Running obesity
David Reitano always struggled with his weight. “The smallest I can remember being is at 12 and I was 80 kg,” he says. Food, then other substances, offered comfort during a childhood tainted by low self-esteem, bullying and divorced parents.
By the time he was 24, David’s weight had blown out to 193 kg. He was constantly fatigued, struggled to get in an out of the shower, and had developed sleep apnoea, waking up gasping for breath. “I started feeling really low and some days didn’t even want to continue living,” he says. “The idea of getting up and just dealing with the reality that I had let myself get so bad seemed like too great a challenge.”
Eventually, realising he could be dead by the age of 30, David took action. Two years on, he’s lost more than 100 kg and is well on the way to his lean 75-80 kg goal.
Published by Health Agenda Magazine.
