Man loses so much weight his family doesn't recognise him

THIS young man lost a whole lot of weight in secret over the last 12 months. Then he went back home for the Christmas holidays. His own family couldn't recognise him.

THIS young man lost a whole lot of weight in secret over the last 12 months. About 60 kilos, to be exact.

Then he went home for the Christmas holidays to see his father, stepmother and grandparents. His own family didn't recognise him.

We know this because the young man in question, Lucas Irwin, posted a video of his family members' reactions on YouTube. The clip, which was filmed by his younger half-sister, shows his dad and stepmum walking into a bit of a trap.

Here's the before and after shot. It all happened in one year.

His dad's incredulous "OH MY GOD" sums it up pretty well.

Mr Irwin decided to film his family members' reactions after posting about his weight loss in Reddit's "Lose It" section.

"I ended up surprising people on seven or eight different occasions as I saw them throughout the Christmas break, and it was fascinating to see how people reacted," he said.

"There was always a one to two second delay where you could see on their face that they were trying to figure out exactly what they were looking at."

Mr Irwin says the best reaction came from his grandmother, whose first words were "You got a haircut!"

How is it, we hear you ask, that this man hadn't seen his family for a whole year?

Mr Irwin actually lives with his biological mother, far away from the rest of his family, and he deliberately avoided everyone to add to the shock.

"I live pretty far away so I don't go home too often," he said. "Usually twice a year (once in summer, once for Christmas). This summer I came up with an excuse not to go home.

"My sister legit didn't recognise me until my grandma told her who I was. When she walked in she looked at me and then walked past with absolutely no reaction ... Then my grandma was like "DON'T YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS?" and you could see it click on her face."

He says "95 per cent" of his weight loss was achieved through "nothing but a 1350 calorie limit per day". After losing 45 kilos, he started walking to work.

It all turned out pretty well, as you can see from the before and after shot above. So it might be worth listening his advice.

"I definitely recommend the "don't tell anybody" method," he says. "It takes away a lot of the pressure and lets you focus on your weight loss without worrying about letting people down."

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