Battle of His Bulge Raging : College football: As SDSU teammates practice, Carlson Leomiti tries to get down to 360 pounds.

While his teammates pull on their uniforms and trudge down to the football field this spring, Carlson Leomiti tugs on his swimsuit and heads for the pool.

While San Diego State Coach Al Luginbill runs the Aztecs through drills, Leomiti, who started at offensive guard for SDSU last fall, rides an exercise bicycle and spends time in the weight room.

Leomiti, his weight more difficult to handle than any defensive lineman ever was, is fighting the battle of his life.

He is 6-feet-3 and, at one time this winter, was up to 405 pounds. It was the most he ever weighed.

The Chicago Bears have Refrigerator Perry; the Aztecs have Carlson Leomiti.

They have assigned Leomiti to one of the people in their athletic medicine office. He is Carolyn Maas’ special project.

They also have told Leomiti that he cannot play football again until he gets down to 360. As a result, he will miss the entire spring session, which ends next week.

“He’s really upset about the whole thing,” Maas said. “He loves football. He feels as though most of the guys on the team are mad at him because he’s not part of the team right now, not working with the team.

“But every guy on the team I’ve talked to, I’ve not heard that expressed. He’s well-liked.”

This is not a new problem, but it is one that seems to get worse as Leomiti, a sophomore, gets older.

Maas knew taking on Leomiti would not be easy. She was told some stories. She heard about the time Leomiti ordered $32 worth of food from McDonald’s, so much food that his friends had to help him carry it out.

“I almost choked on my broccoli,” Maas said. “But that’s how he eats--large quantities at every sitting.”

Maas and Leomiti are supposed to eat lunches and dinners together, with her monitoring what he eats. Leomiti has been told he cannot eat at home.

But Maas can only do so much.

“A lot of his problem is what he eats at home after I see him, and I can’t control that,” Maas said. “He tells me, ‘Carolyn, I don’t eat chocolates,’ but I’ve seen him eat chips. And I have spies out there.

“If he really wants to play football, he’s got to stop snacking.”

SDSU trainer Brian Barry said they are attempting to limit Leomiti’s intake to no more than 22 fat grams per day. Maas said that, more than a diet, she is attempting to change the way he eats.

She has told Leomiti to not eat later than 7 p.m., and to eat a salad every day. She has told him to cut out little things, such as ketchup and mustard. And bottled water, she tells him, not soda.

“I really like Carlson,” Maas said. “I want to help him so bad.”

She has warned the lady at Aztec Shops on campus to be on the lookout for Leomiti and cancel his orders for chips and cookies and substitute more pieces of fruit instead.

Still, you cannot spend 24 hours a day with someone, and the temptations are endless.

“The West Commons has a Taco Bell now, and the East Commons has a Kentucky Fried Chicken,” Maas said.

Aztec athletes typically eat at the Courtyard Cafe because they can get more food for their money there than at the East or West Commons. For the most part, dinners are unlimited at the Courtyard Cafe--you can go back for more as much as you would like.

“And they have ice cream, cake, lemon meringue pie, Rice Krispie treats . . .” Maas said.

One problem, Maas said, is that she has been unable to keep the regular lunch and dinner schedule with him for the past two weeks because he stopped showing up.

“If he’s willing to start up again, so am I,” Maas said. “But when he constantly tells me he couldn’t get a ride, or he had to study, or he got sick, that’s his own loss.

“I’m trying to help him.”

Still, Leomiti has lost nearly 30 pounds and is closing in on 370. Doctors have told Maas that Leomiti is able to lose five pounds a week--a big drop for your average overweight person--without a problem.

The problem is keeping it off.

Leomiti said that as a senior in high school, he played at 340 pounds.

He said he began his redshirt freshman season at SDSU at about 335 pounds and finished between 350 and 355.

Last fall, for the most part, he was between 360 and 380.

At the Freedom Bowl, though, Leomiti, who is Samoan, said he was “close” to--but not over--400 pounds.

“He loves his culture’s food,” Maas said. “Greasy chicken, rice. . . . He’d make a large amount of rice, mix it up with ketchup and eggs, and eat at 7, 8, 9 or 10 and then go to bed on a full stomach.

“That food is not going anywhere but to his legs. And over Christmas break, he had limited activity.”

It’s almost as painful for Leomiti to talk about his weight problem as it is for him to sit on the sideline as his friends and teammates practice without him.

“I’m just tired of hearing ‘Lose weight, lose weight,’ ” Leomiti said. “ ‘Weight this, weight that.’ ”

Leomiti said he isn’t concerned about his health, only football.

“As far as being a good player, yeah, I want to be a good player,” Leomiti said. “So you can say that, yeah, I’m concerned.”

And like his coaches, Leomiti says he is a better football player at a lighter weight.

“I feel the same whether I play with more (weight) or less,” Leomiti said. “But when you watch films, it’s different. Films don’t lie.

“When I was light, I saw a lot more good plays and hardly any mistakes. Being heavy, there are not as many good plays, and a few more mistakes.”

And from that angle, he said he can understand being banned from drills.

“I see myself not participating in drills to help myself,” Leomiti said. “I see it to better me. That’s the way I see things.”

Maas is the second person from the training room to be assigned to Leomiti. And, she said, he used to have a regular dietitian.

“The team has spent so much money (on) him, trying to get him to lose weight,” Maas said.

He is popular among his teammates, good-natured and quick with a joke. The problem is, he is just as quick with a fork.

Sure, he has lost weight in the past month, but those around the Aztec program struggle with finding a way to keep the weight off him. They worry that he will hit the 360 mark this spring, only to gain some of the lost weight back this summer when he is on his own.

“He’s coming along, but he’s got to change his eating habits,” Luginbill said. “I know he’s changed some of that.

“We’re going to beat it. He’s going to be at an acceptable weight in August if he has to work out four times a day.”

So as his teammates eat their fill in a sport that demands both bulk and quickness, Leomiti is shadowed at the dinner table. By the training room scales, if not in person.

“It’s no Jenny Craig thing,” Leomiti said. “I ain’t going to join no Jenny Craig.

“I just don’t eat foods like everyone else eats--hamburgers, pizza. All that bad stuff that involves grease and oils.”

Maas and the Aztecs hope he can live with it. If not all the time, then most of the time.

At least enough to hit his magic weight and return to the football field.

“This hurts him,” Maas said. “I can see it hurting him so bad.”