BANGOR – A great country, America, where a person can gain at least fleeting notoriety for doing something extremely well.

Ask Jared Fogle. He’s become a centerpiece of a national advertising campaign because he lost weight – lots of weight – going from a high of 425 pounds to his current 190. His waist went from 60 inches to 34.

But the 24-year-old Fogle’s claim to fame is how he lost the weight, by eating Subway sandwiches and walking. That’s why the fast-food giant plucked the Indiana University student from obscurity to be the focus of its commercials.

For the past year, Subway has had the Indianapolis resident spending four or five days a week on the road telling his story and meeting those inspired by it. He’s visited all the states but Hawaii and North Dakota. On Tuesday, he visited Caribou, Presque Isle and Houlton. On Wednesday, it was Ellsworth and Bangor, with Portland on tap for today. (He declined to say how much he earns for his position, other than to divulge that “it’s quite a bit more than the average entry-level job for a college graduate.”)

Fogle realizes his life has taken a kooky turn, but he’s just savoring the ride for now.

“I never set out to have this happen,” he said. “I just set out to lose the weight. This has been a very neat experience, something that very few people will have. I know it won’t last forever, but while it’s here, I’m enjoying it.”

Fogle isn’t a ham like many commercial spokesmen, but he’s no turkey, either, and he isn’t chicken to get out and meet his fans. And that’s no bologna.

At his stop at the Subway on Broadway in Bangor, the modest Midwesterner gladly posed for pictures and autographed before-and-after photos of himself. His body language suggested he still isn’t totally comfortable with strangers treating him like a long-lost relative, but that’s part of the gig.

He does enjoy hearing about how others have succeeded by following his lead.

“It’s neat to hear the stories of how this has affected them,” he said.

Fogle’s odyssey started in 1998, when as a student he walked past a Subway next to his apartment and saw a sign advertising “7 subs under 6 grams of fat.”

Thus a diet plan was born, one that would make most dietitians cringe. (In fact, Fogle’s resume comes with the disclaimer, “Subway does not endorse the diet that Jared created and cautions anyone embarking on a weight-loss plan to consult their doctor or dietitian.”)

He would skip breakfast. Lunch was a 6-inch turkey sub with lots of veggies, spicy mustard and hot peppers, a small bag of baked potato chips and a diet soda. Dinner consisted of a foot-long veggie sandwich.

When it was suggested that such a diet must have gotten very old very fast, Fogle replied, “I was eating on a mission, not like a normal person eats. I was morbidly obese and I desperately needed to lose weight. It was a very regimented plan once I developed it. Variety wasn’t an issue. I was so proud of what I was doing that I never felt I was depriving myself. I did have cravings for other foods, but I knew it was doing great things for me every day.”

Fogle, who admits he was never a “gym rat,” did the little things for exercising. After losing the first 100 pounds, he would walk a mile to a mile and a half to class instead of riding the bus, and would take the stairs rather than using the elevator.

After reaching his goal a year later, Fogle didn’t rush out for a celebratory meal.

“Food used to be a huge part of my life, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t go into the same mode again,” he said.

A story in the student newspaper got picked up by The Associated Press, and appeared in newspapers across the country. Then Men’s Health featured Fogle’s tale in a story on crazy diets that worked. Before long, Fogle found himself on a flight to Los Angeles, and soon thereafter he was the star of Subway’s new ad campaign.

“They had an ad campaign all figured out, then I came along to mess everything up,” he recalled with a chuckle.

Fogle, who has a bachelor’s degree in management and international business, has learned a lot through his Subway role.

“This is as big as business gets,” he said. “I get paid decent money, and as the big chunk of an ad campaign for an international corporation, it’s neat to see how it happens. It’s very educational to see the ins and outs of how a major company functions.”

What’s next for Fogle? There’s a book in the works and he’d like to become a motivational speaker.

“The final chapter hasn’t been written yet,” he said. “We’ll see where it goes. That’s the difference now. When I was heavy, I didn’t want to think about the future, because I didn’t have much of one.”