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Once Morbidly Obese, Now Free Fitness Trainer

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December 30, 2009
	Jo Wehage : Head Operations Ego

As many look to the New Year with renewed hopes of health and fitness, most of us haven’t attempted to kick off the year by organizing a free 5k walk.  But then again, most of us haven’t walked in the shoes of Anthony Reed. This formerly morbidly obese man, who once topped the scales at 591 pounds, is now a 220 pound certified fitness trainer offering his services free of charge to help change the lives of others.

Anthony, now 42, was haunted by the realities that those with extreme weight issues face on an every day basis like getting to restaurants 30 to 45 minutes before a business colleague to ensure a seat at a table, knowing a booth would not hold his size; or the memories of steel-enforced furniture at a family home; and more than one broken toilet seat still couldn’t compare to the loss of sharing important memories with his two young daughters.

Missing his daughter’s 6^th grade graduation because he couldn’t fit in the auditorium seats or physically stand the pressure of standing weighed heavy on his heart even more than his massive frame. It was all becoming too much to bear.

The Final Straw
A close call with a life-threatening blood clot in his lung in July of 2003 was the final straw for Anthony. He made the choice to live, to change and to embrace a life for himself and his two daughters.

He started making better choices, speaking to experts about the options for the extremely obese and in 2005 made the risky decision of undergoing gastric bypass surgery.

Now, before you write off Anthony’s amazing transformation to surgical intervention alone, consider that the average total weight loss for gastric bypass procedures is somewhere around 75 to 125 pounds. Anthony has managed to lose a total of 371 pounds.

While he concedes that gastric bypass was a key component in his own personal battle, he wants others to know it is still just one tool for the morbidly obese to consider and even then, the work is far from over.

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