RACINE - When Patty Jacobsen lost weight, she didn't worry about what the workout intensity might do, and she found her own benefit to losing a great deal of weight.

Jacobsen, 47, is 5 feet 2 inches tall and when she started a local weight-loss challenge inspired by "The Biggest Loser" television show, she weighed 180 pounds. That was last spring when her daughter convinced her to start the boot camp workouts at Anchor Fitness in Racine.

She had a doctor, but didn't ask about her fitness to undertake intense exercise.

"I just knew that as far as my physical health was concerned I didn't have any physical health issues or anything that could hold me back from participating in the program."

For three months she met the challenge. Workouts lasted about 90 minutes, she said. To begin there was a run of between 2 and 6 miles. That was followed by work with either free weights or exercise machines to target a specific part of the body, and this was augmented with various challenges such as carrying two 10-gallon water jugs up a hill or flipping a tractor tire end over end from one point to another. To that Jacobsen added a kickboxing cardio class on Saturdays.

"For me, being middle-aged and quite overweight it was a pretty intense workout," she said. "There were times when I was just on my knees in tears."

But her daughter's encouragement pulled her through.

As part of her weight-loss regimen, and independent of the challenge program, she changed her diet. In the first two weeks she eliminated almost all carbohydrates from her diet, nor had she been eating many vegetables. It was the dietary changes, she believes, which caused a great deal of hair loss, but that stopped after she took a vitamin supplement and began reintegrating foods back into her meal plan.

Not quite one year later, she said she now weighs 120 pounds.

"Physically a huge improvement, just a huge improvement, could actually feel a total change in my body," Jacobsen said. "I could feel my stomach shrinking. I could feel my waist shrinking."

She has contracted from a size 16 to a size 4, but she said her self-esteem and self-confidence have ballooned. She still works out but not as often and not as intensely in part because she has become a captain and coach for 15 other people doing a weight-loss challenge. She said she hasn't experienced any medical problems as the result of her challenge. What she has experienced are mental changes.

"I think I've become a better person because of it. I see what my potential is," she said. "The only limitation I have is what I personally set my limitations to. I am now more free to go out and try things that I never tried before."

"And I see that I have a lot more to offer than I was going to give myself credit for at one point in time."

Editor's note: Consult your physician before embarking on a new exercise and diet regimen.