Healthy Overhaul

Jay Paynter transforms life and loses over 100 pounds. ‘I now feel like I’m in my 20s!’

It’s difficult to recognize Jay Paynter today from the “before” photos of him in August 2021, when he tipped the scales at 305 pounds. He’s now 100 pounds lighter, healthier, and a much happier man. 

“Well, it’s been a journey,” says Jay, who turned 55 in 2021, “and literally all of me needed an overhaul.” 

Jay says his weight gain was a gradual process. “It just caught up to me. My weight kept skyrocketing from 210, 235, 265, 305. I was a hot mess.”

During a colonoscopy, Jay learned he had sleep apnea. “When I woke up, the doctor told me: ‘Jay, you will be dead tomorrow if you don’t get a sleep apnea CPAP. It’s the worst sleep apnea I have ever heard, and trust me, I have done thousands of colonoscopies.’” 

That revelation was followed by a cancer scare, diagnoses of pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, and A-fib, where his heart would stop for several seconds during the night. “I literally got a call at 4 a.m. and the person on the other end was, ‘Are you OK? Well, we are calling to let you know your heart keeps pausing.’ That was definitely a wake-up call.”

Jay ended up needing a pacemaker. 

“I knew the real problem was my weight, being morbidly obese, and I realized I had to take care of myself.” He went for gastric bypass surgery on Aug. 1, 2021. 

“My family and friends were very supportive,” he says. Supportive, yet worried about complications. 

Fortunately, there have been no setbacks. “Only a huge success,” Jay says. “I feel absolutely amazing! No more sleep apnea, no more pre-diabetes, no more high blood pressure, no more dying in the night from heart pauses, no more being grossly obese.”

It took eight months to lose 100 pounds. “It’s been an incredible journey and the best part is I feel like I’m going to live for a good long while and live a healthy fulfilled life.”  

As he glances at photos of his heavier self, Jay says they remind him of a time that includes some of the saddest and lowest moments of his life. “I never want to see that guy again.”