Jacques Robinson is half the man he used to be - literally.
The 23-year-old tipped the scales at 190kg in 2018 but has since dropped to about about 96kg.
Now, the Warkworth man hopes to inspire others to begin their weight loss journey and become healthier versions of themselves.
"I don't feel like the person I used to be at all, I feel like a completely changed person," he told the Herald.
"I never ever thought I'd be under 100kg and, back then, I never thought about it. It took me a while to actually start believing in myself that I could do it."
In 2017, Robinson got very sick, was having seizures up to seven times a day, barely sleeping and needed to take nearly 30 pills a day.
He put on between 20 and 30kg at the time, much of it due to stress and overeating as an escape from reality.
After spending time in hospital, Robinson decided to turn his life around.
"I was getting worse and worse, I didn't see any future. I thought I was going to die pretty much," he said.
"Those things were escalating quite quickly really and a lot of it probably had to do with the weight I was carrying."
Originally, the only thing Robinson was able to do was walk. So he did, in the morning and at night on the treadmill at his home.
He lost weight over time but he then decided to get a gym membership and a personal trainer to help him on his journey.
"It wasn't until I joined the gym and got a personal trainer that I actually started to notice huge differences in my weight loss," Robinson said.
"It wasn't until the halfway point I really noticed a big difference."
Now he feels like a completely different person, fit and healthy with no more health problems, after dropping around 90kg in weight.
Now training to become a personal trainer himself, Robinson works at Fit Factory in Warkworth and is getting valuable experience there.
Sharing his story was a small step Robinson thought he could take which, in turn, could be "a really big thing" for someone else.
When he started, Robinson said he had no one to look to for inspiration or advice and he did not want anyone else to be in the same boat.
"I think that the first thing that people need to do is make a goal that's doable ... have big goals but have little ones so that you don't get overwhelmed," he said.
"There's not one particular thing for everyone. Everyone has their own type of thing that they can succeed in so try and finding that can be tricky. Putting in daily exercise even if it's just a walk to get the body moving is a start.
"And then I think it all kind of moulds together: Losing weight, healthy lifestyle, healthy mind, all of that."