Cris Carter lost 20 lbs.*

Cris needed to tackle his aches and pains

If you look at the athletes and you look at what we've done, the pounding, the working out...I needed to relieve the stress off my joints. When you're talking about carrying around an extra 10, 15, 20 pounds, it's just like you have a dumbbell around your waist all the time. So for me, it's not as much a matter of how I look or how much I weigh. Because you can look a certain way, you can put clothes on to cover up things. But when you get up in the morning and get on the scale, that scale doesn't lie-and when you get up and your joints are aching, they don't lie, either. I really wanted to lose 10 or 15 pounds, and once I saw my buddy Dan Marino's results on Nutrisystem, I knew it was something I had to do for myself.

Taking control

The problem was I really wanted to be able to monitor as far what went in my body but still have some enjoyment in life, because the worst thing about going on a diet is you don't feel like you're going to be able to eat and you're going to starve yourself. So I had to have some type of program where I could really monitor what I was putting into my body, because I knew I wasn't going to burn it off the way that I was used to during my playing years-heck, I've worked out since I was eight years old, so once I retired, I wanted to do what I wanted to do. Plus, for me, it's all about the food: the quality of the food and the variety. I'm a guy who likes sugar. I always love sugar or something sweet at night. So for me, the desserts really took me over the edge and really convinced me Nutrisystem was something I could do. Plus, it was a lot easier than I ever thought it would be. No counting, no measuring, even for a knucklehead like me, it's a no-brainer.

"I'm back to my playing weight!"

I have a tendency to put the weight on in my face and that's where I really saw the results-in my face, in my cheeks. It's hard to believe that people don't think I'm 40, or that I look so much younger. For me, especially being on television and being part of the media, that's important. But this is even more important. The day I retired, I took my measurements and put them on a piece of paper. I put that in my drawer where I keep little valuable things. I thought that that was the last day I'd ever see that weight, but here I am today, 216 pounds* again.