Video: Watch Robert Walls visit the surgeon before op to have excess skin removed
- Robert Walls has shrunk from 962lbs to 205lbs in the past five years after having life-saving surgery
- Prior to undergoing gastric bypass surgery, Walls was living in an old people's home because he couldn't look after himself
- Now he works as a line chief and wants to use his amazing journey as a means to support and inspire others
- 'I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I'm going to tell them the real horrors of where obesity could get them,' he said
- The 33-year-old also warns people that surgery isn't a magic fix and he still struggles with his health and with his self-image
A 33-year-old man who at his heaviest weighed in at a colossal 962 pounds has undergone an astounding transformation in the last five years that has seen him emerge a fraction of his former self.
At 205 pounds, Robert Walls is less than a quarter of the man he used to be and now he hopes that his amazing journey will help inspire others.
At his heaviest, Walls, an aspiring chef who works as a line cook in Lawrence, Kansas, was confined to a nursing home surrounded by elderly people waiting to die.
Not the man he used to be: Robert Walls now weighs about a quarter of what he did before he underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2008
When he took the decision to undergo gastric bypass surgery in 2008 he had to because otherwise he was likely going to die.
‘Gastric bypass is not a magic fix,’ he told LJWorld.com. ‘Just because you have weight loss surgery doesn't mean you can continue to live the life you're living.’
In addition to his weight loss, he also had to undergo additional surgery to remove the hundreds of pounds of excess skin that hung of his body after he lost all the weight.
He is quick to point out that an operation isn’t a simple fix and he has put in long hours at the gym and on the basketball court since his operation to reduce his weight.
When Walls underwent the five-hour bypass operation in September 2008 he weighed 844 pounds after he had to loss 100 pounds to be able to have the surgery
Now he hopes that his hard work will inspire others to lose weight and get in shape.
When Walls had lost about 400 pounds, it became apparent he would need surgery to remove the loose, hanging skin on his body
‘I'm willing to do anything I can do to help others not get to where I was,’ he said.
He has already counseled several teens and adults struggling with obesity, as well as people set to have gastric bypass surgery.
'Don't listen to anybody, if you think you can do it, do it,' he told WIBW.
‘I'll speak to any group of people, whether it's kids or adults. But they have to be prepared to hear the truth. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I'm going to tell them I was so big I couldn't fit behind the wheel of a car. I'm going to tell them the real horrors of where obesity could get them.’
When Walls graduated from high school in 2000, he weighed 330 pounds. He was always a big guy; his problem wasn't so much with the foods he ate, he says, but portion sizes.
‘I was always a bigger guy, and I gradually started getting bigger,’ said Walls. ‘I had issues just like any other big person did, but I never thought there was anything wrong with me. I was happy being Big Rob. But as I started getting bigger and sicker, I started becoming more ashamed.’
‘The job didn’t work out - it got to a point where I couldn’t physically handle the job,’ he told the Midland Reporter-Telegram. ‘I didn’t have any family where I was. Before you know it, I found myself homeless.’
Walls attempted different diets and weight-loss plans, but the pounds never stayed off.
‘I was trying all this different stuff. I lost a couple hundred pounds from different diets, but even then, I couldn’t sustain it. I would lose 200 pounds and then gain 50.’
Eventually, Walls ended up in the hospital, where they made the decision to admit him to a nursing home.
‘I couldn’t go out and work. I couldn’t stand on my feet 10 hours a day,’ he said. ‘It was like being in prison - not being able to do anything for yourself.’
Walls was in and out of nursing homes for a few years, a time he described as ‘very, very lonely.’
Robert Walls, laughs with friends and tosses a football around in Lawrence, Kan., on Friday. He wants to use his story to help others prevent or overcome obesity
‘I spent a lot of time in those nursing homes by myself, staring at the walls, online chatting, doing graphic design work, even online dating,’ he said.
‘I was very standoffish with family and friends. I would go months, sometimes years, without talking to family. I would never visit family and friends because I was so ashamed. I went from being a very rah-rah, outgoing, front-of-the-crowd person to being more withdrawn.’
