The True Story of Jared Fogle's Subway Diet

We all have heard the great subway commerical of 'Jared' who lost 245 lbs by just eating subway. I have to say I was pretty motivated to try out Subways new 'diet plan'. I'm sure many others were as well. Just how did this all get started though? Was he paid to try this? Did he do it on his own intentions and just happen to find luck in the matter? Well, here is 'Jared's' real story.

He reportedly started his own little business out of his college dorm room. By renting out porn movies for a dollar to fellow students. At this time he weighed 425 lbs. He was thrilled to find out that a Subway outlet opened on the ground floor of his building and developed a crush on a cute female employee that worked there. Jared Fogle decided to eat each and every meal at the Subway in his building. After a year, he lost 245 lbs. So we know he was not paid to try this out. He did it based on a crush and happened to get lucky!

A former dorm-mate of Fogle’s, was so stunned by his dramatic weight loss that he penned an article about it in the 'Indiana Daily Student.' Fogle was quoted at the end of the article as saying, "Subway helped save my life and start over. I can't ever repay that."

A Subway franchisee in the Chicago area saw this article like it so much that he floated an idea to Subway’s ad agency to use Fogle as a pitchman. After discussing the idea they decided to contact Fogle and test a commercial which would run regionally. On January 1, 2000, the first “Jared” ad ran. It was success! The company then rolled out the commercial nationally, and Subway's 2000 sales rose 18%, year-over-year.