Before: 221 lbs.
After: 140 lbs.
Program used: Nutrisystem

A family trip to Walt Disney World was when Darlene Dougherty, 42, realized she was the one living in a Magic Kingdom — denying her mushrooming weight and the toll it was taking on her health. A woman at the park thought Darlene was the grandmother — not the mother — of her then-1-year-old daughter. The comment stung, says Darlene, “but I knew she was right. I looked like an old lady.”

It wasn’t Darlene’s face that was aging her, it was her physique: Though tall
(5 feet 11 inches), she weighed an unhealthy 221 lbs., thanks in part to far too many fast-food meals with the kids between after-school activities. Educated as a nutritionist and married to a physician, this stay-at-home mother of Richie, now 15, Meredith, now 13, and Toni, now 2, understood all too well the health risks that her weight posed.

In fact, she had already been diagnosed with fatty liver, a dangerous condition. “I knew the best thing was to stay in the lower limits of my ‘ideal’ body weight,” says Darlene. And over the years, she had tried to do just that, bouncing from diets to slim-down pills to liposuction. But nothing led to lasting weight loss.

Diet on the Doorstep

Darlene worried she was running out of options — until she remembered the one that was right under her nose. Her sister had shed 100 lbs. on NutriSystem. After checking out the fine print, Darlene signed on in May 2005. The self-proclaimed “queen of disorganization” loved how easy it was to order packaged meals online and have a month’s worth delivered in a nondescript cardboard box to the front stoop of her home in Charlotte, N.C.

For less than $10 a day, NutriSystem sent her three entrées, a snack and a dessert for each day (she had to supply her preferred protein, such as chicken or turkey, and her own fresh fruits and veggies). A workbook helped her track what she ate, and counselors were available around the clock, online or by phone, to help her through those “oh no!” moments.

To her amazement, the weight started melting off immediately. By the end of the summer, she had dumped 51 lbs. and hit her goal of 170. But why stop there? she thought. “By Christmas, I was down to 140,” she says, “and that’s where I’ve stayed ever since.” In seven months, she went from wearing a size 16 or 18 to a size 4. What was most unexpected, says Darlene, is that she didn’t make any drastic changes in terms of exercise, only walking a mile or two each day with the family’s Great Dane, Philia.

Darlene’s number-one fan is her husband, Richard, 43, who noticed that his wife’s self-esteem soared as the number on the scale plummeted. And, he adds, “She looks great, too!”

Darlene, meanwhile, is loving buying colorful clothes instead of everything in “slimming” black, and even gets a charge from something as simple as being able to tuck in her shirt. But the biggest benefit is not having to listen to rude comments about her looks anymore.

In the end, though, Darlene admits that she’s actually grateful for the barbs. Hurtful as they were, “they were what spurred me on to keep trying,” and eventually to lose the weight, she says. “Now I’m a new woman!”