In an effort to protest his insurance company, New Zealander Jason Patterson has initiated a hunger strike in response to the company refusing to fund his weight loss surgery. Patterson has been on the strike for over five days now, and he says he’s all in.

According to 3News, Patterson has started a video blog, as well as a fundraising website, but when insurance company ACC still denied his case, he continued on to the strike. Patterson decided he wanted to have bariatric surgery after finding out from doctors that he must lose 110 pounds if he is to have a necessary hernia operation. He currently weighs 285 pounds.

But when Patterson asked ACC to cover the bariatric surgery so that he could have the hernia procedure, ACC responded by giving him coverage for the latter, and not the former. Patterson insists that the gastric bypass procedure is necessary to get his life back on track, and claims that prior medication prescribed to him is what caused his weight gain.

When asked how he is dealing with the strike, Patterson replied, “"The first two to three days are really hard. I'm in this 100 percent now. It's hopefully going to help me being on a hunger strike to lose weight because I need to lose weight before I have my hernia.”

ACC claims they have reached out to Patterson on several occasions, giving him other options of weight loss like a dietician or visits to a psychologist. Patterson continues to insist on the necessity of the surgery, and pursues his hunger strike until he is fully understood.

"It's just to show how serious I am about getting the weight loss surgery that I need," he said to 3News.

Patterson claims he will continue the hunger strike until today, when he plans to go to ACC’s head office in Wellington, and address them face to face.