- Social media has changed how we interact with one another,
and sometimes not for the better.
Let's be real.
Most times, not for the better.
But my next guest is using it in an amazing, positive way.
His name is Marcus,
and three months ago, he posted a video to TikTok
announcing his weight loss journey.
What happened next is truly inspiring.
Take a look.
(inspiring music)
- Hey guys, I'm FTR, I am 594 pounds.
It's about time we make a change.
So I figured if I put this in social media,
I might try to stick with something for once.
Follow me if you wanna keep updates
and wish me luck.
(inspiring music)
(upbeat music)
Yo, I am floored right now.
I did not expect to have 20,000 of you following me.
A package got delivered to the front office.
Instead of me taking my car, driving it to the front office,
decided to go the walk and get it.
- (electronic scale voice) 574.4 pounds.
If you did your weigh in today as well
comment below how much you lost.
Lets go for another week.
With 20,000 of you I definitely gotta go through
with this, right?
I can't disappoint 20,000 of you.
- (electronic scale voice) 561.0 pounds
Yeah!
You guys are amazing.
(applause)
- Y'all please welcome Marcus.
(applause)
I mean okay, you inspire me so much,
but tell us about yourself.
- You know, my name's Marcus, of course,
and I'm from Chandler, Arizona
and I'm just a normal guy,
works at a call center and, you know,
obviously as you guys can see,
I'm a pretty big guy and, you know,
a few months back I realized I needed to make a change.
And I posted up this video on TikTok,
just hoping to get maybe 100 to 200 followers.
And, you know, to help support me in the journey
and everything and
- Keeps you accountable, too, it's a good way to do that.
- Exactly, yes and I was hoping that
they would do that for me
and I was, like, okay I posted up the video.
I'm gonna go to bed.
Woke up and 20,000 followers the next morning.
It was mind blowing.
- Wow!
- [Marcus] And I opened up the comments section
and it was nothing but support.
I was expecting a lot of maybe, like, you know
- Mean crap, trolls.
- It was nothing but support and people giving me advice.
And, you know, now that it has been a few months
down the line, I have 3.7 million views on that video.
(applause)
- Have you always struggled with weight
or was this like later on in life?
- I always struggled with my weight.
Ever since I was a child I have always been
the bigger kid and growing up it has caused a lot
of struggle in my life and the smallest I can recall myself
being in fourth grade was 197 pounds.
A fourth grader should not weigh that much and growing up
with that weight, I noticed that I'm the kid that's
picked on easily.
I'm the kid that's chosen at gym class to race against
because someone's like, oh, an easy win.
And it made it so that if I go places I can't really do
things with my friends because it might be something
like hiking or wanting to travel somewhere.
And even in junior high, I tried a lot of different
weight loss routines and, you know, like sugar busters,
or a keto and things of those sorts and it, they, just fail.
I would fall off.
Like Christmas or something and I would eat
something unhealthy.
- Just so you know, we all do that.
- Oh, yeah.
- [Kelly] What's your ultimate goal?
- [Marcus] My ultimate goal right now is,
well, first goal is going to be hitting 299 pounds.
And, that's because I started at roughly around 600 pounds
and I want to drop down to less than 300, so the 299.
And at that point I'm going to make a decision, how I want
to loose the weight, whether I want to bulk up, slim down
or maybe look at surgery down the line.
- Yeah, man, I love this goal for you.
That's awesome, man.
So awesome.
(applause)
- [Marcus] Thank you.
- [Kelly] What do you guys think
whenever you hear this kind of story?
About like, have you all ever struggled that?
Do you know anybody?
[Max]- I think everybody has their thing
and it's how you approach it
and how you deal with it on a daily basis.
A lot, like an issue like this,
feels like a life-long issue, not just like a,
I'm gonna do it in a week.
It really is, like, okay, well let's see what today is
and you've gotta sort of forgive yourself
for the moments that don't go so well and get back
on it the next day.
