With Diet, Exercise and Friendship, Man Loses 400 Pounds

Dec. 21, 2007— -- Four and half years ago, David Smith weighed more than 630 pounds. He had spent nearly a decade on the couch in his parents' house eating pizza, raiding the fridge, and drinking soda. For much of his life he said he "felt like the elephant man."

Today Smith is enjoying life and the inspiration he gives others. His remarkable transformation didn't happen overnight. It took more than two years of total dedication; tears of disappointment and grins of glory. Yet his new body is not his greatest gift. It's friendship … something Smith never dreamed he'd know. During the years that he was morbidly obese, he was also imprisoned by shame and social anxiety.

"It got so bad to a point that I didn't leave the house and I didn't even feel comfortable in my own backyard until it was dark out," Smith said.

Ashamed of his looks, Smith didn't want to go out so he wouldn't be mocked in public.

In June 2003, he finally had enough. Smith sent an e-mail to Chris Powell, fitness correspondent for Good Morning Arizona, a local news broadcast on KTVK in Phoenix. Powell paid Smith a visit.

"We were both probably thinking: what are we getting ourselves into right here? There would be no way I'd have anything in common with this guy," Smith said.

Powell, a former Cosmo magazine bachelor, was socially confident. But now he was trying to get through to this painfully shy man.

"I didn't know what 600 pounds looked like," Powell said. "He couldn't really look me in the eye. He was just so broken. He really didn't know what to say or what to do."

Despite their initial awkward meeting, they made a deal. Smith committed to losing the pounds and Powell agreed to stick with him as long as Smith didn't give up.

The first stop was a truck scale so they could get Smith's weight. After that, Powell created a food plan for Smith: six smaller meals to replace Smith's end-of-the-day megameal. The meals were carbo-balanced to increase his metabolism, with cheat days thrown in. In the first month Smith dropped 40 pounds; then, after just four months of doing simple exercises in the gym, Smith lost 100 pounds. Powell was pleased. But Smith wasn't too impressed with what he had accomplished.