Kenny Saylors has always had a love of cuisine. But following a frightening and abrupt divorce with his girlfriend in 2006, he fell into a dangerously bad eating pattern.
He started a 55-day fasting programme in 2009 with the assistance of specialists and medical professionals, during which he just drank water and consumed no food at all. It goes without saying that the journey was hazardous; multiple doctors had advised him against it due to the risks involved.Kenny survived, though.
Since then, his life has been a rollercoaster. Kenny claimed that at his heaviest, he weighed more than 500 pounds, but fortunately, he was able to change his situation before it was too late.
Nothing can keep Kenny down – today, he’s doing better than ever. So, let’s take a look at his incredible journey.
Maintaining a healthy diet can be challenging. It can occasionally be challenging to prepare healthy food if you have a family, a partner, or time-consuming hobbies. Not to mention the fact that a healthy diet can be somewhat costly.
In contrast, fast food is straightforward and occasionally even enjoyable. But if used excessively, it’s detrimental to your health in the long run. Doctors constantly urge their patients to exercise for this reason. Fitness benefits your body, mind, and soul, to put it simply.
These days, it seems like everyone is trying to teach others how to lead healthy lives by working out, eating well, and developing inner peace so that we can feel amazing.
Such people are lauded for being inspirational and are frequently themselves in excellent physical shape. However, I also believe that those who may be having weight problems are deserving of credit for taking matters into their own hands and beginning to make changes.
You’ll recognise the type of individuals I’m referring to. A few of them have been featured on well-known weight-loss programmes like My 600-lb-Life. Others decide to make subtler changes to their lives while relying on the encouragement of friends and family. Kenny Saylors, who was able to drastically change his course in life, is one of such people.
The Texas native made the decision to film a documentary about his most recent effort to lose weight in 2013. It includes not eating anything at all and drinking only water for 55 days, which is reputed to be a world record. Kenny would essentially serve as a test subject to observe what would transpire.
Naturally, he needed a doctor’s supervision to finish the task, and it was the beginning of an amazing metamorphosis.Saylors is still trying to motivate people to follow him on his weight-loss quest today.Saylors was an ordinary adolescent like any other young kid.
He went to high school, was a part of the school’s marching band, and loved playing sports. In his senior year, he weighed a healthy 160 pounds.
“When he was growing up, he was active from the time he started walking. He liked sports, played football, and never met a stranger. He was friendly with everybody,” Kenny’s mother recalled in his documentary Facing The Fat.
“When he went to high school, he was very thin, almost frail looking. I never thought he would gain this much weight, so when he gained weight he started this coughing.”
Later, doctors attributed Kenny’s coughing to his weight gain and the extensive amount of fat he had in his body. So what happened?
Well, in 2006, Saylors’ weight loss began to spin out of control. By that point, he was already tipping the scales towards the wrong end, and when his girlfriend broke up with him, things took an ugly turn. Reportedly, he had been under the impression that their relationship was fine. Then one day, out of the blue, his girlfriend called him and told him it was over.
Crushed by heartbreak, Kenny started eating as a way to deal with his emotions.
“I was devastated. I wasn’t just broken-hearted, I was broken. And she never gave me a reason, just ended it. I didn’t know, emotionally, what to do with that. There was no closer. From that point, over the next year, I gained over 80 pounds. I ate, and I ate because food doesn’t reject you,” Saylors explained.
“When people see me they just see a fat guy. But what they don’t see is that I’m a person that struggles with every day. It’s something I’m trying to overcome. I know that there are much bigger people than me around, so I can’t even imagine what they are going through.”
Kenny continued to gain weight throughout the years. His weight increased dramatically between 2007 and 2008, from 235 pounds to a staggering 315 pounds. He finally decided enough was enough and entered a water fasting programme in 2009, three years after the separation with his ex.
So what exactly is a water fast? A research from 2021 describes water-only fasting as:
“An absolute cessation of food consumption while consuming water. This type of fasting is believed to improve health and can help motivate a healthy diet and lifestyle changes. It has been found that this type of intervention stimulates physiological effects that are potentially favorable to health. They include enhanced ketogenesis, modulated hormone activity, reduced inflammation and oxidative stress symptoms, lipolysis, autophagy, and improved physical and emotional well-being,” it reads.
