LOOK: Sam Rouen’s unbelievable transformation after winning ‘The Biggest Loser’

In 2008, Sam Rouen was 19 years old and weighed a whopping 340 pounds. After a couple weeks of intense training, diet, and exercise, he was able to shed off more than half this weight. By the time he got out of The Biggest Loser — as the winner, no less — he was at an amazing 157 pounds.

The Biggest Loser is a reality TV show that challenges competitors to shed off the most possible weight after only a number of weeks. The competition and the pressure is fierce. For the likes of Sam Rouen, it gave them the push they needed towards a healthier lifestyle.

As it happens, however, most former contestants of The Biggest Loser start to regain all the weight they lost as soon as the competition is over. This is because they are again left on their own, without the weekly or even daily incentives for losing weight.

This caused a number of critics to say that The Biggest Loser does not actually promote a healthy lifestyle, only an unhealthy and unsustainable weight crash. Sam Rouen, however, proves that this is wrong. His days with the reality show started a snowball that changed his life forever.

Now at 29 years old, Sam works as a firefighter — something he never could have done with salience before he joined the weight loss reality show.

For 10 years, he has kept a healthy lifestyle. Now, he is doing all the things that 19-year-old Sam Rouen could only ever dream of. His 10-year-apart photographs tell the incredible story of it all. -Looking back, even he is in disbelief.

“…10 years hey. What a time. So much has happened, good, bad, everything between. Highest highs and lowest lows. All I know is I’ve got some amazing people in my corner and I’m unconditionally appreciative of that,” says Sam in a report by Newsner.

As if living life as a firefighter wasn’t enough, Sam has also posed in a calendar featuring exclusively “hot firefighters.” With all that he has gone through in the road to healthy living, he serves as an inspiration for everyone still struggling with weight and unhealthy lifestyle issues. He now uses his amazing journey to motivate people towards healthy eating habits and exercise.

If it’s any consolation to the rest of us struggling beings, though, the 29-year-old hot bod still admits to being insecure and to remembering his past life a lot still.

“I’m still extremely self-conscious,” he says. “I still don’t like taking my shirt off, even at the beach,” Sam shared with the Australian Daily Telegraph.

Still, beyond his insecurities, Sam Rouen stands an amazing testament to what hard work and commitment can do.

Can you recognize Sam from his old photos? What can you say about his incredible transformation? Do you have your own weight loss or weight gain story you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments section below!