Lifesize, a Weight-Loss Strategy From an Unlikely Pair - NYTimes.com

Lifesize, a Weight-Loss Strategy From an Unlikely Pair 

By NICOLE LaPORTE

Published: September 1, 2012

WHEN Myles Berkowitz first met Steven Kates through a mutual friend in 2006, Mr. Berkowitz had serious doubts about him. 

 First, there were the tattoos. Mr. Kates, a personal trainer in Los Angeles, is covered in them, including one, on his neck, of a dead mouse. Mr. Berkowitz, an indie filmmaker known for the mock documentary “20 Dates,” favors khakis and button-down shirts. Second, what Mr. Kates was saying seemed too good to be true. At the time, Mr. Berkowitz was the heaviest he’d ever been, 219 pounds, and asked Mr. Kates for advice on how to lose weight. Mr. Kates told him to eat all his favorite foods — ribs, hamburgers, pizza — but to eat less of them.

Mr. Berkowitz didn’t buy it. 

“He thought I was a know-it-all pop off,” Mr. Kates, 56, said recently, sitting next to Mr. Berkowitz, 51, at a restaurant in Santa Monica, Calif. 

“The jury is still out on whether I like you,” Mr. Berkowitz shot back, smiling. 

Meet the creators of Lifesize, a weight-loss company that evolved out of that encounter, and that after a long, tumultuous and costly journey is finally beginning to succeed. 

Mr. Berkowitz and Mr. Kates are an example of how complementary, if somewhat unlikely, pairings are often what it takes to get an idea off the ground. Think Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak or Coco Chanel and Pierre Wertheimer, her partner in the perfume business — even Sonny and Cher. All are instances of how two very different skill sets, and personalities, united to create something innovative.