Michael Becker: Before and After Pictures

Is it really possible to change ones appearance so much in only twelve weeks? Here is Michael Beckers 'before' photo and an 'after losing 56 pounds' photo. He initially weighed 280 pounds and now weighs 227 pounds

His body fat ratio went from 27.4 percent to 8.8 percent. He lost 56 pounds of fat and gained three pounds of muscle. He is one of the six finalists in the running for a one million dollar prize in theBody-for-Life Challenge. The winning candidate will be chosen in the second week of January 2006. See the six finalists here.

Update January 13th: The million dollar winner will be announced tomorrow. My bet is on Michael Becker.

Update: I guessed wrong. The winner was Aaron Ferguson.

Losing Weight: Before and After Pictures

If you've started losing weight and you need a little more inspiration to keep going, this is a fun diversion you may find interesting. These are some examples of virtual models at 'before' and 'after' weight loss.

The example model above is 5'7". Here we see her picture at 220 pounds, 190 pounds, 155 pounds and 135 pounds.

You can try this out for yourself to see what you might look like if you weighed less. You can design your own model at the Land's End website and specify a hairstyle, general body shape, nose, mouth, face shape, skin color and hair color. Enter your weight and height and see what you might look like for each ten pounds that you will lose.

The examples above are a 6' tall man at 260 pounds and at 190 pounds. The woman in the middle is 5'4 and 200 pounds versus an after picture of 120 pounds. The last female is 5'7 and 221 pounds versus 130 pounds.

Oprah Winfrey's Weight Loss Experiments

(Update Dec. 2008: Oprah has gained 40 pounds again. She says she now weighs 200 pounds.)

A couple of days ago Oprah was on ABC News discussing some key moments of her twenty years of the Oprah show.

She mentioned that losing weight very quickly in 1988 was one of her worst moments, as she gained much of it back almost as quickly. During 1988 she went on a four month liquid diet and put her social life on hold. She lost an incredible 67 pounds over this time, and was able to fit into size 10 jeans. Thus she reached her lowest adult weight ever, at 145 pounds. But within a couple of days of going off the diet she was no longer able to fit into the prized jeans. Within a week, she had gained back ten pounds and was embarrassed to attend a party that weekend where everyone would see she had gained weight.

Oprah reached her highest weight in 1992. At that point she weighed 237 pounds.

Oprah looks fantastic lately. The photo on the left is this months issue of the Oprah magazine. The picture on the right is Oprah 18 years ago in 1988. She is not at her slimmest point now, but her normal range weight level helps to make her look very attractive. (Update: January 2006: How much does Oprah weigh now? Her current weight is 163 pounds, according to a comment by her personal trainer, Bob Greene, in the January 3, 2006 issue of Woman's World.)

Her 52nd birthday is coming up in January and she is feeling better than ever and feels she has moved into a new groove with the show.

Update: May 14th:Oprah has gained another ten pounds again. She must weigh about 173 now.

Update May 22nd: Oprah has just signed the biggest non-fiction book deal advance in history. She is being paid more than $12 million by Simon & Schuster to write about her weight loss saga together with her trainer Bob Greene. She says her adult weight has fluctuated between 138 pounds and 198 pounds.

Update: July 2006: There's a strong rumor going around that Oprah and her boyfriend of twenty years, Stedman Graham are splitting up for good. They've split up for short periods of time in the past, but this time it looks like it may be final. And the gossip rags are saying that he has written a book that he is threatening to publish unless he receives more money ('a sizable allowance') from her. The book is said to go into details about her yo-yo dieting and binging as well as other hurtful private information.

Steadman Graham has already written nine books, two of which were New York Times bestsellers; You Can Make It Happen: A Nine-Step Plan for Success and Teens Can Make It Happen: Nine Steps to Success. I personally find it hard to believe that he would ever do such a thing as publish dirt on Oprah after being with her for twenty years.

Update July 10th: Oprah is on the cover of 'New Idea' magazine this month. Here she says Jennifer Aniston has helped her gain control of her weight. They say Aniston has transformed her boyfriend Vince Vaughan from 'a chunk to a hunk' via the Zone Diet and Oprah has been following the diet too. This magazine says her weight went from 88kg down to 82kg. I think they've got their numbers wrong. That would put her at 180 pounds (82kg) right now which doesn't jibe with her appearance.

Kristie Alley's Dieting Success

Kirstie Alley started a highly publicized weight loss program with Jenny Craig in December 2004. Less than one year later, she says she has lost over fifty pounds.

There is a lot of talk online by people questioning if she was honest in stating that her heaviest weight was 219 pounds. She does look much heavier in some of the earlier photos given her 5'7" frame.

Kirstie Alley was recently a guest on Oprah's show. She looked fabulous even though she said she would like to lose another thirty pounds. To me she looked incredibly gorgeous for someone who is 54 years old.

The Jenny Craig program says they recommend a weight loss of one to two pounds a week. This sounds like a very reasonable goal to me, much more realistic than all the ads you see for losing nine pounds per week.

The above are two photos of the slimmer Kirstie at last week's Oprah show. The paper models in the background are an approximation of how she looked about a year ago._________

The first picture above is Kirstie Alley on the set of Fat Actress. The photo was taken by Randy Tepper of Showtime about a year ago. The other two photos are from Oprah's show in November 2005.Update: December 31st: Kristie Alley is rumored to be dating Al Pacino. Pacino is 65 years old (and still very dashing). I wish them great joy in their relationship together. She has not dated anyone for the past five years. Update: March 2006: this turns out to be an unsubstantiated rumor.

Update: Happy Birthday to Kirstie Alley as she turns 55 this year. She was born on January 12 1951.Update June 17th 2006: In Touch Magazine is reporting Kristie has reached her goal weight ahead of time and has lost more than 69 pounds.

Update June 29th: Kirstie Alley is on the cover of People Magazine, July 3rd edition. Here she says she has lost 71 pounds and would like to lose a further fifteen and wear a bikini on TV.

Update July 10th: Kristie Alley is on the cover of New Zealand's Woman's Weekly. Here she says she now weighs 67kg (148 pounds) and says her heaviest point was 100kg (220 lbs).

Update November 6th: Here she is! This is today's shot of Kirstey Alley in a bikini on Oprah's show. She looks fabulous but it looks like she's put on a bit of weight since the last time she was on Oprah? I'll post the video clips here as soon as they are availalbe.