Ohio Man Loses Nearly 200 Pounds in Order to Ride Dream Roller Coaster: It ‘Changed My Life’

A man in the US state of Ohio loves roller coasters so much that he lost 45 kilograms in less than a year just to be able to fit inside a ride.
Jared Ream fell in love with roller coasters the first time he visited an amusement park in Mason, Ohio. Since then, he returned several times to the park called ‘Kings Island’ to go on rides.Roller coaster enthusiast Jared Ream would do anything to feel the rush of a new thrill ride — even lose 190 pounds!

The Dayton, Ohio, native, 35, recently penned a first-person essay for Dayton.com explaining how he was motivated to lose almost half of his body weight in order to ride a new roller coaster coming to his local amusement park, Kings Island, in Mason, Ohio.

According to Ream, he has always been a big guy — he’s 6’9” tall and weighed over 400 pounds at his heaviest. Unfortunately, his size has often come in between him and his biggest passion in life: riding roller coasters.
However, as he aged, he started gaining a lot of weight. As a result, he struggled to go on the roller coaster rides he loved. He was gutted for a long time that his body weight didn’t allow him to have a good time at his ‘happy place’.

As his weight kept on increasing, there came a day h had to turn away from roller coaster rides for good. But then, something motivated him to get back into shape.
When Kings Island made the announcement about their new ride called ‘Orion’, Jared decided that he would do just about anything to experience it. And he did.Jared went on an intense weight loss regime and set himself a goal of losing around 10 kgs every month.

In less than a year, Jared lost nearly 45 kilos. And when Kings Island reopened after months of closure due to COVID-19, Jared realised his body was now slim and fit enough to go on roller coaster rides again.
“I just kept thinking about how lucky I was to be there. Not only was all the hard work worth it for my health, but I was also finally getting to now experience my passion again — something I hadn’t been able to do for many years,” he said.

His excitement was evident as he went on the Orion ride four times in a row while wearing a colourful face mask.