without a fair amount of surgery to go with it. Someone in the obese range might see their skin bounce back to some extent if they're half his age. But assuming by "overweight" he means upper obese, he's going to have a whole lot of fat sacs hiding any muscle gain. And once that realization hits it's almost certain he'll give up.