Alex Bennet weight loss - 15 kilos in 6 months

Alex Bennett lost 15 kilograms in six months. The bonus? He no longer needs medication for blood pressure, gastric reflux or cholesterol.



At the beginning of 2007, after spending a relaxing summer holiday on the beautiful New South Wales beaches, I should have felt terrific. Instead I was disgusted as I viewed the photo snaps of myself. Gut hanging over my board shorts, T-shirt bulging past my feet as I looked down.

Time to diet, exercise and discipline my body back to health.

Ten years earlier I had lost weight on the Atkins diet, but that weight returned quite rapidly and I wasn't comfortable with all the bacon and eggs.

I also recognised the value of exercise as I had had some success in the past with swimming laps, but found the results rather patchy.

I was willing to work out but needed it to be convenient and relatively cheap. I purchased some second-hand gym equipment, set up the machines in my garage, and invited my family and a close friend with similar goals to work out if they felt the need. It is terrific to have another person to help you become committed to routine.


Getting started




I chose the CSIRO Total Wellbeing diet because it seemed like a more sensible use of a broader range of food groups than the Atkins diet, and had the backing of a very reputable organisation.

I started to exercise about three times a week for 20 to 30 minutes a time, but soon found I could extend my routine and enjoyed working out five days a week for around 40 minutes.

I appreciated the relaxed feeling after exercise and preferred not to miss out. It really helps to have an exercise partner to keep you on task.

The weight loss was slow at first and I preferred to weigh myself in the morning after sleep. Originally I hadn't considered what sort of weight reduction I could achieve and my primary focus was to reduce the waistline.

I purchased a set of electronic scales that calculated BMI, or Body Mass Index. It showed that an ideal weight for my height would be around 80 kilograms. That would put my BMI at around 25 which is on the upper limit of a healthy range.

With fluctuations I lost 15 kilograms in six months. My weight plunged from an obese and disabling 97 kilograms to a more reasonable and comfortable 82 kilograms. I felt fantastic but I found additional benefits.

No more medication



Prior to this time I was on 'permanent' blood pressure, gastric reflux and cholesterol medication. Upon losing the weight, I discontinued the blood pressure medication (on doctor's advice) because I was feeling very dizzy. Blood pressure without medication is now well inside normal limits.

A relaxed and calmer man would arrive home from work, without feeling the need for a stress-relieving red wine. In fact, alcohol was easy to cut down on as my health improved.

No need for the gastric reflux meds anymore. The CSIRO diet does not include many carbohydrates after the midday meal. I found this was easier on my digestive system. No longer did I have the uncomfortable feeling of gastric juices fighting with my evening meal. No more waking with a very uncomfortable burning in my throat, and no need for the expensive medication.

No cholesterol medication because I was no longer at risk. My reduced weight, sensible diet and regular exercise has put me into a very normal category. Not superman, just normal.

The new me

My message is simple. Don't allow pills to let you follow an unhealthy lifestyle. I made a decision to improve my health by losing weight and I now save over $90 a month on medication and I feel much better. My stamina and concentration has improved and my general demeanour is far more positive and less aggressive (lower blood pressure makes you far less volatile).

My family prefers the new me and I get the bonus of people telling me how much better I look. All my family members benefit from better food and they have an exercise partner to help them reach their own goals. I look forward to my exercise and I enjoy my meals a lot more than the junk food and snacks that I rubbished on before.

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Big weight loss of a Shreveport mom

It's sometimes difficult to weigh the differences between twins.

For Tyler, Texas, native Dottie Buck and her twin sister, most people overlooked such details as their unique personalities and obvious difference in hair color.

Instead, the most common distinction between the two was measured in pounds.

"I have an uncle that says, 'You used to be the chubby one,'" Buck said. "People always looked at my weight. I got tired of it and I wanted to change."

Today, Buck is more than 50 pounds lighter.

In addition to the physical change, her life changed in October when she was named a $10,000 winner by fitness Web site MillionDollarBody.com.

The giveaway is a part of the company's Million Dollar Body Game — an online competition that will award more than $1 million this year to urge people to get in shape, according to the company.

Each month, male and female contestants submitted their stories of their transformation, along with before and after photos, and each month a male and female $10,000 winner is chosen. Winners also were selected for $1,000 prizes and other giveaways.

There have been more than 75 winners this year.

