Extreme Weight Loss: Man Loses 191 Pounds in Bet With His Wife

By SABRINA PARISE and KATIE KINDELAN 

Nov. 10, 2011

By the end of last year, Jay Wornick tipped the scales at 366 pounds, raising the concerns of his wife, Angela. Frustrated by her inability to motivate her 30-year-old husband to lose weight, she decided she needed to make a play to his competitive side.

So the Fulton, N.Y., couple embarked on a bet to start the New Year: Who could lose the most weight the fastest.

Now, 11 months later, Jay Wornick is eating a lot less, and his wife is eating her words.
"I thought I had this one in the bag," she said today on "Good Morning America," where her husband revealed his new 191-pounds slimmer figure to the world. "But he was determined."



Her husband lost the weight completely on his own by completely overhauling his diet, exercise and lifestyle.
"It started with a diet. My diet was horrible," Wornick said. "I changed everything. I went to whole foods, fresh fruit and lean meats. I cut out all the fast food, cut out all the pizza and all the soda. That was what my diet mainly consisted of before."

Before the bet, Wornick said, he would consume as many as 10,000 calories per day through a diet of fast food, steak and potatoes and as many as 10 sodas per day.

Courtesy James Wornick

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To lose the weight, he buckled down, hitting the gym six days a week and maintaining a balanced meal plan.
"Chicken, turkey, vegetables, lots of fruits," Wornick said of the foods that helped him lose the weight. "I drink no regular sodas. Every morning I eat a big breakfast and my meals get smaller as the day goes on."

Wornick struggled with his weight his whole life and watched the pounds creep on more and more after he married in 2004. Although his wife had encouraged him to get fit for himself and their three kids -- Marcus, 9, Allyson, 8, and Jayce, 4 – before, there was something about this bet that struck him.

"She came to me with the New Year's resolution and something just clicked," he said on "GMA." "I said, "You know what, it's now or never. Let's do it. If it doesn't work then nobody can blame me for not trying,' but I'd never really tried."

Wornick, a former video shop rental manager, gave it a try by going it alone.
"I did it all on my own. No personal trainer, no nutritionist, no surgery, no pills. That stuff is unnecessary," he said. "If you want to put in the hard work, if you want to put in the dedication, it will work for you."

What he has relied on, however, to shed nearly half his body weight is his family.

"They were my main motivating factor," Wornick said of his wife and kids. "I want to walk my daughter down the aisle. It wasn't looking like I'd be there 20 years from now."

His children are happy with the results of their dad's weight loss, too.

"I like it because now he's a lot more active with us," 9-year-old Marcus said on "GMA."

"When he weighed a lot more, he wouldn't go outside and play with us a lot. Now he can go out there and it won't even look like he'll sweat."

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