His fiancee dumped him because he was fat and ugly. Five years later, he made her anxious. A man has revealed how he transformed from obese into beast after a difficult breakup spurred him on on to change his life after his ex walked out on him. Fellam Stack, 29, from Bristol, hit the gym, losing almost half his body weight in just 18 months, completely transforming his physique. Bellam joined his local gym the day after his partner walked out and has since overturned his eating habits to lose an impressive twelve stone.
The aerospace engineer said I decided to make the change instantly the night she walked out. I just wanted to wait. Gone like literal baggage consuming me and my thoughts. I was in a very bad headspace. But I decided my story isn’t over yet.
If I carried on eating the way I was, I would have been dead by the age of 30. His five year old is proud of his father and even calls him Muscle Daddy. Fellam was a slim 14 stone when he met his ex, but long work trips and greasy takeaways saw him pile on the pounds fast. After the breakup, Felon was desperate to change and began to combine periods of fasting eating just 1800 calorie meal in the evening with cardio in the gym every single day. He was often seen on the treadmill at 02:00 a.m.
Nothing was stopping me, he said. I was on a mission. I was always told my mom that I’m a very good looking man. I have a lot to offer, the right person, a good job, morals, family, respect. I just needed to sort my physical self out to become the best version of myself.
Depressed and wanting to avoid drugs, fellam found that exercise started to help his move, particularly after hearing that his ex had started a new relationship just a few weeks after their breakup. The breakup was possibly the worst experience of my life. To have your entire bubble burst and not see it coming is a very uncomfortable place to be in. I avoided medication and decided I’m going to use exercise as my antidepressant free endorphins and dopamine was a better option for me than medication from the doctor. During lockdown he stayed on track by doing 1 hour of weight training and 1 hour on his bike every day.
Fellam began to overeat as a child, and when he got to secondary school he was bullied for his size. My weight really started to balloon in my mid twenty s, I believe. The stress of working away in my job and long hours led to nights consuming highly calorific foods. I would typically eat wraps with chicken and mayonnaise, cakes, chocolate, and almost always when working away, I’d get a kebab or Indian takeaway. I did no exercise then.
It was painful and extremely hard on my body and breathing. My state of mind at my largest was a very blurred and horrible place to be. My only concern at that time was providing for my family and looking after them. I thought I was in a place of no return. Now Felon, who is single, is a changed man.
He can be found strength training at the gym six times per week and adds cycling and running to his routine. One day he dreams of competing in an ironman competition. I want to see the look of pride on my son’s face, he said. My food choices are conscious. 24/7 I’m fully aware of nutrition and the impacts of food.
I always hit my protein target daily. It’s not negotiable. At the weekend. I don’t track and relax more with food. Now my lifestyle is all about nutrition, exercise and keeping fit.
I’ve self studied so much and now have the understanding of calories and macros has made my life a lot easier. Fellam even helps others who reach out through his Instagram page at obese into. I have people all around the world messaging me for support with eating habits, food choices, fitness questions and exercise support. I give advice where I can from my personal development and my own factual research. I believe I need to give back to the world as I made it to the other side.
If I could give the old me one piece of advice, it would be stop eating recklessly. It’ll cost you more than you think. Stop buying the next size up. Don’t think that buying up to five Xcel is normal, because it’s not. Don’t neglect yourself.
You only get one life. That’s what happened here. Most people are not happy with their bodies, looks or weight. There’s always something that we would like to change. However, some of us would like to look completely different.
That’s what the hero of this story, Josie, decided to do. After a rough breakup with a guy that humiliated her because of her weight, Josie decided she would start working out dieting and losing weight. The big change come after a grat broken heart and a long determined plan take almost five years. For most of his life, Curtis Dreams weight followed a familiar pattern. Hefty as a kid, he thinned out in high school, then gained some weight during his five year college.
Things yoyoed for a while after that until years later he settled into a relationship. My weight started getting out of control because I made bad choices with food and never exercised, he says. Honestly, I used food to cope. My relationship and living situation was very stressful and not healthy for me. In retrospect, Stream 28, who now works as a program manager for a marketing company in Georgia, says that a combination of factors led to stress eating, ranging from struggling with finances to having incompatible work schedules with his partner.
As his weight climbed, he also started to develop problems with his self image. I absolutely hated the way I looked when I got big, but with how generally unhappy I was with everything else in my life. I couldn’t imagine punishing myself in the gym on top of what I already was feeling, so I turned to food, he said. I just wanted to relax and eat, but the more I did, the worse I felt about myself. Overall, I would use food to feel good and to mask my depression.
His turning point arrived during a routine checkup at the doctor’s office for a sore throat. Stepping onto the scale, he was shocked to realize that he weighed £278, the heaviest he’d ever been. His doctors also warned him that his blood pressure was through the roof. Apparently, it was so high, the nurse called its stroke level and gave me a pill that she said I had to take or they couldn’t let me leave. He says it was enough of a scare to inspire stream to take stock of his eating habits, and for the next few months, the scale moved in the right direction, dropping down to 240.
But it didn’t last. Once I felt like I had accomplished him a success, I fell back into my poor diet, coping with food, making excuses, and ended up gaining the weight back, he says. As if that wasn’t enough of a setback, his personal life also took a turn for the worst. His girlfriend of five years decided to leave him. The world I knew had come to an end.
I was alone. No more having someone I cared about to come home to, no more being a stepfather and helping provide for a family or feeling a purpose. It was my ultimate low, he says. After a few weeks of sleeping on the couch and slowly packing his things, he moved back into his parents’home. I knew I needed to make a change, he said.
The first step cut out all soda, beer, and alcohol. Fast food, too, with the exception of the occasional grilled market salad from Chickfila. He also started going for long walks on his lunch breaks and kept his dinner light, often a couple of eggs and toast. Even his cheat meals were fairly modest, mostly just chips and salsa, queso, some shrimp tacos. He started eating slower, too, really trying to savor the food he was having.
Eventually, it got to the point where he craved protein from lean meat more than fried foods. He also joined a gym. At first, he’d go late at night, around 10:00 p.m.. I was embarrassed by my body and intimidated the bodies of those who attended regularly, he says. He started slow jogging and walking, and gradually added lifting routines, using free weights and dumbbells.
After working his way up to four or five days a week at the gym, he was suddenly losing so much weight that he could feel himself getting weak. Then he realized I needed to start eating again so I could have fuel for exercise, he says. Over the span of about four months, from September 2017, to January 2018, stream lost roughly £70, enough to qualify as a dramatic transformation. But he wasn’t finished. By the following February, he was down to £180, and by July 2018, he hit 150.
Now hovering around 155, he’s working on building strength and adding muscle to improve his definition. More importantly, however, his mental health has improved dramatically in the wake of his physical transformation. Exercising was therapeutic, he says. I felt like I’d thought away the depression that I was frozen in. I’m so much more energetic, confident and positive.
That said, like everyone, Stream still has his off days. When he’s feeling less than motivated, he goes in search of a note that he wrote to himself during his lowest point back in 2017. In the end, I lost all the weight because I wasn’t happy with myself. I was tired of being tired. I was tired of making excuses for myself.
I’ve been overweight my entire life. It was time to do something good for myself. It’s not about being the most attractive or the skinniest. It’s about feeling comfortable under your own skin and loving the person you see in the mirror. No matter what the number on the scale shows, my weight loss journey is not over.