Hear the incredible story of how one man lost 400lbs in a single year

April 01, 2015

WRITER

Brian Fleming's life was a mess. He weighed 625 pounds, drank a fifth of vodka every night, and ate nothing but fast food. But fast forward one year - and things are completely different. What happened? Glenn spoke with Brian about this incredible transformation on Wednesday's radio show.

On Tuesday, TheBlaze reported:

Last year, Brian Flemming weighed 625 pounds.
That all changed, however, when the Michigan man virtually met a stranger in England who convinced him to turn his life around. Now, one year later, Flemming is down nearly 400 pounds and is a recovering alcoholic.
But, after losing all that weight, Flemming is still not comfortable taking his shift off in public. A new video published late last week revealed why.

"He has a Facebook page. Team 383," Glenn explained. "It's his weight loss support group. He took his shirt off for that. People have been donating money so he can have the skin removed. But we were sitting here talking about - what is it like to lose almost 400 pounds in a year. Is that even healthy? How did you even do it? And what's your life like? I mean, everything had to have changed for you."

Watch that video below:

Below is a video of the interview, scroll down for the rush transcript:

GLENN: Welcome to the program. Pat and I were reading the Blaze this morning. We found a story about Brian Fleming. He lives in Michigan. And he lost nearly 400 pounds in the last year. And he's a guy who has not felt comfortable taking his shirt off. And he took his shirt off on Facebook. And he has a Facebook page. Team 383. It's his weight loss support group. He took his shirt off for that. People have been donating money so he can have the skin removed. But we were just -- we were sitting here talking about -- what is it like to lose almost 400 pounds in a year. Is that even healthy? How did you even do it? And what's your life like? I mean, everything had to have changed for you. So we decided, pick up the phone and call him. So Brian is on the phone with us now. Hi, Brian.

BRIAN: Hey, good morning.

GLENN: How are you, man?

BRIAN: Oh, I'm great. I'm great. Thanks.

GLENN: What an amazing year you've had. A, how did you decide to lose it? And then how did you lose 400 pounds?

BRIAN: Well, it's a long story. The whole time it took me 18 months altogether to lose 390 pounds.

GLENN: Did your doctor -- was he involved? Is it safe to lose that much that fast?

BRIAN: Well, I did see my doctor every three months while I was losing the weight. I had blood work done. Blood pressure, everything checked up on. I was taking proper medications. And he just kept saying, keep doing what I'm doing because it seemed to be working. But, yeah, it's been a crazy couple of years.

GLENN: So was this the all cocaine diet? How did you lose that much weight that fast?

BRIAN: Well, yeah, I started at 625 pounds. And at the time, I was drinking a fifth of vodka every single night. I was a chronic alcoholic. I was depressed. I was eating nothing but fast food. And I went back and took a look at it. I was eating probably over 7,000 calories per day at my heaviest weight.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

PAT: Wow.

BRIAN: Yeah, when I was at my worst, I was playing a video game. Completely randomly got matched up with a woman in London, England. Her name is Jackie Eastham, and we got to know each other playing this random video game. And, you know, I got to know her better. Then eventually I opened up to her and told her how depressed I was and how big I was. And I was expecting some sympathy from her, and I got quite the opposite. She kicked my butt. She basically told me I was throwing my life away and kind of put things into perspective for me.

I found out at the time that she has myotonic dystrophy. It's a form of muscular dystrophy. And she has to stay very fit and very healthy to keep her symptoms at bay. So she saw someone like me throwing my life away, and she just wouldn't have it.

GLENN: Holy cow. What a godsend she was.

PAT: That's a great story.

GLENN: Hang on a second. Have you two met?

BRIAN: Yes, we have actually. Not this past December, but the year before, I went over to meet her in London England. It was the first time I had flown overseas. I went over and spent Christmas and New Year's with her the past two Decembers in a row. And we're best of friends. We're very, very close.

GLENN: Can we call her at some point? We won't call her now. But can we call her? I'd love to talk to her.

