Before: 362 lbs.
After: 180 lbs.
Program Used: Jorge Cruise's Book The 3-Hour Diet

When Melodie Richardson was growing up, affection came in the form of cupcakes, cookies and brownies. Her mom loved to bake, and often doled out hefty servings of high-calorie foods. "I was a fat child and later on a fat teen," says the 48-year-old mother from Oceanside, Calif. The extra pounds made Melodie depressed, and created a vicious cycle. "The more unhappy I became, the more I ate," she says.

The overeating continued into adulthood, after Melodie married shipping and receiving clerk Mike Richardson, now 54, and gave birth to three kids: Megan, now 27, Mitch, 18, and Mason, 17. The 5-foot-8 stay-at-home mom ultimately ballooned to 362 lbs., and rarely left her house.

Coffee for Breakfast, Soda for Lunch

Like many overweight women, Melodie was never hungry in the morning. She
would skip breakfast and head straight to the coffeepot. "Then at 2 p.m., I’d switch to Coke," she says, "drinking a dozen cups of coffee, loaded with cream and sugar, and two 2-liter bottles of soda per day." By late afternoon, her appetite revved up and she’d start munching until bedtime.

"I feasted on cookies, chips — whatever was in the cupboard," she says. "I never sat down to a regular meal; I just grazed mindlessly while I prepared food for my family." Melodie estimates she consumed 5,000 to 7,000 calories a day. She hated the way she looked, but felt helpless to change. "I couldn’t even go to the movies because I couldn’t fit in the seats," she says.

A Call to Change

Melodie tried every weight-loss scheme that came along — 500-calorie diets, hormone shots — all with no success. Then, in November 2004, her life changed forever. "A friend with cancer told me, 'I’m dying and I can't change it, but you're willingly killing yourself with food,' " she recalls. Melodie was moved. "It was the slap in the face I needed."

Around that time, Melodie spotted fitness expert Jorge Cruise on Oprah, promoting his book The 3-Hour Diet. The plan — you go through 1,450 calories a day spread out at three-hour intervals — intrigued her.

Cruise explains the reasoning: "Eating every three hours keeps your metabolism stoked. It stabilizes blood sugar and insulin levels, which controls appetite." The right portion sizes are key — veggies should fill half your plate, carbs should equal a Rubik’s Cube and protein the size of a deck of cards.

A few weeks later, a local television station announced a one-week weight- loss challenge based on Cruise's program. Melodie sent in an application and was chosen to participate. The hardest parts? "I had to eat breakfast, and fruits and veggies, for the first time," she says. But since the diet stressed frequent meals, Melodie didn’t feel deprived. "It was the opposite of the diets I’d done before," she says.

A New Melodie

Melodie lost the contest, "but it did inspire me to stick with Cruise's plan," she says. After Melodie dropped 30 lbs., she began walking three times a week. The routine helped her shed 182 lbs. in two years.

Today, Melodie, who is now divorced, works as an office manager and is a svelter 180 lbs. "Once I took control of my eating, the rest of my life fell into place," she says. "Now my friends say, 'I can’t believe how happy you are!' "