WOODBRIDGE, Va. - Amy barnes pushes. She lunges. She runs. She keeps going. She's a machine. She's a personal trainer. She works out up to two hours a day.

"You're going to get tired." Barnes says. "You have to want it bad enough,"

At 35, Barnes in peak physical condition.

"Every single week for the last four and a half years I set a weekly nutrition goal and a weekly exercise goal," she said.

And she meets those goals because the weight of her past is too much to bear. Four and half years ago Amy Barnes tipped the scale at nearly 500 pounds.

"You get to be 490 pounds because you stop caring," she said. "People do not understand what people are going through and what their story is."

Her story is a battle of leaving behind the yo-yo dieting and leaving an abusive relationship with an ex-boyfriend.

"In the course of that relationship I gained a lot of weight because food was my comfort," she said.

It was the only thing she felt she could control. But really...  "Food controlled me. Without a shadow of a doubt," she said.

And Barnes says her abuser took advantage of her low self-esteem by beating her physically, mentally and emotionally.

"He almost killed me several times, but my kids were my salvation and I knew that I had to stay alive for them," Barnes said.

She finally hit bottom and it became the turning point in her life. She was done with the abuse, done with the fad diets and ready to get both mentally and physically healthy.

"At 500 pounds could you have come into a gym?" asked ABC 7's Courtney Robinson.

"I didn't," she replied. "I lost the first 100 pounds in my living room. I was too embarrassed to go to a gym."

She started by walking, then running. And after five years of exercise and healthy eating, Barnes shed 340 pounds.

"I am currently 151," she said. " I'm trying to break that 150 mark."

A goal she'll no doubt reach, because today she's in control.

"I don't live to eat anymore," Barnes said. " I eat to live."

Barnes says it's important to set one goal you think is unattainable. It's part of her "secret to success," she says.

Five years ago she set hers at competing on stage in a muscle/fitness competition. This weekend she'll realize that dream in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 

Barnes follows a strict dietary regimen, which is a big change from her old eating habits.

CLICK HERE to see the before and after.

web | news) .gov/obesity/resources.html">CLICK HERE for the CDC's Web site about weight and health

 Email To Friend