BRIAN: Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah.

GLENN: Good. Good. Okay. Let's continue the conversation. So what did she say to you, when you told her and you were expecting sympathy, what did she say?

BRIAN: She basically used more colorful language than I can really say on the radio. But she more or less told me I was throwing my life away. Saying there are thousands of people out there that are fighting for their lives, you know, people that don't take their life for granted, and then there's me. I'm thirty years old. I'm just throwing everything away. And she basically just made me question what I was doing with my life. And it was the right motivation I needed at the right time. And October 2012, I quit drinking, cold turkey. And the weight just started pouring off of me after that.

PAT: Nice.

GLENN: So do you go to AA?

BRIAN: Nope. I don't go to AA. I had Jackie as a great support structure when I quit. And she was there for me from the very beginning.

PAT: That's amazing willpower.

GLENN: Boy, I have to tell you, man. Hold on just a second.

You are an alcoholic?

BRIAN: Yes. I'm a recovered alcoholic.

GLENN: Okay. And you are -- and you were drinking how much?

BRIAN: I was drinking a fifth of vodka per night.

PAT: Jeez.

GLENN: Holy cow.

PAT: Brian, that's not healthy. Who would have guessed?

GLENN: So that's amazing. So now you then stopped drinking, and then when did you stop eating 7,000 calories a day?

BRIAN: Well, cutting back on the alcohol, I mean, that cut basically 2,000 calories out of my daily diet right there. There's a lot of calories in alcohol, which I'm sure a lot of people may not realize or not. There's a lot of sugar in that as well. But when I cut that out, I noticed once I got over the withdrawals, they were very severe for about a week and a half.

GLENN: I bet they were.

BRIAN: I noticed my belts started to get looser on me. My pants got a little bit baggier, and I noticed my weight started to come off. So I started to think, well, I thought that was hypocritically of me to stop drinking and keep eating all the fast food. So I started cutting back on fast food. I started gradually taking things out of my diet that were unhealthy. And I got to a point where I was consuming a certain number of calories every day. And the weight came off pretty rapidly. The first three months, I lost a pound a day. So I lost nearly 100 pounds in three months.

PAT: That's awesome.

GLENN: There's a picture. We're putting a picture of you on TV now. Where you're standing in your pants, and you have both -- you're standing in one leg of your pants. I mean, it's like you've lost a person. It's amazing.

PAT: So what did you replace the fast food with? Did you just start eating vegetables and -- what was the specific calorie count you went to, to lose the weight?

BRIAN: Well, I couldn't stand vegetables at first. I never really liked them at first.

PAT: Me neither.

BRIAN: It was more cutting out the --

GLENN: Fast food.

BRIAN: The really bad foods. You know, I would typically go to a fast food and get the super-sized meals and get extra Chicken Nuggets with it. The single meal would be 2,000 calories.

PAT: That's what I'm talking about.

GLENN: That's what I'm talking about too. I'm in love with this diet. Wait a minute. This is not the healthy diet, you're saying?

BRIAN: Yeah. Yeah.

GLENN: All right.

BRIAN: Just started making healthier choices. You know, cutting out french fries and eating rice instead. Or, you know, sort of replacing certain menu items with more healthier options. You know, not all the fast food restaurants are entirely bad for you. There are certain items you can eat that are healthier. So I just kind of gradually weaned myself off the really bad stuff.

GLENN: Okay. Now, did you exercise?

BRIAN: Yeah.

GLENN: Oh.

BRIAN: I started at just five minutes a day one morning. I woke up and turned on the TV, and I just decided to walk in place for five minutes. That's all I could do at that weight. And I decided to wake up and do that every single morning. I woke up the next morning, I walked in place for five minutes. Turned on the TV. Eventually, I just started adding to that. I got to six, seven, ten minutes. Twenty. Eventually I got up to an hour every single morning. I turned on the TV and walked in place. And it kind of snowballs from there. I ended up walking outside. Then I started bike riding. And I just ran my first half marathon this past October. And I'm planning on running a full marathon this year.

