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Michigan couple's weight-loss love story

For Bill and Crysta Anderson, losing weight was a necessity
Couple marries after shedding 380 pounds together 04:21

One Michigan couple celebrated their wedding last weekend after the pair shed a combined 380 pounds.

In this story, it's the couple that weighs together that stays together, reports CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano.

For Bill and Crysta Anderson, losing weight was a necessity.

"I knew one day my weight was going to be what was going to kill me," Crysta said. "I knew that I would get heart disease, I knew I would get diabetes -- the road I was headed down that I would definitely meet those obstacles in my life."

Those obstacles materialized into very real and life-changing symptoms of obesity.

"I led a life where I was very tired all the time because of sleep apnea, high blood pressure and it was always a constant fight to feel rested," Bill said.

Despite their struggles, weight hadn't always been an issue.

"As a youth I actually played basketball through high school and junior college," Bill said.

They met at a local hospital in 2008 where they attended a support group for people who had or were considering bariatric surgery, but it wasn't love at first sight.

"I remember Crysta coming to one of the functions at a local bar where we were dancing that night, and Crysta actually told me that I was too old for her," Bill said.

They didn't know then that after a few years, their friendship would blossom into romance.

"November 1 is our anniversary, what we consider it, sometime around then we started seeing each other on a more not-a-friendship level," Crysta said.

Bill added: "2011, I was actually about to run my first New York City marathon. They had come to see me off before we left for New York for me to run on November 3."

Crysta couldn't believe he was planning to run that great a distance.

"I think it's crazy," Crysta said. "But he did it, and he did it again, he will do it again."

Running, and the city of New York, again played a key role in their relationship. Bill proposed to Crysta in Central Park before last year's marathon.

"I got down on one knee and she grabbed me and squeezed me tight, cried a tear a little bit and I said 'Babe, are you going to let me go? I want to ask you,'" he recalled. "She let me go and I asked her to marry me and she said, 'Yes.'"

They married Saturday in the same room where they met six years ago, the hospital conference room, this time packed with friends and family, including Crysta's daughter from a previous relationship.

"It's actually really great to have someone who understands where you were, how you got to be that heavy," Crysta said.

Having gone through similar struggles with weight, they're there for each other every step of the way.

"She's the love of my life and she supports me in my crazy endeavors," Bill said.

"We eat to live, we don't live to eat, food isn't the center of our lives anymore," Crysta said. "We find so many other things to fill it with."

For anyone considering surgery to help lose weight, the Andersons say it's a tool, but not a solution. Changing your lifestyle and habits are the most important things a person can do.

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