A man who once weighed 500lbs has revealed that he is forced to wear a woman’s girdle to hold in the sagging excess skin on his stomach after his incredible 280lb weight loss.
Cody Key watched his weight spiral out of control while growing up in a small town in Alabama, but his morbid obesity left him plagued with insecurity. Determined to make a change, he shed more than half his body weight by following a healthy diet and exercise routine.
‘I was always a bubbly person. I always had a good personality, but because of the sagging skin, my self-esteem started coming down,’ Cody explains in a preview clip from Wednesday’s episode of the TLC series Skin Tight.
Daily struggle: Cody Key has to wear a girdle (pictured) every day to hold in the sagging skin on his stomach
Dramatic weight loss: The Alabama-native was left with a deformed chest and droopy skin on his stomach after losing more than 280lbs
Then and wow! At his heaviest, Cody weighed 500lbs after his high school graduation
‘That person slowly started disappearing, and I became more of a hermit that I ever have been in my life.’
Cody weighed 500lbs when he graduated the 12th grade, but that didn’t stop him from following his high school sweetheart to Florida.
He eventually returned to Alabama to lose weight once and for all in hopes of achieving a body that he could feel proud of.
However, his dramatic weight loss left him with unsightly excess skin and a deformed chest that has him feeling even more insecure.
‘I feel like my stomach is my main problem area, so I wear a woman’s wire girdle,’ he explains. ‘It helps with my shape a little bit, but I hate having to go buy them. I hate having to wear them.’
Misery: ‘It helps with my shape a little bit, but I hate having to go buy them. I hate having to wear them,’ Cody says of his girdle
Support system: Cody says he has to make sure he has one every single day because he ‘won’t leave the house without it’
Holding him back: Cody wants to be a personal trainer, but he fears no one will take him seriously because of the droopy skin on his stomach
Cody says he has to make sure he has one every single day because he ‘won’t leave the house without it.’
‘The skin creates a feeling of shame and failure, and it’s keeping me from growing up and getting a career,’ he admits.
Cody explains that he wants to work in the fitness field as a personal trainer and one day own his own gym, but he fears people won’t take him seriously because of the droopy skin on his body.
‘I am living proof if you put your mind to it and you stick with it you can make whatever you want happen happen,’ he says.
‘I feel like people are going to look at me and be like, “Why is he trying to be a personal trainer? Look at his body. He’s still big. He’s still flabby.”
‘I’ve done everything in my power to lose the skin, but there is only so much that you can do on your own,’ he adds. ‘I’m just desperate for the skin to be gone.’