PAT: I don't want to hear this kind of stuff. This is nasty talk now. This has gone completely off the rails.

GLENN: It really has. So we saw the picture of you with your shirt off. And, I mean -- I don't mean to be rude here. It was not a pretty picture. Have you raised money now to -- to have the surgery or not?

BRIAN: Yeah. Well, after losing all that weight, I have about 30 to 40 pounds of excess skin that is left over. And I'm at a point where I'm so active and I'm eating so healthy, I really am not going to lose anymore weight. I'm at the point where I can't do anything about it. And this excess skin has given me back problems. It's just preventing me from doing a lot of things that I love doing now. You know, running long-distance is a lot harder when you have 30 pounds of skin hanging off you. You know, it's not very easy. But it's one of those things where I was hoping to get the surgery done. I went and had a consultation. I found out it was over $20,000 to get the surgery done. And it just wasn't an option for me. So a really good friend of mine, Kay, created a GoFundMe page to raise money for this. And it's been going up since. So we're completely blown away. Jackie and I have been just unbelievably grateful for everybody's support.

PAT: Do you have enough now to have the surgery? Is there enough now?

BRIAN: We're really close. I think we're now over 18,000. The surgery is quoted at 22,000. So we're almost there.

GLENN: All right. So how do you get to it?

BRIAN: It's actually at GoFundMe.com. Then just do slash Brian Flemming. And that will take you to the page.

PAT: I would guess you will have necessary amount soon.

GLENN: Yeah. So GoFundMe.com/BrianFlemming. F-L-E-M-M-I-N-G.

So let me ask you about the experience of taking your shirt off and taking a picture. How scary was that for you?

BRIAN: Oh, it was incredibly scary. One of the things that I've been dealing with, there's a lot of anxiety. I had depression when I was bigger as well. And, you know, I haven't gone swimming in over a decade. I mean, it's been a long time. I've been too bashful. Even while I was bigger, I never wanted to go swimming because I didn't want people looking at me. Now that I've lost all this weight, I have all this excess skin. And I'm still incredibly self-conscious about it. I still haven't gone swimming. And it's one of those things I used to love doing when I was a kid. I figured, you know, eventually, I'll just have to get over it. It's part of my body. You know, maybe something that people need to see that side of weight loss. So I decided to make a video out of it. Put some pictures up. And just show some of our followers what it looks like to lose that amount of weight. And it's kind of been a liberating experience. You know, it was nerve-racking at first. But I think it feels good to just get it out there.

PAT: How has this changed your life, Brian? You must sleep better, you must be able to get around a lot better, you must go places you haven't been to in a really long time.

GLENN: What are the things that you have done or you have felt that you had forgotten about that just has been mind-boggling for you?

BRIAN: Oh. So many different things. I spread myself almost every day trying to new things. There's just certain things I took for granted before I was obese. You know, things like buckling my seat belt in my car. You know, the first day I was able to do that, it blew my mind. When I was 600 pounds, I couldn't buckle my seat belt. And going out to restaurants and being able to fit in the booth. And getting on a plane and flying to London. You know, I never thought I would be able to fit into a plane seat again. There's all these things I want to do. You know, ride rollercoasters. I haven't been able to fit on the rides. And now I'm planning to go to Cedar Point this summer. You know, sky driving. All kinds of stuff.

GLENN: How about catching the eye of somebody attractive? Have you noticed that -- I mean, that must be like somebody looking at you must be like, holy cow. And they're not looking at me and making fun of me. I mean, she might actually be interested in me.

BRIAN: Well, I don't know. I'm not very self-conscious about that. I haven't really picked up on it if that's the case.

STU: Not to hit on you or anything, but you're a pretty good-looking dude.

GLENN: There's no judgment here. He is hitting on you.

BRIAN: Appreciate it.

PAT: Did you have a job when you were 600 pounds?

