‘I couldn’t have lost 100kg without Mum!

By the time he was in his late teens, Ryan Mackay weighed a staggering 214kg. “I just loved food,” says Ryan. “I used to eat way too much junk. I loved pasta, rice, bread – and alwayss had huge portions, like three sandwiches before dinner.

“Mum used to say ‘Ryan, you have to stop, you shouldn’t be eating that.’ She warned me,” says the teacher’s aide from Wattle Grove, NSW. “But I always thought I’d worry about it one day later.”

Ryan’s mum Roslyn admits she was terrified by her son’s weight gain. “Sometimes of a night when he’d g go to bed, I used to listen to hear him snoring because se I’d be scared he’d stop breathing,” she says.

Roslyn suggested gastric-sleeve surgery to reduce the size of his stomach, but Ryan, now 21, was determined to lose the weight on his own.

Then in 2014 a friend asked Ryan to join the gym with him. At the same time, Roslyn ordered Lite n’ Easy for the family in an attempt to teach her son about portion sizes. That’s when his life changed.

“I’d been going to the gym for a while, but once I started learning about portion sizes I was losing 3-4kg a week. It’s all about self-control – you don’t want to throw away your hard work at the gym.” Roslyn was by her son’s side every step of the way. “The There were a few times where I’d ask her to show me the better option to eat, and her encouragement just hel helped day in and day out,” says Ryan.

He n now weighs 113kg and has stuck to small portions of prote protein and vegetables for his meals. H He also goes to the gym five daysday a week.

After losing more than 100kg, Ryan is now able to enjoy sport. “I alwaysalw played sport but it’s way easier. I can even go for a runru after a game of cricket,” he says with a smile.

Roslyn says seeing her boy so happy is the best f feeling ever. “I’m so proud I could shout off the h highest mountain, not only for him to lose weight, b but for staying true to himself along the way.”

‘I always had huge portions – like three sandwiches before dinner’