They Lost Half Their Size!

Teresa Williams
Age: 27
Occupation: Medical assistant
Starting Weight: 310 lbs.
Why She Wanted to Lose the Pounds: "I was sick of being 25 years old, huffing and puffing," says Williams, who lives in Burbank, Calif. "[I couldn't] even go up a flight of stairs without stopping to breathe. I hated shopping – I was a size 24. I wanted to have kids, I wanted to have a family. I wanted to live."

Williams went on the South Beach diet in March 2005 and "stuck strictly" to the program. She then slowly added in exercise. "I started trying to jog [and] it took me a while to actually be able to jog two miles," says Williams, here in November 2005. "I would jog two blocks, walk two and then I would increase it every time I went. Now I can jog two miles without even thinking twice!"

Weight Today: 150 lbs.!

"It's being able to do simple things that mean the most to me," says Williams, who loved swing sets as a child. By her late teens, however, "my hips and thighs were too wide to swing without the metal part jabbing into my thighs." Now that she's lost 160 lbs., Williams says, "I'm like a little kid [at the playground!]

Amanda White
Age: 37
Occupation: Insurance Agent
Starting Weight: 335 lbs.
Why She Wanted to Lose Weight: "One day I was coming up the stairs to my apartment," says White, who moved from Sri Lanka to the U.S. eight years ago, "I sat down on the couch, out of breath and I said to myself, 'Why are you doing this to yourself, Amanda?' There were nights when I was sleeping and I'd get up and pray, 'God, please don't kill me while I'm sleeping. Let me wake up in the morning for my little girl.'"

She joined Jenny Craig in September 2005. "I never cheated. Why would I do that to myself?" says White, of Burbank, Calif. (here in November 2006). "There was one time [my family and friends] all went to Chinese food and I just sat and watched them eat and I didn't even take a bite. I would take my little bag of Jenny Craig snacks."

Weight Today: 145 lbs.!

After losing the weight, her daughter Simona, 13, told her, "I don't want to hurt you, but when you were fat, I couldn't put my arms around you to hug you." Says White: "That touched my heart so much. I did this for my daughter – but I wanted it for me."

Howard Fuchs
Age: 36
Occupation: Teacher
Starting Weight: 505 lbs.
Why He Wanted to Lose the Pounds: "My back was in such bad condition that I was wearing sandals until the beginning of November because I couldn't bend down to tie my shoes," recalls the Smith Point, N.Y., native. "I was in such horrific pain – I couldn't do anything! I remember saying, 'Okay, that's it.'"

Fuchs started the Optifast program in early 2003. Although he admits to cheating on his diet when he traveled to Italy with wife Colleen in December 2003, he says that during the trip, "I found myself doing a lot of things I hadn't done

in a while. This was a chance to have an active vacation – it has been really, really long since I had done that. It was nice to have that feeling of having my life back."

Weight Today: 210 lbs.!

"I said if I got into shape, I'd do martial arts," says Fuchs, who now teaches karate classes for autistic kids. "My favorite thing," he says, "is seeing the smiles on their faces."

Courtney Dawson
Age: 31
Occupation: Casino dealer
Starting Weight: 334 lbs.
Why She Wanted to Lose the Pounds: Health was a concern for the Princeton, La., native, whose mother has high blood pressure and father has diabetes. "If I didn’t do something," she says, "I was going to end up with one or the other or both."

Dawson lost 20 lbs on her own before joining L.A. weight loss in May 2006. At her heaviest, she says she was a size 32. But in November 2006, "I could get into a size 18 and I was so proud of myself. I was like, 'Ooh, I'm in a size 18!' " Dawson remembers. "It was one of my friend's birthdays and the girls and I went out to eat. I ordered my food grilled and my vegetables steamed. I didn't eat cake."

Weight Today: 164 lbs.!

At her heaviest, Dawson had trouble fitting in her car. "It was a tight squeeze," she says. "My breasts were touching the steering wheel and my stomach wasn't too far away." But only seven months into her fitness program, Dawson noticed she could finally seat herself easily. And today – a size 10 – she says, "I could sit both my sons on my lap and still have room!"

Mary Jane Sekito
Age: 41
Occupation: Physical therapist
Starting Weight: 285 lbs.
Why She Wanted to Lose the Pounds: The Houston native suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure, and had problems with her heart and joints. "I had the pharmacy records of a 70-year-old," she says. "I didn't want to die at 45 like my mother did."

Weight Today: 131 lbs.!
How She Did It: Sekito joined her local Quick Weight Loss Center in November 2005.

Before she lost the weight, Sekito couldn't see her feet when she looked down."I couldn't bend," she says. "My stomach was in the way!" Even worse, poor circulation from her diabetes had left her nails "dry and brittle. But when I started losing weight, they started clearing up and getting nicer." Now, Sekito's beauty routine includes a once-weekly pedicure. "I love my toes!" she says.

Sharla Pincock
Age: 33
Occupation: Mother of five
Starting Weight: 301 lbs.
Why She Wanted to Lose the Pounds: "After having five kids in 12 years, I was like, 'Can I have my body back?' " says the Sugar City, Idaho, native. "After each baby, I lost weight – but it was hard to keep it off! After I had my last baby [in January 2006], enough was enough."

Weight Today: 150 lbs.!

Pincock, who joined L.A. Weight Loss in April 2006, completed a 5k race – something she could never have done at 301 lbs. – last June. "It was exhilarating," she says. "I never dreamed I would do it – and I would do it again, if only to show my kids that they can do it, too."

See more amazing transformations in this week's PEOPLE, on stands Friday!