Former NFL player Matt Birk drops 75 pounds, wants to model

(UPI) -- Just eight months after retiring from the football, former Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk has trimmed his 310-pound NFL body by 75 pounds and is now trying to become the next Vi Model.

Increasing his chances of winning the gig, Birk also lost 10 inches from his waist. Were he to win the modeling job, which would make him the poster boy for Body By Visalus, Birk would be featured on the cover of The Challenge Magazine 2014.

“I don’t really think of myself as a model. Maybe a glove model,” Birk said. “I never thought I would pose for a picture with my shirt off. But I wanted to show people that it can be done and that we’re all in this together.”

During Birk’s 15 years in the league, he became a freak about nutrition and training, but he realized it wasn’t healthy for him to weigh more than 300 pounds after he retired.

“I wasn’t going to go to Chipotle and get two burrito bowls at 9:30 at night anymore,” Birk said.

He discovered Visalus in March and is down to 235 pounds. He likes that the company is dedicated to reducing obesity and that it takes a community approach to weight loss. If someone in the Visalus program drops 10 pounds, the company will donate 30 nutrition shakes to obese or at need kids.

“I really like to help people,” Birk said. “I really do think that we have a serious problem in this country and our culture when it comes to our diet. We have a totally wrong approach about how to lose weight.”

“All I knew was being big. Now I’m not so big and I’m loving it. I think I’ve really developed a lifestyle that I can sustain now. I feel great physically, and I’ve got tons of energy. It really has changed my life that I used to know.”