Four weeks into the Durham Fitness Challenge, Sebring has lost 15 pounds. His face is thinner, most of the weight around his waist is gone, and he feels "pretty good" about reaching his goal of180 pounds.

With only 18 more to go, "I can definitely tell," he said.

Sebring and two other winners of the 2010 Durham Fitness Challenge are getting help setting fitness goals, and planning workouts and meals over the next three months.

The challenge is sponsored by the David Turner Lymphoma Foundation, named for a Durham resident who was diagnosed at 24 with Stage IV lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system. The Durham News is following the participants' progress through November.

Sebring said he's been really busy lately with school, work and outside interests. In between Revolutionary War re-enactments planned for this weekend in Delaware and Oct. 9-10 in Williamsburg, Va., he will take the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Sebring does manage to fit in a few crunches and some running in his free time, he said. Brad Calhoun, his trainer at Move It Be Fit, makes up for it during their twice weekly sessions, he said. The Sept. 13 workout was the hardest by far.

"I was literally lifting until the weight was falling. I couldn't lift anymore," he said. "Then they had me running until I couldn't go anymore."

He gets mad at the trainers all the time, he said, but that's just motivation.

"It's great. I gotta keep going, because I don't want to let anybody down," he said.

Sebring credits most of his success to changing his diet. Instead of going with friends to a fast-food joint, the Northern High School senior heads home for a healthy lunch.

"I'll invite my friends back to my house if they don't have any money," he said. "They raid my cabinets and get all the good stuff that I can't eat anyway."