From 265 to 140 Kilos: Slovak "Grizzly" Tomáš Sheds Half His Body Weight for Extreme Makeover Show

Tomáš Lorinc, a 36-year-old Slovak who once played football professionally before moving into football administration and later freight dispatching, weighed 265 kilograms when he signed up for the reality show "Extreme Makeover." Over nine months of training and dieting, he shed an astonishing 125 kilograms, finishing at 140 kg.

According to his mother Emília, before joining the show he would eat bacon, sausage, cold cuts and processed cheese, salami, a boiled egg, seven rolls, coffee, cola, an energy drink and sweets for dessert — all in a single breakfast, then repeat the cycle throughout the day. He could barely move: at work he sat all day, and a friend had to drive him home because he couldn't fit behind the wheel and didn't even have a driving licence. He slept sitting up, since lying down left him gasping under his own weight.

The Trainer's Shock and a Failed First Attempt

Coach Maroš Molnár admitted he was stunned the first time he saw Tomáš: "He's running on just three percent of his capacity. I actually felt sick myself. I've never seen a relatively young man in such a state." Trouble began right at the airport — the wheelchair's tyres burst as he was being seated, and the person meant to push it couldn't manage.

His first session on the treadmill lasted under five minutes — that was all Tomáš could take. Swimming proved easier. The coach also cut his daily calorie intake from seven thousand to 2,600 and boosted the protein in his diet.

Relapses and Alcohol Slowed His Progress

The coach set a target of 210 kilograms for the first three months. At home, his sister Adriana cooked for him, he kept training and even started to feel better — but setbacks soon followed: while on holiday in Croatia, he relapsed several times, drinking with friends.

"One broken rule triggers a whole chain of broken rules. You have to drop your old habits completely and rebuild new ones from scratch," the coach warned. The three-month weigh-in showed 215 kg — five kilograms short of the goal.

The six-month target was 175 kg, but again a few drinks with friends got in the way, prompting his frustrated sister to threaten to stop cooking separate meals for him. Tomáš himself admitted: "I'm not the type to have three decilitres of wine and go to bed. Once I start, I'm out for two days." The coach was blunt in response: alcohol has no place during weight loss, since it's empty calories that turn straight into fat.

The Finale: Minus 125 Kilos and Plastic Surgery

The six-month weigh-in went well, but at the nine-month mark, where 144 kg was expected, Tomáš once again missed the target — this time by 20 kilograms, despite the extra walking and other exercises the coach had prescribed. The coach even considered removing him from the show, but he stayed on thanks to his sister Adriana's intervention.

The turning point came when a doctor promised to assess whether Tomáš was a candidate for surgery to remove the excess sagging skin on his abdomen. That, it seems, proved to be the decisive motivation. At the final weigh-in in the TV studio, the scale showed 140 kilograms — a total loss of 125 kg. He also underwent plastic surgery. "I never want to see my old body again," he concluded.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by denik.cz