When his family didn’t believe in him, Kevin Torres found strength in himself and proved them wrong by losing an incredible 200 pounds in a year.
The 20-year-old Texan spent a year focusing on the gym and eating well in order to bring his weight down from 387lbs to 197lbs.
Kevin found a lot of his strength through Reddit, and when he posted his final progression photo, it shocked commenters, with many saying he was unrecognisable.
Speaking to UNILAD about his ‘loop of depression’, Kevin said:
So it started around early 2016, I was a college freshman and I was desperately stuck in a loop of depression.
I felt like my life had no purpose and that I would be stuck in my ways forever.
I remember eating junk food and telling myself that it’s what I deserved and that I would never get better.
Kevin said he can’t recall the specific moment when he changed, but he said ‘something weird happened’ and he knew things were going to be different.
He explained the effect a friend of his had:
I had a good friend of mine tell me that she believed in me, and that motivated me more than anything.
She triggered a response in me where I felt like I could learn to love myself and embrace the struggle and process.
Once he joined the gym, Kevin met a trainer called Marty who gave him sessions for free and encouraged him along his weight loss journey and taught him to enjoy the gym.
Kevin talked about the initial lack of support he had from his family:
At first my family and friends did not believe in me, they supported me but they assumed that I would fail.
My little brother who’s in the Reddit picture, he used to eat junk food and fast food in front of my face telling me that I couldn’t have it, and I would laugh at him telling him that my hard work would pay off in the future
Now everything is different and my entire family and friends admire the work that I put in to losing weight. I’m now considered a guru.
Recently, I’ve been training my brother and it’s cool to see him disrespecting me and doubt me to eventually loving me and me becoming a teacher to him at the gym.
Kevin said he was ‘overweight since [he] could even ever remember’, and has only ‘been ‘thin’ for a couple of months and it’s a ‘brand new experience’.
He soon began working at the very gym he began his journey in and tried to help as many people who were in his situation as he could.
He posted his before and after photos on Reddit and they received over 6.6k upvotes and plenty of comments commending him on his great effort and calling him ‘good looking’.
One commenter wrote:
Could’ve turned out better looking? My guy! What an accomplishment! Give yourself a pat on the back.
200 pounds in one year is just amazing. I don’t know you, you don’t know me, but it makes me very happy to see that you made healthy life style changes and you can now live your life to the fullest without being held down (no pun intended). Bravo my friend, bravo.
Talking about the reaction he got on Reddit, Kevin said:
The amount of love that Reddit has given me is crazy, everyone is so nice and sweet.
I struggle with body dysymorphia so I don’t always see myself the way others see me, and to be called good looking by literally more than 100 people in a matter of minutes was crazy.
I truly love the community on r/progresspics
Kevin’s words of wisdom after achieving so much with his fitness are:
I think the most important part about changing who you want to be is just simply having the belief that it will happen, and no matter how hard you fall the opportunity to rise even further will always prevail.
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