Rick Bumgardener takes a water exercise class after a gym workout at the Mercy Health and Fitness Center near his home in Halls Tennessee. (From the book What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.) The caloric value of his day's worth of food in the month of February was 1,600 kcals. He is 54; 5 feet nine inches tall, and 468 pounds. Rick's new lifestyle rules out one of his favorite restaurant dinners with his wife, Connie, and son, Greg: three extra-large pizzas, crazy bread, and no vegetables. There would be leftovers, but not for long, Rick says, as he would eat all of them. MODEL RELEASED.