Victorian bodybuilders and fitness fanatics body transformations

These are the amazing before and after photos showcasing Victorians who have undergone the biggest body transformations.

Body transformations can occur in many ways — from people shedding body fat to seek a healthier lifestyle to others packing on the pounds to blow the competition away on stage.

Check out these Victorians who have taken the measures to transform their body, and find out how their life has changed because of it.

Jessica Patten woke up one day uncomfortable her clothes were getting tight and became upset with “how big she had gotten”.

She weighed about 163kg and had an “active” toddler she couldn’t keep up with.

“I wanted to do it for myself but also for my daughter,” she said.

“She was an active two to three year old and I was always just tired sitting on the couch.”

Jess’s health was also suffering — with severe diabetes, high blood pressure — the doctors told her life would be “limited” if she didn‘t make a change.

“I was taking nine tablets a day just to stay on top of my health issues and I thought I didn‘t want to be on medication for the rest of my life — I was young!”

Within the first two weeks, Jess lost 15kg by making changes to her diet before she joined a gym and started becoming more active.

By the time she’d shed 80kg Jess has some excess skin removed but decided to keep pushing herself — so she set her eyes on bodybuilding.

She switched her training from mainly cardio to weightlifting and stepped out on stage at the WBFF Sydney competition last year, taking out the top place in the transformation division.

“I had officially lost 100kg which was absolutely amazing to tell people,” she said.

“You look at me now and wouldn‘t think I was 163kg. I felt absolutely incredible.”

Now Jess no longer has diabetes or any other health issue, and said her life with her daughter, Giselle has completely changed.

“She now tries to keep up with me,” she said.

“I’ve become the good example. For her growing up, she saw what I managed to achieve and is thinking about achieving goals herself.”

Jess says the pair don’t spend time sitting on the couch anymore, instead they get out and active together.

“I’m more empowered than ever to go to the next level and bring more and more and it’s become my passion.”

Jessica Ferro decided to do something about her weight after she lost her dad to a heart attack when he was only 57.

“One night Mum came running into my room saying that dad had fallen out of bed,” she said.

“I ran to him and tried to revive him, but I wasn’t able to and he passed away from a major heart attack.”

Jessica told Leader her dad didn’t drink or smoke, but had a huge “love of food”.

“I think everyone in my family has a huge love of food and we’ve had trouble with weight in our lives.”

In the wake of his death, Jessica “spiralled out of control” and was “well over” 200kg at her peak.

When she met with a trainer she “maxxed out” the scale at 185kg and wasn’t able to get a “real” reading of her weight.

“I let people mistreat me because of my size,” she said.

“When you are morbidly obese, you do get treated differently from people who are the standard size.”

Jessica recounted experiences where she received “snide” comments from people on a plane, or was embarrassed after she had broken furniture.

“I never want to be put back in position where I go to get a massage and break the table … I can’t tell you amount of things I broke,’’ she said.

“The feeling of being judged differently because of my size, I never want to feel that again.”

A year after her dad died, Jessica got a gastric bypass which helped her shed the first 60kg.

“Weight loss surgery has negative connotations to it where some people say it’s cheating or is the easy way out,” she said.

“When I first saw the surgeon he told me it’s not the solution, it’s only short term tool to help my journey and that couldn‘t be more relevant.”

The surgery helped Jessica kick start her fitness journey and since then she has had to implement healthy habits of clean eating, portion sizes and remaining active.

In 2021 she competed in her first WBFF competition in the transformation category where she celebrated the hard work she had put in over five years.

At the time of the competition, Jessica has lost 111kg.

“It’s been a really slow process … it wasn’t all of a sudden that I was going to gym twice a day,” Jessica said.

“It was a slow implementation of health and fitness into my life.”

Today Jessica says she is reaping the benefits of her labour, feeling more energised and able to do more with her days.

“Now I can go to the gym at 4.30am and show up for work at 8am and do a full day of work without feeling exhausted by 5pm,” she said.

“I like feeling healthy and not being tired, I like being able to walk into a shop and find something that fits me.

“Even things like my immune system is better, I don't get as sick as often.”

Sophie Hull lost 40kg in two years when she was 22 and is now helping others achieve their fitness goals.

“When I first started, I wasn't planning on having the life I have now; gym was good excuse to leave house and I wanted to lose some weight,” she said.

“I fell into it by accident.”

Sophie told Leader she “walked the first 10kg off” then was excited to see more results.

“Results motivate you to keep going and keep consistent so I joined a gym, started doing spin classes then dropped another 10-15 kg,” she said.

Sophie said then she tried her hand at a personal training session which “changed her life”.

“Physical strength lead to mental strength and I found I had the strength to do anything and can be strong mentally.”

Sophie has most recently transformed her body again after giving birth to her son in 2021 and got into shape for a bodybuilding competition in 12 months.

“I don’t want to mislead anyone thinking they can get results in 12 months, because I’d been training for 12 years prior to (being pregnant),” she said.

“The muscle was already there, I kept training through my pregnancy but I just gained fat on top of that.

“Once I took the fat off the muscle was still there and that is the dramatic difference you see.”

FIND OUT HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR BODY TRANSFORMATION BELOW

Kat Arbizzani started her fitness journey about 17 years ago, but it wasn’t until she met her husband who introduced her to the world of weightlifting when she started taking it seriously.

She found his determination in setting goals and smashing PB’s “inspiring” and this is when she shifted her mindset from “wanting to be skinny to wanting to be strong”.

“I think it’s so important, particularly for young girls, being skinny isn’t the be all and end all,” Kat said.

At Kat’s smallest period she weighed 54kg, but said she “wasn’t happy” despite thinking she would be.

“I wasn’t happy skinny, I thought I would be, but I wasn’t.”

Through gaining strength she has grown to appreciate her body and all the things it can do for her, like giving birth to her son eight months ago.

“Nothing compares to the feeling you get from lifting something really heavy — particularly as a woman who often gets labelled as weak,” she said.

After a few medical setbacks throughout her pregnancy Kat has reignited her fitness journey and is working towards the goal of deadlifting 100kg and competing in a WBFF competition.

Corey decided to take part in his first bodybuilding competition 20 weeks out from the show.

He enlisted the help of an online coach and joined the bodybuilding community at Nitro Gym in Hallam and got to work.

Building muscle normally takes a lot more time, patience and work compared to dropping fat but this didn’t deter Corey.

He focusing on building lean muscle before shredding all his body fat.

When it was time to jump on stage he had never felt more “confident, healthy and strong” and it showed in his performance.

He managed to take out the top spot in his division and is looking forward to his next challenge.

Amy Hurrell started her fitness journey when she weighed 91kg and decided she “didn’t like the way she looked”.

She began training with a boutique women's gym and gained confidence and an understanding of how to lose weight healthily by getting strong.

She lost a massive 26kg.

Amy said she started to see more and more bodybuilders on Instagram and decided to test herself and get on stage.

But 2020 posed a few obstacles for Amy in her journey, with constant lockdowns throughout Covid and a shocking diagnosis of cervical cancer.

She went in for a routine pap smear that led to the diagnosis before she underwent a radical hysterectomy and radiation treatment.

Throughout this period, Amy found having an outlet to focus her energy was what kept her going.

“Having my goal of getting on stage and going to the gym was what kept me mentally going through this hard time,” Amy said.

Now Amy is two years cancer free and 10 weeks out from her first bodybuilding competition which she is “super excited” for.

“I just love training and the community that’s comes with it and all people who have supported me.”

If you or someone you know has had a body transformation, we’d love to hear about it!

Email a before and after pic and a blurb of their journey to [e-mail] to be featured.