The story of a man named Kenny Saylors, who weighed over 500 pounds at his heaviest, shows that determination and hard work do wonders. He is just another proof that if we put our mind to something, the sky is the limit.
For Kenny, it all started when he and his girlfriend broke up back in 2006. This affected Kenny a great deal and he found comfort in eating junk food. Over the years, he gained so much weight that he could barely perform even the simplest of tasks.
During the first year of their breakup, Kenny gained 88 pounds.
“I was devastated. I wasn’t just broken-hearted, I was broken. And she never gave me a reason, just ended it. I didn’t know, emotionally, what to do with that. There was no closer. From that point, over the next year, I gained over 80 pounds. I ate, and I ate because food doesn’t reject you,” he explained.
“When people see me they just see a fat guy. But what they don’t see is that I’m a person that struggles with every day. It’s something I’m trying to overcome. I know that there are much bigger people than me around, so I can’t even imagine what they are going through.”
Between 2007 and 2008, his weight jumped from 235 pounds to a whopping 315 pounds.
But then, some three years after the breakup that left him in a state of devastation, Kenny knew he needed to change his life for the better. With the support of his family and friends, and with the help of doctors, he turned to a fasting program which lasted 55 days during which he only drank water. With that, he set the world record of longest period of time without consuming any sort of food.
Of course, he did it while under close observation by professionals.
The form of fasting Kenny practiced, or water fasting, is described in a 2021 study as, “An absolute cessation of food consumption while consuming water. This type of fasting is believed to improve health and can help motivate a healthy diet and lifestyle changes. It has been found that this type of intervention stimulates physiological effects that are potentially favorable to health. They include enhanced ketogenesis, modulated hormone activity, reduced inflammation and oxidative stress symptoms, lipolysis, autophagy, and improved physical and emotional well-being.”
The study also suggests that this method shouldn’t be practiced without consulting a doctor as it is very rigorous and needs to be done under supervision.
Of course, it doesn’t work the same way with different people.
In Kenny’s case, doctors advised him to drink Smartwater, which is enhanced with electrolytes, specific minerals needed to regulate body organs and cells.
Mere days into the fast, Kenny had his first colonic irrigation, using warm water to help clean his colon from waste. Besides not consuming any food, this man practiced sports, such as tennis.
There were days when he couldn’t get out of bed, but there were also days when he was able to regain his energy.
At the end of those 55 days, Kenny lost 50 pounds. He was happy with the results, but as years went by, he gained more weight.
Then, in 2013, he decided to reinvent himself again. Kenny documented his journey and showed the results of the incredible transformation he went through.
“Reinventing Kenny” was a form of a lifestyle he was willing to share with other people.
“My quality of life due to obesity had driven me to an almost reclusive lifestyle. I could not walk across a flat parking lot without losing breath, or even take on stairs without agonizing pain in my joints from the pressures of carrying around so much fat,” he wrote on his website.
“I didn’t WANT to be this way, but after more than a decade and hundreds of failed attempts to get my obesity under control – trying every eating plan, program, and lifestyle imaginable – I had become hopeless and resigned myself to the fact that I would be ‘the fat guy’ for the rest of my life.”