After losing 137 pounds, Pansy Claxton has learned a new way of living.

The Federal Way resident, who maxed out at more than 306 pounds, had been overweight nearly all her life. Two years ago, Claxton couldn’t run, let alone tie her shoes. She had to crawl to a chair or table in order to pull herself up off the floor.

Feeling defeated, she turned to the popular Weight Watchers program. The fat soon melted away, week after week. At one point, Claxton phoned her sister upon reaching a personal milestone — the moment she was finally able to get up off the floor herself. Nowadays, she exercises and competes in long-distance running events.

“Now I’m able to do those things. They might be small things for people, but to me, it’s a big deal,” said Claxton, 42, reflecting on her weight loss success. “I didn’t even think about how much weight I wanted to lose. I just wanted to get healthy.”

Claxton was recently named one of 100 first-prize winners in the nationwide Weight Watchers Inspiring Stories Contest. Weight Watchers provides members with a guide that assigns point values for meals and food. For motivation, Claxton attends weekly support meetings in Federal Way.

The key to weight loss, she said, is setting short-term and long-term goals. Weight Watchers members build a new relationship with food and are encouraged to track what they eat. Before the program, she barely paid attention to what she ate. Today, Claxton said if she stops counting points, she will gain weight.

“I really learned how to eat and how much food my body needed. It taught me to look at food as a fuel for my body,” she said, noting the psychological struggles in her weight loss journey. “I had a hard time at potlucks, but I had to figure out a way to be around that much food.”

Now instead of reaching for chips and cookies, she reaches for fruit. And if she wants a treat, she eats a treat.

“I eat it and I enjoy it,” she said. “I love chips. Now I know I can’t eat the whole bag. I get a portion and I’m good.”

Claxton’s weight loss has been contagious among her family. Her sister, daughter and son have lost a combined 215 pounds.

“It’s been awesome to see the whole family doing it together,” she said, adding that their healthier lifestyle acts as motivation to maintain it. “Losing weight is a mental thing. You have to decide, do you really want it? Why are you doing it? You have to remember why you’re doing it.”

Obesity in America

The rising obesity rate among Americans has sparked a movement to change the nation’s eating habits, specifically in children.

First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative is intended to help change the way children look at food and nutrition. To coincide with the effort, President Obama launched the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity with a goal of reducing the rate to 5 percent by 2030. Recently, an anti-obesity ad campaign with the tagline “Stop sugarcoating it, Georgia” has generated controversy for its blunt approach to addressing childhood obesity, which has spiked nearly 300 percent in the past 30 years.

About one-third of U.S. adults are obese, and 17 percent of Americans ages 2 to 19 are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Among individual states, Mississippi has the highest rate at 34 percent, while Colorado has the lowest obesity rate at 21 percent.

In Washington, nearly 26 percent of Washington residents are considered obese. King County has a rate of 21.4 percent of adults (as of 2008), which is lower than surrounding counties.

Obesity is defined by having too much body fat, and is usually caused by consuming more calories than are burned. Other contributing factors include lack of exercise and drinking too much alcohol. Obesity is different than being overweight, which can be caused by extra muscle or water, for example. Extra weight is linked to an increased risk in health problems, including diabetes and high blood pressure.

Weight loss occurs when a person eats fewer calories than the body uses, causing the body to pull energy from fat-storing cells.

A person’s weight and height are used to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI). For example, a healthy weight for a 5-foot-9 adult is between 125 pounds and 168 pounds (18.5 to 24.9 BMI). An adult with a BMI over 30 is considered obese. The CDC notes that BMI can be misleading for people such as athletes, who may be considered overweight because of higher muscle mass.