Men's Health March 6, 2026 0 Comments

How I Conquered the Battle Between a Demanding Job and Losing 55 Pounds—The Strategy No One Told You About

Ever wonder what it’s like to haul giant crane parts on an offshore oil rig while battling your own body to get back into shape? Meet Joey Helsoot, a 35-year-old Dutch crane operator whose grueling job whips him around the globe—but leaves him stuck with lousy food options and a sinking health score. Despite lugging heavy gear all day, Joey found himself out of breath, overweight, and mentally drained. So, what does a guy do when the weight of the world—and his own body—is holding him back? He fights back, hard. From drowning in doubt and depression to smashing through challenges with a one-of-a-kind workout and nutrition game plan tailored for life on the rig, Joey’s story isn’t just about pounds lost—it’s about the grit it takes to win yourself back. Ready to get inspired and rethink your own limits? LEARN MORE

6 min read

Joey Helsoot, 35, a native of the Netherlands, understands the value of hard work. He’s a heavy lift crane operator who spends months at a time on an offshore oil rig. Joey’s work took him to exciting places all over the world. It also limited his access to healthy food options. Despite the manual labor, his weight was up and his health wasn’t good. Most of all, he felt bad about himself. Here’s what he did to get to a place where he was happy physically and mentally.

WHEN I WAS overweight, I weighed around 227 pounds with 30 percent body fat. At the time, my BMI was around 30, my VO2 max was around 35.5. My blood pressure was considered high. None of those numbers were good. I felt very unhealthy.

I couldn’t perform physical tasks well. I couldn’t participate in sports. Running was something I could only do for a couple minutes. Even walking up the stairs had me out of breath. My job also requires me to carry heavy equipment and I could not complete those physically demanding tasks. I would give up fast and take a lot of breaks and had no drive at all to push myself.

Mentally I was very unhappy, insecure, and isolated. It was so bad I experienced depression. It was a vicious cycle where I coped by continuing to eat whatever I felt like eating. I didn’t know how many calories I was eating, or the nutritional profile of the food.

I had tried to lose weight before. I’d done weight training for years, but I didn’t keep up with it. There were periods when I was active and then I gave up again. I had no structure to my workout routine—because I had no idea what I was doing. I tried to use fitness apps and look up exercises online to guide me. None of it really helped.

My mindset was also not in order and I struggled mentally as well. The combination of traveling for work, heavy alcohol consumption, and not paying attention to nutrition led to a lot of problems. I did try to reach out to personal trainers but they focused on exercise and not nutrition.

My lightbulb moment was when I took a serious look at myself and where I was standing in life. My lifestyle was destructive and unhealthy. I asked myself a lot of questions. Do I see myself as a good future husband and father to my future children? Do I lead by example to others? Can others rely on me mentally and physically? A lot of questions were answered with a no. So I decided to reach out for help and turn my life around. Most of all, I told myself that today, my bad habits were no longer going to be an option. Change starts within yourself.

My Job Made Working Out A Huge Challenge

My job isn’t the typical 9 to 5. I work 5 weeks on the rig, 5 weeks off in locations like the Dead Sea, the Caribbean, and Africa. Making it to the gym after work is challenging. Still, I tried. I went to Ultimate Performance gym in Amsterdam and met with a personal trainer, Maicka Bamba. I explained the realities of my unconventional job schedule to Maicka. Thankfully, she tailored a unique plan for me. The plan was a combination of training schedules, nutrition, daily activities and recovery. Even within my work circumstances, Maicka was able to make sure I’d be eating and exercising properly on the rig. Talk about not letting obstacles get in the way!

I started working out at Ultimate Performance before I left for my next work rotation. At first, we did German Body Composition training 3 times a week combined with getting in a daily amount of steps. We started with around 12,000 steps. I was not used to this at all as I usually stayed home all day when not working. I only went outside for groceries or visiting friends.

The trainers at Ultimate Performance pushed me to my limits. I found the training tough at first. Still, I kept coming back. Maicka and I reviewed my progress and body composition frequently, and made adjustments based on the results. When I started to see and feel progress, I was motivated to push myself even more!

We eventually reached a point of 15,000 steps to speed up the weight loss process. Then we focused on more intensity in movement. That allowed me to go back down to 10,000 to 12,000 steps. Implementing this amount of steps benefited me physically and mentally. It also made me feel less isolated at home and gave me more mental clarity.

How I Continued Getting In Shape On A Oil Rig

Soon enough, I had to get back to work. This was always a challenge for my diet because I had no control of what foods were served.

On the rig, certain foods are always available: white rice, potatoes, vegetables, boiled eggs, fish, beef, chicken, and fruits.

Maicka was aware of this and made a diet plan considering my circumstances. Breakfast could be white rice, boiled eggs, tomato, and fruits. Lunch could be white rice/potatoes, vegetables, and a protein like fish, beef, or chicken. Dinner was also mostly white rice/potatoes, vegetables, fish, beef, or chicken again. I also picked the foods that contained the least amount of sauces and oils.

For snacks it was mostly fruits. I stayed away from ultra-processed foods and snacks that contained lots of sugars.

I also used a scale to measure my portion sizes at every meal. I did this in front of the other workers at the dining table and it raised a lot of comments and questions. The guys also made fun of me at first.

I wasn’t bothered. I knew it was because they didn’t understand. Plus, the process worked for me. So I didn’t care what other people thought.

The results spoke for themselves. As I started to lose weight, the same workers who were laughing at me were now asking me for advice so THEY could lose weight. I’m happy I could inspire them!

Along with carefully watching my diet, I took full advantage of the gym and sauna on the vessel. I made sure to take photos and videos of the gym when I arrived back at my job so that Maicka could adapt my training schedule based on what was available to me. This included my daily step count goal.

During my time on the vessel the goal was around 10,000 steps. I had to spread my walks during the day. I took advantage of any time available to go for a quick walk. Scheduling my day ahead helped create structure to reach my target on a daily basis.

Since I work 12 hours a day for 5 weeks on the rig, recovery time from workouts and getting good sleep were harder to achieve than when I’m at home. However, I kept a positive mindset, and that helped me move past obstacles and stick to the plan laid out for me.

My Hard Work Continued On Land

When I returned to shore, I went back to working out at Ultimate Performance. The trainers continued to push me hard!

One year later, my weight dropped to 172.6 pounds with 9.08 percent body fat.

Joey Helsoot/Ultimate Performance

After photo of Joey.

My VO2 max, lung function, BMI, and blood pressure all dramatically improved. At that time, my BMI was 22.3. My final VO2 max was 47 and my blood pressure went to a level that was considered healthy.

I’ve made my friends and family proud. They even got inspired to get healthy after seeing my transformation. They know I worked hard and can see the difference in my confidence and energy levels.

I’m not done. I’m still getting stronger and always looking to build on my physique. There’s always room for improvement even though I’m very happy with how I handle physically demanding situations. I also found I enjoy running, so I want to adopt that as part of my normal exercise.

Joey Helsoot/Ultimate Performance

Joey continues to work hard at the gym.

My advice for anyone starting their own health journey is to reach out to a professional trainer to get you on the right track. Maicka taught me a lot, and was able to adjust my program to fit my unusual circumstances. So I say, trust your trainer’s plan and commit to it.

Jocelyn Solis-Moreira, MS is the associate health & fitness for Men’s Health and has previously written for CNN, Scientific American, Popular Science, and National Geographic before joining the brand. When she’s not working, she’s doing circus arts or working towards the perfect pull-up.