650lb Virgin David Smith, who lost 400 lbs and found love, is morbidly obese once more

The 650lb Virgin David Smith’s transformation to handsome personal trainer – with a doting girlfriend – made headlines in 2009.

In a sad turn of events, David Smith, 35, from Phoenix, Arizona, revealed yesterday that he is once again morbidly obese, having re-gained over 250 of the 400 lbs he lost.

In an interview on Wednesday morning, David Smith admitted that by putting on weight at this rate, his life was at risk.

He told the Today show: “I’ve gained more than 250 lbs 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 added that he could already feel his health deteriorating.

“You know when your body’s making a turn for the worse,” David Smith said.

“I felt it before when I was 650 lbs, and I’m feeling it again at 500.”

David Smith revealed that his slide back into an unhealthy lifestyle was because he could not come to terms with this newly-slim self, and though he had been outwardly thriving, he was struggling within.

“I wasn’t doing too well. I looked really good on the outside, but inside I was a terrible mess,” he said.

“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.”

He was also troubled by the multiple surgeries that had failed to entirely remove the excess skin on his body, leaving him scarred and disappointed with his appearance.

David Smith turned to alcohol and drugs for a brief time, but eventually found solace in food, the old demon that had caused his weight to spiral out of control the first time.

“I’d eat in my car before I’d get home, or if everybody was out I’d eat something really quick then throw it away before they’d come home,” he admitted.

“It was tough. A lot of people were counting on me to be inspiring, and I didn’t want to let anybody down, but I just felt so bad. I didn’t know how to cope.”

The side-effects of his ballooning weight were multiple. Embarrassed by his failure to keep in shape, David Smith became withdrawn. He lost his job, and his friendship with his own trainer suffered. Terrified that he would also lose girlfriend Megan, he admitted that he even contemplated suicide.

Breaking down as he spoke of his girlfriend, David Smith said: “Her support means the world to me. I love her so much, and I know I put her through a lot. She’s stayed by my side through everything.”

But Megan insists she is going nowhere, and has even inspired her boyfriend to start hitting the gym once more to try and lose the weight.

She told the show: “He’s really finally ready for it this time, of course I’m going to be there. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for since he started gaining. For him to really want to be healthy again.”

David Smith, under no illusions about the challenge ahead, agrees that the time is right to start again.

“As much as you’ve worked on the outside, you have to work on the inside,” he explained.

“And if your foundation isn’t built up, you’re just going to crumble down. And unfortunately I fell down, but I know I can climb back up.”