1. Lexlee Hudson: Lost 187 Lbs.

College was a major adjustment for Hudson. Along with gaining more independence, she was also "stressed, working multiple jobs, and I didn't know what I should be eating." That meant she was grabbing what was easy and convenient on a college budget — a ton of pizza and any food she could get during breaks from her waitressing job. And within about a year, she had gained 180 lbs.


"I started having a lot of health issues," she says. "My back was hurting all the time. I had PCOS and I was on the spectrum for pre-diabetes and high blood pressure. I love to ride horses — I have my entire life — and I couldn't anymore. I became super insecure and withdrawn, and I stopped going out with my friends."


Meanwhile, her mom and grandma were both following the weight loss program Optavia and had dropped 80 and 75 lbs., respectively. They had tried getting her on board for years, and in January 2018, after Hudson finished college, she finally agreed to join the program. Hudson started setting alarms for every 2½-3 hours to remind herself to eat healthy snacks, and swapped out the pizza for ones with cauliflower crust or made Taco Tuesdays with lettuce wraps instead of tortillas.


Over the next two and a half years, Hudson consistently lost weight, eventually dropping 187 lbs. She's now a health coach, and helps people "get healthy."


"I tell people that before I felt like I had a mental cloud over my head. I didn't always put me first," she says. "My whole life has changed."



2. Crystal Benes: Lost 201 Lbs.



Benes spent most of her life overweight. She was obese as a child, and by the time she was 25, Benes weighed in at 376 lbs.


"Every choice I made regarding what I fueled my body with and how much exercised I did was all up to me," she says. "I had no one else to blame for my poor decisions that led me to being nearly 400 lbs."


But that changed on April 2, 2018, when Benes decided to sign up for a local weight loss program in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Over 15 weeks, she dropped 100 lbs. thanks to a personal trainer, nutrition coaching and regular boot camp classes. But the hardest part, she says, is when that ended and she had to do it on her own.


"I had to understand that this was no longer a diet, and that it had to become my lifestyle," she says.


Benes kept up her daily workouts and nutrition plan, and by January, just 10 months later, she was down to 175 lbs. She's maintained that now, with a few pounds of buffer, for the last year with the help of Real Appeal, a weight loss support program.


"My weight-loss journey came at a point in my life where my weight was something I faced every day and led me to a constant state of depression," she says. "Through the struggle, I encountered during my journey, I came to realize that the most difficult road had led to the most beautiful journey of my life."



3. Kimberly Brown: Lost 109 Lbs.


When Brown, 34, decided to make a change and lose weight in 2015, she was coming off of a tough year — she had recently suffered a miscarriage, her childhood pet had just died and a broken ankle left her unable to walk on her own for several months.


"It got the best of me," Brown says.


Plus, her health was suffering — Brown had high blood pressure and frequent migraines, and her doctor thought that losing some of her 239 lbs. would help. Brown decided to join Nutrisystem, and she immediately had success, dropping 10 lbs. the first week and around 2.5 lbs. every week after. Four years later, she's healthier and 109 lbs. lighter.


"I currently weigh 130, I no longer have to take any medication for my blood pressure and I impress my doctor with my cholesterol and other levels every year on my physical!" she says. "I now have confidence in myself, courage to do anything, and pride in how far I have come!"


4. Jennifer Riveira: Lost 76 Lbs.


Jennifer Riveira was always tired and so had trouble keeping up with her young son.


When her doctor told her all of her tests came back normal, but her fast-food habit may be to blame, she realized it was time to make a change.


"In reality, I had just given up on myself," she tells PEOPLE. "Everybody became more important than I did and fast-food became my way of life. It was fast. It was easy."


So Riveira cut out greasy food and substituted in meal replacement shakes. She also got active.


Now she exercises regularly and can keep pace with her now 13-year-old son.


"The challenge itself is to feel better about yourself, to be the best version of you, whoever you are," Riveira says.


5. Mary Jane O'Toole: Lost 135 Lbs.

When O'Toole got engaged in 2016, she was thrilled to marry her longtime boyfriend, but their relationship hadn't been good for her health. After six years of fast-food dinners and minimal exercise, she weighed 281 lbs. and was having knee problems — at 25 years old.


Plus, O'Toole was dreading buying a wedding dress at her size.


"I didn't want to buy a plus-size wedding dress, because they cost way more than straight sizes," she says. "I felt like I was paying this fat tax — I didn't have the ability to buy affordable clothes because I was bigger."


Along with her fiancé, O'Toole started tracking her meals and calories with the LoseIt! app. She dropped 75 lbs. in a year, and started incorporating exercise into her routine. By her wedding day in Nov. 2018, O'Toole had lost 135 lbs. and was able to buy the dress of her dreams — in a size 6.


"The ideal dress that I had in my head was cleavage-baring with a dramatic accent, and then I went with a long-sleeved dress that went up to my neck with a bare back. I had never pictured something fitted, but I felt awesome in it because I had done it and lost the weight," she says.


O'Toole has kept up her weight loss habits, and though she's frustrated with the loose skin she's accumulated, she tries to focus on the "non-scale victories."


"The biggest one is being able to shop out of my friends' closets — I had never been able to do that before," she says. It's so cool, it's like I have double the closets, and what I had always dreamt about doing in high school!"