It's one thing to pull your own weight. To carry around another one-and-a-half of you is a burden.



"Anyone who's like that experiences things like cars driving by yelling stuff and throwing things at you," says Rich Churcher, eyes averting. Some of his "drive-bys" have even gone round the block to do it again.



Rich was about to turn 40 when he realised things had to change. He had to stand across two bathroom scales for his GP to record his 250kg bulk. His weight affected his work; depression made him live life as a hermit.



How does a man shed 150kg and come out of that cave?



Rich turned 41 in June but doesn't look it - his eyes light up with a child's enthusiasm and his short black hair has only a few flecks of grey. He's wearing a much-loved and faded Outward Bound T-shirt he earned last year.

"It feels like armour," he says with a wide grin.



That shirt covers the only visible remnants of his former heft. His 185cm frame looks in proportion apart from a flat saggy tyre wrapped around his midsection.



"My skin is deformed. The skin of my abdomen is badly stretched and fills up with fluid. It does limit you."



He makes two cups of tea with measured movements - arthritis in his joints is a painful reminder of obesity.



At 250kg, Rich still managed to work as a paediatric intensive care nurse at Starship Children's Hospital, but his charge nurse manager Nicola Gini says he found it hard to believe people could value him for who he was.

"People made assumptions on his ability to perform his job."



In February 2011, struggling to walk from work to his one-bedroom apartment in Auckland's CBD, Rich stopped. He'd had enough. Work wasn't going well; his father had died of lung cancer in 2010; and a 40th birthday loomed the next year.



"I was really pissed off. It was probably a good idea to sort things out physically, but I've always been quite wishy-washy.



"F*** it, let's commit."



Rich's problems began growing up in Wellington. Teased at school, he sought comfort in food and was overweight by the age of seven. His mother cooked solid meat-and-three-vege meals but he treated his burgeoning depression with the "endorphin kick" from sugar.

TRANSFORMATION: Rich Churcher before and after.

His favourites were the 10 cent and 20c lolly mixtures from the local dairy.



Of the family of four boys, two sons became morbidly obese while the others inherited their mother's skinny genes. Rich calls them the "normal" ones. The shy teenager was "well and truly obese" at high school.

Socially he was a disaster and his depression worsened. He studied nursing in Otago.

After gaining the degree that eventually led to his job at Starship, he found people there were surprised he could work - though there was a lot of time spent sitting down.

"It was a vicious cycle. Like deadlifting 200kg every time you stand up. I would try not to drop things on the ground."



A self-described "recluse" in his Auckland apartment, Rich "could not speak to another human being [outside of work] for weeks at a time". Online delivery services for groceries and takeaways were blessings.



Binge eating was the norm - up to two pizzas, sides and dessert for dinner. He always bought enough food "so you're almost physically sick from eating".



If he had to go out it was always as fast as possible, with no eye contact. The experience of being outside left him feeling exposed.

At work, concerns were raised about his obesity affecting his nursing practice; human resources was called in and his depression was discussed.



His manager told him, "If and when the time is right, they'd support him in whatever way he needed." Rich easily imagined being fired by his boss. "She gave me a hell of a lot of rope that most people wouldn't have."



And when his GP used those two scales side by side to weigh him, "I didn't have a whole lot of pride left," he says.



With a voracious mind, and his extensive medical knowledge, Rich researched as much as he could on weight loss. "I got told over and over again that it was impossible to lose weight permanently, short of surgery. It was quite negative."



There had to be a solution. "You can't out-exercise a bad diet," Rich admits. He ramped back the quantity of food he ate. Basic things like switching to diet soft drinks and Subway helped.



It was a reddit.com article on intermittent fasting that clicked. Because he didn't eat much in the morning, Rich opted for a "lean-gains" approach, where he would fast for 16 hours then eat three meals between 1-9pm.



"From a behavioural point of view, people who are overweight eat a lot of meals. So restricting the number of meals to a smaller period made sense to me."



Dieticians urge caution. Jess Moulds, who works with people with emotional eating issues ("mood and emotion have a huge impact on what we eat"), says there's not enough evidence to start recommending intermittent fasting to people.

"Starving yourself for two days sets up an unhealthy relationship with food."



As Rich's weight steadied at 200kg, and his depression improved with therapy, he found himself reaching out

to a group dearest to him. A Facebook message ended with: "I want someone who's got my back."



Any chance of success meant Rich had to rely on other people. "That was a big scary step for him," says his workplace manager Nicola, but he had three words in his head: determination, perseverance and resilience.



"Determined people just get the job done," he says.



Running wasn't an option and walking was difficult, as he constantly had to stop with joint pain. "Not much you can do at a gym, either. You'd probably break most of the equipment you used."



Resistance work, particularly barbell training, produced results. But, "You doubt yourself; you don't know this is going to work."



The "drive-bys" screeched to a halt as Rich hit the 120-130kg mark. "Is there an image in a young guy's mind where that's acceptable and that's not?" He was fascinated to find that yes, there was a clear dividing line - and he was now on the right side of it.



It was time to face his fear of social interaction. "My heart beat faster, my breath quicker. I always felt on edge."

Avoiding the staff Christmas party for almost a decade, he found the courage to attend it last year.



The effect of Rich's time as a recluse is noticeable - he admits he struggles to make eye contact in conversation. But meeting his close group in a Titirangi cafe routinely helped his social skills improve incrementally.

Small steps led to a huge leap. After plateauing at 100kg he wanted to push himself, and at the end of last year he completed a 21-day Outward Bound course.

As a kid he loved the water, but Rich hadn't been near it since. If his body hurt from training he conjured an image of submerging himself in the ocean. "It was going to be a big part of the reward for me."



Day One at Outward Bound he tasted the saltwater of the Marlborough Sounds. A clear moment stands out. Standing in front of his close-knit team, he removed his shirt, baring his flaps of skin - and his soul.

Tears flowed for most, out of pride and respect for his amazing achievements.



After Outward Bound his love for the outdoors grew. Rich, a keen photographer, celebrated his 41st birthday on the Routeburn track.



He is relishing work, too. Now one of Starship's flight nurses, he boards a helicopter or a plane to retrieve children from intensive care units around the country. It's his most professionally satisfying job to date.

Talking about the future, it's like being let out of jail, he reckons. He needs his first driver's licence, passport, and he's just moved into his first flat in Mt Albert.



As for a girlfriend, that's his next challenge.

"How do you start back in that arena? How do you explain to someone what you've been through? It's going to be interesting."



There is the fear the weight could come back. Struggling during winter, he's had periods of binge eating. After spending decades in "stasis" he knows he has to rebuild bit by bit.



Creativity helps. Apart from his photography Rich enjoys writing, baking bread and his guitar. There's hope the repetitive nature of playing music will replace his binge-eating urge.

"If I've learnt nothing else, doing the same thing over and over is the only thing that works. That's when you get success."



Nicola admires what he's achieved. "Some people get a gastric band, a personal trainer or a nutritionist. But with support from friends, he did it himself. That's just incredible."



Those three key words keep him going: determination, perseverance and resilience. But one more has been

added after Outward Bound. Forgiveness.



"You've got to forgive yourself for all the crap, all the wasted time. You can't move forward when you're looking back."