A teenager who was once known as the “world’s fattest boy” has shared an incredible transformation after losing half of his bodyweight.
Arya Permana, who weighed 190kg (419lb) at just nine years old, had faced serious adversity while growing up due to being morbidly overweight.
He reportedly used to eat five meals a day, consisting of enough food to fill two adult-sized plates each time, and had to be washed outside in a purpose-built pool.
But now, after overhauling his diet and starting to love exercising following weight-loss surgery, Arya has undergone an incredible transformation.
Arya weighed over 400lb at just nine years old. Credit: Jefta Images/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Arya, who is from Karawang, West Java, in Indonesia, had previously struggled to do simple activities like bathing or even just walking down the road, but is now an active teenager who loves to play badminton with his school friends.
He first shared his amazing weight loss in 2019 when he was 14, when he posed alongside life-sized photos of himself at his largest a few years earlier.
Through a diet and exercise regime as well as weight loss surgery, Arya lost a massive 220lb – half of his body weight.
After dropping such a huge amount of weight, the teen was left with excess skin all over his body, which he was self-conscious about and would try to cover with long-sleeved shirts, and which would rub and irritate him while he played sports.
He was most bothered by the loose skin on his arms, and underwent the first of at least four surgeries to remove it in July 2019 at the Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung.
Arya showed off his before and after results after losing half his bodyweight. Credit: Jefri Tarigan/Future Publishing via Getty Images
His mother Rokayah previously revealed to the BBC that Arya’s weight began to spiral out of control when he was around eight years old, and he refused to ever eat just one plate of anything she gave him.
She revealed that he would “get angry and cry and cry” if she didn’t give him the food he wanted, which included noodles, meatball soup, and porridge.
By the time he was nine, he was no longer able to walk to school because he would be too breathless, and by 10 he was no longer able to leave home or hang out with his friends.
His mother put him on a diet recommended by the doctor to begin to lose weight, before he underwent bariatric surgery to reduce the size of his stomach and restrict the volume of food he could eat.
He also worked with celebrity personal trainer and bodybuilder Ade Rai to improve his fitness, who revealed to the Jakarta Post: “I only support him. He likes sports. When he was still very fat he liked soccer.
“The kind of support that I can give him is to share with his parents about the importance of keeping to a good diet and their motivation to support Arya.
“Arya is now a symbol of hope. People now say: ‘Even Arya can lose weight, so why can’t I?'”