When Hunter Hughes ran into his grandfather at the local shoe store, his grandfather didn't recognize him.
It's happened a lot since Hughes lost weight. Someone he knows will walk past him, and it's not until he speaks up that they realize it's him. Always, they comment on how different he looks.
Hughes, 27, of Lafayette, Indiana, admits he has a hard time noticing the change in his appearance. "It's weird, like, I still look at myself the same as I always have," Hughes tells TODAY.com. "I look at my face every day, so I don't see a huge change unless I go back and look at pictures. But bumping into some people I haven't seen for a while, I kind of get, 'Oh, yeah, I did lose 145 pounds.'"
While the physical changes have taken some time for Hughes to adjust to, he's acutely aware of what his body is now capable of.
For so long, Hughes had a narrow idea of what it meant to be an athlete, but now that he is a runner, he's come to discover the joys of movement, its diversity and the drive that comes with it. Hughes has accomplished feats he could have never imagined since he decided to start running, and he credits it all to one conversation.
Rather than telling him to exercise more or change his eating habits, Hughes' father and brother simply invited him to join them at the gym one day in February 2023.
"Well, I can't really tell my brother and my dad no if they're asking me to go to the gym with them," recalls Hughes, so he agreed. He joined his father and brother at his parents' home gym two days after he received the invitation, and he's been exercising five days per week ever since.
Hughes started slowly. After all, he wasn't accustomed to such rigorous movement.
"I've always been overweight," says Hughes. "I remember being the biggest kid in class back in first grade." Unlike his brother and his dad, who were always active, Hughes didn't play sports and preferred spending time with his friends playing video games. As he grew up, his habits didn't change much.
"Before I started getting into fitness and everything, I just really didn't have any kind of healthy diet at all. I was eating out for lunch and dinner most days and just eating junk food and fast food and whatever I could get my hands on. Really kind of emotional eating too," says Hughes. When he was depressed, he turned to food and when he was anxious food was how he coped, too. "Food was always there," Hughes says.
"I didn't really have any healthy habits. So, I'd get off work, play video games until 3 a.m., and then sleep until 2 p.m. the next day." He weighed 330 pounds.
To Hughes, the epitome of athleticism was running. The kind of endurance it required, he thought, was the ultimate signifier of fitness. But now that he was regularly working out, he knew getting there would take some time.
Approaching weight loss with patience was new to Hughes.
"Back in high school, I would try so hard to lose weight and remain consistent," says Hughes. "And I always had this idea that I would just start off running." But every time he'd lose his motivation.
This time around, he planned to slowly build his stamina.
For the first few months, Hughes focused on body weight exercises. He'd perfected his form for pushups and squats while dedicating 45 minutes to HIIT training. After each session, he'd set off on a 45-minute walk. "I wanted to start running. I was super into the idea of running, but at 330 pounds, it's not even possible to start running. So, I walked a lot."
When Hughes lost the first 40 pounds, he noticed his motivation increasing. "If I keep doing everything right, if I keep eating right, if I keep this motivation, then eventually I'll be able to run," he thought. So, he ramped things up.
His father helped him master his form as he started lifting weights and Hughes began hiking. "Instead of just walking, I would go to this hiking trail near my house, and they had a big staircase there," says Hughes. He'd walk up and down the steps every day. Then, to up the ante, he started wearing a weighted vest. He started with 10 pounds, then 20 pounds strapped to his chest and back during his hikes.
When he was 90 pounds down, he hiked 12 miles while carrying 60 pounds.
Coupled with his new exercise routine, Hughes prioritized balanced meals throughout the day. He focuses on eating whole foods 80 % of the time and allowing himself the occasional treat for the other 20%. "I still eat a little bit of ice cream here and there. You know, a couple times a week go out for dinner with family," says Hughes.
Most of his meals include protein such as beef, turkey or chicken, and breakfast is typically eggs with a bit of cheese.
In the past, when Hughes found himself giving into cravings or eating emotionally, he'd toss his entire healthy eating plan out of the window. But this time around, he kept a journal that offered him perspective.
In it, he logged his workouts and his meals. Now, even if he treated himself to an indulgent meal or snack, he could look back at his journal and take note of the fact that his eating habits were typically nutritious. When it was all written down, he could easily take note of the balance he'd established for himself.
He was easier on himself now. "When I would mess up, or when I wasn't feeling motivated, I would just understand that that's like super normal to go through," says Hughes. "I always had that notebook to go back to and look at everything that I had already done."
When Hughes was ready to up his pace from walking and hiking to running, he turned to the Couch to 5K app and started running on the treadmill. The app offered him a training plan to establish his running pace and build his confidence.
"(The app), that kind of changed my entire perspective on how to run," Hughes says. The built-in breaks in the running plan helped him realize he was still a runner even if he needed to walk from time to time.
After a month of using it, Hughes started running outside. He began by running for a minute and then walking for 30 seconds. And as he built his endurance, he'd run for longer intervals. "I just followed the kind of principle of (running) for as long as you can," he says. He'd walk when he needed to and then increased his pace again.
When Hughes realized running didn't have to be a consistent sprint, he joined the Slow AF Running Club, a Facebook Group where he's found community with other runners who encourage each other to keep pushing themselves.
"It doesn't matter how fast you're going. It doesn't matter if you're walking half of your run. It's just challenging yourself to do better," says Hughes. "You can't put yourself up against, like, marathon runners and stuff when you're absolutely beginning."
"Slow (AF Running Club) is a great place to connect with people that are just trying to better themselves. They don't care if they have a 14- or 15-minute mile or if some people walk faster than their 5K pace. So, yeah, slow running, it's super important."
Since beginning this journey two years ago, Hughes has run several 5K races and 10 Spartan races. He's discovering abilities he never knew he had. "Once you get down to 185, for me, it was really cool, because I'm able to do an insane amount of pull-ups, pushups, dips," he says. "I can move my own weight around freely, which is a crazy feeling. Like, I can do a handstand, which I never thought I could do that at 330."
Hughes' next goal is to hike Pikes Peak, a 14, 115-foot mountain in Colorado Springs.
But it's on hold for now as Hughes recovers from an injury he sustained at the gym. He's unable to exercise ahead of hernia surgery scheduled for December 2024. After that, he'll have to wait another eight weeks before he can exercise again.
As doctor's orders keep him resting at home, Hughes has noticed he feels unsettled without his workout routine.
Aside from losing 145 pounds, his lifestyle changes have brought him closer to his parents and brother, who he'd see daily at the family's gym. Hughes would watch hours of YouTube videos on strength-training with his dad who introduced him to weightlifting. He's always had a great relationship with his family, but "it's great we see each other all the time, and it's cool to have something to bond (over)," says Hughes.
He finds himself wondering about the challenge it will be to get back into the gym and start running again, but then he remembers all the things he'll be able to do and the motivation comes rushing back. What's one more feat?