Couple to wed after losing over 260 kg at the gym together
NEW YORK: 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.