Drew's Difficult Diet

At a gourmet affair in the swanky Hamptons, on New York's Long Island, famous chefs are wowing the crowd with their recipes.

It's all mouth-watering and waist-widening. And for Drew Nieporent, it's one challenge after another.

After years of being obese, Nieporent recently lost more than 100 pounds. It was an amazing achievement for anyone, but especially for him.

Correspondent Richard Schlesinger reports on his battle to stay slim in a broadcast that first aired last November.

"I love food. I'm obsessed with it," he says. Nieporent, 47, has struggled with his weight since childhood. Over the years, as his restaurants multiplied, so did his weight. By 2001, he was up to 335 pounds.

"I pretty much had given up," says his wife, Ann. "For years, he kept saying, 'When I'm ready, I'll do it.' But then he no longer believed he could do it, and I think that scared him."

"The pattern was a pattern of addiction because I couldn't break it," says Nieporent, who was persuaded to go to Minnesota's Mayo clinic, where doctors told him he was suffering from morbid obesity and weight-related heart problems.

He decided against weight-loss surgery, and chose old-fashioned willpower: "I have enough inner discipline and resolve and intelligence to do it myself."

Nieporent changed his lifestyle and his eating style, and has gone on what he calls the "low everything diet."

"There's only one way to lose weight. And that's calorically keeping under a certain number of calories per day," he says.

What does he stay away from now? "I don't eat anything white," he jokes. "Flour, potatoes. No bread, no pasta, things you love."

Before the diet, Nieporent's customary lunch was a cheeseburger and fried onions. Now it's grilled salmon, arugula and beans - an entree that is probably under 500 calories.

It's not easy to watch the calories, even in his restaurants. His discipline is strict, but he says he is constantly tempted.

"There's a lot of smelling going on," he jokes. However, he says that smelling food, touching food - even remembering the taste of food is almost as good as eating food. At least that's what he says.

"I know exactly the way [a cheeseburger] tastes," he says. "If I put it in my mouth, I'm going to think,'Tomorrow, I'll wake up and I'm going to have gained 50 pounds.' I don't want to go through that."

It's a daily battle, one that he has fought and lost before.

How will he beat the odds?

"It becomes a priority every day," says Nieporent. "The health, well-being and wanting to hang around a little for your family and friends becomes more important than gorging yourself on food."

Since this story first aired last November, Dean Milius continues to win the battle of the bulge. He's lost an additional 10 lbs on a low-fat diet.