Doug Skinner held up the pants in the tiny dressing room and shook his head. There's no way, he thought. No way I'm at a size 48.

This was 2004. Skinner was fresh out of college, recently married and just starting his career as a technology coordinator for a local school district. I refuse to go any bigger than 46, he thought vehemently.

"Unfortunately, that day I did have to buy those [pants]," Skinner remembers. "But I didn't go any higher than that."

Skinner always had an excuse for his obesity as a young adult. The self-described "stocky" man was just big-boned, he told himself. In reality, he weighed close to 300 pounds.

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