HIS LOSS IS HIS GAIN : A Great Weight Has Been Lifted From the Shoulders of Pro Bowler Ron Bell

Only a trace, if that, of pro bowler Ron Bell’s pot belly is visible today.

And according to Bell, the weight loss added up to his first Pro Bowlers Tour title, which he won last month at Baltimore.

Bell said the victory, his first in eight years on the tour, was largely made possible by fasting from solid foods--eight weeks of water, diet sodas, hot tea, potassium pills, a protein drink plus three miles of walking daily and lifting light weights.

“You can tell the folks I’m eating again, but carefully,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in Akron, Ohio. “My cholesterol has dropped below the danger line. I’m a slim 181 (pounds) and that’s where I plan to stay the rest of my life.”

Less than three months ago, the 5-foot-11 Bell, 34, weighed 245 pounds. His cholesterol count was 360. His legs were not holding up in competition. His form in bowling and golf was changing because of the added weight.

Bell admitted he was a target for needling.

“They were calling me ‘Hog Chops’ and suggesting I invest my money in a buffet restaurant,” said Bell, who once set a world four-game record in bowling and, at golf, was a successful Ohio amateur player.

Bell said he learned to bowl and golf as a youth in Akron. Today, he teaches both games when not competing. He bowled the four-game world record of 1,127 at a New York singles tournament in the 1970s. In 24 years of bowling, Bell has 21 sanctioned 300 games, an 837 three-game series, two PBA tournament seconds, a third and a fifth in U.S. Opens. In golf, Bell has four holes-in-one, a low 18-hole round of 64 and a scoring handicap ranging between four and six.

Bell said his weight problem developed while on the road to bowling competitions.

“Fast-food stop-offs and thick, well-marbled prime ribs at the restaurants were routine for me. I drove to eateries with as much hope and promise as I did to tournaments. If it was a good meal, I didn’t mind having another plate of it.”

Bell said he began to drag physically at the end of last year. But it wasn’t until his father-in-law discovered six clogged arteries through a routine stress test that Bell became concerned.

“It scared me into thinking I, too, could be in trouble,” he said. “A visit to the doctor confirmed that I was ‘a walking time bomb.’ He arranged a dietitian right away.”

Bell lost 20 pounds in the first week of his dieting.

“The flab was coming off, but it wasn’t easy,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many times I thought of cheating, going after a burger, a plate of spaghetti or my favorite, a prime rib.”

But he developed a goals list suggested by his dietitian. He said when the urge to cheat overcame him, he would look at the list.

“The goals, I was told to believe, could be achieved if I didn’t break down,” he said.

Among the goals were “to feel better, to look good again. Another, and it may sound stupid, was to make them not call me ‘Hog Chops’ anymore.”

His biggest goal was to win a PBA title and qualify for the Firestone Tournament of Champions, which is limited to 54 pro titlists. Bell said he had been a spectator at every Firestone tournament--held in Akron in April--since the 1960s.

As the weight decreased, Bell’s goals were realized. He bowled in the Firestone two weeks ago, finishing 38th.

“But I wasn’t disappointed,” he said. “I was in contention for a couple of rounds. The hometown fans raised the roof. It was the thrill of a lifetime to hear them root for me.”

The all-liquid diet ended at the post-tournament dinner. “I delighted in skinless chicken, broccoli and several other permissible foods. How good they tasted.”