Before: 215 lbs.
After: 150 lbs.
Program used: eDiets

Nine years ago, when Victoria Vaccaro, then 24, moved to New York City, she had one burning dream: to make it as a professional dancer. But the desk job she took to pay the bills while she pursued dancing quickly caused her to gain extra pounds — 70 of them, to be exact.

“I was so busy with work that my exercising completely stopped,” she recalls. “Because I was eating the same diet I had when I was very active, plus snacking on goodies at the office, I just blew up.” It didn’t help that Victoria, who is half Italian, ate pasta several times a week and bread with every meal. “Those high-starch dishes just weren’t good for me,” she says. “I noticed my clothing size climbing, but I was in denial about my weight problem until it was out of control.”

With her dream deferred, Victoria returned to her hometown of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in July 2001. That’s when the full extent of her weight problem hit her. “Everyone around me was so fit, walking around in their bathing suits,” recalls Victoria, who at 5-foot-5 weighed 215 lbs. “When I’d put on a bathing suit, I would feel horrible about the way I looked.”

Sure, she wanted to get active, but her size made it hard. “I visited Disney World about a year after I moved back to Florida, and I was so exhausted from all the walking,” she says. “Then one day I was doing a belly-dancing tape at home, and I couldn’t catch my breath. That had never happened to me before. I’d finally had enough.”

Making Changes

Clearly, the first thing Victoria needed to shift was her carb-centric eating. The idea of the Zone diet — a six-meal-a-day eating plan based on a balanced 40/30/30 ratio of carbohydrates, protein and fat — appealed to her, but she didn’t know how to pull it off. Just then, her sister stepped in. “Valerie had gone online to lose her pregnancy weight, and she told me that eDiets had weight-loss plans based on the Zone,” says Victoria. “So in July of 2003, I joined, too.”

Valerie was thrilled to see her baby sister making a change: “Vicky and I have always been close, and I could tell she wasn’t happy at that size.” Victoria’s new way of eating kept her blood-sugar level stable, so she no longer craved sugars. “I could still go out and have a hamburger with my friends, but I’d replace the fries with a small salad,” she says. “At the office, I’d either bring food or, if I was grabbing lunch, get a side of vegetables with my grilled chicken instead of a starch.”

She started to lose about 2 lbs. per week, and the weight loss gave her the energy to get moving again. “I started doing Pilates twice a week, and tried spinning, too,” she says. “Both are great for relieving stress because, for that hour of the day, it’s all about me, not work or my relationships.” Whenever she needed an extra push, Victoria would turn to the eDiets message boards and find new recipes and much-needed support.

Victoria reached her goal weight of 150 lbs. last fall, dropping from a size 16 to a size 6. But she plans to stick with eDiets. Why? The plan’s strategies make staying slim a no-brainer. “I have a rule for tempting foods: If I crave something specific, like pizza, for three days, I will allow myself to have it. Sometimes the craving will go away and I’ll realize I must not have wanted it that badly. But if my body still wants it after that time, I’ll indulge in one slice — and then that’s it!” Even Victoria is amazed at her new willpower around sweets: “Now I can sit in a room filled with cakes and not pick one up.”

Loving Her Body

One of the best parts about losing more than 60 lbs.? New clothes! “When I wore a size 16, I would never wear trendy things like skinny jeans because I was afraid my love handles would hang out,” says Victoria. “Now that I’m a size 6, I can put on the slinky dresses that I always admired.”

Her favorite purchase so far is something she never would have chosen for herself. “My mom picked up this little bitty bathing suit and said I should try it on,” she says. “I agreed, for a laugh, but when I put it on, I looked good! That was such a poignant moment for me — someone who has always been her own worst critic. When I got home, I put it back on and walked around the house. I couldn’t wait to be on the beach.”

But a new wardrobe isn’t Victoria’s only payoff for losing weight. She’s now motivating loved ones to get healthy, too. “My father, Charlie, who is 73, has always been heavy around his midsection, and he recently started having hip problems because of his weight,” she says. “He said looking at how happy I was made him want to change his lifestyle, too. He has lost more than 30 lbs. The fact that I inspired him to lose weight makes me want to cry with joy.”

Now that she feels and looks healthy again, Victoria has revived her number-one goal. “I am ready to dance again,” she says. “Now, almost 10 years later, my dream of starting my own dance company can become a reality!”