It's estimated Americans spend more than $70 billion a year on weight-loss plans, supplements and other ways to shed pounds.But those things didn’t work for one local man.He told WISN 12 News' Joyce Garbaciak that it was a change of heart – and mind – that he said led to him losing close to 500 pounds.Karl Sebastian — his pen name — proudly shows off parts of his wardrobe he no longer needs."These are the pants – these are, I believe, a size 72," Sebastian said.As he displayed the pants, he went on to say, "That is the old me, and this is the current me," Sebastian said. "And, yes, I can fit in one leg if I try."He then pulled out an old shirt. "I think this is an 8x," he said.Today, he wears a size medium tall."I weigh less now at 43 years old than I did at 11," Sebastian said.The Washington County man said he was always heavy. But things got worse after his grandparents died when he was 13."Food was my drug," he said. "Then it just spiraled and spiraled and spiraled and got worse and worse and worse. You know, 50 pounds overweight became 100 — 100 became 200 — 200 became 400."By the time he was 36, his best guess is he weighed more than 725 pounds."Why don’t you know how much you weighed?" Garbaciak asked."Because without medical access, I had no way of being accurately weighed," Sebastian said. "There’s nothing to live for – it's just how I felt.""So then what happened to make you realize there is something to live for?" Garbaciak asked."The best way I could put it is that 99.9% of me was ready to be done," he said. "But there was a small, little tenth of one percent that just wasn’t ready. And by brute force, it said, 'No, you are not done. You are not quitting. You are going to get off your butt and you are going to find a way, whatever that is – to come back from this.'"So Sebastian decided to change. He stopped drinking soda, ate just about 600 calories a day, and learned how to cook healthy food for himself, often posting his creations on his Instagram account. "I try to make healthy look attractive," Sebastian said. "And then taste as good as it looks."Sebastian did not have bariatric surgery, and says he didn’t take medication or try fad diets."I realized that if I was going to succeed, I had to find a way to do it my way," he said. "A way that was adaptive to my needs, not what worked for someone else."Today, the 6-foot-6 man weighs 230 pounds. He believes he has lost 495 pounds in the last seven years.Helping him on his journey is plastic surgeon Dr. Tom Kinney of Brookfield."It was almost hard to believe," Kinney said.Kinney has performed seven skin-removal surgeries on Sebastian since 2019."When you lose such massive amounts, that skin has already been damaged to the point that it just hangs as a loose sack," Kinney said. "You can't do everything all at once. It's absolutely impossible.""I looked like a monster," Sebastian said. "I mean, there was just so, so much skin."At first, Kinney couldn’t believe Sebastian had lost that much weight on his own. He said he's inspired by his patient."Any person who turns his life around totally on his own is an abject lesson for anyone who feels that they can’t accomplish something," Kinney said.Sebastian, who is single and worked as a software analyst, estimates he’s spent some $100,000 on medical costs related to his weight loss."I didn’t have a family," Sebastian said. "I never really spent or did a lot, so I did have some resources. As I've recovered, my parents' health has declined. So I've had to try to take care of them as best as I can."When he's not doing that, he said he walks up to eight miles each day."Walking for me has become kind of like, I call it mobile meditation," Sebastian said.And he's written a book about how he turned his life around."I would never suggest somebody even attempt what I did without talking to a doctor," he said.But he wanted to share his story so others can find hope."I want people to know that no matter how difficult the thing you might be going through, how impossible it might seem, how emotional it might make you and how alone you might feel, you are as strong as I am – and you can overcome anything," he said. Sebastian's book is called "A Misfortunate Misfit" and is available here.