Stephanie Paul has lost 140 pounds through sensible dieting and exercise. Her weight loss story inspires others to lose weight and make long-lasting healthy lifestyle changes.

My name is Stephanie Paul and I have lost 140 pounds. I was 18-years-old when I started and now I am 21. It was definitely a journey.

As a young child I was tiny and then went on steroids when I was 7-years-old due to a health condition. I grew up a happy child and ate a lot of foods I shouldn’t have eaten. I became an obese child and let food take over my life. I ate when I was happy, sad, and any other emotion that I was feeling. I used to get made fun of in school. To me, I felt nothing wrong with eating high calorie meals and snacks.

I started getting sick of being obese and after my grandmother died of cancer I had to change something about that. I started counting calories and eating healthy. When you start measuring what you eat you figure out that you were eating too much all the time.

Sherri Shepherd's new thinner figure, via The View

It seems like the all-female talk-show The View is always in the limelight. But this time, it’s for a great and celebratory reason. Co-host, comedian/actress and diabetic Sherri Shepherd, who replaced Star Jones in 2007, flaunted her new fabulous figure last week on the show after losing 10 inches off of her total body and a whopping five inches from her waist alone!

She’s not revealing how many pounds she has dropped, but by looking at her newly svelte figure in a black bathing suit, she has obviously lost a significant amount of weight in just three months.

David Smith may have an ordinary name, but his story is quite extraordinary. This has to be the most amazing transformation I’ve ever seen.

David, 32, once weighed 650 pounds. He was suicidal and lonely. But somehow, he found the will to take back his life, and lost an amazing 400 pounds in only 26 months. And he did it without surgery! If that’s not enough, he’s now a certified personal trainer.

Smith’s story was documented by TLC and aired as a special titled “The 650-pound Virgin” on July 12. He looks to his past as if it was someone else.

My name is Tony Posnanski, and odds are you have never heard of me. I have a wife and newborn and have been a restaurant manager for over 10 years. Just like any other guy I love sports, spending time with my wife and I love to read.

I also have lost more weight than any Biggest Loser contestant, 221.4 pounds to be exact. I did it all in a year without surgery or pills, and have maintained it for four months.

DietsInReview guest blogger,  Rob Cohn is an ACE Certified personal trainer from the Los Angeles area. He has  many years of personal experience with emotional eating and recovery from a binge eating disorder and is passionate about helping other people deal with their emotional eating with guidance and support. You can read more on Rob from his own personal blog.

Here is part 2 of Rob’s lifelong battle with his weight and health. To start from the beginning, read part I – Achieving Health by Listening to My Body.

In March of 2009, I was gaining weight like crazy and I was eating what I thought was healthy. What I didn’t realize was what I was eating was making me sick. I decided to call a friend of mine who is into holistic health and knows a lot about nutrition. When I told her that I was eating one pound of raw vegetables with lunch and one pound of raw vegetables with dinner, she couldn’t believe it. She asked me if I were a horse and commented that I was eating enough rough vegetables to feed for a small family.