Couple set to wed after losing 270kg together
new york — Frustrated with his ever-growing weight that peaked at 306kg, Ronnie Brower began dieting and working out on his way to losing an astounding 207kg. His four-year fitness journey, chronicled on Facebook, earned him the admiration of a woman at his gym who similarly was trying to lose a lot of weight.
Brower and that admirer, Andrea Masella, formed a bond around that shared mission, and on Saturday they will get married in their hometown of Syracuse, New York, celebrating their new lives and all they’ve lost together, a combined 262kg.
“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, but he recalls that he hit his peak weight, and rock bottom, in 2013 when he was so heavy he could barely leave his parent’s house. “I was depressed, addicted to pills and alcohol, eating 10 double cheeseburgers or two large pizzas at a time,” Brower said. “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.”
“My job 24 hours a day was to get healthy and save my life,” he said.
After 23 months, he had shed much of his excess weight when he met Masella. At 5-foot-4, she had weighed 113kg in 2014 and was on her way to losing 55kg. Their first date was playing ping pong and basketball at the gym. “We laugh all the time,” he said. Brower was grateful for Masella’s tender loving care when he underwent four surgeries to remove 14kg of sagging skin. “It was really intense,” he said. —