Nearly a billion people have watched Nikocado Avocado gorge on grotesque amounts of French fries, pizza and noodles on YouTube.
The vlogger, whose real name is Nicholas Perry, first appeared as a mild mannered vegan in his first video about a decade ago.
But he put on an extraordinary 250lbs over the following years, as his videos became increasingly extreme and he leaned further into his provocative, larger-than-life, online character, which was gaining him millions of views – and dollars.
‘I said [to myself] I am going to keep shoving food in my face, getting as fat as I possibly can until I’m 30, and then, once I turn 30, I’m going to do a secret weight loss journey and shock the internet,’ Perry told DailyMail.com.
True to his word, in 2022, shortly after his 30th birthday, he secretly lost all the weight he gained as part of what he calls a ‘social experiment’.
He dropped his weight from 411 to 158lbs, all while uploading older videos of himself from before to keep viewers in the dark.
Now, speaking exclusively with DailyMail.com, he revealed how he faced an entirely new health and social crisis after losing all the weight.
Nicholas Perry, 32, from Florida, became famous for his Mukbang videos online (left). He has now lost the weight he gained and had plastic surgery to remove the loose skin
By the time Perry began his weight loss journey, he suffered from sleep apnea, breathing issues, and frequent heart palpitations.
But after reaching a healthy weight—without revealing how he did it—Perry was left with 16 pounds of loose skin.
Mr Perry said: ‘I couldn’t wear normal clothing, or the clothing I would wear, it would be bulgy on certain areas. The biggest issue was really the stomach, with all that loose skin, I had to tuck it into my pants.
‘There was a lot of loose skin around my nipples, under my armpits, legs, that was constantly knocking me off balance when I was exercising.
‘I was so sick of feeling it on my body. It was weighing me down.’
He also revealed previously how the skin had been stretched around his face, leaving him with a ‘gobble gobble turkey neck’.
When people gain a large amount of weight, the skin stretches to accommodate the larger frame. Then, should that person lose the weight, the skin is not elastic enough to shrink back to its original size.
But that wasn’t the worst of it for Perry.
He has now had eight surgeries to get rid of the loose skin, and then had to battle through the horrific side effects.
Mr Perry is pictured above following his latest round of surgeries, which included a torso lift, thigh lift, liposuction to his back and nipple tightening. The above shows the suture left by his torso lift, and the one along his waist is from the 360 body lift he had previously
He was wheelchair bound for two weeks, and told to try to minimize movements to avoid the risk of any of the sutures popping open, which would require further surgery.
Dr Timothy Katzen, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who carried out the surgeries, said about one in ten of his patients suffers from a suture opening after the surgery.
He also suffered from non-stop constipation for five days which he described as leaving him whimpering and in the ‘worst pain of my life’.
Doctors say this occurs because of anesthesia medications for the pain, which also slow the digestive tract.
‘It was so extreme, the constipation, I honestly can’t think of anything more painful than that,’ Perry said.
‘It was excruciating. I would be crying, whimpering, and there was really no relief other than I had to do a suppository.
‘So, you know, I got something stuck, some medication, stuck up my bum, and then, eventually, I could go to the bathroom, but I had to do it standing in a bucket. It was pretty intense.’
He had three rounds of procedures, with eight surgeries in total: A face lift and neck lift in December, a 360 body lift and arm lift in January and a thigh lift, torso lift, nipple tightening surgery and liposuction in February.
He had incisions on the inside of his thighs, on the sides of his torso, on the inside of his arms, around his waist and on his head.
Doctors said the incisions on his body will heal, but will leave behind small scars that appear like a flat-line, tracing over the location of the incision.
Dr Katzen said: ‘There will always be a scar, a residual scar from the surgery.
‘All of my patients are willing to get rid of the skin to have the scar, however, and less than one percent of them do things for the scars because they are minimal, they heal up so well.’
Mr Perry is pictured above showing viewers the sutures left on his legs following a thigh lift
Perry is now recovering at home in Florida, saying that he feels ‘exhausted’ from the surgeries. He is not expecting to have any further surgeries.
There also appears to have been an emotional toll to his social experiment, with his husband — whose online name is Orlin Home — having vanished from his new content.
Perry told DailyMail.com that his mother came with him for the surgeries, but did not mention Orlin. He said he would reveal all on his tour.
Asked whether it was worth it, however, Perry said yes — adding he would happily do the whole experiment again.
‘So, I made a good amount of money. I gained a massive following. I made a lot of people laugh. I ate some of the most delicious food on the planet. Oh my God, I ate to my heart’s content,’ he said.
‘And then I turned it all around. I got healthy. I made people even more impressed with me… and now, yes, I had to go through surgeries, but now I have, in my view, a nicer body than before I started my Mukbang journey.
‘So to me, it’s a win, win.. win, win again.’
Mr Perry is pictured above with his surgeon Dr Timothy Katzen following his third round of procedures. He had eight surgeries in total
Mr Perry is shown above in a previously unseen image two weeks into his weight loss journey
He added: ‘I’m lucky that I survived and my heart didn’t stop. It was the risk I was willing to pay, but I had so much fun. I love making people laugh. I love putting on a show. I mean, I am just, I love to perform.
‘My dream was to be on a Broadway stage, where I was playing a musical instrument or acting. I just, I live for the theatrics. And I have just pulled off the biggest role of my life.’
Perry is part of a community that made content called Mukbangs, online videos where people eat a large amount of food while talking to camera.
Over time, his videos shifted from tame diet recommendations to Perry reacting dramatically to comments and certain foods.
He also posted several videos where himself and his husband argued and threatened each other with divorce.
He is now back to posting these videos, but has not revealed his strategy for avoiding the extreme weight gain which may come with the content.
Mr Perry did not reveal how much his surgeries cost, but on average, a thigh lift can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000, while a chest lift can be priced at $5,000 to $10,000 and nipple tightening surgery can cost $1,600 to $2,500.
Liposuction can cost around $2,500 or less.
While it is likely a hefty bill, he said he looked at it like ‘an investment’ akin to buying a brand new car.