The contest will conclude in March with a $250,000 grand prize for the Best Transformation of the Year.

As a $10,000 winner, Buck is eligible for the grand prize.

"It's still a little unbelievable," Buck said. "It's a very cool thing."

Buck, 40, lost the weight by eating healthy and exercising. But it the road to healthier living wasn't easy, she said.

"Obesity runs in my family," she said. Buck had been a petite 98 pounds as a teen, until she became pregnant at age 18. It seemed to trigger rapid and significant weight gain, she said.

"At three months, I was 98 pounds," Buck said of her pregnancy. "By nine months, I weighed 200 pounds."

After giving birth to her son, she began to try a myriad of weight-loss products, which included everything from exercise videos to diet pills, she said.

Though she lost weight, she quickly gained it back between diets. Eventually, she found herself spending a lot of time at home with no desire to do anything.

But as time inched closer to her 40th birthday, Buck's feelings began to change.

"A lot of people say that life begins at 40," she said. "I didn't want to be the one sitting at home on the couch doing nothing. I knew I had to do something and do it the right way."

Buck's friend Tonette Lovett was a customer at Cyndi Johnson's permanent cosmetics business off U.S. Highway 80 in Princeton. When Buck learned that Johnson had won a trip to Hawaii as a result of losing weight, it was enough to motivate her to work hard to get in shape.

Also, Johnson decided to coach others upon returning from her trip, which also was good news for Buck.

"I wanted to be able to give back by helping others lose weight," said Johnson, 41. "It's not a quick fix. It's a life change."

Buck, joined by her close friend Lovett, began working out with Johnson nearly a year and a half ago.

Leigh Ann Hardage, of Bossier City, joined the group last summer.

The group, which started with 30-minute workouts five days per week, now works out for about 90-minutes five days per week.

Having each other makes it easier, Buck said.

"We have a reason to be accountable," she said. "We all make each other accountable for the decisions we make. We support each other and we push each other and we all feel good about ourselves."

Lovett, of Haughton, had gastric bypass surgery eight years ago, but gained more than half the weight back. She was hesitant about joining the group until Buck suggested that they do it together.

Now, it's contagious, she said.

"It's not easy," said Lovette, 46. "One year and five months later, it's still hard, but we push our sleeves up and work harder. We depend on each other."

Hardage's weight reached 200 pounds after the birth of her fifth 9-pound baby. After working to lose the weight, she was stuck at 175 pounds.

Soon after, Hardage, 45, started working out with the group on weekends.

"I live here now," she said, laughing. "I'm in better shape now than I was 25 years ago. I've dropped two sizes and I've built muscle. I feel so much better."

Together the group participated in a Walk for the Cure event in Shreveport in September. Then in October, the group supported Johnson in her participation in the 60-mile Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day fundraiser walk in Dallas.

Since Buck shared her story, she's talked to others who ask for advice about losing weight and living healthier.

"Talking to someone and motivating them is a motivation in itself," she said. "Now I have the energy to do anything. Once I get up and exercise, my whole day is different. It gives you strength in more ways than one."

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Fat burning success of Adam Waters - 84 days to new body

Here's the video story by Adam Waters, the man who tired of seeing his ugly body in the mirror and decided to change his life. Watch and get inspired!




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Woman drops 110 pounds, 8 dress sizes

Three years ago Sharon Twitchell was miserable.



Carrying 227 pounds on her tiny 5'2" frame, the 51-year-old mother and wife could barely squeeze into her plus-size clothing.

Twitchell is the first of eight CNN.com I-Reporters who shared their weight loss stories with CNN. Over the next several weeks, we'll reveal their secrets, the defining moments that motivated them to lose a combined total of 1,167 pounds and how the weight loss has changed their lives.

"I was wearing a size 22 and getting my clothes at stores where the biggest size was a 24. I asked myself, 'Where are you going to buy your clothes after you get bigger than a size 24?'" said Twitchell.

Adding to her misery, Twitchell says her ballooning weight was also wreaking havoc on her 31-year marriage.

"We were literally just co-existing together, like roommates," recalled Twitchell.
"Friends asked my husband to e-mail them a picture of us. Later, I discovered that he had sent them an old photograph taken when I was much smaller. Even though he loved me, he was embarrassed at how much weight I had gained."

