Real life weight loss: How this man lost 289lbs in 13 months

Cameron Salois once weighed 494lbs thanks to a food addiction – but now the 29-year-old has lost a staggering 289lbs after finding inspiration from his job at a gym.

Cam, from San Diego, has struggled with his weight since childhood until he reached breaking point in July 2018 when he couldn’t fit between his car and a parked car, and had to ask a neighbour to come out and help him. 

Over the course of 13 months, he lost a huge 289lbs and his quality of life has improved in many ways. He told Truly: “I do things that I never thought were possible and I take tremendous pride in that."

Over the course of the video, Cameron is shown doing a variety of resistance training moves, including push ups and deadlifts. Together, these two movements cover lots of different muscle groups.

Push ups are a great resistance training exercise for beginners: they can be made easier or harder with the addition of incline surfaces, and they work muscles in your shoulders, chest, triceps and core. We detail how to do a push-up in our handy guide.

Deadlifts, whether you're doing them with bars, kettlebells dumbbells, work the opposite set of muscles: your forearms, biceps, back and legs. Form is always important, but especially so when working with weights; check out our guide on how to deadlift properly before trying this move yourself.

When combined with traditional weight loss exercise such as cardiovascular fitness, resistance training helps develop good body composition. At the same time he was losing fat, Cameron was building muscle. The more muscle you have, the easier it is to lose fat, creating a cycle which improves your progress. 

Cameron's weight loss journey took place over the course of thirteen long months. One Iranian study (opens in new tab) found people who lost weight slowly and steadily had a better body composition – the body's ratio of muscle to fat – than people who lost weight fast with quick fixes. 

Cameron's final takeaway? "You have to start today. That's the biggest thing you could do for yourself, right now. Just start."