Jeffry Hannah weighed 315 lbs when he graduated high school. Then he spent the next nine years trying to lose it. He tried keto. Carnivore. Paleo. He even tried what he calls the "hospital food diet" — canned everything. Some of the diets worked for a bit, but nothing stuck because nothing felt like a sustainable lifestyle. And while he was trying to fix his body, Jeff felt like his mind was falling apart. He hit rock bottom mentally, lost the ability to mask his autism and ADHD, and spent about two years struggling with suicidal thoughts. Imagine this: Seven medications a day, and still not feeling okay. The thing that eventually changed Jeff's relationship with food wasn't another diet. It was finding out that people with ADHD and autism burn through vitamins and minerals faster than the average person — and that what he'd been eating was making his mental health worse, not just his weight. He landed on a modified Mediterranean approach. More grains, beans, lentils, vegetables he didn't really want to eat, fatty fish a couple times a week. Plus some Little Debbie's double decker fudge rounds, because he's still a person. Today, Jeff is off all seven medications. Then, halfway through our conversation, Jeff and I did something different. We ranked squat variations — every major quad exercise — from S tier to F tier. Back squat, front squat, Zercher, goblet, hack squat, Smith machine, safety squat bar, leg press, pendulum squat — all of it. We disagreed on a bunch of them. Because the thing about ranking exercises is that the same one can be S tier for one person and C tier for someone else. It depends on your body, your strength, and what you can actually feel. Here's the rule I use: if you can't get to failure on a quad exercise in under 20 reps, it's probably not building your legs. It's cardio. In this episode, we get into: How Jeffry went from 315 lbs to off his meds entirelyThe link between ADHD, autism, and how fast you burn through nutrientsWhy keto and carnivore "worked" but didn't actually fix anythingHis modified Mediterranean diet (Little Debbie's included)Why beans + a grain beats expensive protein every timeThe 9 years he wasted listening to influencers instead of the scienceMechanical tension vs. time under tension — what actually builds muscleWhy the stretched position is where most of the growth happensRest-pause sets and the time I wrecked my hamstrings for daysWhy the hack squat is undefeatedThe Zercher debate — practical strength or unnecessary? Find Jeffry on Instagram: @geek_body__nutrition_417
