As a kid, Matt Bickel was overweight and lacked confidence. His parents divorced when he was young, he grew up poor, and girls were never interested in him. Food was the one thing that never turned him down, he recalls.

It wasn’t until recently that Bickel—who has weighed as much as 450 lb.—realized food had become a psychological addiction. When he reached the point where he couldn’t think of a single comfort food that would make him happy, he finally admitted he had a problem. He told his wife he wanted to try and be healthy.

In addition to cleaning up his eating habits, Bickel walked into his first CrossFit gym. When he saw everyone doing burpees, he was horrified. But within a month, he was drawn in by the camaraderie forged through shared suffering, and now he’s a dedicated athlete and he can’t imagine his life without fitness.