SUCCESS STORY / Doug Kirkpatrick, 47: From 321 pounds to 210 pounds

Doug Kirkpatrick, 47, of Gainesville, Ga. lost 111 pounds

Former weight: 321 pounds

Current weight: 210 pounds

Pounds lost: 111 pounds

Height: 6 feet

Age: 47 years

How long he’s kept it off: He started in September 2011. In January he decided a lifestyle change, not a diet, was what he needed. He reached his current weight in July.

Personal life: “I live with my wonderful wife of twenty-two years, Mary,” says Kirkpatrick. “I’m a deputy chief appraiser with the Fulton County Assessors’ Office.” Their daughter, Beth, her four children, five dogs and a cat live with them in Gainesville.

Turning point: “I’d been working in the yard raking leaves for about twenty minutes when our oldest grandchild came and told us that his younger brother got hurt. I couldn’t respond because I was so fatigued,” he says. “In between gasps, I had to ask someone else to help him. I then realized that my family needed a father and a husband that could handle his responsibilities.”

Diet plan: “I tried to limit my calorie intake to eight hundred to twelve hundred calories a day,” he says. “The diet I describe here (http://www.webmd.com/diet/low-calorie-diets) is only for those that are seriously obese…I started increasing the calorie count in early June…until I reached 2,000 calories.”

Kirkpatrick was under a doctor’s care during part of his low-calorie phase. This weight-loss approach may not be healthy for everyone. For more information on determining caloric intake, check out the Centers for Disease Control: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/calories/index.html or National Institutes of Health, Heart Lung and Blood Institute: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/lose_wt/calories.htm

Exercise routine: Five days a week he runs on his treadmill for thirty minutes and does weight-training. He also takes Karate.

Biggest challenge: “My biggest challenge was the same as everybody else’s who tries such a lifestyle change — don’t let old habits creep back in.”

How life has changed: “No more blood pressure medicine and sleep apnea machines,” he says. “Prior to my lifestyle change, I’d tell people that I felt seventy years old. I now feel thirty years old.”

Be an inspiration: If you’ve made positive changes in your diet and/or fitness routine and are happy with the results, please share your success with us. Include your email address, a daytime phone number and before and after photos (by mail or JPEG). Write: Success Stories, c/o Holly Steel, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 223 Perimeter Center Parkway, Atlanta, GA, 30346-1301; or e-mail Michelle C. Brooks, ajcsuccessstories@gmail.com.