Name: Kat Carney
Age: 42
Lives: Atlanta, Georgia
Lost: 90 pounds
Kept it off: 12 years
At my top weight, I was 240 pounds. I was an actress, always cast as “the big girl.” My picture was even used on the cover of a national magazine to illustrate the obesity crisis in America. I had health problems, and I decided I would try living a healthy lifestyle for one year to see if it would make a difference. I started going to the gym—the first few times I walked in and walked out, but at least I went. After a few weeks I was up to exercising for 30 minutes a day. I also made it my goal to eat 10 servings of vegetables and fruits a day.
The process of losing weight, and the things I learned along the way changed the course of my career and life. Funny, I stopped getting acting jobs after hitting my goal weight—I had been a “type,” and no longer fit that role. Less than three years after hitting my goal of 150 lbs., I became a medical news anchor at CNN Headline News (with no college degree or background in journalism). I’m now a public television producer in Atlanta.
Surrounding myself with weight loss success stories I found in magazines was one of the key motivators on my journey—I didn’t care about which diet a person went on, I simply needed to see real people like me who had ‘done it.’”
