This guy shed an impressive 27kg of weight after being motivated by loneliness and his transformation pictures are incredible.
Most people will have been a gooseberry to coupled up friends at some point in their lives, it’s never nice and can leave you feeling down about being a third wheel.
Which is why the situation must have been even more uncomfortable for Michael Jeffries who suffered with loneliness, which fuelled his eating and drinking habits into a pit of despair.
UNILAD caught up with Michael to hear the story of his incredible transformation and his battle with his weight, self-esteem and feelings of isolation which led him to make some huge lifestyle changes.
He told us:
Whenever I was out with couples I always felt alone and left out.
At his heaviest, Michael weighed in at a hefty 107kg, but one day he realised he was done with looking in the mirror and hating what he saw, aswell as not having any confidence with girls.
He explained:
I was hating the person I would see in the mirror! I was embarrassed to wear any tight clothes, or to be topless at the beach or pool.
I was sick of the fat jokes and it got to a point where I thought enough was enough I decided I needed to make a change, and I haven’t looked back since!
To obtain a much trimmer figure and to give his health and self-esteem a boost, Michael quit the booze, began to eat ‘cleaner’ and joined the gym.
This was a turning point for the 27-year-old who then fell into the open arms of bar bells and embraced a new love of weight lifting, inspiring him to become a bodybuilder.
He added:
I started of just cleaning up my diet and joined a gym. Not long after I fell in love with lifting weights!
Naturally when cleaning up your diet and exercising you drop a bit of weight, but you will always plateau, that’s when I teamed up with my coach Tim Martin who has me on a personalised eating plan and a heavy resistance training program.
In four years, Michael did insanely well and lost an incredible 27kg, taking him down to a much healthier 80kg and even though he was proud of what he had achieved, he felt there was still one major problem – his excess skin.
He felt the baggy skin around his stomach was a hindrance to his bodybuilding dreams and dragged his confidence down even more.
He explained:
After losing the weight I still had the skin sagging down below my waist line which made it hard for me to see how much progress I’ve really made! I would have people say to me ‘oh wow you’ve done so well you much have so much confidence now’ but the truth was I didn’t!
Before I was embarrassed by my weight but then I became embarrassed about my saggy skin, so to have the confidence I thought I should have after losing the weight I thought I needed to have the tummy tuck!
Another thing is I would love to one day compete in bodybuilding and to do that I need to have a tight stomach!
Frustrated with his perceived problem, he decided to take drastic action and book himself in for a tummy tuck, but instead of his home of Melbourne, Australia, he chose to go under the knife in Thailand.
Dead set on having the skin removed, Michael flew to Bangkok and paid the $7,000 needed for his confidence-changing operation.
Before operating the surgeon warned there would be a lot of scarring left behind, but Michael stuck to his guns.
He admitted:
No, the scarring doesn’t really other me! In the end of the day I’d much rather have a scar than the lose skin!
Even the lengthy three-hour surgery wasn’t going to dissuade Michael from completing the final piece of his fitness jigsaw puzzle and he even expressed excitement at being one step further in reaching his goals.
He said:
When I first thought about Thailand I was nervous about the thought of going to an Asian country for surgery.
But after doing a little research and being told my surgeon (Dr Pornthep) was one of the best in the world my nerves went away and I was just excited to have the operation done so I could move on with my life and finally be happy within myself.
Now the 27-year-old is determined to get back to the level of fitness he was at before the surgery and focus on his bodybuilding goals.
He said:
For now I’m going to keep slowly building my way back in the gym and once I’m back to 100% I’ll look to train hard and build up as much muscle as I can and look to compete within the next year or two.
Michael has a strong message for those who have undergone a drastic body change and are left with excess skin which they’re unhappy about.
He expressed:
If someone has had a big weight loss journey like me and was left with loose skin, and it made them unhappy I would 100% suggest to them to look into getting a tummy tuck.
And I would suggest to look into going through Cosmeditour. They know exactly what is needed and are amazing to deal with.
With his surgery complete and progress made in his workout regime, Michael’s dreams of competing as a bodybuilder are well underway and who knows, he may just find love along the way.
He should be incredibly proud of what he’s been able to achieve, as having the sheer determination and dedication to take control of your life and change it really isn’t easy.
Michael’s story just goes to show what you can do with the right mindset and a positive attitude. Congrats to the guy and we wish him all the best for the rest of his fitness journey.
