Weigh to Go!

If weight loss were easy, the United States wouldn't have an obesity problem. Yet while so many struggle to control their weight, others find great success. Today, the Review-Journal shares some of those success stories.

MINDY CONNOLLY

LOST 123 POUNDS

Age: 33

Height: 5 feet, 3 inches

Starting weight: 253 pounds

Current weight: 130 pounds

Lost: 123 pounds

How long she has kept it off: Three years

How she lost weight: Diet, exercise and personal trainer

Biggest challenge: "Keeping motivated -- sticking with it."

Biggest motivation: Using a personal trainer and hearing "Look at how good you're doing."

Tips for others: "The biggest thing that helped me was to do the diet and exercise and make it a lifestyle." What doesn't work is "the whole diet pills, and lose weight in 10 days. It's changing your entire lifestyle."

Fun fact: She's engaged to her personal trainer, Ron Green of Two Tigers Fitness.

VALERIE HALEY-DUNNE

LOST 55 POUNDS

Age: 44

Height: 5 feet, 3 inches

Starting weight: 180 pounds

Current weight: 125 pounds

Lost: 55 pounds

How long she has kept it off: 12 years

How she lost weight: Weight Watchers (third time)

Biggest challenge: Work -- "all the food brought into the office, and going out to lunch."

Biggest motivation: "Myself, my health. "

Tips for others: "It's a daily awareness." Remember that "it's how you feel. I have never felt better in my life. If I goof off and I go above 130, I start feeling like crap. Maintaining a good weight is a good feeling." Haley-Dunne said she tried various other diets, but weekly support and a realistic approach helped her lose weight and keep it off.

DAN IBELING

LOST 49 POUNDS

Age: 25

Height: 6 feet, 4 inches

Starting weight: 245 pounds

Current weight: 196 pounds

Lost: 49 pounds

How long he has kept it off: About three years

How he lost weight: Increasing exercise, watching what he eats and drinks.

Biggest challenge: "The temptation to eat." A "night owl," he's tempted to eat at night, but has reduced that.

Biggest motivation: "I just wanted to look good. I'm in the performing business and you've got to look good."

Tips for others: Cut out all sugary drinks, including coffee drinks (and juices), skip the gym but walk more and take the stairs instead of the elevator, eat more food at mealtimes instead of snacking, and don't eat at night (although he'll have a cookie or some dry cereal at bedtime).

Fun fact: An opera singer, he's a singing gondolier at The Venetian.

PATRICIA WEILER

LOST 106 POUNDS

Age: Would rather not say

Height: 5 feet, 2 inches

Starting weight: 271

Current weight: 165

Lost: 106 pounds

How long she has kept it off: Three years

How she lost weight: Take Off Pounds Sensibly, or TOPS

Biggest challenge: "To find a (low-carb) lifestyle that I could live with so I could continue maintenance."

Biggest motivation: "To be healthy, and to be a member of the TOPS Century Club," which is open to those who have lost 100 pounds.

Tips for others: "The universe supports you when you go within. Choose a nutrition plan that fits your budget, pleases your palate and satisfies your taste buds. Share your dreams daily with someone; your dream will come true faster."

BOB WELCH

LOST 149 POUNDS

Age: 77

Height: 5 feet, 7 1/2 inches

Starting weight: 332 pounds

Current weight: 183 pounds

Lost: 149 pounds

How long he has kept it off: A year

How he lost weight: Take Off Pounds Sensibly, or TOPS

Biggest challenge: "To stop eating."

Biggest motivation: Doctor who was treating him for diabetes told him that he wouldn't lose weight. "It's always reverse-psychology."

Tips for others: "Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables." Six days a week he watches portion control; "on the seventh day I pig out at a buffet and eat anything I want to."

SUSAN CORBETT AND RACHAEL CORBETT

LOST 76 POUNDS AND LOST 91 POUNDS

Name: Susan Corbett

Age: 50

Height: 5 feet, 6 inches

Starting weight: 231 pounds

Current weight: 155 pounds

Lost: 76 pounds

How long she has kept it off: A little more than five years

How she lost weight: Weight Watchers

Biggest challenge: Sweets.

Biggest motivation: "The reason I did it was because my daughter was a junior in high school, coming up on being a senior and then going to college. I had decided I was never going to lose weight, but I wanted her to, so I did it with her. And then we both lost."

Tips for others: "Watch your portions. Eat slowly. Have a small amount of something you truly love every day."

Name: Rachael Corbett

Age: 22

Height: 5 feet, 8 inches

Starting weight: 258 pounds

Current weight: 167 pounds

Lost: 91 pounds

How long she has kept it off: Almost five years

How she lost weight: Weight Watchers

Biggest challenge: Four years of college.

Biggest motivation: "My mom, originally. I didn't want to go, I thought I looked fine. I'm way happier."

Tips for others: "Exercise; my skin went back to normal. Don't keep bad food in your house -- the most tempting food that you love -- or you're going to gorge yourself on it. If you want to have something, you can have it; just eat it in moderation."