Couple to wed after losing over 260 kg at the gym together
Frustrated with his weight that peaked at more than 300 kg, Ronnie Brower began dieting and working out on his way to losing more than 200 kg. His four-year fitness journey, chronicled on Facebook, earned him the admiration of a woman at his gym similarly trying to lose weight.
Brower and that admirer, Andrea Masella, formed a bond around that shared mission, and on Saturday they will get married in Syracuse, New York, celebrating their new lives and all they’ve lost together — a combined 262 kg.
“I was just really inspired by him and I thought he was super cute,” said Masella, 24. “We started talking at the gym and I hate to sound cliche but it was love at first sight.” Nick Murphy, Brower’s personal trainer who also will be his best man, calls it “a match made in heaven, a storybook movie.”
Masella, who works as a hairdresser, said she and Brower plan to continue to support not only each other in their commitment to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but to counsel and inspire others as well.
“Both of us had used food as a coping mechanism; I would just eat my feelings,” Masella said. “We’ve gone through a lot of counselling to come to terms with that and change.”
Brower, 32, is slim, trim and happy now. “My turning point was, my doctor told me if I kept on like this I’d be dead before I was 30. I was 28.”
He looks forward to married life after he and Masella take their vows at the church where his trainer baptized him three years ago.