Yo, when I was thirteen, I weighed 255 pounds and already had high blood pressure. When my mom took me to see the family doctor for my annual back-to-school checkup, he told me I was "morbidly obese." Yeah, I had a problem. I liked to eat ... and eat ... and eat. I knew I was fat -- my brothers, John and Carmine, teased me about it all the time, even though Mom told them to knock it off. But when Mom told me that the whole family was going to be on a reality TV show called Growing Up Gotti on A&E, I finally made the decision to change. No way did I want to be seen as the Fatty Gotti by the entire world. With the support of my mother, my doctor, and my lacrosse team coach, I got to work. I learned all about food, dieting, and exercise. But I didn't follow anyone else's diet or program -- I created one for myself based on common sense, portion control, and moderation. And the results were great! I lost eighty pounds in the first year! Once the weight started coming off, I started working out, turning fat into muscle and toning up. I also did aerobic exercise and found stamina on the lacrosse field that I never had before. My brothers didn't think I could do it, but I showed them -- and I'm not Fat Frankie anymore. Now friends come to me for advice on starting their own diets and exercise programs. So listen up -- here, in this book, is all the information you need to get started -- my program of portion control, fat and calorie counters, great-tasting healthy food recipes, and my exercise program. It's advice that all teens can benefit from -- boys and girls. And it's the program that turned the Fatty Gotti into the Hottie Gotti.

The youngest of the three "Hottie Gotti" boys, Frank Gotti Agnello is featured on the hit A and E reality series Growing Up Gotti with his mother, writer-journalist Victoria Gotti, and his brothers, Carmine and John. He lives in Old Westbury, New York, where he attends high school.

The Gotti Diet
How I Took Control of My Body, Lost 80 Pounds, and Discovered How to Eat Right and Stay Fit Forever

It's No Fun to Be Fat

Step: 1

Acknowledge You've Got a Weight Problem

I got fat all by myself. I didn't get that way overnight, and I certainly didn't do it on purpose. I was a kid; I was growing; I ate ... and I got fat. That's how it happens, isn't it?

I wasn't the only one, but I certainly was the biggest (translation: fattest) kid in my class all through grade school.

In the lunchroom, I was self-conscious. I didn't want to hear anyone saythings like "Hey Fat Frankie! Whatcha eating now?" -- like I wasn't supposed to get hungry or eat lunch.

At recess, I was self-conscious too. I was pretty active, but because I was larger and clumsier than everyone else I was often the last one picked for team. It didn't matter that I was pretty good at basketball and lacrosse; my size made people think that, because I was fat, I wasn't good at sports.

When my brothers and I went to the same school, Carmine and John ran interference for me, even if they didn't actually do anything. They let me fight my own battles. My brothers also knew I could take care of myself if I really had to.

This is not to say that Carmine and John didn't give me a hard time whenMom wasn't looking. I think that sometimes they were embarrassed to be seen in public with me, and they teased me -- big time. We'd be kidding around, and the next thing you'd know, we'd be in a shoving match, and they'd be hollering names at me: "Get out of here, Fatty ... Go eat something, Fatso!"

One time, one of them grabbed a newly opened box of chocolate-coveredEntenmann's doughnuts off the kitchen counter and shoved it in my face. "Here! Eat this, Blimp!"

The badgering hurt, but I swallowed my pain and my pride -- along with massive quantities of food -- like I deserved to be put down. I just went home from school and ate. That was always a safe place for me to eat. Besides, Mom always made sure we had snacks, things to make sandwiches, sodas -- anything we might want -- when my brothers and I came in from school with our friends, and I took advantage of it all.

I remember that I ate everything in this smorgasbord of after-school treats, but now that I think about it, I don't remember tasting it. I just ate. It was all about quantity, and the more I ate, the less I felt.

And when we had company, I almost always helped serve the food. I was so well-mannered, so generous ... and so close to the kitchen.

When I went to the beach with friends or when everyone came out to our house to go into the pool, I wouldn't take off my shirt. I would do the normal "fat" thing and go in with a T-shirt on, or I would wait on the side until everyone else had been in the water for 20 minutes or so -- so they wouldn't notice me -- and then I'd rip off my shirt and jump in. Then, when I was done, I would run to the nearest towel and cover myself up.

Family gatherings weren't much better. I remember hearing grown-ups say, "Frank has such a beautiful, handsome face ... tsk, tsk." While no one ever came out and actually said anything to my face, I intuitively knew they were avoiding the obvious, the elephant in the living room: my weight.

And if anyone had the nerve to ask me how much I weighed, I'd lie and subtract fifteen or twenty pounds from the real number, like it really made a difference.

I never was one of those fat kids who became the class clown or practicaljoker. And I didn't turn into one of those jerks who would elbow his way through the halls at school or in the mall like he was the juggernaut of a massive army of soldiers either. You know the type -- it's as if they're telling the world, "If you think I'm fat, I'll just show you how big I am." I didn't do that.

Most of the time I locked myself in my room -- my personal space -- andmentally beat myself up for being so fat. But all I ever did about it was eat. And this wasn't helped in the least by the fact that my mom and dad had just told me and my brothers that they were getting a divorce.

I was just an eleven-year-old kid, and, as far as I could tell, my family -- my whole world -- was being ripped apart right around me. I couldn't talk about my feelings with Carmine and John either because they were dealing with the situation themselves, each in his own way.

And, as I saw it, Mom had too much on her mind for me to unload my fears on her, so I couldn't talk to her about things either. Without anyone to talk to, I turned to food to make myself feel better, to numb my fears and feelings.

I imagined all sorts of horrible things, like that we would have to move from the only home I'd ever known. When I was born, we lived in Atlantic Beach, but we moved into this house in Old Westbury that was my mother's dream home before I was two. I was afraid I would have to leave my school and all the friends I had known most of my life, and that I would have to start over someplace else.

From the day Mom filed for divorce, I became more and more frightened, and the more frightened I became, the more I ate. Food became my only pleasure, my only source of security and comfort. The only time I felt secure was when I had a full stomach ...

The Gotti Diet
How I Took Control of My Body, Lost 80 Pounds, and Discovered How to Eat Right and Stay Fit Forever. Copyright © by Frank Agnello. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from The Gotti Diet: How I Took Control of My Body Lost 80 Pounds and Discovered How to Stay Fit Forever by Frank Gotti agnello
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