In the new issue of People magazine, actor Ron Lester, best known for playing Billy Bob in ‘Varsity Blues’, shares with us his story on how he lost a remarkable 315 pounds.

Ron says that he knew he could not live his life overweight anymore when he was asked by the director of the shortly lived tv series Popular, to sit in the driver’s seat of a limosine and he could not fit into the car, even after they took the seat out.

He said, “I just broke down and started crying.”

A couple weeks later he saw a show where Wilson Philips singer Carnie Wilson, confessed that she had gastric bypass surgery. He decided right than and there that that was what he needed.

Since the decision to go along with the surgery, he has had 17 other surgeries to take away his excess skin and apparently is 2 inches shorter from the lose of the fat on his head and his feet.

Although, the weight lose has done wonders for his health, it has taken a toll on his acting career. Before he was cast as the “funny fat guy.” “Jobs would come down to me and two other guys.” Now he says, ” I’m going for the guy-next-door-roles and I’m one of 500,000 lookalikes.”