From Flab to Fab: These Women Lost 422 Pounds

May 19, 2006 — -- If you need to lose weight but are lacking the inspiration to do it, hearing the stories of Chantel Hobbs and Angela Williams may be just what you need. These two women, who are featured in this week's People magazine in a story about people who have lost half their body weight, lost a combined total of 422 pounds without surgery, pills or gimmicks.

"These were women who maybe could have thought about gastric bypass surgery, who could have thought 'I've always been this way, there's nothing I can do about it,' " said People magazine senior editor Galina Espinosa. "Instead we have all these great examples of people who said,' no, this is actually something I can control and take charge of my life,' and they did."

Hobbs now weighs 154 pounds and wears a size eight. She lost 172 pounds off her 326-pound, size-24 frame. Now Hobbs, a 34-year-old mother of four in Coral Springs, Fla., works as a fitness instructor teaching spinning classes and has competed in five marathons.

"For me, it was more about changing the brain," Hobbs said. "It wasn't about food, it wasn't about doing a fad diet. It was something I knew was going to take a lot of work and commitment and I treated it like a job. I focused every ounce of energy I had on making this happen. I wanted to change my life."

Her first step to losing weight, she said, was making -- and keeping -- a commitment to go to the gym for 30 days. She kept making and achieving small goals for herself, and it led to major weight loss.

Hobbs has kept her weight off for three years and says that sliding back "is not an option." Williams, on the other hand, is celebrating more recent weight loss. She has lost 250 pounds from her top weight of 430 pounds, going from a size 34 to a size 12. She has maintained a weight of 180 pounds for the past four months.

The 27-year-old resident staff specialist who works with the mentally disabled in Alexandria, La., said she had been heavy her entire life. Two years ago, she was suffering from sleep apnea and high blood pressure, but it was the death of her aunt that motivated her to lose weight.