'I didn't recognise myself'

For a decade, Nicky Pin knew that her body didn't match her personality. Despite feeling fun, social and vivacious, she felt her figure didn't reflect this.

'Every day that I was overweight, I knew I wasn't being the person that I could be,' the Auckland stay-at-home mum to Noah, four, and Toby, two, says.

It was at her eldest son's first birthday when Nicky had an epiphany, prompting her to get proactive about losing weight.

'I was looking at photos of the day and saw this huge person, then realised it was me,' says Nicky, who weighed 93.9kg at the time.

'It was awful and I was so shocked. I thought, "This isn't me and I need to do something about it".' Now, three years later, Nicky has shed a whopping 30.9kg after starting Weight Watchers.

It took two years for the 34-year-old blonde to get to her goal weight of 63 kilos, but during that time she conceived and gave birth to her second son.

'I only put on four kilos after having Toby,' Nicky says. 'After two years of hard work, it was the most incredible moment standing on the scales and achieving my goal. But at the same time I also realised I had to immediately set myself a new health-related goal, I have to always be moving forward.'

It was a heartfelt moment with her son Noah while shopping that Nicky realised the positive implications of her weight loss on her children. 'I was trying on a top that I wouldn't have ever worn before, and my son looked up at me and said, "Mum, you look so beautiful",' Nicky recalls.

I realised from then on I was always going to be a mum he was proud of and I would try to be the best role model I can.'

Nicky's determination to fight the bulge also led to her mother, Robyn, 59, losing 17kgs. 'We used to ask each other what chocolate bar we would like for dessert each night and now we're asking each other if we have exercised,' Nicky says.

'We now use our power on each other for good and not for evil!' Through healthy eating, Nicky's husband of 10 years, Alistair, also 34, was able to drastically lower his cholesterol. And their lifestyle turnaround saw the family awarded Weight Watchers Family of the Year 2011.

'My life couldn't be more different from where I was three years ago,' Nicky says. 'I don't sit on the sidelines anymore. I love getting all dressed up and going out as much as I can. I'm finally the person I always wanted to be.'

'I'd eat fast food nearly every night'

At 29, Kirsten found herself redundant from her office job, weighing 84.4kg and extremely unhappy. 'It was such a low point in my life. You don't feel good when you are carrying around that much extra weight,' the now petite blonde says.

'Weight was something I knew I could change. I didn't want to look like Elle Macpherson, but just be healthy.' For someone who used to consume fast food almost every night, she knew the road ahead would not be an easy one.

'I was eating huge portions every meal, and I was doing no exercise at all. It's horrible living like that,' she says.

When her mother mentioned joining Jenny Craig in November 2010, the Auckland-born beauty felt this was her chance to change.

'Let's face it, relying on yourself to lose weight isn't the easiest. I decided at least with Jenny Craig I'm eating their food as well as getting their support.' The weight-loss clinic set Kirsten up with a consultant who she met with weekly to chat and be weighed, in order to work towards her goal weight of 60kg.

They also planned the week's food. 'You are reprogramming yourself to know what you should be eating and how much,' she says. 'They told me it would take six months to a year to lose the weight, and I thought I'd be the six-month person. But I took a bit longer than that,' Kirsten explains.

To stop being discouraged, Kirsten kept her eyes on her goal – fitting into her old clothes. 'My clothes were getting looser, and every time I lost weight it gave me the motivation to keep going.'

It was not only her diet that changed. 'I took an hour walk three times a week and Zumba classes as well as dancing around the house – everything helps!'

After 13 months, Kirsten had finally reached her goal weight of 60kg – losing a total of 24.4kg and 80cm from her body.

Now back on the dating scene, Kirsten says looking at pictures of herself in heavier days is a shock. 'I'm stunned at how I used to look and eat – I couldn't eat that much now if I tried,' she says.

'It's a lifelong thing. I'm a new person. Before I'd sleep such long hours and have no energy. Now I'm so energetic and I can go shopping and buy a size small!

'I also got a new job as a teacher aide and have new friends. I'm really proud of myself.'

'All I wanted was a baby'

For Amanda Flemming, her ballooning weight not only restricted her life – it stood in the way of her having the child she had always wanted.

When doctors told the 31-year-old – who was tipping the scales at 144.7kgs at her heaviest – that she had to lose a considerable amount of weight before she was even eligible for IVF treatment, Amanda knew she needed to make a drastic decision.

'I have polycystic ovaries, so since I was 15 I knew I would need to have fertility treatment to conceive,' the Aucklander says. 'I went to the doctor three months before my wedding in 2008, and my BMI (body mass index) was 46, and later went up to 54, and they wouldn't see me until I had a BMI of 32.'

A BMI between 18.5 and 25 is a healthy weight, but anything over 40 is considered morbidly obese. For someone who had been battling weight all her life, the then-28-year-old felt gastric bypass surgery was her only option.

'I'd tried it all. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, the gym, Body-for-Life – and failed so many times. I just couldn't fail again.'

After many tears, the self-confessed chocoholic booked gastric bypass surgery for December 2008, at a cost of $20,000. The procedure entails the stomach being reduced to a small pouch that can hold an average of 10-15 millilitres. This is separated from the rest of the stomach and reattached to the intestines so only very small amounts of food can be consumed.

'I was sitting outside the theatre and the nurse said, "You can walk away [from the operation] right now if you want", but I was ready.'

Following the two-hour procedure, Amanda's eating habits completely changed. 'The first week you can only have water and protein shakes.

Your new stomach is so small, every hour you are forced to drink 30mls of water so you don't dehydrate. 'You can start to eat soft food like scrambled eggs after a few weeks – but you can only eat two teaspoons.

It's a nine-month process to be able to eat normally.' Now, overindulging on food means huge side effects for the office manager.

'You get very used to throwing up. Eating too much fat tends to give you diarrhoea, too.' But the drastic surgery had the desired effect.

'You end up weighing yourself five times a day because it's so exciting! After three months I'd lost 25kg, and after a year I lost 81kg.'

Two years following surgery, Amanda was finally eligible for fertility treatment. Sadly, a miscarriage led to a three-month wait from trying to conceive again.

'It took such a toll on us. But last November we started our first round of IVF, and it worked!' Now 10 weeks pregnant, Amanda is overjoyed. 'I just can't wait to have the baby. It was all worth it.'