Before: 410 lbs.
After: 187 lbs.
Program used: DIY program

For Madeline George, the wake-up call arrived by mail in February 2005. It was a notice from the Social Security Administration, outlining her future retirement benefits. To receive the maximum payout, she would need to work until the age of 66. Madeline had a demanding job as a secretary in the mental-health unit of a Kankakee, Ill., hospital. She was 55 years old and weighed 410 lbs. “I thought, I’m never going to make it. I don’t have the strength,” she recalls.

In fact, most days she felt exhausted, and doctors were warning her that she was at risk for developing obesity-related health problems such as heart disease and diabetes.

Her weight was also putting strain on her bones and joints, which were already vulnerable from an accident she had on her 13th birthday, when she was hit by a car while riding a bicycle. She had spent four months in the hospital undergoing multiple surgeries on her fractured legs, emerging from the ordeal with permanent physical limitations. “After that, I couldn’t run or ride my bike or do anything the other kids were doing,” she says. “I didn’t feel like I fit in or belonged.”

Sedentary and isolated, she gained weight steadily. At 27, Madeline had her stomach stapled, but after a month, unable to keep food or even water down, she was back in the hospital having the procedure reversed. When she turned 30, she weighed 300 lbs. at 5 feet 8 inches tall. Most scales only go up to 350, so she can’t say exactly when she went beyond that point — or broke 400 lbs.

Asking for Help From Above

By the time the Social Security letter arrived, Madeline had spent 40 years as a yo-yo dieter. “I realized I had to find some way to get — and stay — motivated,” she recalls. “I’m unmarried, so I have to be able to take care of myself.”

Madeline had tried dozens of diets, Overeaters Anonymous, liquid fasts, diet pills…. The one thing she hadn’t tried, she suddenly realized, was praying. “I needed to ask for some help,” she says. “I almost never go to church, but I do try to live my life according to what God would expect me to do. I remember thinking, I’m not going to ask God to do it for me. I’ve been looking for quick fixes my whole life. So when I prayed, I said, ‘I will do the hard work myself. Just help me.’”

Her prayers, she says, were answered immediately. “From that moment on,” she says, “I felt in total control. From previous diets, I knew what I had to do. And I knew that I could make wise choices and stick with them.”

Out went the twice-daily stops for burgers at the fast-food drive-through, the nonstop sweets and the back-to-back cans of soda. In their place: low-fat, high-protein meals and healthy snacks. And, after decades of being inactive, Madeline joined the fitness center at the hospital where she works.

Five to seven days a week, she now spends 90 minutes swimming — an exercise that’s easy on her knees — and covers a mile and a half. “There are times when I’m so tired after a 12-hour shift that I can barely get myself across that pool,” she says, “but I do it because it means more to me to look like this and feel like this than it does to go home and relax.”

So Long, Size 56!

Sixteen months into what she calls “my priority,” Madeline has dropped 223 lbs. Now a size 14 (she started at a size 6X, which is the equivalent of a 54 or 56), she is back to shopping at the mall instead of through specialty catalogs that carry clothes even larger than those offered at plus-size shops. “I used to wear blouses that would come down to my knees,” she says. “Now I’m buying shorter tops and fitted jackets that accentuate my waist.”

The transformation is so startling that her best friend of 40 years, Lydia Litrento, walked right past her when the two had plans to meet up in front of a store. “I told Madeline, ‘Oh my God, I’m not saying this to overdo it, but, whoa, I didn’t even recognize you!’” she says.

And Lydia is not the only one bursting with admiration for her friend. “All the doctors I work with are just thrilled to death and they’ve told me I have become a role model around the hospital,” says Madeline. “The respect that I’m now getting, not only for the job I’m doing, but also personally, is so satisfying. I like the way I’m treated now, and I like the way I look. Sometimes I look in the mirror and say, ‘Wow! Is that really me?’”