From Fat to Fortune - Jared's Subway Story

The story begins in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, where one Jared S. Fogle was born on 1st December 1977. Attending North Central High School, Jared was massively overweight, weighing in at 425 pounds, and reputedly sporting 6XL shirts. As a student of Indiana University, Jared roomed with a medic who diagnosed him with oedema, after which he was sent to hospital. Jared was told that his excessive obesity could lead him to the grave by age his mid-thirties if he didn't change his ways.

Realising the severity of the situation, Jared decided to take action. Intrigued by a local Subway's "7 for 6" ad campaign (which offered a menu of seven sandwiches, each with less than six grams of fat) he began a diet of a 6-inch turkey club sandwich for lunch, and a foot-long veggie sub for dinner. The diet was a success; within three months Jared had shed almost 100 pounds, and the visible reduction in his size spurred him on to begin taking regular exercise. Rather than using transport, Jared began to walk everywhere he could, choosing to take the stairs rather than the lift wherever possible. By the end of the diet, he had lost over 240 pounds, dramatically reducing his waistline and lengthening his life expectancy.

Struck by Jared's huge weight loss, a dorm-mate who barely recognised him (due to his new slim look) wrote an article about Jared for the Indiana Daily Student in April 1999. A writer for Men's Health read the article and went on to write a piece for the magazine which included a mention of the "Subway Sandwich Diet" in an article called "Crazy Diets that Work".

A Subway franchise owner in the Chicago area read the article, and went to speak to the director of Subway's Chicago advertising agency, believing the story could be used to promote the company in some way. The situation snowballed and it wasn't long before Jared was brought in to tell his story on camera, which then became a nationwide TV ad campaign.

The commercial was a huge success; the day after it was first aired, Subway's marketing director started receiving calls from USA Today, ABC News, Fox News and even Oprah. The story grew, and soon hotels in Indianapolis were full of reporters keen to meet the man who had shed so much weight by eating what was considered fast food.

It seemed that the USA - a nation famously overweight in the eyes of many countries, could relate to Jared's battle with the scales, and above all, the fact that Jared was a real person with a genuine success story, rather than some fictional advertisement. Subway reaped the rewards with sales rising by 18% that year, and a further 16% the following year.

Jared is now a well-recognised phenomenon who has been parodied on various mainstream TV shows and films, including 'The Simpsons', 'South Park', 'Scary Movie 3' and 'Saturday Night Live'. He continues to be employed by Subway as a spokesman on fitness and healthy eating.

Matthew Pressman is a freelance writer and frequent flyer. When not travelling, he enjoys golf and fishing.