Think weight loss is impossible while being overweight, well this guy will definitely make you feel bad about yourself. This weight loss success story is about a man named Mario Colao who had a random midnight crisis because his heart was racing, and that changed his whole thinking process. However, that wasn’t the only night he woke up with heart attack symptoms, it happened another two nights before the third incident, and this was happening all the way back to January of 2010.
Mario Colao felt horrible about his situation and stated that “its sad to say, but I felt like I deserved this because I never took care of myself”.
Colao is from Chicago and was overweight ever since he was child, and he was tormented by kids because of it. Colao before his recent weight loss was 28-years-old, weighed 460 pounds and wearing 6X clothing. To make matters worse Colao had bad habits of drinking, smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, and overeating. The bad habit of overeating is from Mario’s childhood Italian background where food was the center of his family. He states that “ Food became a total escape, and I always considered it my drug” . The weight had been piling up on him throughout his childhood, and when turned 18 he had started smoking, and then he started drinking heavily when he turned 22.
Finally Colao had motivated himself due to his middle of the night heart attacks, and made a promise to himself to stop smoking. He states that ” I quit smoking and stopped eating everything that was bad “ .
Mario’s process of course had started very slow, he started on a treadmill that his parents bought him because he was too uncomfortable to go to the gym. Colao had to build up his confidence first before he could make any really progress for himself. Before he knew it he worked his way up from walking to jogging then to weightlifting.
The next step was to change his diet completely. He stopped eating fast food, anything with red meat, and then he pushed himself into a healthier diet slowly so he wouldn’t feel overwhelmed by the new diet, and because of that Colao had loss 50 pounds over the first month, and that’s what motivated him to set the 200 pound weight loss goal.
Though Mario hit a bump in the road due to a bad break-up, Mario had gained 40 pounds back. He didn’t give up though, Colao started monitoring his calorie intake, and also booked a trip for himself to Philadelphia to recreate the famous Rocky scene where he runs up the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. When it was time for the trip he had already lost 185 pounds, and he was so close to his goal he decided to run up those stairs.
It happened Colao had surpassed his goal in October by losing 260 pounds, and he still plans on losing 20 to 30 more pounds. There is no doubt he could do it with the support of his family. This is definitely an inspirational story that more people with weight loss issues should look into.
