When Lucas Pohl boarded a flight last summer, he didn’t know it would mark a turning point in his life. The Berlin resident had always carried extra weight, but when he couldn’t fasten his seatbelt and had to ask for an extender, “something inside me broke,” the 27-year-old said.
Pohl, who weighed about 150 kilograms (330 pounds) at the time, had been eating mostly cheap junk food and ready-made meals while earning €1,000 a month as a trainee. Fearing for his health, he decided to check into an obesity clinic. “I wasn’t sure how much longer my body could take it.”