As a teenager, Kevin Creekman struggled with his weight. In a recent episode of the transformation series Brand New Me, he describes how he simply “didn’t participate” in life, seeking refuge in junk food and video games. “I never had a girlfriend, I never was out partying,” he says. “I was a pretty addicted World of Warcraft player, my whole life was just spinning around this video game.”
At 18, he reached his heaviest, weighing more than 335 pounds. “I was at this point in life were I figured I have to change,” he says. “I started to lose a lot of weight because I didn’t want to die alone… I didn’t do any sports, so I figured the key was nutrition to lose weight, basically.”
Kevin eventually dropped a total of 180 pounds, transforming his body—but that left him with a lot of excess skin from such drastic weight loss. “I was carrying around this skin for many, many years,” he says. “I was in this skinny body with a lot of loose skin. My loose skin got in the way of feeling like I could say goodbye to my fat kid self in the past.”
In 2014, Kevin got his skin surgically removed, but he then became extremely self-conscious about the scars. “I felt like Frankenstein,” he says. “I never took off my top.”
He overcame these feelings two ways: first, he started getting large tattoos all over his body to cover up the scars, and he started working out in order to build more muscle. Over time, he was able to develop the confidence to take his shirt off at the beach—and he now he makes a full-time living as a model and influencer.
“I’m not ashamed any more,” he says. “I feel way more free in my skin.”
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