Romar Lyle said it was his ultimate dream to work in law enforcement, but he could not achieve it without first getting into shape.

“I got a degree in investigative forensics and it was just so hard to find jobs and kind of figure out what I wanted to be, but at that time I was around 400 pounds,” Lyle told WTVR.

Lyle said he weighed around 400 pounds at his heaviest.

“If I wanted to work in this field, I had to keep working on my health and fitness,” he said.

Over the next three years while in graduate school, Lyle stuck to a strict regimen of CrossFit training and healthy eating to help him shed at least 100 pounds.

At the end of those three years, Richmond, Virginia, chose him to join its police academy.

“I tried applying to places, but I had to work on getting my run times down and getting my weight down. By the second year, I lost about 130 pounds. then I came to the academy. With hard training and hard work, I’ve lost another 34 pounds.”

Last week, Lyle graduated from the police academy’s 120th Basic Recruit Class along with 19 other recruits, WJW reported.

Lyle’s remarkable transformation has inspired his fellow recruits.

“On graduation day, one of the recruits came to me and told me that I was an inspiration to him and that’s what helped him push through the academy. Their words of support kept me strong. I knew that I had to finish not only for myself but for the people that believed in me,” he said.

Lyle said he has shed 176 pounds through a combination of hard work and determination.

“Don’t quit on yourself. Know that if you really want to do something, just set your heart to it. Surround yourself with people who will support you, family and friends, and just remember that as long as you believe in yourself, no one can tell you who you are,” he said.

The recent police academy graduate is slated to start his field training at Richmond’s Third Precinct soon.

Lyle is not the first police officer to lose staggering amounts of weight to join law enforcement. A former reporter and blogger from Texas shed over 200 pounds to become a sheriff’s deputy with the Montgomery County Constable’s Office in October, and another man lost 100 pounds to become a part of the Atlanta Police Department in July 2018.