Blogging dieter pushes through despite setbacks

Claudia Vercellotti, 38, of Toledo, Ohio, makes light of her size, but it weighs heavily on her heart.

At 5-foot-6, she weighs 347 pounds. "Truth be told, if you cremated me, I fear it would be a grease fire," she jokes. "But I'm trying, really trying — hanging on like a single-threaded loose tooth.

"I joined Weight Watchers in August 2006 and lost 52 pounds. I've been up and down, just trying desperately to cling to that loss with plenty of backsliding."

In January, USA TODAY invited readers to send in their weight-loss stories. Hundreds of people, including Vercellotti, have sent e-mails and letters. Many people have dropped 25 to 100 or more pounds. Others had lost some but are frustrated by their inability to continue losing.

Vercellotti is one of a growing number of American adults who are 100 or more pounds over a healthy weight. About 5% of U.S. adults are morbidly obese, according to government data.

It's hard enough to lose 25 to 50 pounds, but trying to drop 100 or more pounds can be daunting. To help those who are in a similar situation, Vercellotti is going to chronicle her weight-loss progress for the next few months in a blog at dietchallenge.usatoday.com

DIETER'S BLOG: Read Vercellotti's take on losing weight

Vercellotti is a social-science researcher and a volunteer advocate for young victims of sexual abuse, lobbying for legislation to protect children from predators. She describes herself as an emotional eater and yo-yo dieter.
She gets started losing weight, then life happens and she gets derailed. "You can measure stress in my life by the inches around me — by the girth," she says. "You look at the trauma in my life, and I start to pack on the pounds."

7 STEPS: How you can join the Weight-Loss Challenge

And she has had plenty of stressful times. Her house burned down in September 2005. Her car was rear-ended in 2001, and she suffered a neck injury.

At the time, she was caring for her terminally ill father. Before the car accident, Vercellotti was riding a recumbent exercise bike 26 miles a day to lose weight (she had dropped 60 pounds) and relieve stress, but afterward her mobility was limited for months, and her weight ballooned.

"My weight looks like the stock market graph," she says. "My doctors are advocating gastric bypass, which I dub 'drastic bypass,' as they reroute your plumbing. I know this has worked for many, but I'm too afraid to go under the knife. Besides, they don't bypass my brain, so what's the point?"

She is engaged and is concerned that her fiancé, Brian Lauber, 38, "didn't sign on" for a woman who is this heavy.

She says she's fortunate that "Brian doesn't have 'fat phobia.' He has seen loved ones close to him battle with weight problems, so he's sensitive. But I'm a realist, and it's never far from my mind that I've nearly doubled in size since we started dating."

She says her time is running out. "I still have dreams, one of which is to be able to conceive, which isn't safe at my weight. I'm racing a clock, my own biological one."

Trying to lose weight is scary. "I have to tell you I feel like the nervous kid at the edge of the diving board with both hands raised over her head, leaning forward, bent knees knocking staring at the water."

The irony of her situation hit her the other day when she saw an intoxicated homeless man sifting through some garbage cans for food. She had just bought a Burger King Whopper with cheese, french fries and large iced tea when the man approached her car. "I rolled the window down, and we're just staring at one another." She reached over and grabbed the bag of food and began to pass it through the window.

Both she and the man had their hands on the bag of food, and she said to him, "You can't go on like this. You know this is killing you, don't you? Don't you want to live? You are better than this, aren't you?"

He nodded, and said, "Yes, yes, I know, I know. You're right. You're right." Then the two stared at each other for a moment, and she relinquished the bag and handed him the iced tea. He thanked her. But instead of saying, "You're welcome," she thanked him.

Vercellotti says the bottom line now is, "I'm committed. I know that sounds lofty from the same woman who found herself at Burger King recently. But, I'm here, hands over my head, bent knees on the diving board wanting to dive in head-first. I just need some help.

"Food addictions are like no other kind. Every other addiction out here, you put down and have to stay away from, my addiction you have to do in moderation. Can you imagine advocating to a drug addict or alcoholic to use in moderation?

"There's no Scooby-Doo ending here. But the upside is that I'm still in the race."

taken from USA Today