Man who weighed 25 stone and felt like a ‘walking freak’ reveals ‘hardest part’ of insane weight loss journey

A man who weighed 25 stone and felt like a ‘walking freak’ has opened up about his insane weight loss journey, cutting down by almost 14 stone and now looking completely unrecognisable.

Cosmin Murgu described how he feared for his health and was unable to even fasten his seatbelt at his largest, prompting the urge to transform his life and slash down the pounds.

Now, the 32-year-old Romanian, who lives in the UK, shares his incredible journey with others with over 11,000 followers on social media and has described how he could feel his health ‘crumble by the day’.

Cosmin now shows off his dramatic weight loss, as well as fitness videos, exclusively telling LADbible he was suffering regular panic attacks and feared it was ‘only a matter of time before something serious happened’ with his health.

“I was having so many panic attacks – I felt like a walking freak”

At his heaviest, he weighed 163.5 kg (25 st 10 lbs), and explained: “I didn’t have any diagnosed underlying conditions, but I could feel my health crumbling day by day.

“I was finding a new issue almost every week, and I’m sure it would only have been a matter of months before something serious happened. I struggled to sleep at times, sometimes I struggled to breathe, and that’s without even mentioning the back pain from simply standing up or walking.

“My knees and heels hurt too. What was really bad, though, was my mental health. I was having so many panic attacks and became very anxious about my health. In my head, any small issue turned into something huge and incurable, like cancer.

“That’s without mentioning the usual low self-esteem, no confidence, practically withdrawing from social life, hating pictures of myself, and so many other things that were just normal for everyone else.”

Cosmin said it was confirmed things needed change when he realised he was unable to fasten his seatbelt on his honeymoon.

He explained how he felt like he was an ‘attraction’ and ‘walking freak’ when out in public, further damaging his personal image of himself.

According to the NHS, living with obesity is likely to lower your life expectancy by between two and 10 years.

The risks include developing serious health conditions including diabetes, heart disease, a stroke, high blood pressure and fatty liver disease.

“What made me decide it was time for a change was all of the above, plus a few moments from my honeymoon,” Cosmin revealed.

“I couldn’t fasten the seatbelt anymore, and I struggled to fit in a single seat. I didn’t get in the pool because I was too ashamed, and when I finally convinced myself to get in, I was too ashamed to get out.

“I felt like I’d become an ‘attraction’. Wherever I went, I could see people staring at me. I wasn’t just a fat guy anymore. I was morbidly obese.

“A walking freak to some, someone who wouldn’t be around much longer to others. At least, if I’m being honest, that’s what I felt people were thinking about me.”

‘Hardest part’ of insane weight loss journey left him ‘terrified’

Cosmin described his weight-loss journey as ‘very hard’, but that he set himself small targets to shed the pounds and can now ‘enjoy life’ in a way he never thought was possible.

He says he is proud of losing the kilos naturally and researched how to stay slimmer and more toned, now sharing inspirational progress videos to the likes of his popular Instagram page.

“I knew it would take a long time, so I set myself small targets,” he said. “I never thought I’d get to where I am now, and I’m proud to say I did it naturally.

“My only worry at the beginning was that I didn’t know how to maintain once I’d lost all the weight. But by looking into it, I learned how our bodies work, and I started treating my body like a vehicle and food as fuel. That’s what did the trick for me. Now I can enjoy life.”

He revealed the hardest point of the whole journey, explaining that it wasn’t the actual losing of the weight, but rather his unhealthy relationship with eating.

“The hardest part wasn’t losing the weight. It was fixing my relationship with food,” he explained.

“When you’re losing weight, you learn that less food and clean food is good, so you don’t want to risk anything. Eating at maintenance was a huge step for me.

“I wasn’t scared of it, I was terrified. And the weight fluctuations didn’t help my mental health either. But I’m past that now.

“I’ve learned to accept that certain foods can make you feel better or worse depending on salt, carbs, fats and so on.

“I love being in control of my body, and I love finally having that freedom. For some people, counting calories and weighing their food feels like torture. For me, it’s freedom, something I’d never had before without negative consequences.”

“One single change has transformed my life”

Explaining why he chose to share his journey on social media, Cosmin said he felt it was important to ‘put himself out there’ and was amazed by the positive reaction.

Some of his videos, showing him before and after his dramatic transformation, have had over two million views online.

Now he is training to become a personal trainer and is taking nutrition classes to ‘help people moving forward’ in similar positions to him.

“I initially just wanted to put myself out there, like I’d seen others do,” he said. “I literally woke up one morning and decided to film a video introducing myself and sharing five things I did to lose 12 stone back then. Now it’s close to 14 stone.

“I was amazed by the reactions, so I kept going, and it became something I do regularly. It also keeps me accountable, because I live what I talk about.

“After a few months, I made it my mission to motivate people to do what I did, naturally if they can. I’m now training to become a PT and also taking nutrition classes, so I can fully help people going forward.

“Looking back, one single change two years ago changed my life, and probably my career too.”