Dmitri Young has lost a ton of weight

Dmitri Young was known to many as “Da Meat” or “Da Meat Hook” during his 14-year MLB career. If you saw him now, you might not understand why.

Young looks like a completely different person from the one that played 50 games with the Washington Nationals in 2008. The 40-year-old visited some of his former baseball friends in Cincinnati on Friday, and some could barely recognize him. Young says he has lost roughly 85 pounds. For those who have forgotten, here’s what the 2007 Comeback Player of the Year used to look like.

Young, who has battled Type 2 diabetes for years, told 106.7 The Fan’s Charlie Slowes that he followed the advice of a preventative doctor.

“I’m down to 205 pounds, and I did it the right way,” he said Friday, via Dan Steinberg of DC Sports Bog. “I went to a doctor, a preventative doctor, and he told me ‘You want to get off the medicine, lose three inches.’ I’m like, forget that, let’s lose six. And then I started doing a lot of cardio, the weight started peeling off, and at that point I started working out. And I’m to this size right now, and very very healthy.”

Young still needs to take injections to treat his diabetes, but he said he feels much healthier than he did a few years ago. It’s hard to believe he has only lost 85 pounds. His weight loss look’s similar to Rex Ryan’s. Kudos to him for the commitment to a healthier lifestyle.

Photo: Twitter/Washington Nationals