(Fox News)
Melissa Leon August 28, 2019
A young man in Las Vegas has lost more than 100 pounds since the beginning of the year, intent on gaining entry into the Army.
Luis Enrique Pinto Jr., 18, lost 113 pounds over a seven-month period in order to meet the branch's weight requirement, dropping from 317 pounds to 204.
"That's a human -- he lost the equivalent of a human in seven months," said his recruiter, Staff Sgt. Philip Long.
Pinto, who was born in Oakland, Calif., and was raised in Peru and later Las Vegas, decided to join the military after high school because he wanted to become the first member of his family to serve, he recently told the Army.
"You've got one life. I don't want to wake up and do the same thing every single day. There's a whole world out there,” he said.
So Pinto, who has worked as an electrician at construction sites, committed to cleaning up his diet and started hitting the gym.
Pinto is 6-foot-1. For someone his age and height looking to enlist, the Army has set a maximum weight of 205 pounds.
While his recruiter was skeptical of Pinto’s goal at first, he supported him.
“They never put the effort into it," Long said of potential recruits. "They never actually care enough and they don't go anywhere. And then you turn around and you got someone like Luis."
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