YT: Matt Diaz has worked extremely hard to lose 270 pounds over the past six years. But his proudest moment came in March 2015 when he decided to film himself with his shirt off to prove an important point about body positivity and self-love.
Shortly after he posted the video online, it quickly went viral on Tumblr, garnering thousands of shares and comments from people around the web. I was one of the thousands touched by the video, so I reached out to Matt to find out more about what motivated him and what he hopes others can take away from his story. Here's what he had to say:
Why was it so important for you to post this video?
"I'm a really big advocate for self-love and body positivity. I think it's important that we learn to love the bodies we're in, even if we don't necessarily like every little thing about them. However, in the time I'd been writing and talking about it, I'd never actually shown my excess skin to anyone. It felt dishonest somehow, to others and to myself. I couldn't tell others that I wanted them to love themselves and keep myself hidden away and ashamed of my skin." "I know what it feels like to hate your body, and to be depressed about it, and I never want anyone to feel that way again. So, if making myself vulnerable can help one person, why not?" — Matt Diaz
6 Comments
AeroMechanicalsays...I believe that can be helped a great deal through surgery. It's probably expensive and an unpleasant experience, but if his excess skin is a source of such inner turmoil, it's probably worth him pursuing the options. It's a fine thing to love the body your in, but there's also nothing wrong with changing something you don't like.
Sniper007says...Congratulations to him on such incredible progress. All I can really say beyond that is... keep going. Much of what he's showing is actually stubborn subcutaneous fat reserves, not excess skin.
"This isn’t really bad news, believe it or not. It actually means that you’re almost there. It means that your “loose skin” isn’t necessarily out of your control. If indeed it is simply stubborn subcutaneous fat, once you manage to lose the excess fat, the “loose skin” might just disappear along with it. In fact, I’d imagine that most such cases of “loose skin” can and will be remedied in this manner. Men, get down to around 10-12% body fat before you start considering surgery or anything drastic. Women, get down to 15-17% body fat before taking any surgical steps." Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-get-rid-of-excess-skin-after-major-weight-loss/#ixzz3UtOlXdsV
newtboyCouldn't he have it surgically removed and donate it to a burn victim, so they wouldn't have to use reconstituted cadaver skin? He might even be able to make a deal where the burn victim pays for the removal and maybe throws in some lipo for his trouble. That seems like a win win situation to me.
OverLordGood on him.
mintbbbYay!
http://www.gofundme.com/p2xv90
'Matt's Excess Skin Removal Surgery'
He has received $32,920 of (hoping to get ) $20k !
makachMotivational!
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