Many people would consider the term “less of a person” to be an insult, but for Ellen Huncosky, she’s perfectly fine being less than she was.
The Suring woman has lost more than 120 pounds in the last two years with the help of Taking Off Pounds Sensibly, along with strict adherence to Keto dieting guidelines and a lot of walking. Because of her weight loss, Huncosky was crowned a TOPS 2025 Wisconsin Queen.
Huncosky has always considered herself to be a big farm gal. Huncosky said having four siblings meant her mother always had to cook for a big family, and she got plenty to eat.
When reaching adulthood, Huncosky spent much of her time working at a factory job and raising three children of her own. Giving birth always came with extra weight, and although she’d find a way to lose some of it after each child came into the world, the bathroom scale would always indicate Huncosky was getting heavier.
“You never get rid of all of it, but even as a teenager, I was a farm girl. So I was a big, strappin’ girl,” Huncosky said. “I was overweight but not real bad.”
Huncosky said life was fast-paced in those middle years, and she had very little time to focus on herself as she was raising her children. One exception was that she gave up smoking in 2015 because of breathing issues.
“That puts on an extra 50 pounds, because you’ve got to get over the smoking part,” Huncosky said.
However, Huncosky soon realized that she needed to do more to improve her health. Her higher weight numbers yielded higher numbers on her yearly lab blood work, and her doctor wanted to put her on three medications to deal with those issues.
“I got diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when I went in for my check-ups, and my A1C was getting too high,” Huncosky said. “They want to put you on medication for that. I tried that, but I decided there’s got to be another way.”
She started looking online, and most of the answers were the same — exercise and diet. Huncosky started walking more, but it wasn’t doing enough, as she was already doing a lot of walking at her factory job. As her scale started moving closer to the 300 number, she knew she had to lose the weight before she retired this past January.
“I decided it was time to get on the ball and do something,” Huncosky said.
Huncosky traveled with one of her sisters to visit another sister in Ava, Missouri, who had lost more than 100 pounds while in the TOPS program and was crowned the state queen for her weight loss in 2023. That inspired Huncosky to finally take action and lose the weight she needed to have a healthier lifestyle in retirement.
“She was always the skinny one of the family,” Huncosky said of her sister in Missouri. “When she retired and got older, suddenly the weight came on her like the rest of us in the family.”
Huncosky discovered the nearest TOPS program was in Shawano, so after seeing her sister’s program, she sought out the local group and started attending meetings. Her challenge was that the local TOPS met in the morning, and she was still working a very early shift at the factory. Fortunately, she had plenty of vacation time saved up over 20 years, so her bosses graciously let her take three hours of vacation time to compensate for the time when TOPS met.
“That was a way to use it up for something that actually benefited me,” Huncosky said. “A lot of times I was ahead enough (at work) to leave for a while.”
Huncosky’s starting weight when she joined TOPS in January 2024 was 295.4 pounds, and she lost almost 80 pounds in her first year alone.
With farm families, there was plenty of meat, fruits and vegetables available, which make up much of the Keto diet. For Huncosky, the challenge was eating in a way that eliminated many of the carbohydrates from her meals that were contributing to the weight gain.
Huncosky’s daughters had used Keto to lose weight, so they introduced their mother to it. She said she had tried to no-fat/low-fat diet to try and lose weight after she had her third child, losing 80 pounds in the process. But because a lot of food has its taste from the fat, the bland-tasting dishes did not motivate her to stick it out. The weight came back when she started eating fatty foods again, so she decided to try Keto.
“I was not aware of (Keto) back when I was trying to lose baby weight and stuff,” Huncosky said. “I loved meat. I wasn’t real fond of vegetables, but I learned to love them, too. You got to watch your dairy.”
At the time, Huncosky walked a mile once a day, but she upped it to twice a day, morning and evening. On the days when the weather doesn’t cooperate, she has a stationary bicycle and a pedal device to fall back on to get her daily exercise.
“It took me a long time when I first started. I couldn’t make it to a mile,” Huncosky said. “You’re out of shape as far as continual exercise.”
On Dec. 9, 2025, Huncosky reached her goal weight of 175 pounds. She lost more weight than any other female TOPS member in the state, which is why she was named the state’s TOPS queen.
Being surrounded by others going through their weight loss journey through TOPS has helped Huncosky to keep the weight off.
“Hopefully, we can get some more people interested,” she said. “We’re there to support each other and help each other any way we can.”
Seven months after she reached her target weight, Huncosky continues to abide by Keto dieting guidelines. When she goes for her walks, she brings up her music on Pandora and just enjoys the movement.
Huncosky reiterated that weight loss is possible for anyone.
“You don’t have to live your life heavy if you don’t want to,” she said. “There is a better way, and you’ll feel so much better. My goodness, it’s like night and day.”
BY THE NUMBERS
295.4: Starting weight for Ellen Huncosky.
120.4: Number of pounds Huncosky has lost since she joined TOPS.
1 in 3: Number of American adults who are obese.
37.4%: Obesity rate in Wisconsin.
8,372: Pounds lost by Wisconsin TOPS members in 2025.
Ellen Huncosky weighed more than 295 pounds when she first joined TOPS in January 2024. Through the Keto diet introduced to her by her daughters and increasing the amount of daily walking she did, Huncosky lost the weight and said she feels like she’s 45 years old instead of 65. (Contributed)
