Cal Snowden knows exactly how he got fat: "No activity, and high calorie intake."

However the 67-year-old's tale includes a back story, starting in the 10th grade, when he joined the Roosevelt High School football team. The District of Columbia native were built with a knack for that sport, and that he continued Lingzhi 2 Day Diet playing at Indiana University. His pre-med plans fell apart as he tried to tackle organic chemistry. So rather than medical school, Snowden wound up visiting the NFL.

At 225 pounds, the 6-foot-3 rookie was a smallish defensive end. "I struggled to maintain even that," Snowden says, but his coaches insisted he get heavier. A beer-and-carb diet have been effective. By the time he retired in 1973 (after playing five seasons for St. Louis, Buffalo and North park), Snowden tipped the scales at more than 250 pounds.

Nowadays, he's targeting that same target -- only in the other direction. In April, he weighed 335 pounds coupled with borderline hypertension and prediabetes. In other words, he appeared as if an average retired professional football player.

Studies have shown that NFL alumni have a greater risk of obesity than the remaining population. They begin out bigger. And although they may enjoy exercising, lingering injuries and the shift to a sedentary everyday life often prove to be a dangerous combination.

Just ask Archie Roberts, an old NFL quarterback and heart surgeon. "When you're young and forceful and vital, it's hard to believe that could ever change," he said. But, he put on weight through the years, and his blood pressure level and cholesterol went up.

The knowledge inspired him to found the Living Heart Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to the healthiness of retired athletes. Its latest initiative is really a program called HOPE (Heart, Obesity, Prevention, Education), funded with support from the NFL Players Association. It began with an investigation attend Temple University in Philadelphia 2 yrs ago and it has since expanded to other sites.

One is the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. Snowden was certainly one of seven players who took part in a six-month intervention that ended there last week. And it is why, as of today, Snowden is at 300 pounds and dropping.

HOPE welcomes a customized approach, says GW's Melissa Napolitano, a clinical health psychologist and one of the investigators around the study. So her team adapted the school's existing diabetes prevention protocol, that involves food logs, weigh-ins and regular meetings to go over strategies and provide support.

For that sportsmen, researchers tacked on the 30-to-45-minute exercise at the end of each chat. The exercises varied but emphasized hand-eye coordination and balance. One skill they learned? Juggling. The aim wasn't to operate up a sweat a lot as it was to form connections.

Turns out, these were talkative. Despite a considerable age groups -- 42 to 69 -- the previous players immediately developed a locker-room-worthy rapport, and were forthcoming about when they'd strayed at an frozen treats shop or fast-food drive-through.

To help keep players on track between sessions, the researchers asked each participant to pick a "coach" (generally, a wife), to monitor behavior and also participate in the program.

Because of a donation from Fitbit, the whole crew was also given activity trackers. The gadget's mobile app enables them to see who has taken the most steps each day. Or, as Snowden views it, the individual he has to beat.

As Snowden heads up 16th Street, he does not have the most graceful gait due to his double knee replacement and arthritic back -- two ailments he is able to trace straight to his years like a ballplayer.

Snowden, obama of Washington's NFLPA former players chapter, is disappointed by his ex-employer's lackadaisical response to widespread health problems. Although he went back to school and got a authorities job and benefits when he left the league, a number of other players happen to be left financially strapped and unable to obtain treatment.

"We were as expendable because the pen you're writing with," he states.

That's why Snowden continues to be championing HOPE like a path to a much better life, not only for him but also for the a large number of others in the same cleats. The good thing of the football career, he states, may be the team experience, and that's what these studies are replicating. Snowden never succeeded in altering his behavior by himself, but camaraderie -- along with a little friendly competition -- is making the difference.

However that victory is bound to be brief, according to John "Boomer" Stufflebeem. The 62-year-old Alexandria, Virginia resident, a former Detroit Lions punter and Navy admiral, is just as going to win the step war -- and his personal battle of the bulge. When he requires a walk, he often wears a weight vest.

Dealing with a point where this obesity problem is in check doesn't feel to date away now, says Andre Collins, a former Redskin who's now a professional within the NFLPA, which plans to continue funding these studies throughout the country.

"I even view it through an effect on guys away from the program. They talk about attempting to slim down, too," Collins adds.

And they have to, says Loretta DiPietro, chair of GW's department of exercise and nutrition sciences and another investigator on the study. What worries her is that the older players, despite their age and weight, actually seemed better off metabolically compared to younger guys, who have been encouraged to placed on increasingly 2 Day Diet Reviews more pounds because the sport supersized.

The successes from the HOPE program can also be applicable to other folks, Roberts adds. He hopes that sportsmen who lose weight can then champion the reason.

"They're identified by the population -- not withstanding (players' recent scrapes using the law)-- as heroes," he explained. And when they are able to help turn around the nation's biggest health challenge, they'll meet that reputation.