From Fat To Fit In One Skype Call

From nothingness, the universe was created. From a simple caterpillar, a butterfly emerges. A dorky teen grows up to be a fashion model, or a bodybuilder. The one constant in life is change, and in our new Transformation of the Week series, AskMen is celebrating men who have turned their lives around through dedication, commitment and hard work. Is that you? Email us your story and pictures at askus@askmen.com and you could be featured next week!

People struggle with motivation. That's not new. Especially those of us on weight loss journeys. Motivation is tricky. It's like holding water in your hands. 

But sometimes -- sometimes we find something that helps it stick. Something that lights your fire and suddenly you can't find your off switch. You've discovered a newer version of you. That's what happened to Redditor shinichii. He had been overweight his entire life. And he had lost the weight before. But then his motivation, the fickle thing that it is, left him. And the weight came back. 

Now he had to lug around the extra pounds and the shame that he felt that came along with it. He was 320 pounds and just 5-foot-6. It wasn't the first time his weight had climbed that high and shinichii, had ditched 60 pounds during a weight loss challenge at his job. But he didn't win the challenge and that failure magnified. So he stopped going to the gym, despite the encouragement from his friends. He discouraged and later embarrassed. 

He would moved to St. Louis, he said in the Reddit thread, and one night he shared a Skype call with one of his best friends -- an old friend he hadn't seen in too long. When his friend appear on the screen, he was fit. "He looked amazing, he progressed so much and I was like wow... and we talked and he game me good advice, encouraging me, etc. All night I was thinking, 'wow... I'm really jealous.'"

Just like that, his pilot light in his motivation center flickered. "What if I had stayed on track?" he asked himself. What would he have looked like? The next morning he went to the gym and everything was different.

"I finally felt it," he wrote. "the motivation that I had before, except this time it was stronger, this time I'm not going to give up. I won't fail this time. I'm going to turn those dreams into reality and I felt an endless amount of motivation flowing inside of me and was able to push myself beyond my limits and even surpassed my weight goal of 200 and got to 190 and I feel great."

The motivation was there but the progress didn't come easy. He works out 10-12 times a week, often splitting two-a-days between runs in the morning and lifting sessions in the evening. He shared a typical week:

Mondays-Sundays: Cardio in the morning Monday-Wednesday: Weight lifting at night

Monday: Morning Cardio Eliptical- 1 hour and 15 mins distancing at 5 miles Chest-3 sets of 10 on Incline chest press at 90 lbs, 3 sets of Barbell Bench Press at 145 Lbs, 3 sets of 10 on Decline chest Press at 90 lbs Triceps-3 sets of 10-15 on Tricep Dip Press at 90 lbs, 3 sets of 10-12 Tricep Pushdown with rope attachment, 3 sets of 10 Tricep Overhead extension with rope attachment Shoulder- 3 sets of 10 on shoulder presses at 40lbs, 3 sets of 10 Side lateral Rise 10 lbs each

Tuesday: Morning Cardio Eliptical- 1 hour and 15 mins distancing at 5 miles Bicep- 3 sets of 10 on EZ bar curl 50 lbs, 3 sets of 10 Dumbbell Bicep Curl 25 lbs, 3 sets of 10 on Overhead Cable Curl 20 lbs Back- 3 sets of 10-15 Seated Cable Row 70 lbs, 3 sets of 10-15 Pulldowns 70 lbs, 3 sets of 10 each arm Single arm Dumbbell row 30 lbs

Wednesday: Morning Cardio Eliptical- 1 hour and 15 mins distancing at 5 miles Abs-3 sets of 30 on sit ups, 3 sets of 30 Ab Crunch Machine with 90 lb resistance, 3 sets of 10 on the Knee-Hip Raise Parallel Bars with 10 lb ankle weights Legs- 3 sets of 10 on leg presses 200 lbs, 3 sets of 20 Leg Extensions 60 lbs, 3 sets of 20 Lying Leg Curls 60 lbs, 3 sets of 20 Standing Calf Raises 50 lbs resistance

Thursday-Sunday Morning Cardio Treadmill- 1 hour and 15 mins distancing at 3 miles or more