“The Blind Side” star Quinton Aaron revealed he lost more than 200 pounds after a near-death experience that he believes was a wake-up call from God.
Since 2021, the 41-year-old actor’s weight has dropped from his all-time high of 575 to 366 pounds after a lifestyle transformation. During an interview with Fox News Digital, Aaron, who stars in the new BET+ movie “War Dawgz,” recalled the moment that forced him to rethink his life.
“I had this come to Jesus kind of moment a few years back,” he remembered.
“I was at this waterfront in Mandeville, Louisiana,” Aaron continued. “This is like during COVID, 2021ish. And I used to always go there and sit and just meditate, listen to the water and stuff.”
“There’s one day I’m sitting there on the wall, and I’m just listening to the water vibe, and then I wake up underwater,” he recalled. “So I literally passed out, fell off the wall, and it was like a 12-foot drop, but the water was only three feet deep. I didn’t know that at the time. Well, thank God it was three feet deep because I can’t swim.”
Aaron said he believed he was saved by a voice he heard telling him to stand up.
“I literally woke up underwater,” he recalled. “I didn’t have a chance to take a breath and brace myself. When I woke up, I was submerged, and I just felt this pain on the back of my neck and shoulder from going down. But while I’m underwater, I hear this voice say, ‘Stand up.’ And so I stand, like I start trying to get to my feet. The water is pushing me into the rocks, and I’m kinda like hitting my head up against something. I don’t know what it was, but I can’t see because the water’s dirty brown.”
WATCH: BLIND SIDE STAR QUINTON AARON SAYS GOD SAVED HIM FROM NEAR-DEATH FALL, SPARKING 200 POUND WEIGHT LOSS
The actor managed to pull himself upright but was in excruciating pain. He said he later learned that his fall may have been caused by diabetic ketoacidosis, a complication from extremely high blood sugar levels.
“The Left Behind” star told Fox News Digital that he had been seen sitting on the wall by a passing couple who turned around and came back to check on him after hearing a splash.
“They were like, ‘Are you alright?’ And that’s when I screamed, and so they called 911,” he said.
Aaron recalled that he was rushed to a local hospital where doctors conducted a full-body examination on him and discovered that he had an infection in one of his big toes that had spread to his bone.
“I was in the hospital for a few weeks getting IV antibiotics,” Aaron said. “I almost lost my toe, but thankfully I didn’t. They just cut a piece of it off, and it had to heal.”
Aaron, who is a devout Christian, shared that he believed that he had a pivotal encounter with God while he was recovering.
“God visited me, and he was like, ‘Do you want to die?’ And I said, ‘No.’ And I didn’t know who I’m answering, but I hear this voice talking to me. And I said, ‘No.’ And he goes, ‘So what are you gonna do?’ And I said, ‘I need help.’”
The actor said he believed God “rewired something” in him during his recovery.
“From that moment on, I couldn’t stand the taste of sugar,” he said. “It’s not permanent because today I eat sugar again, but at that time, when I said ‘I need help,’ it was like He knew what the help was, and He just erased it from my memory.”
After leaving the hospital, Aaron adopted intermittent fasting, portion control and cutting out sugar as the foundation of his new health plan.
“I stopped overeating,” he said. “I started intermittent fasting and I cut out sugars, and so with just those three things, the weight just started dropping off tremendously.”
Aaron said doctors told him his diabetes and elevated blood sugar contributed to his fall.
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“I was in diabetic ketoacidosis,” he said. “The blood becomes acidic and your organs start to shut down. So that’s why God was like, ‘Do you want to die?’ And I’m like, ‘No.’ Because I was on the way.”
“It wasn’t an overnight process,” Aaron continued. “It definitely took some work, but my mindset was at that point where it was like, I got a lot of things I want to live for. At the time, I was single. I’ve always wanted to be married and have kids. And I’m like, ‘What condition am I gonna be in if I had kids? I gotta make these changes.’”
“So I started taking it serious,” he continued. “Once you change it up here, everything else falls into place because you now have the mindset that you need to get to where you’re trying to go. And for me, that was the biggest part.”
“I said, God has a sense of humor because I felt like he could have done a lot more subtle than knocking me off the wall into the water and knowing I can’t swim,” Aaron added with a laugh.
