OLYMPIA, Wash. - Jennifer Morganstern and Tone Benestad floundered for years struggling with obesity, looking for the secret formula to help them lose weight.

Depression and stress had dragged them into obesity as they used food to suppress negative emotions.

"I spent 10 years eating and drinking," said Morganstern, 40, of Olympia. "I tried every antidepressant out there." She said she lacked motivation.

"I didn't know why I was so tired, craving carbs and sugar," Morganstern said. "All I wanted to do was lie around and watch TV."

For Benestad, 54, of Olympia, obesity was a nagging companion even before she graduated from Olympia High School in 1970 weighing 218 pounds. She wasn't alone.

"Out of six kids in our family, three have weight problems and the other three have issues with drugs and alcohol," Benestad said.

A year after graduation, Benestad ballooned to 376 pounds and stopped riding horses - once one of her passions. She continued to smoke cigarettes, ultimately smoking three packs a day.

"People didn't recognize depression in those days," she said.

Eventually both women realized that there was no magic pill to help them lose weight. They had to take responsibility for themselves.

They had to navigate the dense maze of options out there: diet pills, personal trainers, health clubs, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Slim-Fast, NutriSystem, Lindora, Overeaters Anonymous, nutritionists, protein shakes, low-carb diets, weight-loss surgery, hypnosis, behavior modification and pole dancing - and the list goes on.

They had to find the strength to take TV icon Oprah Winfrey's advice.

"Make a decision," Winfrey says in the January issue of her magazine, O. "Know that you deserve the best life possible. … Go out and get it."

Last year, with her 40th birthday looming, Morganstern made the choice to dig her way out of the hole obesity had made in her life.

"I couldn't imagine that the rest of my life would be this miserable," said Morganstern, whose first step was to quit her job. Then, in September, with 218 pounds on her 5-foot, 5-inch frame, Morganstern enrolled in a rigorous 12-week program at the Valley Athletic Club in Tumwater, Wash.

As a participant in the Results program run by personal trainer David Ross, Morganstern pumped iron three times a week under Ross's supervision, attended a weekly eating and fitness education class, took weekly spinning classes and filled out a daily food journal.

"Just finding that grounding that I've learned is so important," she said.

By the end of the program, Morganstern had dropped 48 pounds. Now she aims to ride in the Seattle-to-Portland bike event later this year.

"I am down to only about 10 milligrams of Prozac," Morganstern said.

"The serotonin is making a huge difference in my head," she added, referring to the feel-good brain chemical that she boosts by exercising instead of with pills.

Benestad also found the way to take back her life.

Three years ago, Benestad, a hairdresser, enrolled in training to be a permanent makeup specialist. Partway through the training, Benestad realized it would be hard to succeed in selling herself as a professional permanent makeup technician if she were still obese. She turned to Lap-Band weight-loss surgery for help.

"I lost about 40 to 50 pounds, but then, when my mother was dying, I gained about 20 back," Benestad said.

Then, in 2005, a client offered to let her ride horses again. Benestad tried it out. After 35 years, she was back in the saddle.

"When I got on that horse, it was a dream come true," she said. "Now I'm down a total of 80 pounds from where I was."

The combination of riding again and losing weight from the surgery helped Benestad build emotional strength. At 180 pounds, she is taking dressage classes from a Thurston County riding instructor, and she eventually plans to compete.

"I'm solid as to who I am," Benestad said. "I'm happy with where I am today."

Still others say that nothing works as well as a special 12-Step Overeaters Anonymous program in which each member takes responsibility for sticking to an established plan set by a nutritionist.

"It's not a weight-loss plan," said one participant. A membership requires that members remain anonymous. "There's no structure to define abstinence - you define it for yourself."

Still others look to intensive, medically supervised fasting or very low calorie diets. For 26 years, the University of California at Los Angeles has run a Risk Factor Obesity Program in which people follow a 550- to 850-calorie-a-day diet for six months under monitoring by a physician, dietitian, nurse and psychologist.

"Most patients have five to eight shakes a day, or four shakes and a meal," said Dr. David Heber, program director and author of "The L.A. Shape Diet" (Harper Collins/Regan Books 2004).

"The six-month weight loss phase is typically followed by six months to a year maintenance training in how to keep the weight off long-term."

Some people also benefit by becoming aware of "secret" eating styles that lead to obesity, said nutrition researcher, educator and author Deborah Kesten.

"When I ask people in interviews to share their most memorable dining experiences, it's never about going to the 7-Eleven, sitting in their cars and stuffing down eight bags of potato chips," said Kesten, whose new book on the subject, "The Enlightened Diet," comes out this fall from Ten Speed Press in Berkeley, Calif.

