A teen who was bullied for his tiny frame after selling his lunches to help his family has in just three years, grew into a bodybuilder.
Iliya Tskiov, now 22, moved to the UK from Bulgaria but had no confidence as a teen due to bullying.
When Iliya moved with this family to the UK at 12, they found it difficult to make needs meet when they arrived.
The boy was worried about this, so he would sell his sandwiches to his friends and store the money in a shoe box under his bed just in case his family needed the funds in the future.
The then 16-year-old would come every day with £5
“I stored all my cash in a shoe box under my bed with the thoughts that one day I might need them since I saw how my family was struggling when we moved to the UK,” he shared.
As a result, Iliya would only consume one and two meals a day, which caused him to lose weight quickly. The 22-year-old revealed how he hated himself so much during this time as he would on purpose isolate himself from the world and play video games in his room for hours at a time.
His parents soon found out what he had been up to. But instead of be upset with him, they put the money into a savings account he could use in the future.
After making the choice to alter his appearance, Iliya started to use outdoor calisthenics equipment to perform body weight exercises after school and quickly got into a strict routine.
And in three months, he began to see changes in his body — he became to see changes in his body which led them him to be even more motivated to move forward.
He then decided to join a gym and started to incorporate weight training. And now, three years later, he is very happy with the results. Currently he is a fitness model with a healthy following on Instagram.