415-Lb Man Realized He Needed to Make Change When He Got Winded Walking DOWN 2 Flights of Stairs

As we all know, wake-up calls come in many forms.

For Stefan -- a New Yorker who was featured in People’s recent "Half Their Size" issue -- it came when he was 415 pounds and couldn’t make it down just two flights of stairs without getting winded.

"That's the point where I realized I needed to make a change," Stefan recalls.

"I had always really been a big guy," he explains. But when the post-college job hunt was more challenging than he expected, Stefan turned to food for comfort.

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Following his ah-ha moment while running down the stairs for a train in the summer of 2010, though, Stefan consulted a nutritionist and began to change his ways by swapping sugary drinks for water and cutting out carbs.

(Get his Simple Chicken Soup recipe here!)

And he's lost over 220 pounds! But it didn’t happen overnight.

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In fact, Stefan gained back the first 100 pounds that he lost at the beginning of his weight-loss journey. But after sitting down with himself again in 2016 and revisiting his goals, he lost another 130 pounds!

"These days," Stefan says, "once I get up, I’m good to go."

In fact, running is a hobby of his now -- and he’s even training for a marathon!

"That’s something that I would’ve never even thought about doing at 415 pounds," Stefan says.