Afraid she would have to purchase clothing from online stores catering to larger women, Twitchell told her husband she'd had enough and was ready to make a change.

Don't Miss

Initially, Twitchell made an appointment with her physician in hopes that he would write her a prescription for a pill to help her lose weight. Instead, she says she saw the "w" begin to form on his lips and knew he was going to recommend she try Weight Watchers.

Uncomfortable with the thought of going to actual meetings, Twitchell lost 30 pounds on her own and eventually joined the online Weight Watchers POINTS program on October 26, 2004. She also bought an elliptical machine and a recumbent bicycle and started working out six days a week.

The pounds melted off.

Ten months and another 80 pounds later, she reached her goal weight on August 26, 2005.

Twitchell says she hasn't been this size since before her first daughter was born. She now weighs 117 pounds and wears a size 2 or 4, depending on the store.

How has this changed her life?

"I have a marriage again," says Twitchell, who recently retired and relocated with her husband from New Jersey to their new home in the mountains of western North Carolina.

"When I finally reached my goal (weight), my wedding ring was two sizes too big. I had already had it resized twice and the jeweler was hesitant that I might lose more weight. Rather than resize it, my husband bought me a new beautiful diamond ring and when he gave it to me he said this was a renewal of our wedding vows," she recalled.

Twitchell says her husband keeps telling people that he's got his wife back. This August, the couple will celebrate their 33rd wedding anniversary and they couldn't be happier.

"If I can lose 110 pounds, anyone can," says Twitchell.

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Would you lose weight for money?

People will lose weight for money, even a little money, suggests a study that offers another option for employers looking for ways to cut health care costs.

The research published in the September issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that cash incentives can be a success even when the payout is as little as $7 for dropping just a few pounds in three months.

Unlike providing onsite fitness centers or improving offerings in the company cafeteria, cash rewards provide a company with a guaranteed return, the researchers said.

"They really can't be a bad investment because you don't pay people unless they lose weight," said Eric A. Finkelstein, the study's lead author and a health economist at RTI International, a research institute based in nearby Research Triangle Park.

The study involved about 200 overweight employees at several colleges in North Carolina, divided into three groups. One group received no incentives while the other two groups received $7 or $14 for each percentage point of weight lost.

For example, someone in the middle group weighing 200 pounds who lost 10 pounds, or 5 percent, would get $35.

Participants didn't get any help on how to lose weight. In the end, employees who received the most incentives lost the most weight, an average of nearly 5 pounds after three months. Those offered no incentives lost 2 pounds; those in the $7 group lost about 3 pounds.

Those in the $14 group were more than five times as likely to lose 5 percent of their weight - the amount research has shown to be clinically significant, according to the study.

Finkelstein and co-authors Laura Linnan and Deborah Tate, professors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Public Health, are currently analyzing data from a follow-up study that observed about 1,000 participants for a year. In that study, financial incentives were tested against a Web-based weight-loss program and changes in the office environment, such as healthier cafeteria food.

Linnan said more research is needed to determine the ideal dollar amount and whether incentives work in the long term.

"It's clear that one of the biggest challenges is to help people who lose weight keep the weight off," she said.

Plant worker Vonderahe Rivera said the financial incentives offered by her employer have helped her lose a total of 50 pounds and keep it off. Over the past five years, the O'Fallon, Mo.-based VSM Abrasives, which makes sandpaper, has been rewarding its 125 employees with cash for trimming their weight and an extra day off each year if they don't gain it back.

"The money is great and the day off is great," said the 51-year-old Rivera.

This year, she lost 25 pounds and got $125 when her employee team reached their weight-loss goal. She used the money for some new outdoor furniture. Being part of a group also keeps her motivated, Rivera said.

While there are some federal guidelines on offering cash incentives, the idea is relatively new and will likely require further study before many employers are willing to try such a program, said Dr. Jeffrey Dobro, a consultant with the human resources consulting firm Towers Perrin.

"To actually pay people for results is a little bit problematic ... if you don't give people an equal opportunity," he said.

To compensate, employers could offer similar incentives to staff who maintain a healthy weight, he said.

So far, the trend among larger companies has been to provide incentives for employees who do things like complete a health risk assessment or attend coaching sessions for weight management, said LuAnn Heinen, director of an institute that studies the costs and effects of obesity for the National Business Group on Health, which represents mainly Fortune 500 companies.

