Fred Ledbetter tried eating cabbage soup to lose weight. He tried grapefruits, pills, products, specially packaged meals, fad diets, weight-loss clubs.
When all else failed, the overweight Anchorage man put his faith in a straight-talking TV show host.
Since September, Ledbetter has been one of 13 people put to the test in Dr. Phil McGraw's Ultimate Weight Loss Challenge.
Ledbetter's wife is in the Air Force. When she was assigned to Elmendorf Air Force Base, she and Ledbetter drove from Florida to Alaska. Along the way, they caught an episode of the "Dr. Phil" afternoon talk show. At the end of the program, Ledbetter heard his challenge: Anyone struggling to lose the pounds should send a videotape to the show.
Ledbetter was among more than 7,000 people who did, said Louis DiCenzo, spokesman for McGraw. When McGraw kicked off his second season last fall, he showed Ledbetter's tape. Sitting in front of a table of treats, Ledbetter confessed.
"My No. 1 vice is sweets," said the 32-year-old Marine turned Wells Fargo banker.
"I'm a birthday cake addict," he continued, wolfing down a piece of cake honoring his son Jordan's special day. "I'll go to anybody's birthday, any time, any day."
Back then, the 5-foot-9 Ledbetter weighed 248 pounds and had struggled with his weight since high school. Marine basic training forced him to drop 50 pounds, but he's no longer an active Marine and hasn't maintained the weight loss.
Ledbetter told the camera that his father is overweight and has diabetes and that he doesn't want that for himself. By May, when the "Dr. Phil" challenge ends, Ledbetter wants to lose 60 to 70 pounds.
"My 100 percent goal is to get back into my Marine Corps dress blues," he said.
McGraw called Ledbetter onstage and told him he'd won the challenge. A number of others who made the cut had much more weight to lose, but the talk show host said he wanted a wide variety of people to show Americans what is possible.
Four months into the challenge, Ledbetter is down 37 pounds, weighing in at 211. What is different this time compared with his previous attempts to lose weight?
Ledbetter started by reading McGraw's new book, "The Ultimate Weight Solution: The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom."
The first keys are removing self-defeating thoughts and watching to see if you eat to feed your emotions. Other keys, McGraw wrote, are making sure healthful foods are accessible and junk food is cleared out, adding exercise to your daily schedule and strengthening a network of people who will support you as you lose weight.
Since August, Ledbetter has flown to Los Angeles eight to 10 times to tape "Dr. Phil" shows. He has faced the host one-on-one in the hot seat. McGraw called Ledbetter on some trouble spots.
At the beginning of the challenge, all 13 participants lived together in a Beverly Hills mansion. McGraw said Ledbetter was always the cheerleader for everyone else -- "Mr. Rah Rah, Mr. Pompom" -- willing to give up his spot to someone who needed it more than he did. As tears rolled down Ledbetter's cheeks, McGraw told him he had to lose weight for himself.
He later delivered his signature saying to Ledbetter: "You're either going to get real about fat, or you're going to get real fat."
Did Ledbetter take offense at the doctor's tone? Not at all.
Ledbetter realized McGraw was right: He had to care for himself and his weight.
"I've been putting a lot of time into making sure everyone else is comfortable and making sure that everybody else is happy," he said. "And there's nothing wrong with that. But there's something wrong with it when you neglect yourself. And that basically was my problem, and I didn't realize it until I sat and thought about it."
Now, Ledbetter said he follows McGraw's advice of planning ahead to make sure healthful food is around. He knows what he's going to have for breakfast the night before. He cooks his lunch meals for the week on Sunday evenings.
"My refrigerator looks like a Tupperware warehouse," he said.
If he didn't prepare meals ahead of time, he'd risk grabbing the first thing he saw when he got hungry.
"And usually the first thing you want and see is not always the healthiest thing," he said.
He exercises twice a day, with a cardio workout in the morning and a weight-lifting program at night. As for his No. 1 vice, he has cut down on sweets but not given them up entirely.
"I overindulged before, and that was a huge problem," he said. "Instead of taking one piece of cake, I took two, three."
Now, he treats himself when it's a real celebration and on other days satisfies his sweet tooth with a piece of fruit.
Doing all of this has been a motivation for Ledbetter's father, who has started going for walks and using a push lawn mower instead of hiring someone else to do the job, Ledbetter said.
Ledbetter said he doesn't know if he'll drop 60 or 70 pounds by May, considering that he has added muscle along the way.
He's already wearing business suits altered to fit his shrinking frame. As for fitting in his dress blues, the Marine kept quiet: That's still classified information.
Daily News reporter Ann Potempa can be reached at 257-4581 or apotempa@adn.com.
