California Man Loses 240 Pounds Without A Trainer: Here’s His Weight Loss Secret

A 34-year-old California man who went viral for his weight loss transformation has opened up about how he managed to shed 240 pounds.

Riverside resident Stephen Vysocky, who weighed 505 pounds at his heaviest, went viral on Twitter last month after sharing side-by-side photos of himself from before he started his weight loss journey and after three years of persisting to lose extra pounds. The post has since received over 500,000 likes.

Speaking about his journey to Fox News, Vysocky shared that although he previously made attempts to lose weight, he easily gave up when he didn't see results fast enough, leading him to struggle with his weight for most of his life. It wasn't until his best friend confronted him in 2018 following a breakup that his life began to change.

"He was like, ‘Hey, I want to see you do better,’" Vysocky told the outlet. "We would always have these discussions, like how I would want to go do things, but I would always be like, ‘Oh, my weight is keeping me back.’ I couldn't do anything and he was like, ‘The only person that can make that change is you.’"

Vysocky's friend began taking him to the gym every day despite his protests. Eventually, he began enjoying the routine and went to the gym on his own.

"I kind of just gave myself a year and I said I got to really push myself and see if I could do it. And that's kind of where I began," he said.

Vysocky said that he did not check his weight at all in the first 12 months he began regularly going to the gym. Instead of letting a scale discourage him from continuing his weight loss journey, he found motivation from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and his determination to go back to doing the things he loves.

"It was a mixture of wanting to be healthier, wanting to keep going to theme parks, wanting to see what I could do in a year and see if I could lose weight in the year," he shared.

Vysocky shared that aside from working out at the gym, he changed his eating habits six months into his journey. With a little help from his friends, he learned how to prepare healthier meals at home and stopped drinking sodas.

After one year of pushing himself and making healthier choices, Vysocky stepped on the weighing scale. He had lost 100 pounds.

Armed with an even stronger motivation to keep going, Vysocky continued his practice for two more years. Instead of hiring a trainer and following strict diet plans, he decided to follow weight loss videos he found on YouTube, noting that the keto diet helped a lot during the pandemic.

Today, Vysocky weighs about 265 pounds -- about 240 pounds lighter than his heaviest recorded weight.

"I have more confidence," he said. "I notice I'll walk a little straighter and ... I can actually talk to people. When I was at my biggest, I'd be so scared to talk to anybody that I'd just be like nope, not talking to them. But now I can be out, I go and talk to people and I try to make new friends. My confidence level has risen 100%."