How to lose 266 pounds : together, these three women have not only lost hundreds of pounds —they've kept them off. Read on to find out how they've done it, plus their favorite healthful recipes - or even just 20 - 459, to be exact - Weight-Loss Special

Shape, March, 2004 by Mary Ellen Strote

Losing weight is hard. Keeping it off is impossible. So goes the frequent-dieter's myth, and like many reports from the weight-loss rumor mill, it's false. Granted, most dieters who lose weight will regain it. "But some do win the battle," counters weight-management expert James O. Hill, Ph.D., director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Colorado Springs. In fact, about 20 percent of those who drop 10 percent of their body weight will keep it off for at least one year.

It's been just over a decade since Hill and his colleagues established the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) to examine how successful dieters manage to keep weight off. The 3,500 men and women who've signed up for the study have lost an average of 67 pounds and maintained a minimum weight loss of 30 pounds for an average of six years--and they've been a gold mine for research on weight control. "Almost all our registrants report using diet and exercise, both to lose the initial weight and to maintain the loss," Hill says. "We've learned that physical activity is absolutely key."

For the NWCR's 10th anniversary, Shape asked three of its participants to share the whys and hows of their permanent victory over fat. Following are their stories--and their secrets.

Renee Fornelli's story

It was the start of the second semester of her sophomore year in college, and Renee Fornelli was tired of not fitting into chairs. At 19, she was aware she was closing in on 300 pounds, though she'd stopped weighing herself and so never knew her maximum weight. "The heavier I got, the more depressed I'd get, and then I'd just eat whatever," she says, "until I realized that no one was going to lose the weight for me."

Fornelli went to the university gym, where she rode the stationary bike for five minutes and walked two laps around the track. "If I can do two, I can do three," she told herself. She kept returning to the gym, competing with herself to ride and walk more; she lost a few pounds, gave up fast food and lost additional weight. By summer, Fornelli was working out six days a week and had become "the queen of substitution." If she drank milk, it was skim; if she ate chicken, it was breast meat. She started reading food labels and wouldn't buy what she couldn't pronounce. All of a sudden, weight loss seemed easy, she remembers, "like someone was holding my hand."

Today, married and an elementary-school art teacher, this upbeat, positive-thinking woman controls her weight with the same six-days-a-week exercise routine she devised that summer: 30 minutes of weight training and 70 minutes of cardio, alternating between the stair climber, stationary bike, elliptical trainer and an outdoor run. To keep from getting overly hungry, Fornelli carries with her protein-packed snacks like turkey meat or nuts. And she avoids foods that might trigger overeating. "I know I can have a candy bar once a week," she says, "but I don't. That cloud of obesity still hangs over me. I remember: 'That's how I was when I was eating candy bars.'"

Pam Foley's story

Back when she weighed 178 pounds, Pam Foley had a job that now seems ironic: She worked for the American Heart Association (AHA), measuring the body fat of health-fair attendees. Among the perks of her job were free cholesterol tests; when she herself took one, the result shocked her: It was 310 (under 200 is the healthy ideal, according to the AHA).

Like the rest of her family, Foley had always been big. "We weren't huge, we just ate a lot and didn't exercise," she says. "After I married, my husband and I would go to Costco and buy those buckets of cookie dough and eat all of it." Looking back, she says her over-the-top cholesterol was an impetus to lose the weight, "but it was also just time to do it. I was over being fat. That chapter was finished, and I wasn't looking back."

Never a joiner, Foley took the weight-loss plunge solo. She didn't use commercial weight-loss products or count calories, but she did lower her fat intake by becoming a vegetarian. "I never used the word 'diet,' because diets hadn't worked for me," she says. Instead she called her new regimen "a lifestyle change." She lost weight slowly and without depriving herself of anything. "I'm not a denial kind of person," she explains. "I still enjoy sweets. It was more of a change in portions."

Foley's biggest challenge was taking up exercise. "I knew I had to move to lose weight," she recalls, "and this is pathetic to admit, but I started by running in place for eight minutes [a day] inside my apartment." After she lost about 20 pounds (and her shyness about exercising in public), Foley began walking five days a week on the treadmill in the workout room of her apartment complex, gradually building up to a 30-minute jog, then to outdoor runs at an 11-minute-mile pace. Today, her formidable weekly routine includes two Spinning classes, two three- to four-mile runs, one six- to seven-mile run, a yoga class and two 20-minute strength-training sessions. A stay-at-home mom with a law degree, Foley channels her competitive spirit into the occasional sprint-length triathlon, a sport she took up to lose pregnancy weight. "I had two babies in two years," Foley says. "With the first, I gained 65 pounds; with the second, 25. Both times I was at my regular weight within 10 months. I may have setback days, but I don't have setbacks."