BRIAN: I worked a few dead-end jobs here and there. I worked retail sales and just some jobs where I wasn't really going anywhere. I was spinning my wheels. I went to college at some point. I dropped out.

GLENN: How about now?

BRIAN: Right now, I work as a music teacher for a local high school. I teach saxophone with the Plymouth-Canton Marching Band. It's a fantastic group of kids that I get to work with.

GLENN: Holy cow.

BRIAN: And Jackie and I, we also started a weight loss support group that we call team 383. This was after my story came out. And we wanted to share with other people. Now it's grown to 11,000 members. We've been able to reach out and help other people with losing weight and dealing with their own issues. And all kinds of things. Even substance abuse. All kinds of numbers from all over the world. It's been fantastic.

GLENN: So that's at Facebook.com/team383?

BRIAN: We actually have a website now. It's team383.com. And you can go to our Facebook group from there. Click on the Facebook link. Like I said, about 11,000 members. They're all amazingly supportive. They come from all walks of life. It's just been an amazing experience. We're just glad to be able to give back and help other people.

GLENN: 383, the significance?

BRIAN: Yeah, when we created the group, we originally called it My 383-Pound Weight Loss Story. At the time, that's how much weight I had lost. And the members of the group kept calling it Team 383 and they just kept calling it over and over. And eventually it kind of stuck. So we decided to just call it Team 383.

GLENN: It's really amazing. Really amazing. Well, we'd love to get -- we'd love to get the woman who changed your life on the phone. So maybe we'll just put you on hold. Maybe we can arrange that. Do that tomorrow or something. We'd love to talk to her as well.

BRIAN: Sure. That would be great.

GLENN: I think it's a great story. You seem like a great guy. I'm glad the Blaze did a story on you so we could talk to you today.

BRIAN: Thank you for having me on.

PAT: It's a great story.

GLENN: Really great story.

PAT: In this participation trophy culture that we live in, someone who actually doesn't enable his behavior of drinking a fifth of vodka a day and eating fast food all day, 7,000 calories, and really takes him to task for it, that's pretty great.

GLENN: That's fantastic.

PAT: That doesn't happen very often.

GLENN: That's fantastic.

The LIES Joe Biden, the White House, and the media made about Hunter's pardon will disgust you

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President Joe Biden gave his son, Hunter, a sweeping presidential pardon that erased the past ten years of his criminal record.

Despite President Biden's repeated promise that he would not pardon his son, Glenn saw right through the charade. Glenn predicted Biden had always intended to pardon Hunter, waiting until after the election to avoid damaging Harris's presidential campaign despite White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and the entire corporate media establishment reiterating Biden's insistence that he would not pardon his son.

Here are three glaring examples of Biden and the media lying about the president's intentions to pardon Hunter:

President Biden claims he "ruled out" the possibility of pardoning Hunter.

@independent Joe Biden has issued a pardon for his son Hunter following his conviction on federal gun charges, despite previously claiming he would not do so. The president officially announced the decision on Sunday (1 December) saying that his son had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” by the Justice Department. In a statement, he said he hoped the American people would understand his decision as a father. The sudden announcement was a full reversal of the stance he took six months ago when he announced publicly he would not pardon Hunter, should he be convicted. #hunter #biden ♬ original sound - Independent

This video shows several times in which Biden publically insisted that he would not pardon Hunter. This elite hypocrisy has become indicative of the Biden administration and the fuel behind Trump's overwhelming victory in November.

Biden owes KJP an apology.

Nobody has more egg on their face after this debacle than White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. As this video demonstrates, KJP repeated Biden's promise not to pardon his son. When Biden went back on his word, she had to scramble to provide some semblance of a defense for his decision.

The corporate media coverup.

The mainstream media belittled anyone who suggested that Biden would pardon Hunter. Now, these clips are a perfect example of the mainstream media's complicity of promoting whatever contradictory narrative emerges from the White House.

Who is Pam Bondi, Trump's new AG pick?