WATCH: ‘BLIND SIDE’ STAR QUINTON AARON SHARES HOW HE LOST OVER 200 POUNDS AFTER A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE
Aaron acknowledged that years of depression and emotional eating contributed to his weight struggles. The actor suffered a tragic loss in September 2008 when his mother, Laura Aaron, died from a heart attack at the age of 44.
At the time, Aaron had recently been cast in his breakthrough role as Michael Oher in the 2009 biographical sports drama “The Blind Side” after a nationwide search for the right actor to portray the NFL player’s story. The movie also starred Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw as Oher’s adoptive parents, Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy.
“The Blind Side” became a major commercial and critical success, receiving Oscar nominations for best picture and best actress for Bullock, who took home the trophy. The 61-year-old star also won the Golden Globe Award for best actress.
Aaron earned rave reviews for his performance and the role launched his Hollywood career. Looking back, the actor told Fox News Digital that he compartmentalized his pain over Laura’s death to take advantage of the opportunities that were coming his way.
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However, he said that when “the noise kind of started to settle, then the grieving became loud again.”
“I’m a mama’s boy through and through. I miss my mama,” Aaron said. “I couldn’t share any of that with her, and it just started eating at me. And I still thank God to this day that I chose food as a vice because there are so many other things. There’s drugs and alcohol, you know, God forbid. I didn’t turn to those things.”
Aaron shared that he has stayed close with Bullock, who reached out to him during his hospital stay as well as after he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2019.
“She’s always been amazing, and she’s been a huge part of my life since the movie,” he said. “We’ve had such an amazing friendship over the years that still goes on.”
“That’s my mama, you know, that’s my on-screen mama,” he added. “I always got her back. She’s dope. She’s definitely been a big factor in my life while going through what I went through.”
WATCH: ‘THE BLIND SIDE’ STAR QUINTON AARON ON HIS NEW MOVIE ‘WAR DAWGZ’
Aaron credited his faith and mindset for helping him maintain progress that once eluded him.
“My first weight loss journey was when I trained for ‘The Blind Side,’” he recalled. “I lost a hundred pounds just to do the movie. A couple years later, I had another health thing because I had put on some weight. My weight would go up and down over the years.”
He said his new motivation comes from his marriage to wife Margarita, who he wed in December 2024, and his desire to “break the generational curse” of diabetes and heart disease.
“It’s about making sure that when I have my children, they don’t fall into that stigma of the unhealthy habits that has plagued me and my family for generations,” he said. “My mom was diagnosed with congestive heart failure at the age of 37. I got diagnosed at 35. She died at 44. I ain’t trying to die no time soon. I ain’t trying to die in my forties and my fifties. I’m trying to be here for the long run. I wanna see my kids have kids. And I ain’t got kids yet, so I gotta be here.”
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Aaron told Fox News Digital that he achieved his 200 pound weight loss without the help of Ozempic, the diabetes drug often prescribed off-label for weight loss. He said that he briefly tried Ozempic to treat his diabetes but quickly stopped after experiencing an allergic reaction.
Now, the actor hopes his transformation will be lasting.
“I’m gonna get rid of that diabetes, I’m gonna get rid of that congestive heart failure — those are reversible,” he said. “If you tell me something’s impossible, I’ll show you it’s possible.”
Aaron said he feels he’s “almost there” in his weight-loss journey.
“I wanna be around 340, 350, but I want to put on some muscle, bulk up, get ready for these movies,” he said. “Feel good when I take my shirt off at the beach. I’m not necessarily looking for a six-pack — I’m good with my keg.”
The actor recently played the role of Raw Dog in the action film “War Dawgz,” which is currently streaming on BET+. During his interview with Fox News Digital, Aaron shed some light on his character.
“He’s the leader of a gang, and he’s kind of ran South Central L.A. for years,” Aaron said of his character. “While he’s a bad guy, there are some redeeming qualities about him, which is what I love because you want to root for him as well.”
Aaron also shared advice for anyone struggling to change their lives.
“It’s never too late,” he said. “As long as you get the opportunity to wake up and breathe the breath of life every single day, you still got work to do. You’re still here for a reason.”
“Being where I was and getting to where I’m at — if you had asked me when I was at my heaviest, would I ever see this weight again? I would’ve said no,” he added. “That was my mindset at the time. And God had different plans.”
