[Insider] Bryan O'Keeffe had struggled with his weight his whole life, trying every diet and workout regime under the sun but feeling like he was losing and gaining the same 40 pounds again and again.So he decided to do something drastic.
O'Keeffe, 34, from Ireland, weighed 338 pounds when he moved to a small village in Spain, quit his job, and cut off all communication with his family and friends.
Seven months later he had lost 137 pounds, more than half his body weight, and went home to Ireland to surprise his loved ones, capturing their reactions in a TikTok video that has been viewed over 32 million times.
In the video, O'Keeffe said that after 15 years of trying fad diets and workouts, he decided to stop focusing on the scales and instead on being mentally resilient and building discipline.
Speaking to Insider, O'Keeffe said that losing the weight was incredibly hard, and he acknowledged that his methods were extreme.
New drugs such as semaglutide that have helped people lose weight after years of struggling reflect how being overweight isn't simply a problem of poor self-control and a lack of will power. And experts generally advise people to lose weight gradually by slowly building up healthy habits without too much restriction.