( CNN ) -- Fried chicken . Mashed potatoes . Collard greens . These were the foods Chris Ross grew up on in rural Kentucky . `` One of the earliest food memories I have is my grandfather making hamburgers ... my grandmother frying potatoes , '' he says . `` Of course , in those days , everything was fried in lard . '' Ross still enjoys those foods , despite having lost -- and kept off -- more than 100 pounds . He does n't make substitutions or skip the bun . His weight loss secret is n't really a secret at all . He simply eats less . Ross , the executive chef at Bristol Catering in Louisville , Kentucky , started gaining weight after high school while working in restaurants , first as a waiter , then as a cook . At the time , he was studying law enforcement in college , but in between classes , he came home to watch the Food Network . `` I just got consumed , '' he says . He did n't really notice that he had gained 20 or 30 pounds over his freshman year . He ignored the signs when his clothes stopped fitting . Later , when an overweight friend at work mentioned their similarities , he was confused . `` I never saw it , '' Ross says . `` It 's a weird realization when you 're gaining weight . You think , you 're getting older . Maybe it 's normal . '' Then in late 2004 , Ross stepped on a scale for the first time in years . The scale , which only went up to 300 pounds , refused to register his weight . That was bad . When he finally found another scale to tell him the truth , it was worse . The 6-foot-2-inch chef was 327 pounds . `` To realize that you 're not just obese , but morbidly obese , it was pretty tough on the mental psyche . '' Ross started looking at his daily habits a little closer . He switched from regular Coke to Coke Zero and lost 10 pounds over a couple months . Then he picked up a book -- `` French Women Do n't Get Fat '' by Mireille Guiliano -- that he saw Oprah Winfrey discussing on her show . As a chef , he 'd always had a love for Paris . If anything could motivate him , this was it . The book talked about eating smaller portions , drinking water and walking everywhere . So Ross started doing the same . He tried to drink eight glasses of water every day , and he made an effort to walk for at least an hour before or after work . Take upwave 's challenge : Drink more water ! The book 's tips helped him drop another 20 pounds . But it was n't enough . After reading about a New Orleans chef who had lost weight , Ross decided to conduct an experiment . For one day , he wrote everything that he tasted at his restaurant down on disposable spoons and tossed the spoons into a pan . At the end of the day , he tallied the calories . He had consumed more than 4,000 just from tasting his dishes . `` Breakfast , lunch , dinner in addition to that -- I was taking in 6,000 calories a day , '' Ross says . `` And not being an Olympic athlete , it was kind of hard to burn it off . '' Ross could n't stop tasting his food . So he started discreetly spitting out his tastes into the trash . From that point on , nothing could stop him . When he hit 250 pounds , he started jogging . When he lost 10 more pounds , he ran a 5K race . When he got down to 230 pounds , he proposed . Then he and his fiancee started taking a friend 's Zumba class . `` Man , the weight really started falling off then , '' he says . `` I 'm a 36-year-old white guy with no rhythm . It 's a fun exercise when you get over the fact that you feel stupid doing it . '' By the time the couple married in July 2011 , Ross weighed 190 pounds . `` I think the only way to really consistently lose weight and keep it off is to develop moderation and portion control , '' he says . `` You need to eat what you want to eat , just try to maintain control . '' With three kids and a growing catering company , the days of a 40-hour work week are long gone . Still , Ross makes time to run at least four days a week as he trains for the Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon on April 19 . His weight fluctuates . Some days , dinner is a McDonald 's double cheeseburger and kid-sized fries . He refuses to give up margarine , despite the FDA 's warnings about the health risks of partially hydrogenated oils . But overall , Ross has adopted the healthy lessons he learned in `` French Women Do n't Get Fat . '' More importantly he 's adopted the author 's attitude : . `` The key ? Not guilt or deprivation but learning to get the most from the things you most enjoy . ''
Louisville chef Chris Ross started gaining weight after high school . He realized he was taking in 4,000 calories a day just from tasting his food . After reading an inspirational book , Ross lost 130 pounds .