Losing 50 Pounds in One Year

One of the more entertaining personal stories of weight loss online is the Hopeful Loser site. She had hoped to lose 90 pounds in one year when she first started her online diary a year ago, and has gone on to actually lose fifty pounds over the first year.

HL has achieved this with regular workouts on her elliptical trainer and by reducing her daily calories consumed.

The before picture shown here was taken in late February 2005. At that point she weighed 209 pounds and had a body mass index (BMI) of 37. (Her height is 5'3".) The after picture was taken about a week ago in February 2006. She now weighs 160 pounds and her goal is to lose 30 more pounds.

HL has a really entertaining writing style. Here's an example; an entry from when she first started her online weight-loss records;

"I was in the maternity store buying clothes (this might be my fault) with my daughter (almost 14 months) and I was chatting it up (as per usual) with the sales clerk when she asked me "When are you due?" I pointed to my daughter and said, "Oh, you're looking at her. Yup, I have no excuse." She apologized profusely as she tried to convince me that she (maybe a size 4) shops there too.

It was a maternity store after all, so maybe that led to the misunderstanding? Unless she just started working there, though, how could that not have happened to her before? Had no other non-pregnant, simply, just heavy person ever shopped there before? How could she not have asked them too and learned her lesson?"

Check out her very funny and inspiring site at Hopeful Loser.