We must first acknowledge and keep in mind that everyone of us is a unique individual before moving on.
While some people might find it simpler to lose weight than others, everyone has to put in some effort. One person’s success does not guarantee that another will have the same results from a particular strategy. So consult a doctor to find out what would work best for you before beginning any specific weight-loss programme or approach.
Kenny Saylors entered the fasting programme with the conviction that he could succeed. He was little over 53% body fat at the time. He had an amazing 55 days of nothing but water ahead of him.
Kenny’s doctor advised him to consume “Smartwater,” which has electrolytes added. Specific minerals known as electrolytes are required to control bodily cells and organs. We want to stress once more that anyone reading this article who has any thoughts of trying something similar should always talk to a doctor first.
Kenny underwent his first colonic irrigation just a few days into the fast, using warm water to help clean his colon of waste. After then, Kenny proceeded to eat nothing but water with the help of friends and family. Additionally, he played tennis and generally made an effort to exercise.
Incredibly, he continued to hang out with many of his friends at dinner parties and BBQs, all the while standing firm and never giving into the temptation of eating.
As the weeks went by, things got tough. Kenny steadily lost energy. Some days, he couldn’t even get out of bed. At first, he was supposed to be fasting for 40 days. But when he heard that the world record for fasting was 50 days – completed by a man named Agasi Vartanyan – Kenny decided that breaking it was a goal he had to aim for.
So how did he do? In the end, Kenny did magnificently. All told, he lost around 50 pounds! Now the route towards a healthier life was open for him. Sadly, just a few years later, he piled the weight on again, almost getting as heavy as 500 pounds.
As a result, in 2013, Kenny again dedicated himself to a healthier lifestyle. In addition, he started what he called “Reinventing Kenny,” where people could follow his journey.
“My quality of life due to obesity had driven me to an almost reclusive lifestyle. I could not walk across a flat parking lot without losing breath, or even take on stairs without agonizing pain in my joints from the pressures of carrying around so much fat,” Saylors wrote on his website.
“I didn’t WANT to be this way, but after more than a decade and hundreds of failed attempts to get my obesity under control – trying every eating plan, program, and lifestyle imaginable – I had become hopeless and resigned myself to the fact that I would be ‘the fat guy’ for the rest of my life.”
Kenny felt that he had to make a critical choice.
He had to act right away or suffer a “early, unnecessary death.” So he started taking selfies, which he later referred to as “the photos I never wanted to take,” to spur himself on and encourage others that a significant change was possible.
Kenny exerted himself. He improved his diet and workout regimen, which resulted in a weight loss of 80 pounds. Unfortunately, the Covid 19 epidemic caused a serious setback, and in 2021, other events prevented him from making any further progress.
“Life took an even harsher toll on me, as I faced a series of emotional challenges in my life that broke me almost entirely and brought me to the brink of depression. I weighed 420 pounds and realized I needed a goal in mind and the accountability of people around me to achieve the impossible,” he described.
Once and for all, Kenny felt that he needed to lose weight and get fit.
Through his social media channels, the inspiring Texas native now shares his weight-loss journey with the world. He has gotten the help of his friend and health expert John, who has made a program for Kenny that will hopefully make things easier.
Although he still has a long way to go to reach his goal of 220 pounds, Kenny is a true fighter. He simply refuses to gives in and, as a result, has become a great inspiration for others.
Today, he runs a production company with his brother, and is working on several documentary series as executive producer. His documentaries have been featured at film festivals all around the country.
In September, 2020 he celebrated a milestone moment after losing 100 pounds!
”This journey is full of immense highs and lows and requires dedication to truly change one’s life and fight the fat after more than a decade of bad habits and food addiction. This is why I have chosen to publicly document it all, in real-time, as I travel this road,” Kenny writes on his website.
Kenny Saylors is a true inspiration. Please, share this article on Facebook with your friends and family!