But Heinen said the study will be welcomed by employers who realize participation in other health programs remains low, or that they're paying for people to lose the same 10 pounds over and over again.

"I think over time companies will start looking for something with a little more teeth," she said.

Via www.wtopnews.com

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Weight loss success of a teacher

After Stacy Walker was told by her doctor she was a heart attack waiting to happen, the first thing she did was go to Starbuck's and order lemon pound cake and a hot chocolate.

"I just cried," Walker said. "I told my husband I had to do something."


Walker's doctor had prescribed pills to help aide the diet process, but she wanted to try Weight Watchers where she had previously had success.

"I was more than 200 pounds and five foot tall," Walker said.

Now, after about 40 weeks, the Stockwell Place Elementary School guidance counselor is a svelte size 6.

She said she gives a lot of the credit to the Weight Watchers program.

But even before she started the program, she tried a few things on her own.

"I gave up my habit of six cans of Coke per day and substituted them with 64 ounces of water daily, which I still do," Walker said.

"She's a Weight Watchers success story," said Stockwell Principal Tim Thompson, who works with Walker. "She looks great."

Walker followed the program and recorded her meals, drank the water and exercised 40 minutes, four days a week with a home cross trainer.

Now, she buys the Weight Watchers brand snacks and shares them with office members.

"I like the chocolate mint snacks," she said.

Besides losing her depression, Walker also found another health benefit.

She was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis and had to have surgery on her ankle, which made it hard to walk.

With the weight loss, she has been able to walk without pain.

"Don't get me wrong," Walker said. "I still get the occasional peanut butter dessert from Shane's, but now I do it in moderation."

It's also not an uphill process, she said.

"There were times when I gained a few pounds during the weight loss process," Walker said.

But, she said, it's now a way of life for me.

"I'm not the person I used to be."

How does her husband feel about her stunning weight loss?

"You know how men are," Walker said smiling.

Via www.shreveporttimes.com

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Weight loss success of Maggie Sorrells

No longer able to fit into a booth at a restaurant and too embarrassed to ask for seatbelt extensions on an airplane, Maggie Sorrells was desperate to lose weight.

The day she stepped on a hospital scale and realized she weighed 440 pounds she knew she had to do something.


Name: Maggie Sorrells
Age: 32
Hometown: Franklin, Tennessee
Occupation: Receptionist in doctor's office
Height: 5 feet 6 inches
Heaviest weight: 440 pounds
Current weight: 140 pounds
Pounds lost: 300 pounds

Defining moment

The moment I saw that I weighed as much as I did, it scared me, and I knew I had to do something about it.

How did you finally lose the weight?

Diet: Weigh Down Workshop, a faith-based weight loss program. I ate whatever I craved, but only when I was truly hungry, and then I ate a lot slower, so I could tell when to stop.

Exercise: Nothing out of the ordinary, occasionally I'd go for a walk, but never because I felt like I had to.

How long did it take you to lose weight?

Four years with two pregnancies within the same time period. One month after I lost 300 pounds, I became pregnant for the third time with my son.
How has this changed your life?

Drastically, the way I eat, the way I live my life. I am able to move better. I feel better emotionally and physically. I'm just a much happier person.

I love to hike and I could never go when I was big. I almost killed myself going a half-mile. My chest would hurt and I would think I was having a heart attack. Just after we had our daughter, we went hiking all day and climbed rocks.

I also love the beach. I'm no longer ashamed to go to the beach or wear a bathing suit.

Do you have any tips for other people who want to lose weight?

Yes, don't think about how much weight you have to lose because you'll get overwhelmed and discouraged. Set small goals, like 15 pounds. There were times I wanted to give up and there were days I felt like I couldn't do this. Food was my drug. Take [weight loss] in small increments because when you lose 15 pounds you'll be excited and before you know it you'll lose 50.

Perseverance is most important. If you mess up, especially in the beginning you're going to slip. Don't say, "I'll start over Monday." Start over right now. The worst enemy is if you give up. What got me to the end, to losing 300 pounds, was persevering. On days I wanted to eat the whole bowl of something -- I had to talk myself through it. The truth was, I really wasn't hungry. Food is so much better when you're hungry. Andy, my husband, eats what he wants to eat. But instead of eating an entire gallon of ice cream, he'll just have a scoop of ice cream.

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