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With Matt Gaetz out of the picture, President Trump has already named former Florida AG Pam Bondi as his latest pick as his US Attorney General.

As US Attorney General, Bondi will be placed at the head of the Department of Justice, the most crucial role in Trump's plans to root out the deep state. As Glenn discussed on his radio show, the Biden White House has weaponized the Department of Justice, against President Trump in an attempt to thwart his 2024 re-election. The Department of Justice is crooked to the core, and it will take a herculean effort to bring enduring reform to this pivotal government agency.

Does Pam Bondi have what it takes to lead the Department of Justice? What does her resume look like? Does she have any skeletons in the closet that the Democrats could use against her? Here's everything you need to know about Pam Bondi below:

Bondi's Resume

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Bondi started her career as a prosecutor working for the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office where she handled countless cases that ranged from domestic violence to murder. In 2010 Bondi made history by becoming Florida's first female attorney general. She spent her time in office fighting back against Florida's opioid crisis and openly challenged Obamacare.

Bondi worked with the first Trump administration, using her experience fighting the opioid crisis in Trump's Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission. After Trump was impeached for the first time, Bondi joined the team of defense lawyers fighting back against the prosecution's allegations.

Bondi has spent the last four years working for a Florida-based lobbying firm, but she still showed support for President Trump by making appearances alongside him during the New York City hush money trial.

Bondi's Dedication to fix the DoJ

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Judging by her track record and the testimony of her colleagues, Bondi is more than capable of tackling the Department of Justice. Bondi has a record of following and enforcing the rule of law and has spent much of her career making communities safer. Bondi has firsthand experience with political elitists and corruption, having worked at nearly every level of the government from the bottom to the top.

Bondi stood by Trump as he faced impeachment and stayed by his side as he faced waves of lawfare after 2020. It's clear that Bondi has great respect for President Trump and is deeply familiar with the weaponization of the Department of Justice. It seems like she has what it takes to fix the system.

Bondi's Potential Controversies

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The Mainstream Media wasted no time digging up dirt on Bondi, looking for anything that might stand between her and a Senate confirmation.

The biggest story circulating the media involves a 2013 case about "Trump University," a now-defunct company that offered courses in real estate, entrepreneurship, and other similar courses. In 2013, the New York Attorney General's office went after Trump University due to reports that the program was a "scam." Bondi began a similar investigation, which allegedly came to a halt after she received a $25,000 check from the Trump Foundation for her re-election campaign. Bondi has never been formally accused of illegal activity, but now that she is under the national spotlight, she could face serious scrutiny.

Bondi's tenure as a lobbyist has also been called into question. She was registered as a lobbyist for several foreign and corporate entities, which could be seen as a potential weakness or conflict of interest—or at the very least bring her dedication to fighting corruption into question.

AI Jesus and other INSANE new uses of Artificial Intelligence

Glenn has repeatedly warned about the dangers artificial intelligence poses to humanity. Yet, it seems like every week, some new AI project seems to inch us closer to that worst-case scenario.

It's not all bad. Even Glenn could resist the urge to buy an AI-powered, flamethrower-wielding, robotic dog to accompany him on his ranch. The future is here, and these are threeinsane new ways the power of AI is being harnessed — for better or worse.

AI Jesus

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Many have wished to have a face-to-face conversation with Jesus, but this probably isn't what anyone had in mind. A church in Lucerne, Switzerland recently teamed up with scientists and computer experts from the nearby Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts to create a digital duplicate of Christ designed to listen to confessions and give scripture-supported advice to those who ask. The computer even creates a hologram image of Jesus that talks to people in real time. The AI was trained with the New Testament and "religious information found online," and is fluent in over 100 languages.

While some are impressed with his answers to moderately complex theological questions, many are skeptical, claiming that giving a machine the face and name of God is a form of idolatry. Others worry that it will turn Jesus into a "woke warrior."

