Man loses nearly 200lbs so he can ride roller coaster on the day it opens

We all have our passions in life, and one man's love of rollercoasters motivated him to lose over 200lbs so that he could ride a new coaster at his favorite park on opening day.

Jared Ream weighed 430lbs at his heaviest which meant that he was unable to safely ride rollercoasters, but when Kings Island in Ohio announced its plans for its new Orion roller coaster, he decided to change his life for the better.

This resulted in him losing an incredible 190lbs in less than a year.

Recounting his love of rollercoasters and his battle with his weight in the Springfield News-Sun, Jared explained that he had ridden 300 all over the country by the time he had his first "Walk of Shame".

This is when a rider is told to leave a ride because the safety harness won't fit around their body.

"Being told that you are too big to ride a coaster is painful for anyone, but it was especially hard when I had my first 'Walk of Shame' on Millennium Force," Jared wrote, adding that the 310-foot coaster is his all-time favorite and the reason he loved rollercoasters so much in the first place.

Mortified by the experience, he went on to lose over 100lbs.

But when Jared got a desk job, his weight ballooned to 300lbs once again, and he eventually weighed 430lbs, which is when he stopped visiting theme parks.

He finally decided that he wanted to get back to doing what he loved when the park he grew up visiting announced that it would be building the 300-foot-tall Orion coaster.

When the park announced the creation of their latest rollercoaster in August 2019, Jared decided that he "would lose all the weight and ride it on opening day."

The rollercoaster was initially scheduled to open on April 11, 2020, which was around eight months away.

To achieve his goal, Jared wrote that he tried to consume less than 2,000 calories a day and slowly but surely began to exercise; additionally, he began fasting intermittently and developed a solid sleeping schedule.

Jared continued to fight his way toward his weight loss goal, hitting it before his April deadline.

However, as a result of the current pandemic, it would still be some time before he would be able to ride rollercoasters again, so he continued with his weight loss routine.

Then, after all his hard work, the day Jared had been longing for finally came on July 2 when the park and Orion opened.

When Kings Island got wind of Jared's incredible weight loss journey, they extended a personal invitation for him to ride the rollercoaster.

He went on to ride the Orion a whopping four times in one day.

"You couldn't see it because of my mask, but I had the biggest smile on my face. I was so happy and excited that I forgot to look around and enjoy the view," Ream wrote of his first ride on the coveted rollercoaster.

"I was having the time of my life. We hit that final break run and all I could think was, 'Amazing!'"