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Pascal Rwabukamba weighed 453 pounds, had a 62-inch waist, and required size 5XL shirts, which never made for an easy shopping experience. Light exercise left him winded and sweating on days that weren't even hot outside. And, he'd begun experiencing fluid retention in his feet, persistent thirst, and poor sleep quality.

Since childhood, the years had been a carb-filled, gluttonous whir. Now, with his confidence level at an all-time low, he was only going places he needed to: work, church, and his usual stops at convenience stores and restaurants.

Type 2 diabetes ran in his family, so Rwabukamba was genetically susceptible to it. And he began to feel like he'd been steering right into its swell.

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I developed insulin resistance, which is a pre-diabetic stage, Rwabukamba says. I was very fortunate to jump off this sinking ship before type 2 diabetes took hold.

In 2014, Rwabukamba decided that, to save his life, he'd have to try something completely different. He needed a change that would last longer than the time between cravings.

At 453 pounds, my weight was not just an inconvenience to my everyday life, I also feared I was setting myself up for type 2 diabetes. My weight challenges started in my early teenage years and remained throughout adulthood. I just wasn't happy, and I was looking at a shortened, unhealthy life span.

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This wasn't my first weight-loss attempt but it was my most challenging. I knew this would be an uphill battle, but I also knew that a tough mindset would be my greatest weapon.

I started working out in the gym at my apartment complex. The first few days were brutal. Fifteen minutes of light aerobic training on any machine felt like an eternity. As weeks and months went by, I could do 30-45 minutes of cardio and 15 minutes of weight training comfortably. Within eight months, I had dropped 80 pounds and 6 inches off my waist.

In 2015, my apartment gym was closed for days due to repairs, so I joined a local gym. With more equipment at the local gym, I switched up my training routine to 30-40 minutes of weights and 15-30 minutes of cardio.

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I also highly recommend organic apple cider vinegar, 100-percent concentrated lemon juice, cold-pressed coconut oil, and cold-pressed olive oil for internal health. I also consume black coffee.

With my busy schedule, it was hard to squeeze in meals every few hours when I was first starting out, and especially when I went back to school in 2015. To some extent, I was doing intermittent fasting without trying. I wouldn't always get all three main meals and snacks down every day, but I made sure to get a minimum of two full meals plus a snack and post-workout protein shake after I trained.

My injuries! In late summer of 2015, I began to experience sharp pain and discomfort in my left shoulder and back area. Eventually I couldn't lift anything with my left arm. I finally went to my doctor who diagnosed it as a pinched nerve and muscle spasm.

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I was prescribed some muscle relaxers, but they didn't help. Then, I went to a chiropractor who did adjustments once or twice a month for two years, which did actually help a lot.

During this time, though, I continued to train. Unfortunately, the injury caused me to develop some bad form habits. This made things worse by creating major muscle imbalances and slower muscle response to weight-training exercises in my left, weaker side compared to my right.

I now do a lot more stretching and foam rolling. With time, I believe things will get better and return to normal.

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Weights and cardio. However, I'm still dealing with my injury today, so that has limited my current training to only machines, and bodyweight and isolation workouts. Sometimes, I still do compound movements like squats and deadlifts—but with lights weights—to see how my body responds. As far as cardio goes, I try to switch it up, but jumping rope is the one that gets me sweating the most.

But, my weight loss has been much more than a physical transformation. It also has been a learning experience. Now, I want to be a voice of hope and inspiration for those who have thought about losing weight but lack the motivation, for those who have attempted and have given up, and for those who consider surgery or using weight-loss pills as a last resort.

I am willing to go anywhere and everywhere I can to help make a difference through sharing my story. So, I am beginning to launch myself as a health-and-wellness motivator and consultant. I want to work with individuals, businesses, organizations, and government officials to implement a healthy lifestyle with guided inspiration.When a competitor undergoes a dramatic weight-loss transformation but lacks the chiseled physique and symmetrical perfection to win, do they still have a place on the stage?

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Sitting in a quiet auditorium watching competitors file out on stage, you notice one participant who stands out. He has the suit, the tan, the technique—but he definitely doesn't look like everyone else. He's got a few stretch marks on his belly and not enough muscle to fill out the loose skin around his stomach or arms.

As a fan of , you admire anyone who has the guts to step on stage, but this guy has you baffled—why compete if you have no chance of winning? Then your neighbor leans over and whispers, How embarrassing. That dude has no business being on stage. 

This is a very touchy subject. And whatever your response to that competitor, you're not alone. The weight-loss transformation has become a fairly regular sight on the competitive stage in recent years, especially at local and regional shows, and one has been the subject of plenty of online discussion recently. Many believe that every competitor has a right to showcase his or her hard work, while others find it strange, or even offensive, to compete if you have no real chance of winning.

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It's easy—perhaps too easy— to cast this conversation entirely in terms of winning and losing. After all, as I wrote in my article Three Question to Ask Yourself Before You Decide to Compete, the vast majority of petitors aren't there to finish in the middle of the pack—they're there to win. But clearly, that dialogue doesn't capture what's going on here.

There's no doubt that achieving lasting weight loss is incredibly difficult. Losing just 5 pounds is difficult for many, but losing 100 pounds or more? It often seems impossible. But, Louis Sheppard did just that.

When Louis first began his weight loss journey, which chronicled in the video Give Yourself One Good Year, he didn't set out to inspire others. He was a 350-pound man trying to avoid the same fate as his childhood friend, who had passed away from obesity-related complications at age 37. Knowing he had to lose weight to save his life, Louis started working out at a gym where he met people who were training for competitions.

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I learned how to work out from people who were training to get onstage, explains Louis, I just thought it was part of being fit.

As he recalls, There was a guy up there who had just gone through his own transformation, and I thought to myself, 'What's the difference between him and me? I could do that.'

Louis found new motivation in competition and developed a new purpose—to show people it is possible to lose 100 pounds in a year. True to form, one year later he'd lost 105 pounds and stepped onstage himself to compete.

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I know I didn't look like the guy standing next to me who has been doing this for 20 years, he says, two years later. That's not the point. Where I started from and how I overcame it—that's the important thing.

For Louis, the show was an end point to a crucial part of his journey. For the sport of , it was a chance to inspire other people waiting to get the push they needed to change their lives. He showed them what is possible, and wore his results without shame in the bright lights.

The harsh reality for a competitor who doesn't quite fit the classic aesthetic is they will, almost inevitably, cross paths with people who simply assume they don't belong. Recently, a female competitor named Jana Roller underwent a 140-pound weight loss before stepping onstage. She then set social media ablaze by calling out the photographer for deliberately omitting her photo from the competition's website. According to a FOX News story, the photographer said he contacted her privately and told her he didn't put them up because he figured she would be embarrassed and want them taken down.

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As she explains in an Instagram post, she felt he did her an injustice because she'd earned the right to be there.

I worked for 2 years, lost 140 lbs., went through prep just like everyone else, she wrote. I stuck to the plan, did hours of cardio, 5 a.m. sessions. I worked just as hard