A man who ate Chick-fil-A every single day for a year has revealed what it did to his body... so you never have to.
We all know that fast food should be enjoyed in moderation, but what's the worst that can happen if you over indulge?
Well, one man has carried out an experiment so the rest of us can learn and probably never do it ourselves.
Tom Carroll, a 34-year-old digital content producer for a Boston radio station, decided to commit to one very specific order every single day. And he stuck to it - with only a few breaks for travel - for an entire year.
His journey, which he shared in a deeply personal essay titled Chick-fil-A Saved My Life, began after a wake-up call in July 2023 during a wedding in Syracuse, New York.
Weighing in at 360 pounds, Tom wrote: “I had never seen it so high,” adding, “I never would have known, because that was the first time I had stepped on a scale since the fall of 2019.”
His reaction was one of stunned disbelief. “I was numb with disbelief.”
The wedding photos were another blow - he said he “looked bad” in many of them, and between the too-tight clothes and sweating “as if I had just gone bobbing for apples,” something had to change.
He had also been experiencing chest pains, but a past experience with a doctor’s visit in 2019 kept him from going back. Instead, Tom decided to take matters into his own hands.
His first steps were minor: cutting out sodas, late-night food runs, and random snacking. But the rollercoaster of success and setbacks was real.
He noticed a pattern between his drinking habits, hangovers, and food binges. His diet, he admitted, would go “on, off, on off, on, off.”
“There was no rhyme or reason to any of it,” he explained. “When the '360' would flash in my head, I would order a salad with no croutons.”
Then came what he calls his “day of reckoning.” It was Black Friday 2023, and Tom was digging into Thanksgiving leftovers when the chest pains returned hard.
That moment marked a turning point. He quit alcohol cold turkey and discovered what would become his new food obsession: Chick-fil-A’s Spicy Southwest Salad with grilled chicken.
“After years of dieting here and there, always finding myself ‘relapsing’ out of sheer boredom from the mundane lifestyle of cutting out fun foods, I had found something that checked all the boxes,” he wrote. “Not only was this salad delicious, it felt like a real treat while also being healthy.”
From that point on, he was all in. Tom made daily trips to his local Chick-fil-A in South Attleboro, often buying two salads at once - one for the current day, one for the next.
The results were dramatic. By December 11, 2023, he had dropped to 298 pounds. By July 2024, he hit 234. And as of December 12, 2024, he weighed in at 228 pounds.
Now, with more than 130 pounds lost, Tom says he wishes he’d started sooner.
“I am filled with regret for not being selfish and choosing myself earlier than I did,” he admitted.
He ended his story with a powerful message to others who may be stuck where he once was.
“Just because you think you’re the life of the party, doesn’t mean the party is going to stop without you,” he wrote.
“Give yourself the opportunity to be the life of the party for a very long time. You won't regret it. I promise.”