Former Mr USA champion Nick Trigili has spoken candidly about the painful turning point that came after years of overeating, when his clothes ripped at a New Year’s Eve party.
Trigili won the prestigious Mr USA title in 2014 at age 25, after first falling in love with bodybuilding as a teenager while working at a gym. The victory, he says, came with an unexpected emotional crash that left him struggling to figure out what came next.
He has since rebuilt his routine and now works as a nutritionist and fitness coach in New York City, using the lessons from his own weight gain and recovery to guide other people trying to get healthier.
In 2017, Trigili said he hit a low point after gaining a significant amount of weight, with the moment his 5XL jeans and shirt tore serving as a harsh wake-up call about how far his life had drifted.
Only a few years earlier, he had achieved one of his biggest ambitions by winning Mr USA at just 25 years old, fulfilling a goal he had chased since discovering bodybuilding as a teenager while working at a gym.
But after reaching the milestone he had built his life around, he said the sense of purpose that had driven him disappeared, and his structured routine began to collapse.
“When I won, everything came to an end for me,” the 39-year-old explained. “That is the show I always wanted to win, and I achieved it by 25.
“It was a let-down when I won; I was like ‘what do I do now?’.
“Right after the show, that was my darkest moment – I felt lost.”
After stepping away from bodybuilding, his eating habits changed drastically. The disciplined meals that once centered on chicken and rice were replaced by takeaways, burgers, pizza, and restaurant food, and his weight eventually climbed to 260 pounds.
“When I left bodybuilding, I thought f*** this; I am eating whatever I want – fast food, restaurants, burgers, and pizza,” he confessed.
“I would never eat at home; my fridge was empty – I went completely the other way.”
That spiral peaked during the 2017 New Year’s Eve party. Struggling to fit into his clothes and then tearing them forced him to confront what had happened.
“I was up all night crying, I was upset, miserable, wondering how I got myself here,” Nick explained.
From there, he decided to make a fresh start. On January 1, 2018, he arranged a series of medical checks to understand the toll his binge-eating had taken on his body.
He continued: “Blood work is something I have always done since I was a teenager. I went back doing what I was doing, by getting a comprehensive blood work that tests your organs, hormones, everything. I also got a CT, heart and liver scan – everything I could do.”
Trigili says his comeback helped him reset not only his body, but also his relationship with training. Rather than living in the gym every day, he now says recovery and consistency matter more than extreme routines.
He trains on a one-day-on, one-day-off schedule, usually for 45 minutes to an hour, and says that approach has helped him maintain a leaner, healthier physique without burning out.
Now working as a nutrition expert and weighing a healthier 225 pounds, Trigili says his experience has shaped the advice he gives to others trying to improve their fitness.
“People always make the mistake of overdoing it, and think you need to be in the gym every single day,” he explained.
“I recommend people do a day on and a day off. This will yield the best results for people as they are giving their body a break. You don’t work seven days a week 24/7, so why would you put your body through the stress of working out seven days a week?”