Gaining a job in the food industry would be a dream come true for MasterChef Australia contestant Trent Devincenzo.
Yet the IT systems engineer hasn’t always had a healthy relationship with food.
Trent reveals to TV WEEK he used to binge-eat and was very overweight as a teenager.
At age 16, he weighed 102 kilograms.
Trent, now 27, explains that he was an introvert when he was young. His weight increased when he gave up playing sports and refused to exercise.
“I also got a job at a fast-food outlet when I was 14 and I ate a lot at work,” he says.
“When my shift would finish, I’d make myself a huge hamburger.”
Trent, aged 15 with friend Jenna, developed unhealthy eating habits.
Trent ate junk food constantly and snacked on sugary treats while playing computer games at home. As a result, he became dangerously unhealthy.
His doctor diagnosed him with fatty liver disease and high cholesterol.
It was only when Trent began spending time with his cousin, who was a personal trainer, that he began to make small changes to his exercise regimen and diet.
“I didn’t want to go for a run because I was too self-conscious,” he says. “And I didn’t want to go to a gym because I thought people would look at me.”
The self-taught cook hopes to wow the judges in MasterChef.
Instead, Trent began to use a treadmill at home and “cut out all fast food and ditched the soft drink”.
In just 18 months, he managed to shed an impressive 35 kilos.
Nowadays, Trent has kept the weight off and goes to the gym six times a week.
“If anyone else wants to lose weight, it’s just about getting through the first few weeks,” he advises.
