Man loses 600lbs

OMAHA, Neb. -- An Omaha man credits his amazing weight loss to old-fashioned diet and exercise, and he said it's a technique anyone can use. John Lapitz lost 600 pounds with no fad diets, no liposuction and no gastric bypass. He told television station KETV that he is obsessive-compulsive, and that contributed to his ballooning weight.

"Sometimes used to have as many as many 50 or 60 fast-food sandwiches in (my freezer)," Lapitz said. "If I'm going to binge today, then I'm going to eat the world. There's no way I can stop halfway through the day."

His addiction to food nearly killed him when he weighed 700-plus pounds. "I would think nothing about, if they'd get fast food, having four or five big double cheeseburgers," Lapitz said.

He's also a numbers guy, and knows exactly how much he was taking in every day. "I had to be eating at least 10,000 calories a day, and I think I was averaging more in the 12- to 13,000 calories," he said.

He spent most of his days in bed for five years.

"Sometimes I really wanted to die," Laptiz said. "I would sometimes go maybe two or three weeks without seeing anybody except my sister-in-law and the lady who delivered my Meals on Wheels," he said.

Fearing he wouldn't be able to make it to the bathroom by himself anymore, he said he decided to cut his calorie intake in half. He said he still ate junk food at first, but then he tried something he thought he hated -- vegetables.

"One day I tried broccoli, and man, I loved it. I couldn't believe that I liked broccoli. The next day it was cauliflower. I couldn't believe I liked cauliflower," Lapitz said.

Next, he started exercising, taking one step at a time. "I would start here, walking in and touch the sink, walk back and touch this, and do that somewhere between, well, generally 127 times," Lapitz said.

Eventually, he was walking 10 to 12 miles per day, and over the course of five years, he believes he's dropped 600 pounds.