Details Emerge As To How Ted Forrest Dropped 50 Pounds In Just Over Two Months
Published on 2010-08-14 05:14:00Earlier this summer, details emerged of the unbelievable $2 million weight loss bet between Ted Forrest and Mike Matusow.
The genesis of this bet came in the summer of 2007, when Ted Forrest bet Mike Matusow $100k that the "Mouth" couldn't lose 60 pounds by the beginning of the 2008 World Series of Poker. Matusow, who was tipping the scales at over 240 pounds in 2007, casually mentioned that he used to weigh 181 pounds. Forrest bet Matusow $100k that he couldn't return to 181 pounds over the course of a full year, Matusow accepted and the bet was on.
Matusow ended up losing a total of 62 pounds and won the bet.
Fast forward to 2010. According to this article on ESPN.com, Matusow and Forrest were enjoying a dinner at the Commerce Casino when Forrest suggested another bet. Forrest, who weighed 188 pounds at the time, wanted to bet that he could get down to below 140 pounds in a ridiculously short period of time.
According to Forrest, here is how the bet looked:
"..he laid me 20-1 that I couldn't do it by July 15 and another $1 million against $100,000 that I couldn't do it by Sept. 24."
From what I have heard, the bet was made in early May, meaning that Forrest had just over two months to lose nearly 50 pounds to collect on the full two million, and just over four months to collect half that amount.
Matusow accepted, and the bet was on.
As you are surely aware, Forrest ended up winning the bet by the first deadline (July 15th), meaning that he was entitled to the entire $2 million. Forrest ended up weighing in at 138 pounds, meaning that he had successfully lost 50 pounds over the course of just over two months.
So how did Forrest lose all of this weight? According to the ESPN.com article from Gary Wise:
"I exercised more, cut out sugar, went to raw and organic vegetables, cut down meat. I was running and walking a lot, lifting and circuit training four days a week. I didn't want to build too much muscle, but I needed to build a little keep my metabolism up."
This was phase 1 of the diet plan. Phase 2 involved much more rigorous levels of activity:
"All the hard work started to pay off. Forrest quickly made it down to 163 pounds and then plateaued before embarking on a second stage of his workouts in which he stepped up his activity. He spent six hours a day in the gym, walked an average of 16 miles a day and cut his food intake down to next to nothing. Finally, on July 4, he began a fast that would last almost until the first weigh-in date of July 15."
The fast, according to Michael Craig, was the "Master Cleanse". This involved living on nothing but an evil-sounding concoction of water, maple syrup, lemon juice and cayenne pepper. According to Craig, this was the only nourishment that Forrest had for a period of 10 days (July 2-11). In the days leading up to the weigh-in, Forrest reportedly abandoned the "master cleanse" in favor of consuming extremely small amounts of fruit.
On July 10th, just five days before the July 15th weigh-in, Forrest weighed in at just over 148 pounds. In order to cut the final 10 pounds or so, Forrest employed the use of a "sauna suit" in order to quickly cut water weight. According to Craig, a sauna suit is "a baggy sweat suit made of plastic". The purpose of the sauna suit is for the wearer to "sweat profusely" in order to quickly drop water weight. It worked, and Forrest won the bet.
Craig also tells the story of how Forrest, desperate to consume some water, was driven over to Matusow's house so that the bet could be declared over. Matusow was apparently woken up so that Forrest could officially win the bet and have a drink. The official weigh-in at Matusow's was completed (Forrest weighed in at 137.5), and Forrest was declared the winner.
You can read about the "official" weigh-in at Matusow's home here.
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The subject of Matusow paying off the debt was addressed in the ESPN article as well.
According to Matusow, "he's planning on paying Forrest off in $5,000 increments in the next 18 years". Forrest is not a fan of this payment plan, claiming that Matusow suggested the payment plan "after the fact". Ted also correctly points out that Matusow's math is off, and that repaying Forrest $5,000 a month over the course of 18 years would still leave "The Mouth" nearly $1 million short.
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Congratulations to Ted Forrest for winning this unbelievable (and ridiculously dangerous) prop bet.
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Filed Under: Random Poker News
