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Jared Lorenzen does not fit the physical profile for a professional quarterback with a Super Bowl ring, Second Team All-SEC honors at Kentucky, and the coveted title of Kentucky’s Mr. Football Award in high school. Lorenzen gained the nickname “The Hefty Lefty” during his three years as a backup to Eli Manning and has since bounced around to indoor league teams before officially hanging up the cleats in 2014 after shattering his ankle and needing the assistance of four lineman to carry him off the turf.
Now, at 36-year-old, Lorenzen has transformed from a 6-4 and 285 pounder during his playoff days to a scary 502.8 pounds. Now the nicknames “Hefty Lefty” and the “Pillsbury Throwboy” don’t sound so affectionate. Living off a diet of microwavable salisbury steaks, lasagnas, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, fish sticks, and mac and cheese, the father-of-two is at a point now where he’s desperate for a change.
“Right now, if I didn’t wake up tomorrow, it wouldn’t be a shock to many people,” Lorenzen says in a video that was posted to Facebook on Friday. “‘Well, yeah, you know, look how big he is? Damn.’”
Lorenzen has teamed up with filmmaker Anthony Holt, the man behind Antoine Walker’s bankruptcy documentary “Gone In An Instant,” to bring his transformation journey to the masses with “The Jared Lorenzen Project.” They’ve brought on world-renowned celebrity nutritionist Dr. Philip Goglia and celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson to aid Lorenzen into changing his life.
The Jared Lorenzen Project will be shown on the Now Lets Get Fit Foundation’s website, Nowletsgetfit.com, and the objective is for him to use the video journal to lose weight and inspire others do so. Lorenzen doesn’t have a specific weight loss goal but you’d have to imagine with the publicity surrounding the project, he’s going to give it his all.
Best of luck to Jared, genuinely seems like a good dude.