3 Years Ago, He Weighed 465 lbs But When He Met The Love Of His Life, Everything Changed

Christopher Hasty battled with weight for most of his life, but it wasn’t until he met his wife, Casey, that he decided to get his life together.

Three years ago, he weighed 465 pounds.

"For a long time I was content with being fat and dying that way," Christopher told Good Morning America. 

"I met my wife and she gave me purpose. She loved me when I was at my worst. She gave me a reason to be better."

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Christopher fell into a dangerous routine

Growing up, Hasty played sports in school and through college, but despite this, he was always overweight. Once settled into his career post-graduation, he fell into an unhealthy routine and his weight got really out of control.

Christopher got a wakeup call though, when he stepped onto a scale one day and it couldn’t read his weight.

“I expected it to be bad, I didn’t expect it to read, ‘Error,” he said in a post. “I had to find a scale that could read my ridiculous weight.”

However, it didn’t really rattle him at first since he had essentially resigned himself to being overweight for the rest of his life, after many failed attempts at weight loss.

When Casey entered his life, everything changed

At his heaviest, Hasty suffered from high blood pressure and was prediabetic, but something changed once Casey entered his life.

I wanted to get my life together for her. We both needed and wanted to.

He started his transformation journey by making the decision to undergo bariatric surgery in August 2017. 

“To some, the procedure is cheating. That’s really not the case,” said Hasty. “I saw it as doing something to take control.”

After a successful surgery, he lost nearly 40 pounds fairly quickly, since it forced him to control his portions and what foods he ate. 

Christopher was still very far from reaching his weight loss goal, but the immediate results gave him the motivation and courage to keep going.

Then, he started running

Once he was fully recovered, he started running. 

"When I lost the first 50 or 75 pounds something clicked," he said. "I felt better every day. I wasn’t exhausted all the time. My will to live and enjoy life was different."

Feeling empowered by his progress, Christopher then started going to the gym regularly and signed up for his first 5K race.

When I ran my first 5K it took almost an hour. I kept growing and getting healthier and my pace got faster.

His first marathon was a failure

Then, he signed up for a 10K, but had to quit only two miles in.

"I went home and did a lot of soul searching and said, ‘You know you’re better than that and you didn’t come this far to quit’," he continued

A lot of people struggle with the idea of failure. But failure is what pushed me into this marathon thing.

Wanting to try again, he went to sign up for a 10K race at Disney World, only to find out registration was full. His only option to participate in the race was to register for both the 10K and the half-marathon.

"You know what, I’m just going to go for it," Christopher thought. "The next day I’ll show up for the half-marathon and whatever happens happens."

Within 24 hours, Christopher completed both his first 10K and half-marathon, in August 2018.

Since then, he’s kept training for more races and completed his first marathon earlier this year.

"It was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done," Christopher said.

"One of my friends was a volunteer at the mile 19 water station and when I saw him I had one of the biggest emotional releases I’ve ever had on a run. I ran up to him and cried. Then I got back out there and finished."

Despite excess skin, he hasn't given up

In the last two years, he’s lost over 250 pounds, and as proud as he is of his accomplishment, it’s left him with a huge amount of excess skin, which carries along with it a host of issues.

Christopher has to wear heavy and uncomfortable compression gear for all of his workouts and runs to avoid irritation.

He remains hopeful that he will be able to reach his ultimate goal of getting skin removal surgery, so that he can finally bring his weight down to 199 pounds.

Christopher is currently raising funds to cover the cost of the procedure and holds himself accountable through his Instagram account, which he uses to connect with others on similar transformation journeys.

"I try to get people to not dwell on failures," Christopher said. "They’re going to happen. You can’t define yourself by your failures. You need to define yourself by that ultimate goal. It takes time. It takes dedication. You need to put in the work."

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