In 2016, 10-year-old Aria Permana from Karawang Regency, West Java, Indonesia, made the international headline the ‘World Heaviest Child’. His weight was 192 kilos! But after a few years later, the image of Aria being the morbidly obese kid is no more. This is the story of a kid losing weight.

Aria was born with a standard weight of 3.8kg. But it was when Aria was four years old that his weight has started to increased. Between the age of 8 and 10 years, Aria has gained over 72kg of weight. Aria’s drastic weight increase is due to unhealthy lifestyles.

It was reported that Aria consumed five meals per day. Those daily meals include six-packs of instant noodles, at least two plates of rice, and lots of soft drinks. With Aria’s weight increase, he gets fatigued and tired quickly. By his third grade, he has to quit school as it’s getting harder for him to move around.

Image source via The Sun

After Aria stories made headlines, dieticians and doctors led Aria into weight loss programs. Aria was put into a strict diet of eating only fruits and vegetables and exercise, and swimming. After one month, he managed to lost 6kg. Doctors have also carried out bariatric surgery on Aria, a medical procedure to decrease the size of Aria’s stomach. With this surgery, Aria gets full quickly, and his appetite decreases. It was reported that the surgery had caused Aria to lost 16kg in two weeks.

After the surgery, Aria’s mother said, “He still feels hungry, but I think his stomach is not able to receive a large amount of food. Each time he tries to overeat, he throws up. He drinks milk and eats just one portion at a time, unlike before when he could easily eat meals meant for three adults.”

Image source via The Quint

Aria doesn’t consume diet supplements or practice fasting diets. He said, “My parents prepare foods that are not fried. Like grilled chicken, and the grilled chicken is from the breast because there are fewer fats.”

While receiving treatment at Hasan Sadikin Hospital, Aria was visited by a professional bodybuilder, Ade Rai. He told Aria that if he ever visits the Bandung district, Aria should visit his gym. Since then, Ade Rai has been a strong supporter of Aria’s journey to lose weight. Because Aria was very young at that time, Ade doesn’t have any special training for him. Ade started training Aria with simple exercises such as cable lifting and wall push up. He just wanted Aria to move around often. Ade prepared 60% cardio exercise and 40% resistance training for Aria. Ade also stated that he never forces Aria into his exercise regime. It is all on Aria’s sheer will to lose weight.

Ade posted on his social media, “Salute to Aria, who slowly reduced his weight and being more healthy with the supports from his parents, family, friends, doctors, everyone around him and definitely, the efforts and intentions to be slimmer from Aria himself.”

Image source via Ade Rai

Aria’s figure and weight today is a far cry from what he used to be as a young kid. In 4 years of intensive training and motivation to change his life, Aria’s weight has lost 110 kilos! What motivates Aria to keep going are the supports he is getting from everyone around him. When Aria was still a kid, he couldn’t imagine losing weight or do what kids his age could do. But after his massive weight loss, Aria was able to play sports like badminton or football with his friends and ride on the motorcycle. Aria even managed to go back to school before the pandemic happened.

Image source via The Sun

Image source via Suara.com

Today, Aria Permana is living a typical teenager’s life. He can be seen on his social media or creating content videos. Occasionally, Aria would receive interviews from the media and use that opportunity to promote and encourage children to live a healthy lifestyle. May the journey of Aria Permana be motivational to us all. STAY SAFE!!!