by David McAlpine

On this week's episode of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, Chris meets James, a 26 year-old ex-football player who now tips the scales at 651 pounds. James can't fit through some of the doorways in his house without turning sideways, he's broken tiles in his parents' kitchen just by sitting on a chair, and he has a hernia that can't be operated on.

But now, Chris is here to help. First, it's a wake-up call as Chris gets James on a freight scale to show him just how out of control his weight is. James is upset, but he's determined to beat it. It's almost scary how in the zone he gets during the first week of "boot camp" in California, to the point where Chris is afraid that James might hit him for pushing him so hard.

After refitting his house so that it's optimized for weight loss, James gets his first goal: 150 pounds in three months. It seems hefty, but James goes for it, and gets all the way down below 500 pounds by the end of 90 days. That's right, the man loses 154 pounds in 90 days. He already looks different!

However, after all the weight loss, James ends up in the hospital with pneumonia and an embolism, though still untreatable because of his weight. It's a setback, but not a major one. Chris adjusts his next 3 month weight loss goal to just 11 pounds, even though James' goal is simply to not gain weight.

James gets to live his dream with NFL superstars Michael Irvin and Nate Newton, both of whom push him hard. Nate himself just lost 100 pounds, and knows the struggle James is going through.

After hitting his target at six months, Chris sets a goal of 30 pounds a month for the next three months. There's no skin removal surgery option for James because of his currently inoperable hernia, but James is still determined to lose the weight. At the nine month mark, James is down another 92 pounds (2 pounds more than his goal), 257 pounds lighter than he was when he started!

At the one year mark, Chris gets to meet James' friends and family at the Super Bowl, another one of James' dreams. He looks like an entirely new person, both inside and out. He finally gets on the scale, weighing in at 338 pounds, 313 pounds less than what he weighed one year ago from then. James' prize: two tickets to the Super Bowl!

This time, the story continues: James is continuing to work on his weight loss to get under 300 pounds, at which point doctors can operate on his hernia.

Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.

(Photo courtesy of ABC)

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