[Stardust]

RICHMOND — Twenty-one months ago, Neil Burns bought a couple of scales.

It had been about 10 years since he had last weighed himself, because most scales didn't go high enough. These did.

Burns weighed 680 pounds.

"I was in denial," he said. "A feather could've knocked me over."

That day in April 2010 marked a turning point for Burns.

Since then, he's lost 358 pounds — all through exercise and dietary changes.

Burns, 44, said he was determined to lose the weight his way — without using pills, surgery or related aids.

"Obviously, it works," he said. "Just working hard and eating right."

He weighs 322 pounds now.

Burns has given himself three months to lose 42 more pounds to reach his goal of losing 400 pounds in two years.

At 6-foot-4 and with a broad, muscular build, Burns said he isn't sure he's "got 42 pounds of fat left, but I'm going to try."

Burns said he was always the "chunky kid" in school.

"When you're a little kid, everybody makes fun of you," he said. "Kids would say bad things."

That led to fights that frequently landed him in the principal's office and earned him a nickname that has stuck: Bruiser.

Burns played football during middle and high school, and for one year of college.

But in his early 20s, Burns said he started packing on the pounds, and the problem escalated after a divorce.

For 10 years, he said, he weighed more than 600 pounds.

"I was so bad, just brushing my teeth I'd be out of breath," he said.

Walking 15 feet was a challenge. He said "all the fat inside me, pushing against my lungs" made it hard to breath.

"People stare at you," he said. "You can be tough all you want to, but it kind of gives you a ... complex."

When he decided to start working out nearly two years ago, Burns said he had to circle the parking lot at the gym and go back later if the spot closest to the door wasn't open — simply walking from his truck to the exercise machines got him winded.

Those memories still haunt him.

On a recent trip to Wal-Mart, he said he found himself thinking that if he got too tired from walking around the store, he could always sit down on the benches in front of the pharmacy.

Of course, he didn't need to.

"I've still got that phobia about walking," Burns said. "It's a struggle. The mental part is so hard."

But those memories are the motivation he uses to keep working.

"When I look in the mirror, I still see the same guy" who weighed 680 pounds, he said.

But he no longer eats like that guy.

Before he changed his habits, Burns said he ate an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 calories a day.

A typical breakfast at Dairy Queen would consist of biscuits and gravy, bacon, scrambled eggs and an order of "ultimate hash browns."

For lunch, Burns said he would occasionally go to McDonald's and order a 20-piece order of chicken McNuggets, a Double Quarter Pounder meal and a few double cheeseburgers.

http://www.kentucky.com/2012/01/15/20294...d-man.html