Diet & Fitness: Weight Loss: Weight-Loss Success Stories:

 John Y.

 I am the oldest of three children. As the firstborn, I was always given a lot of attention and food. So throughout my whole life, I have been on the heavy side. My two younger brothers are both very healthy and fit. However, I just loved food too much. My grandmother would always cook my favorite dishes after school and I just kept gaining weight.

 I always knew that I was heavy and I did try to lose weight many times. However, one semester during college I studied abroad in Ireland. I wasn't planning on trying to lose weight over there, but since the food was expensive I ate less. On returning from the trip I had lost 20 pounds so I decided to keep going with it.

 I know everyone must have heard this many times, but the way I lost the weight was by exercising, eating less and eating healthy food. I started counting my calories for every meal. I ate a cereal bar in the morning which was 90 calories. For lunch I would try to limit my calories to 500 by eating a salad from a fast-food restaurant. It was difficult to count calories for dinner because my mom would cook for us and since I am Asian, we do eat a lot of rice. So during dinner I would just eat half of what my mom served, and eat less rice and more of the entree. For exercise I would try to walk a lot more and I began running at a track near my house. At the beginning I would run a few times around, but towards the end of the summer I was running about four miles every day.

 My family were very supportive about my weight loss. They knew that I have been struggling for a long time with this issue. I would say that another key to my success was chewing a lot of gum and drinking plenty of water. Whenever I felt hungry or needed something to eat I would try to drink a lot of water or chew a piece of gum.

 I loved junk food and bread. These will always be hard to stay away from. I think you can eat some once in a while, but you shouldn't let it become a habit. Something that keeps me motivated is remembering how I used to look and feel compared to how I look and feel now.

 I let myself have some days where I just eat. If I feel like I've eaten too much junk food one day, I'll try to exercise more the next.

 A favorite "new you" moment is when my friends don't recognize me anymore. The dentist that I have been going to all my life thought I was a new patient. People no longer believe that I am the same person as the picture on my driver's license. Next: Dan N. Lost 128 Pounds!