But there was an upside to all the loneliness. Though he was stuck in hospital and nursing home beds, Walls decided to continue his education. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in hotel restaurant management and degrees in culinary arts and graphic design.
Then, he met two people who he said saved his life.
Ron Goodman and Paige Whitney were both nurses at Walls’ nursing home, and they introduced him to the gastric bypass surgery.
'They were telling me how they felt I was too young to be in a nursing home,' said Walls.
Walls said he has already counseled several teens and adults struggling with obesity, as well as people set to have gastric bypass surgery
'I was 27, and I was seeing people die every day. I would go to breakfast with a lady who’s 75 or 80 years old and have a conversation with her, and then I would go look for her at lunch - and she’d be gone. I was living in a place where people go to die.'
Walls was approved for the gastric bypass surgery, a procedure that divides the stomach and leads to a smaller functional stomach volume.
When accompanied with diet and exercise, patients lose a large amount of weight over time.
Dr. Subhash Nagalla, a bariatric surgeon at Odessa Regional Medical Center, said people with a body mass index (BMI) over 40, or over 35 with life-threatening conditions, qualify for the gastric bypass surgery. A normal BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9.
First, Walls had to lose more than 100 pounds to prepare for the surgery. When he underwent the five-hour operation in September 2008, he weighed 844 pounds.
Weight loss after gastric bypass surgery varies widely depending on how seriously the patient follows a proper diet and exercise, Nagalla said. Most patients typically lose about 40 pounds by the second month after surgery and 100 by the sixth month.
Walls says his battle didn't end with weight-loss surgery and he still struggles with his health and with his self-image following the startling change
By Walls’ first month check-up, he had already lost 100 pounds.
However, that weight didn’t come off easily, Walls said. The gastric bypass surgery involves special diets that must be followed, or patients could gain back all the weight they’ve lost. Walls was put on a diet where he was only able to eat two-ounce portions of food at a time.
'I went from being able to eat KFC every day to eating puréed food and protein shakes,' he said. 'All of my favorite things were pretty much nonexistent.'
Walls continued losing weight over the next few years. When he had lost about 400 pounds, it became apparent he would need surgery to remove the loose, hanging skin on his body.
More than 90 percent of patients who undergo weight loss surgery experience loose skin, Nagalla said. The skin loses its elasticity because of significant stretching to accommodate excessive weight gain. Eventually, it reaches a state where it cannot recoil after dramatic weight loss.
Walls is quick to point out that an operation isn¿t a simple fix and he has put in long hours at the gym and on the basketball court since his operation to reduce his weight
Though Walls has been interviewed by Lifetime Television, A&E and Food Network to appear on various shows, he said he doesn’t want to glamorize the weight loss process.
'I feel they don’t give a very accurate glimpse, a real enough glimpse, of what a person goes through,' he said. 'I don’t want to tell my story from a glitzy, glamoury, "it was easy" perspective. Because it’s not. It’s not easy.'
As for reality weight loss shows like The Biggest Loser - Walls said they’re a 'total crock.'
'Those people have every celebrity fitness trainer, every celebrity dietitian, every celebrity everything,' he said.
'They lose 100 pounds, they go off the show and then six months later, you see them on the red carpet somewhere enjoying their 15 minutes of fame - and they’ve gained it all back, plus 20 pounds.
'I’d really just like to stress that it does not happen overnight. It’s not easy. Don’t believe what you see on TV - with the magic diets and people having these weight loss surgeries and all of a sudden they’re smaller.'
Walls says that reality weight loss shows like The Biggest Loser are a 'total crock'
For Walls, his battle didn't end with weight-loss surgery.
He said he still struggles with his health, and has even lost jobs because he was too ill to show up. And the body-image issues don't go away, either.
'There's still times today I'm totally not comfortable with the fact that I've lost all the weight. I look at myself in the mirror and think, "Damn, I look sick, or, Man, I need to eat something,'" he said. 'It's just such a change.
'It's a hard adjustment for me every day. But every day, I get a little more comfortable with myself.'
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