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Author: Essence

For these three women, being known as longtime losers isn't an insult but a badge of honor. Formerly overweight, each one has lost 60 pounds or more and kept it off for at least two and a half years.That's no small feat. In fact, the National Weight Control Registry, a study of nearly 3,000 people who have maintained an average 60-pound weight loss for six years, found that folks most successful at taking--and keeping--weight off made substantial changes in their eating habits, weighed themselves frequently and stayed physically active.The women profiled here have turned these tenets into a way of life, and their overall health as well as their body images are better for it.Samantha Ivy, 28 Singer Hermosa Beach, Californiathen 450 pounds, size 32 now 150 pounds, size 8Samantha Ivy had tried just about everything to lose weight permanently. Then one day, after bingeing until she became sick, Ivy went for a walk on the beach and scrawled a message in the sand: God, please help me.

The next day her mother-in-law took her to a 12-step program for food addicts. Ivy listened as people shared stories that mirrored what she had been through. "Up to that moment I'd been very defensive about my weight," she recalls. "But listening to the others, I heard myself." That night Ivy asked one of the women to be her sponsor. Now, two and a half years later, she has shrunk from a size 32 to a size 8 and still attends meetings at the program.