A MAN who shed an incredible 310 lbs after becoming morbidly obese has had 13 lbs of loose skin removed in a life-changing procedure. At one point, John Allaire was so morbidly obese he wore 8XL shirts and had to be weighed on a commercial scale at a fish market, as standard scales would not hold his weight. But after joining a fitness programme and dropping from 540 pounds to a lean 230 lbs, the 27-year-old was left with severe excess skin. John underwent skin removal surgery in March which saw the bulk of the loose skin on his torso and arms removed – but will require further surgery in the future to remove the skin on his lower body.
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00:00When I was about 20 years old, the doctor couldn't weigh me and I had to go get
00:07weighed on a commercial scale on the back of a fish market and I was 540
00:10pounds and that now I'm having way more loose skin than I ever expected.
00:20It's one thing to be obese and it's another thing when you reach, you know,
00:25morbid obesity. I mean, I remember figuring out my BMI at heaviest recorded
00:31was like right around 70, so there's no category for that. It's beyond the
00:35category of morbid obesity. My name is John Allaire. I am 27 years old and at my
00:42heaviest I weighed 540 pounds and today I am sitting at 237 pounds before skin
00:51removal surgery. My whole family really struggles with weight, weight management.
00:57We were all obese. You know, I was about 380 pounds or so when my dad got sick.
01:02I was 18 when he passed away from cancer. Between the time he got sick and a few
01:12months after he died, I had shot up to over 500 pounds. I remember just looking
01:21at myself in the mirror and I remember just seeing how big I had gotten. I was
01:26over 540 pounds at this time, I assume, and just thinking that I didn't even
01:32look human anymore. Maybe it would be just better if I was dead instead of
01:36trying to have this back-and-forth fight for the rest of my life because I'm
01:41never gonna lose the weight and I'm always gonna be huge and it's just gonna
01:43lead to an early death and a painful funeral for my family anyway.
01:48Come on guys, let's go. Begin. Two, one, rotate.
01:55I would join a gym, go for a couple weeks, pay for the gym for six months but never use it again, you know, and I
02:02bounced from diet to diet. It was just years of trying and failing before
02:07something clicked for me. Come on guys, let's go, let's go, let's go. Next station.
02:11The day that I really truly committed on a deep level to losing the weight and making
02:19changes was the day that I got engaged to Kayla. I had known Kayla since we were
02:2612. I've been in love with her since I was 15. We dated all through high school.
02:31Even though she loved me as I was and she was ready to commit to marrying me
02:35at 540 pounds, which is mind-blowing really, I was like there is no way that I
02:40can in good conscience drag this woman through the difficulties that I'm gonna
02:45have for the rest of my life if I don't lose this weight. I think a lot of people
02:52were surprised how close we were, especially when we started dating
02:56because there was an obvious difference in weight. So a lot of people asked, you
03:01know, how did you get her?
03:04I was scrolling Facebook and I saw an advertisement. It was like a local gym
03:12that was like, come into our gym and you'll lose 20 pounds in six weeks.
03:16John came to our camp 10 challenges ago. It was just amazing the way he actually
03:22introduced himself and he created this amazing video getting rid of all the
03:27food that he wasn't supposed to be eating. So it's like he was determined
03:32from the beginning to get, you know, like his weight goal.
03:36I'm sorry if that's kind of a long video, but I figured this would be the only way to push
03:44myself to get rid of that crap and also to actually introduce myself to the
03:51group and not be shy.
03:57Three, two, one, switch!
03:59Three, two, one, switch!
04:16Honestly didn't think he was gonna stick with it. I didn't expect him to get
04:21all the way down to like a healthy average person BMI.
04:28Come on guys, quick, quick, quick, freeze!
04:35Come on guys, let's go, let's go, let's go, next station!
04:40I had hit the 20 pound mark I think in week three or four. So then it was just like,
04:44okay, well, I'll see what else I can lose like, you know, in the six weeks and I
04:48ended up losing just over 30 pounds.
04:57He lost 297 pounds on the program itself for, you know, over a year and a half.
05:03It's incredible. A lot of people will lose, you know, half that weight and just be
05:09like, you know, I'm okay, I'm fine, I feel great. So he has that willpower for sure.
05:16All right guys, awesome work! Can't stop, won't stop! One, two, three!
05:20Can't stop, won't stop!
05:23So before I ever actually started losing weight, we always knew that there was a
05:28good chance that I would have loose skin. And my wife and I had talked about that
05:33before we even got married, you know, like, okay, but would you still love me if I had
05:37no ton of loose skin?
05:44It ended up being a lot more than I expected.
05:48I think his loose skin affects him in a lot of different ways, definitely self-image.
05:54The surgery is just going to improve his overall quality of life. I think he's
06:00finally going to feel like completely free, like there's not going to be any
06:04baggage from his obesity.
06:06It's, I think, three days away, so it's coming up quick. So I'm simultaneously
06:13very excited and very nervous about the surgery. As far as the amount of excess
06:19skin that I have currently, I have been told all different estimates. As low as
06:2610 pounds of skin, as high as 20 or more. I've been told that they think that
06:34there's going to amount to like 9 feet of skin.
06:44Woo!
06:45At least 99% of it would be gone. As far as, like, self-confidence and looking
06:51like a man and moving like a person should, that's all going to be taken care of.
06:56Going into the surgery was all kind of a blur. I just remember that I had to stand
07:01like a statue for like 20 minutes with my arms out while they marked all over your
07:06body and drew all the lines they were going to cut.
07:14I've been really impressed with seeing him from day one to where he is now.
07:23John is a great example of coming in and learning everything from the ground up
07:30and being able to push through whatever obstacles someone might face. And I think
07:34that a lot of people are very inspired by this.
07:38I still have a lot of swelling. They say that 90% of that should be gone by about
07:44six months and that that last 10% might take up to a year to go away.
07:52Just got to be patient.
07:53It's kind of like the last piece of feeling like I really transformed my body.
07:59And I really don't have any specific, you know, cards that were dealt to me that
08:03are conducive to losing weight or being a good healthy weight.
08:06And so I 100% can say like if I can do it, anybody can do it.