After yesterday’s look at celebrity weight loss secrets revealed in January’s crop of women’s magazines, it’s time for mere mortals to have their turn at telling us how to lose big.

Weight loss for the people
People magazine always starts a new year with an issue called Half Their Size, which reveals how real people lost 100 pounds or more. Ironically, two of the big losers — dropping 151 pounds and 170 pounds, respectively — did it with now-defunct LA Weight Loss.

Using a diet plan, whether LA Weight Loss, Jenny Craig, South Beach or Optifast, was the secret of almost everyone’s success. Just one of the people profiled said she used her own low-calorie, low-fat diet plan. A quick rundown of the diets and their costs is included if you want to see if one is right for you.

For even more inspiration, People also offered a profile of blogger Lynn Bering, who lost 166 pounds on Weight Watchers online and lived to blog about it, and a story about the magazine challenging eight people from Mississippi — the nation’s fattest state — to lose weight in ‘08.

Finding a more glamorous you
Glamour magazine has an interesting story in its January issue about how to get to your “happy weight,” meaning the weight that is healthiest for you even if that doesn’t mean stick thin.

Some of their success stories actually include women who needed to gain weight, which is rare for women’s magazines that usually focus on people who are larger than their ideal.

Most of those who lost weight did so by exercising more and adding more natural foods. Those who gained weight accepted that they were forcing their bodies into unhealthy images of perfection and usually stopped counting calories and started eating more often.

The magazine offers general tips for finding your weight sweet spot, including:

Don’t try to change everything all at once.
Figure out how many calories you actually need.
Keep a food diary so you can see how far off you are.
Be more active on a daily basis.
Eat smaller portions.
Friend of the Lab Sunny Gold (who just passed the torch on the Shape Up blog) shares how she got to her perfect weight with the help of an eating-disorder support group, and the magazine looks at four women’s daily eating habits and what they should be eating instead.

Lose weight like us
US Weekly featured notes from people who didn’t win “The Biggest Loser” but still lost big in its January 14 issue. The three ladies profiled work out regularly, either at the gym or by hiking outdoors, and they’re making healthier food choices like apples and peanut butter instead of chocolate or learn protein, fruit and veggies instead of junk food. Way to go, ladies.

Weight loss wasn’t quick or simple
Finally, Good Housekeeping’s Quick and Simple magazine shares the story of Ellen Kelley, who at her highest weight was 535 pounds. She struggled with her weight throughout her life and was always on a diet.

She lost some weight on her own but went through gastric bypass surgery in 2001. She now weighs 235 pounds and encouraged one of her sisters to have the surgery as well.

She says having the surgery was like having brain surgery: “All of a sudden I was treated like I had a brain.” She says she is so grateful for her second chance that she always shows compassion to large people — something we should all think more about.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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