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- Bob Bedford didn't want surgery. He did it the old-fashioned way by starting to eating right.
If somebody saw Bob Bedford now it would be hard to imagine he was once twice his size. It is also hard for him to admit.
"It was 512 pounds, and that number I really struggle with," said Bedford, a patient at the University of Minnesota Weight Management Clinic.
Bedford got choked up because he was embarrassed that he let himself get so big. He described himself as a normal guy: a father and husband with a type-A personality who works a high-pressure job.
"I have a family with two young girls and I need to do something about being here for them. I was going at a pace where I might not even be here for them to graduate high school, let alone get married," said Bedford.
So, Bedford turned to Dr. Charles Billington at the Medical Weight Management Clinic at the University of Minnesota Medical Center.
"The thing that's so important about Bob is his own sort of dynamism and personality which is what really propelled him toward great success. What has been different about him relative to some folks is the energy and the stick-to-it-iveness that he has applied to this which has really been phenomenal," said Billington.
Bedford didn't want surgery. He did it the old-fashioned way, by starting to eat right.
On the night that WCCO-TV visited, dinner was chicken wraps with low-fat cheese and a salad.
"How long till we eat? I'm starving," Bedford asked his wife, Marna, as she prepared dinner.
"Three minutes," she replied.
Bedford also hit the gym, every single day.
"I'm just an average normal guy. So, I think that resonates with people, so they think, 'If he can do it, I can,'" said Bedford.
He became a fixture at the St. Croix Valley YMCA, and added a trainer to his program.
"Everybody recognizes Bob," personal trainer Tracy Davis said.
"He sets his goals ... he does his homework and he gets it done and he leaves our sessions dripping wet. So yeah, people are like, 'Yeah, he's really working hard. He's a good guy,'" Davis said.
With determination and discipline, Bedford slimmed down, losing 257 pounds in two and a half years. That is slightly more than half his original weight.
As Bedford's wife, Marna, points out, that's the weight of two people, which she said was hard for her to wrap her head around.
Bedford has lost the equivalent of what a refrigerator weighs, or two outdoor grills, or 10 buckets of wood stain or 13 jumbo boxes of laundry detergent.
Now, Bedford is honored to help others. He has organized a weight loss challenge at his company, GE Money in St. Paul.
"The company's been proactive and overhauled the vending machines so the lunchrooms have healthy choice options. When we have kickoff events for special initiatives, there's always a healthy choice option now instead of 600 donuts," Bedford said.
Over 14 weeks, his co-workers lost nearly 3,000 pounds, or on average, about 10 pounds each.
"To really have 60 percent jump on board, the environment, the energy, the lives being changed, it's just been super exciting," Bedford said.
"Here's something we can do upfront by making changes about what we eat while we still have time to add years on our life, and really that's the core message that I want to deliver is that you need to take action before the catastrophic event because the benefits are amazing," Bedford said.
Bedford lost more weight than anyone ever has on "The Biggest Loser," even without being a contestant. He held the weight-loss record at the U of M clinic and has become a role model for staff and patients.
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