![Michael Thorn,ISagenix]()
People respond in big ways when they hear the number 276, especially when it’s associated with weight loss.
Michael Thorn, 43, is one of those rare individuals who can say they have lost more than half their body weight.
Two years ago, Thorn weighed 505 pounds.
Looking back, he said faith, a plan and accountability to a coach saved his life and made him the person he is today.
“A lot of times, people that are 505 pounds, they think that it is impossible,” Thorn said. “I am proof that it can happen.”
Thorn is a celebrity in the Isagenix community.
He was the winner in the weight loss solution category of the company’s
IsaBody Challenge a year ago and was invited to be on stage at a national convention in Las Vegas, Nevada where he showed off his former belt and clothing.
While on stage, Thorn talks about losing more than 100 pounds in 11 weeks.
Thorn said the products and the close-knit support community of those who market and sell them made the difference in his life.
“I was supposed to die in December of 2012 anyway,” Thorn said, pointing to the 12 medications he needed at the time. He also had struggled with prostrate cancer.
He said after a life of giving up on so many diets, when he found something that worked and people who were willing to help, he was ready to fight for his life.
And he said starting on the program was a spiritual experience.
“It was like a light went off above his head,” Thorn said of meeting his coach, Greg Duran, two years ago.
Duran, who was 18 at the time, is a young body builder who Thorn said was willing to take him on for many hours of workouts by his side.
And Thorn contrasts his several hours of successful workouts today to that first day when he walked into Planet Fitness at Five Points weighing 505 pounds.
“Just walking in the door was a job,” he said, noting the two rest breaks he needed to just get inside. “But Gary stood by me the whole time.”
Today, Thorn said the only medication he needs is Ibuprofen and an occasional sleeping pill.
The program involves a regimented diet, meal replacements made of calculated protein and vitamins and drinking gallons of water.
“When I was leaning down, I was drinking a gallon and a half to two gallons of water a day,” Thorn said. “It makes sense to do that. Your body is 60 percent to 80 percent of water anyway. You want to flush all the garbage out.”
Thorn has maintained his weight for the last year and now looks forward to a skin graft surgery to help him look his very best. He said once skin has stretched so far, a person can’t lose the extra skin on his or her own.
“It will be nice to be able to see the muscle I’ve worked for,” he said.
Thorn offered some advice to those who want to take control of their weight like he has.
“Believe in yourself,” he said. “Believe in God, or your higher power. Believe that it will happen.”
He said his trainer helped him with not only his body but also with his mind and spirit along the way.
Now as a results trainer with the Isagenix company, Thorn is helping others to lose weight too.
“The more people that know, the more I can help,” he said. “We call it the ripple effect.”
Claudia Cook, manager of the Planet Fitness where Thorn works out, said having him in the gym gives others motivation.
“It’s been inspirational to have him in here, to have people watch him,” she said. “They see his struggles and they see that he’s normal. … It’s been nice to be able to see him change not only his body but his attitude.”
Rich Reardon of Roy is one who has been inspired by Thorn in his own weight loss.
The 48-year-old lost 105 pounds in five months.
Reardon also found he needed a lot fewer medications as a result of his weight loss.
“Any time you make your body healthier, you are going to go away from things were were taking,”
Reardon said.
“The key is just eating right. Most people never eat right. They don’t have time,” he said.
But Reardon said making time became a priority for him and the results are a life he never thought he could have.
Originally reported by: thestandard.net
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