For nearly two decades, New Jersey-based dad Brad Kroenig has been one of America’s top male models, walking on runways for designers like Chanel and Versace while fronting fashion campaigns for brands such as Fendi, Hermès and Tommy Hilfiger.
The 38-year-old also has the quasi-Zoolander lifestyle to match. He and his wife, Nicole, and sons Hudson, 9, and Jameson, 5, have just returned from a three-week vacation with family friend Karl Lagerfeld at his villa in Saint-Tropez.
“Karl shot me for a V Man spread years ago in Biarritz,” Kroenig says. “And now he’s both of my kids’ godfather.”
Yet even Kroenig — who, at 6 feet 1, clocked in at 180 pounds at his heaviest — felt there was room for improvement. He started feeling moody, sluggish and exhausted by his coffee-and-cardio-fueled regimen.
“I started to see that I was not in my usual great shape,” he says.
And so, in June 2016, he embarked upon a diet that was radical, at least for members of the fashion tribe. No, his weight-loss plan didn’t involve periodic fasting or extreme juicing. Rather, Kroenig started eating carbs — cups and cups of them each day.
Now, more than a year in, his tummy is flatter, his face fresher and he’s lost an impressive 20 pounds while maintaining lean muscle mass.
“I’m almost 40,” he says proudly, “and in the best physical and mental shape of my life.”
Kroenig concedes that most folks find consuming starch and losing fat a contradiction in terms. In fact, he used to be one of them.