AI Coca-Cola Ad

The holiday season is upon us, and Coca-Cola has released its newest Christmas ad campaign. These latest commercials feature shiny, Coca-Cola red semi-trucks driving through an idyllic winter wonderland on a mission to deliver soda to a festively decorated town — standard holiday ad fare. But this year, Coca-Cola decided to put a "futuristic spin" on their ad campaign — the commercials are all AI-generated. It doesn't take a detective to spot the tell-tale AI hallmarks, from truck wheels that don't spin as the truck is driving to the eerie expressions of the people in the ad that twist and contort in creepy ways. The holiday magic is lost.

AI Grandma

A British telecom company, Virgin Media O2, unveiled Daisy, an AI chatbot designed to scam the scammers. Daisy is designed to sound and talk like an elderly woman and is tasked to deliberately connect with telephone scammers (who typically target older people) and waste their time with heaps of meandering chatter so that scammers have less time to target real people. Daisy has already proved capable of fooling scammers into long phone conversations, which ultimately end up fruitless. Can you think of a better use of AI?

The THREE ways RFK Jr. will Make America Healthy Again

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One of President Trump's most popular campaign promises was to "Make America Great Again," and he has employed the help of his former opponent, RFK Jr., to make that promise come true.

In an interview with NPR, RFK Jr. revealed the three directives Trump has tasked him as the new head of the Department of Health and Human Services. These directives aim to cut out the "cancer" that Glenn exposed in his latest TV special that has spread throughout theentire federal government.

Here are the three directives Trump gave RFK Jr.:

1. Rid health agencies of corruption and conflicts.

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It is no secret that the departments that fall under the HHS, such as the FDA, NIH, and CDC, are rife with corruption. After the COVID lockdowns raised suspicion that these federal agencies did not have the American people's best interests at heart, Americans have been increasingly distrustful of these institutions. Glenn exposed several instances of corruption across the HHS, from Dr. Fauchi's Covid powertrip to the insidious relationship between private entities like Big Food, Big Pharma, and the federal agencies that regulate them.

RFK Jr. has been one of the most vocal critics of the corruption that has turned these federal agencies against the very people they were created to protect and is the best person to reform these institutions.

2. Return agencies to the gold standard of empirically based, evidence-based science and medicine.

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Under Biden, the HHS has degraded even further than it had before. Scientific methodology and empirical data are no longer the backbones of these institutions. They have been replaced with DEI and other woke agendas. The Department of Health and Human Services is the second largest federal agency, only behind the Pentagon, with a budget of 1.7 trillion dollarsand over 83 thousand employees. The opportunity for waste and negligence is monumental.

Biden appointed former California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, to the head of HHS, along with Rachel Levine, a transgender woman, as the Assistant Secretary for Health. Before long the second-largest federal agency started looking like a university DEI office, with hundreds of DEI hires adding to government bloat. Instead of battling the diseases and sicknesses that plague our country, the HHS spent the past four years going after pro-life investigators who were exposing how Planned Parenthood sells body parts of aborted babies, opposing the merger of religious-based hospitals to protect transgender and abortion "rights," and wrestling over Obama-era contraceptive mandates with a group of Catholic nuns. This is quackery and waste on an unprecedented scale.

RFK Jr. is tasked with rooting out the corruption that sprang forth with the Biden administration's DEI agenda and put science back in our health policy.

3. End the chronic disease epidemic with measurable impacts within two years.

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Today, despite our modern technology, Americans are sicker than ever before. 129 million Americans have at least one chronic disease, 42 percent have two or more, and 12 percent have more than five. Life expectancy is at a twenty-year low despite the fact that we are spending more than ever on health care. Even our children are sick, with a staggering 40 percent of school-aged kids having at least one chronic disease. One in nine kids has ADHD, and one in 54 has autism, both representing a steep increase over past decades.

America is sick, and Big Pharma is just rolling in the profits. This is where RFK Jr. comes in. He aims to find the cures and preventions to these diseases and make Americans healthy instead of lifelong patients.

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