When Adan Prescott lost his US Army vet dad in 2013, he understandably sank into a deep depression and sought comfort in food - ballooning in weight to a staggering 460lbs (208kg).
Today, however, he is barely recognisable. Three years ago, Adan, now 25, from Tuscon, Arizona, decided enough was enough, and set a challenge to himself to lose weight so that he could follow his late father's footsteps and pursue a military career.
Adan told Metro: "When my dad died I just stopped caring. I started eating a lot of junk and used to love drinking soda.
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"I never cooked for myself and every meal would be a take out or from a gas station. It was the typical burgers, pizzas and all that fatty stuff.
"I must have drank 400oz of full fat soda a day, I think that's probably why I got so big. When I was at my biggest it was difficult to walk and I struggled to bend down to put my shoes on.
"But I decided that I didn't want to die when I was 40 and I wanted to achieve something with my life. I always wanted to be a marine so that's what motivated me.
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"It's a dream I've had since I was little. My dad was in the army and even though he's not here now, he inspired me to lose the weight and change my life in the ways that I did."
As can be seen from the pictures here and on Adan's Instagram account, with a lot of dedication and hard work, he's made a truly incredible transformation - from being so obese that he struggled to tie his own shoelaces to actually becoming a member of the US military.
He said: "The first thing I did was clean up my diet. I cut out all of the bad stuff and straight away restricted myself to only having about 1,200 calories a day.
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"I lost 50lbs in the first two months and after a year I had lost around 100lbs. I was still too big to exercise so all of that was just through eating better."
Thanks to a healthy, low sugar diet, Adan hit his weight goal of 230lbs back in May 2019, and was finally able to sign up to become a US Marine Corps reservist.
He then faced a three month long boot camp to ensure he was able to join the armed forces. He has since passed all the tests, and plans to have surgery in 2021 to remove the excess skin left by his drastic weight loss.
He said: "People tell me that I should be proud of myself, but I'm not proud for what I did to myself, so it was up to me to put that right.
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"I am proud that I changed and am proud about where I am now compared to a couple of years ago. I'm the happiest I have ever been. I like to think my dad will be proud of me, too."
Featured Image Credit: Adan PrescottTopics: Weight Loss, army