Beau Griffin was overweight for as long as he can remember, but his physical and mental heaviness grew so out of control that he considered taking his life at one point.
He calls reaching and passing 700 pounds as his rock bottom.
Suicide “crossed my mind once or twice because I felt as though I was a burden to my family,” Griffin, 39, who lives in Las Vegas, tells TODAY.com.
“It was getting depressing. I did have some negative thoughts at that point. Luckily, it didn’t last too long. I was like, ‘That’s not the solution. I need to figure something else out.’”
Griffin has since lost 450 pounds, undergone skin removal surgery and says he feels “1,000% better.”
The transformation earned him first place in the 2023 “Submit Your Fit” contest for the most inspirational fitness journeys among members of EoS Fitness, a chain of gyms.
Weight gain
Griffin says his parents were overweight and didn’t know how to help him when he grew heavy as a child.
He remembers that his father “kind of encouraged gluttony — ‘You can eat all that? Way to go,’” Griffin recalls his dad saying. “So I was like, ‘If (eating) four chicken thighs impressed him, how about six?’”
Griffin also calls himself an emotional eater. Food was always his “go-to solution” whenever he was angry, upset, depressed or bored. Happy times also called for eating to celebrate. Sugary foods were a particular problem, with Griffin indulging in candy, cookies and ice cream cake.
He ate a lot of fast food, so lunch might have been a double cheeseburger, a chocolate shake and fries. Sometimes, he’d add a second burger to that order. Then there was the sugary soda. If Griffin would go out to eat, he could easily have six to eight refills.
As his weight continued to rise, Griffin bought a scale that could go up to 1,000 pounds. The maximum weight he…
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