Ohio Man Loses Nearly 200 Pounds in Order to Ride Dream Roller Coaster: It ‘Changed My Life’

[July 24, 2020: People]

Roller coaster enthusiast Jared Ream would do anything to feel the rush of a new thrill ride — even lose 190 pounds!

The Dayton, Ohio, native, 35, recently penned a first-person essay for Dayton.com explaining how he was motivated to lose almost half of his body weight in order to ride a new roller coaster coming to his local amusement park, Kings Island, in Mason, Ohio.

According to Ream, he has always been a big guy — he's 6’9” tall and weighed over 400 pounds at his heaviest. Unfortunately, his size has often come in between him and his biggest passion in life: riding roller coasters.

“As any big and/or tall roller coaster enthusiast will tell you, nothing is worse than the roller coaster ‘Walk of Shame,’” Ream explained in his essay. “That’s the moment when you are asked to get off a roller coaster because the restraint cannot properly close around you because of your size. It’s painful, and I know all too well how it feels.”

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Despite his love for roller coasters (he describes his mind as “an encyclopedia of theme parks and coaster knowledge” and is a card-carrying member of the American Coaster Enthusiasts), Ream gave up riding them after he took on a desk job, and his weight skyrocketed due to snacking and lack of physical activity.

“When my weight was over 300, I knew there was no way that I could fit into coasters anymore,” Ream wrote. “My self-esteem dropped. My blood pressure and cholesterol ballooned. I stopped weighing myself because it just became too depressing. I stopped going to parks because I knew there was no point. Within the last 10 years, some truly amazing roller coasters have been built, and I’ve missed out on most of them.”

At that point, he had ridden 295 coasters — and had to give up on his goal of reaching 300.... MORE