Obese Man Loses 300 Pounds Walking to Walmart for Every Meal–Now He’s a Bodybuilder

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In his mid-twenties, Pasquale “Fat Pat” Brocco weighed 605 pounds (approx. 272 kg). Working as a bodyguard, Brocco indulged in sugary snacks and avoided the stairs of his apartment building; that was until his doctor delivered a frightening prognosis.

Spurred into action, Brocco embarked on an ambitious weight loss journey. It started by walking to Walmart every day.

“Every day was hard for me,” Brocco admitted to Fox 10. “I could hardly walk. I used to live on the second floor. I used to hate leaving my house to walk up the stairs.”

Brocco’s high blood pressure and high cholesterol, both a result of his excess weight, had put him at risk of numerous serious health conditions. “I was pre-diabetic, high blood pressure, high cholesterol,” he explained. “I had a fatty liver. You name it, I had it.”

“It was scary,” Brocco continued. “I didn’t want to die; I was 27.” Upon returning home from the doctor, Brocco stripped off his shirt and took a “before” selfie in front of his mirror.

“My stomach was down to my thighs,” he told ABC News. “My chest was hanging down [to my stomach]. I was disgusted.” A new health and fitness regime, however, was about to change his life.

Brocco, from Avondale, Arizona, cleared his house of junk food and imposed a new rule: if he wanted food, he would have to walk to Walmart to buy it. The trips on foot soon amassed up to 6 miles of walking per day.

According to ABC, Brocco’s pre-weight loss diet consisted of 11,200 calories per day and not a vegetable in sight. During his weight loss, Brocco switched out the junk food for fresh vegetables, lean chicken breast, brown rice, egg whites, almonds, and sweet potatoes, totaling just 2,250 calories per day.

Brocco lost over 200 pounds (approx. 91 kg) in the first two years of the new regime. Noticing a taper in his progress, however, he reassessed the content of his diet. “Once I figured out dairy was my downfall, I took it out of my diet,” he explained, “and instantly I started losing weight again.”

Then came the workout routine. Now able to fit his slimmed-down body onto gym machines, Brocco started using the treadmill and lifting weights.

On March 18, 2018, Brocco took to Instagram. “Size 58 to size 36 waist size, 7XL shirt to XL,” he posted. “I’m just glad I can buy clothes because at 600lbs [you’re] limited on what you can wear and where you can get it from!”

The previously “Fat Pat” had metamorphosed into “Possible Pat.” However, while Brocco has slimmed down to an impressive 7 percent body fat, he was left with a huge 7 feet of excess skin.

Having heard about Brocco’s self-motivated transformation through social media, though, plastic surgeon Dr. Remus Repta offered to perform the skin-removal surgery that Brocco needed, usually costing in the region of $40,000, free of charge. Brocco took three months off from training to rest and recover.

He came back with a vengeance.

In celebration of his extraordinary full-body transformation, Brocco entered a bodybuilding competition and won. As of 2020, the father of one is a certified fitness trainer and has a huge social media following, with some 363,000 followers on Instagram.

“Possible Pat” accomplished what many may have deemed impossible and doesn’t plan on quitting any time soon. Brocco opened up to Good Morning America that he also hopes his journey will inspire his 4-year-old son to believe he can achieve anything.

“I think the hardest thing is just getting started,” Brocco told Fox 10. “A lot of people lack faith. They can do it. I’m the perfect example that you can [...] I’m no better than anyone.”

“The only thing I did differently,” he reflected, “is that I started and kept going.”