Three years ago, David Smith, 35-year-old, from Phoenix, Arizona, was making headlines, giving hope to all those who were convinced they had lost the battle against the bulge. He's now almost back to his previous weight.

At his heavies, Smith weighed 650 pounds (294.8 kg) and was desperate. With the help of TLC, he started to work hard to become healthy and maybe, just maybe, find a woman who would love him.

He lost over 400 pounds (181.4 kg) and, exactly 3 years ago, met the love of his life. As the video below will confirm, he had turned his life around and had transformed himself into a genuine hunk.

It didn't last long though, as he reveals in a new interview with Today.

David Smith is now obese again, having already gained back 250 pounds (113.3 kg) of the weight he lost.

He's desperate and, at the same time, he's also painfully aware that this is the last chance he gets to turn his life around – it's either this or he dies.

“I wasn't doing too well. I looked really good on the outside, but inside I was a terrible mess. All my life I was this monster in my head and all of a sudden, to be this good looking guy, it blew my mind away. I didn't know how to deal with it,” David says, explaining what pushed him to overeating again.

The amount of pressure on his shoulders first pushed him to alcohol and drugs but, when they failed to help him cope, he started eating again.

He hid it at first but, as the pounds kept piling on, there was no denying it: he had just tossed all that hard work down the drain.

“I've gained more than 250lbs in two years, and with all that extra weight so quickly added to my body, I don't know how I'm still living right now... The way I'm going, I'm not going to live for too much longer,” he says.

“You know when your body's making a turn for the worse. I felt it before when I was 650lbs, and I'm feeling it again at 500,” David adds.

On the bright side, he's determined to try and get back to good health while he still can. He's already going to the gym and eating healthily.

Unlike the first time around, he believes this second attempt will be more successful – because he has his girlfriend to support him through all this.