This 1-Year Fitness Transformation Is SO Real and Inspiring

Abe Nelson set out last July to start working out and feeling better. In his video posted to Reddit, he said, "I've transformed physically a little bit but mentally a whole bunch."

His honest and open (and funny!) account of every part of his fitness journey in the past year is inspiring — and attainable. He noted that his journey was tough and didn't come without challenges but that his results are "pretty realistic."

And his motivation was rooted in feeling good. "Exercise is all about feeling great," he said. He started with basic exercises like push-ups and pull-ups and eventually started going to the gym and did bodyweight workouts with added weights. "It made me feel great, so I kept doing it."

One of his keys to success: Abe started with small, quantifiable goals. Things like "five clean muscle-ups" or "three pull-ups" helped him get to his overarching goal of gaining weight and muscle, feeling good, and getting strong.

Having a naturally lean form, Abe said, "I wanted to see if I could actually gain weight." Starting at 150 pounds, he called himself "skin and bone." By changing his diet and eating "4,000 to 5,000 calories every single day" for six months, Abe gained 35 pounds. "It showed that anything is possible," he said.

Abe's story is so moving — especially because of how he started. "When I started working out, I could barely do three pull-ups. . . . I could not pull myself up. It was the worst feeling ever," he said in the video. "Now I can do 20 to 25."

Now weighing 167 pounds with 12 percent body fat, Abe said, "I feel really happy with what I accomplished in this one year."

He called that time an awesome journey of "learning, failing, trying again, failing" and attributes much of his success to being consistent and "sticking with it."