How a 100kg father struggling to keep up with his 4-year-old lost 27kg in 6 months
On Father’s Day, Ayo Canlas reveals how he rapidly lost weight after ballooning to 100kg and now even competes in Hyrox races
Even now, Ayo Canlas can still vividly recall the elite tennis athlete he was as a student, a time that saw him represent the Philippines in the 2006 Junior Davis Cup. Last year, however, the 37-year-old corporate executive found he was struggling to keep up with a four-year-old.
This wake-up call came during a family staycation in Singapore in December, when his daughter Arya challenged him to swim the length of the hotel pool with her.
“It was difficult for me to match her pace,” says Canlas, now a chief financial officer for a consumer appliances company in Singapore. “In my mind, I was still a top tennis player. In reality, I had no stamina.”
The pool incident solidified a journey that had begun a few weeks earlier. In October 2025, Canlas had hit his highest weight of 100kg (220lbs), and a medical check-up the following month had revealed he was on a dangerous health trajectory.
Choosing to make lifestyle changes over taking medication, he worked with a personal trainer for a highly monitored overhaul of his diet and strength training. The regime yielded dramatic results: by May 2026, he had shed 27kg to reach 73kg, cutting his body fat from 30 per cent to 13 per cent.
His fall from fitness will be familiar to many. After graduating from college, he kept eating whatever he liked while his physical activity level fell dramatically.