- [Kelly] And not carry that guilt.
- So I know that life improvement thing I am doing right now
is a package got delivered to the front office and instead
of me taking my car, driving it to the front office,
since my apartment is at the back of the apartment complex.
Is that a good walk?
Yes, I got my package.
It's a message today.
I kinda figured I needed one.
So, yeah, it's the little things that are going to help.
- Amen.
(applause)
That's TikTok star Marcus Brewer, who is documenting
his weight loss journey for you.
He has 300,000 followers.
I'm back with him, plus actor Max Greenfield
and magician Shin Lim.
(applause)
So how often do you hear from people who are saying they are
losing weight and you're kind of the reason,
like you've inspired them?
- A whole lot.
It's actually overwhelming how many messages
that I actually do get.
And, even now, it's hard to catch up with all of them
and it's people who want to give me advice,
tell me their stories, say how I inspired them
to do what they want to do, even outside of losing weight.
And so every single day
I'm at least getting five to 10 questions almost,
just wanting to give me advice myself.
- That's so cool.
Look at that community you just formed.
- [Marcus] Oh yeah.
- One video, like you formed that whole community.
That's really, really beautiful.
(applause)
Well, one of the people following Marcus on his journey
is Jefferson from Chicago.
He is in the audience today.
Have you met before guys?
Have y'all met before this.
- [Jefferson] Never.
What's up, man?
- Jefferson, stand up for us.
How did you come across Marcus?
- So, yeah, I was scrolling, you know, social media
one night and I came across my dude's video right here
about losing weight and I'm, like, hey.
I'm doing my own weight loss journey, you're doing yours.
We kinda look alike in a weird way.
(laughter)
So, I'm, like, let me reach out to him.
I reached out to him, I'm like,
"Hey man, you are going to inspire a lot of people."
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Because, let me tell you, at my heaviest,
I was 550 pounds, too.
Okay, right now I'm rocking like 360, so (applause)
Thank you, thank you.
It's hard and we need that community, so there's days
I wanna cheat, I wanna have that Chicago deep dish pizza.
But I'll go to your page and, you don't even know this,
and I'll scroll and I will do a hey, you know what?
I'm not gonna cheat today, thanks to you, man.
- [Kelly] That's so cool.
(applause)
What do you wanna say to him, like that's a crazy how you
inspire someone you don't even know.
- Little do you know, you actually,
people like you inspire me a lot
as well for this journey.
Hearing that you're down so much weight already makes me
wanna continue towards my goal as well and just kill it.
- [Kelly] You can do it.
- [Marcus] And I'm glad to hear that I inspire you guys,
you know, and it's a give and take here and,
you know what?
If it wasn't for people like you watching my TikTok,
giving me support,
I wouldn't be down almost 40 pounds already myself.
- [Kelly] That's amazing.
(applause)
That's really great.
Well, Jefferson isn't the only person
with a message for Marcus.
Here's just a sample of the people following him.
- Hey Marcus, my name is Mike from Alabama.
- I'm Melissa from London, Ohio.
- Nia from Indiana.
- Mason Green from Jefferson City, Missouri.
- You don't know me, but I lost 158 pounds.
- You've inspired me to start my weight loss journey.
- I lost a little over 70 pounds so far.
- You are such a roll model for a lot of people.
- I just wanted to thank you for inspiring me.
- Keep up the great work.
- I'm so proud of you dude.
- Thank you so much for sharing your journey
and I can't wait to see what else you're gonna do.
- [Kelly] I'm like crying.
- Whoa.
(applause)
- I'm like crying, it's fine.
What do you think when you see that?
That's gotta feel empowering.
- It definitely is empowering.
I knew that, to see faces to those comments now
like it's insane and I just,
I don't want to let any of them down.
I wanna make sure that, hey,
they supported me and I will support them 100 percent.
I just want us to get together
and just do our best with all our goals.
- Exactly, I love you. (applause)