"It's always about some really fresh food that someone made just for them - it's what satisfies the soul."

But beyond individual diets or exercise plans, more needs to be done on a public policy level, said Dr. Laura Streichert, director of operations at the Exploratory Center for Obesity Research in Seattle.

"There's always such an emphasis on the individual - 'You know what to do, just do it,'" Streichert said. "One thing people can do is, think about the barriers people have in their own lives that are stopping them from doing well - are these things we can do something about?"

Streichert's center, under contract with the National Institutes of Health, is looking at measures such as healthier diets for low-income pregnant women, smaller restaurant portions and possible nutrition labeling on restaurant menus.

Many other local agencies are working on programs to improve school cafeteria diets, upgrade vending machine choices, encourage exercise and add bicycle lanes in metro areas.

"But not any one thing is enough," Streichert said. "That's why we need a lot of strategies in schools, families, individuals and institutions … to address obesity."

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Ross, the personal trainer who runs the Results program that Morganstern took at Valley Athletic Club, said exercise and movement are fundamental to long-term weight-loss maintenance.

"Your body was designed to move and have fun," Ross said. "To take one hour out of 24 - a small percentage of your day - to exercise and move is really not asking that much."

Exercising for an hour a day on most days is one of the key habits listed in the National Weight Control Registry, a database of people who have lost significant weight and kept it off long-term. Ross, who uses the database in designing the Results program, said other key habits include eating breakfast daily and keeping a regular log of everything you eat.

"It keeps you accountable," Ross said of keeping a diet journal.

Staying accountable is also important in Overeaters Anonymous, members said. They are required to check in daily with their sponsor - another member who has successfully kept with the plan long-term.

"It's not a diet club," said the participant, an Olympia OA member. "It's more a way of life."

In South Sound, one or more OA meetings occur almost every day of the week; some members attend a meeting daily.

The Olympia man in OA participates in a more rigorous version of the program called HOW - for Honesty, Open-mindedness and Willingness to listen. HOW OA members set up a diet menu with their nutritionists and then use the 12-Step tools - including giving their control over to a Higher Power - to stick to the plan.

"As compulsive eaters, we have reached a point where we don't have the power of choice," a Tumwater OA member said. "We give ourselves to a higher power, and that gives us the tools to be accountable."

Nutritionist and herbalist Virginia Hadley says detoxification is an important part of her weight loss programs because a toxic digestion can lead to more fat storage as the body's survival strategy, she says.

After tests for digestive malfunctions, parasites, food allergies such as gluten intolerances, thyroid imbalances and other issues, Hadley prescribes herbal supplements and other compounds to detoxify and regulate the body.

She also urges clients to eat organic foods to avoid many of the toxins.

"Obesity is another way for a stressed system to get our attention," Hadley says. "That's so we can change what we are doing to ourselves - and to our food chain, our planet and our lives."

Yvonne Bland, owner and operator of two Shape Women's Athletic Clubs, says she lost 80 pounds 20 years ago and has kept the weight off through hard work and commitment to the principles she now teaches others at her two facilities.

Diet drugs are not the answer, she says. In an experiment Bland ran several years ago, women who took a placebo lost twice as much weight as women who did not take the placebo. The two groups had the same exercise and diet program: The difference was, the women who took the placebo thought that the pill would be activated only if they followed the program's guidelines strictly.

Bland says her experiment proved to her that the key to weight loss was belief in and commitment to a sound, long-term diet and exercise program.

"Why are we taking any (weight loss) herb recommended and fueling a bogus diet market as we grow heavier?" Bland asks in an essay, "The Magic Pill." "Don't spend another penny on the confidence you may lack - see a trainer, get a sound nutrition program and take the guesswork out of your health."

Bland's five "steps to success" are:

1. Set up monthly or bi-weekly sessions with a personal trainer.

2. See a nutritionist to set up a personal eating plan designed for you.

3. Use the trainer and the nutrition specialist to keep yourself accountable.

4. Eat small meals throughout the day. Drink lots of water.

5. Be aware of emotional eating.

Ross also suggests that clients stop eating three hours before bed, do a combination of weight-training, cardiovascular and flexibility exercises throughout the week and limit alcohol intake. He also asks people to write down, at the end of every day, what they are grateful for that day and to list what they accomplished toward meeting their life goals.

As Morganstern, Benestad and others on the path to weight management success have found, the road is hard but the benefits enormous.

"For me, it's just been all about reclaiming my health and reclaiming my life," Benestad says. "I wanted to capture the ability to live life to the fullest."

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