How To Lose 100 Pounds And Keep It Off

Losing weight is difficult for most people, but imagine having to lose more than a hundred pounds! In the following real-life dieting stories, the authors have all managed to lose a significant amount of weight, some as much as half their body mass.

They've also all overcome obstacles outside of their weight struggle, such as dealing with self-esteem issues, unsupportive siblings and illnesses in their families -- and have managed to keep the weight off and enjoy their new life styles.

Whether you're looking to lose some pounds yourself or simply enjoy reading about people who've accomplished great things, these memoirs are sure to motivate, captivate and inspire. So put down the french fries, get up on your exercise bike and make a point to gain some inspiration from these amazing dieting stories.

1. The Amazing Adventures Of Dietgirl by Shauna Reid
At nearly 400 pounds, Australian native Shauna Reid, spent most of her days indoors, chowing down on family-sized candy bars, and suffered from crippling depression. But with some encouragement from her sister, Rhiannon, and a new online "superhero" blog persona — "Dietgirl," — Shauna set out on an amazing weight-loss adventure, where she lost more than half her body weight and met the man of her dreams. Reid's touching and funny dieting stories delve into the hows and whys she became obese, going back to the issues she had with her mother and stepfather. She then documents a six-year journey, where she not only loses the pounds, but gains the confidence to move to Scotland with her sister, make new friends, travel the world and fall in love. Though her amazing weight loss is the crux of the story, her relationships with her sister, mother and boyfriend-turned-husband are well drawn and demonstrate how a drastic transformation can affect a person mentally, as well as physically. Reid's writing is witty and self-deprecating, and you can't help but cheer her on.

2. Such A Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest to Discover If Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie Is Not the Answer by Jen Lancaster
Acerbic Jen Lancaster's snark comes through right from the title. And at the start of the book, you wonder if this stubborn woman can put down her bowl of Lucky Charms long enough to get to the gym. However, once she's asked to document her weight-loss jouney in a book -- the ultimate motivation! -- she begins to approach a fitness program more seriously. At first, she's resistant to follow through with the program that her perky trainer, Barbie -- yes, that's really her name -- has set out for her, but as the weeks go on and the pounds come off, In her dieting story, Lancaster realizes that she's healthier and happier. Lancaster has written several memoirs, including Bitter is the New Black : Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass,Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office, and like the rest of her work, Pretty Fat contains her trademark humor. However, unlike her other books, this one has a lot more heart as the author comes to genuinely appreciate the support she's getting from her trainer and extremely patient husband, Fletch. There are times where the writer comes off as being childish (she doesn't hesitate to tell off people who irk her, in very colorful language), but her self-awareness of her flaws makes her easy to relate to.

3. Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir by Jennette Fulda
Jennette Fulda has made a name for herself in the blog world as "Pasta Queen," and has documented her weight-loss saga over the past few years in her witty and hilarious entries. Half-Assed is a more condensed account of her journey from being nearly 400 pounds to shrinking down to a healthy 180. Many of the entries mirror the ones in her blog, but she gives more background information on her private life in the book. Plus, her writing is so funny that it's worth reading again -- especially since she undergoes such an amazing transformation.

4. Passing For Thin: Losing Half My Weight And Finding My Self by Frances Kuffel
Unlike the other memoirs reviewed here, Frances Kuffel doesn't spend much time recounting her weight loss; in fact, she hardly spends any time at all discussing how she lost the pounds. Instead, she examines what her life was like as a morbidly obese woman and then what it's like once she's thin. Kuffel is very candid about how it's more difficult to accept herself as being a thin person than it was to lose the weight in the first place. This book isn't so much about a number on the scale as it is about the author finally coming to terms with who she is.

5. The Weight-Loss Diaries by Courtney Rubin
Courtney Rubin first documented her weight-loss efforts in a column in Shape magazine. However, since she was only given one page each month and urged to keep her writings "upbeat," readers were hardly given an accurate picture of what she was going through .... which turns out to have been a lot. In this memoir, Rubin fills in those blanks and fills us in on her struggles to deal with her mother's illness, as well as her thinner twin sister's reluctance to support her weight loss. Rubin is candid as she recalls how she lost and then gained back weight, but she also gains a sense of herself throughout her journey.