Chantel Tonks, from Utah, weighed over 400 pounds (28st 5lbs) at her heaviest.
By using food as a coping mechanism to get through the day, she was steadily gaining weight and suffering from chest pains.
She decided she had to make a change.
But her first stab at shedding the pounds, with a gruelling regime combining 90 minute work outs and a diet of just 1000 calories a day, proved too difficult.
After a year she gave up and returned to a weight of 372 pounds (26st 5lbs).