Anita Creamer: Local woman turns losing into big win

Great Weight Watchers success story

originally from the Sacramento Bee:

She weighed more when she was 8 than she does now, at age 26. Maybe that's all you really need to know about Melissa Shupack's before-and-after life: She was always overweight, and she always dreamed that somehow, through some miracle, she'd wake up one morning thin.
But maybe you'd like to see the stats. On Jan. 13, 2003 - when she signed up for Weight Watchers because her doctor told her there was no way he'd agree to perform gastric bypass surgery unless she gave dieting one last chance - she weighed 327.6 pounds.

This, on a 5-foot 2-inch frame.

Now she weighs less than 143.

"And my doctor says I have 15 pounds of excess skin," says Shupack, who lives in Citrus Heights and works in human resources. "I'm eventually going to have plastic surgery."

Then, she wore size 30 clothes. Now, size 8.

And now, along with three other grand prize winners in Weight Watchers' annual "Then and Wow" contest, Shupack will be featured in Weight Watchers Magazine's September-October issue. She and Combs flew to New York in June for her salon makeover, photo shoot and dinner with Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, who's the weight loss group's longtime spokeswoman.