Love is a powerful thing. So powerful, in fact, that it gave John Allaire the strength to shed the extra weight he’d carried most of his life. When he became engaged to his childhood sweetheart, he weighed a whopping 540 pounds and she loved him all the same.

John says even though Caila loved him, he couldn’t in good conscience drag her through the difficulties he would face throughout his life if he didn’t lose weight.

Over the next few weeks, he dropped 20 pounds just by juicing and walking a bit. But when he and Caila moved to San Diego for her to be in the Navy, he decided to join the weight-loss boot camp, Camp Transformation Center.

He committed to a healthy new lifestyle, and within 15 months he had dropped a whopping 300 pounds. He says it was a grueling process and he’s had to work every single day towards losing weight.

Unfortunately, John’s skin didn’t spring back into place after his weight loss. So his next step was to get the excess skin removed, all 13 pounds of it. So ahead of his and Caila’s plan to move to Japan, he launched a GoFundMe account to get the funds to cover the cost of the skin removal surgery.

Just a few days before the surgery was scheduled, Caila and John talked about how the skin had affected John. They said it affects his self image, and being free from it will help free him from the remaining baggage of his obesity.

“It is a blessing to be able to move freely,” John said after having the surgery. “There are so many constant little things throughout the day that I think most people take for granted.”

Check out the video below of John’s story and be sure to share it with your family and friends. What an inspiring transformation!