Washington, Jan 27 (ANI): “Dietgirl” Shauna Reid, who shed half her 351 pounds, has now disclosed the secret to her miraculous weight loss-blogging.

While losing 200 lbs was not easy for Reid, but the Australian-born lady, who’d always kept a journal, decided to try her hand at blogging.

Eight years ago, at 23, she weighed 351 pounds and started by posting full body photos of her with blurred face on the blog.

And with readers giving that much needed support to her, Reid has become the biggest loser of weight.

In fact, she now has one of the most internationally popular blogs about weight loss to her credit, with over 500,000 readers-DietGirl.org.

Reid has now come up with a book, “The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl,” in which she chronicles her five-and-a-half-year journey to half her size.

On her visit to The Early Show yesterday, she shared her story, as well as encouragement to fellow dieters.

When asked about what made her turn to blogging, she said: “At first, the anonymity. All my friends were skinny, so I didn’t want to talk to them about how scary and lonely it is to be fat. They’re lovely, but they just wouldn’t understand — they don’t know what it feels like to not be able to walk down the street — it is out of their realm of experience,” reports CBS News.

She told co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez: “I had always written my secrets in a diary, but I knew the task ahead called for more than a journal. So I would go online and tell anyone who was listening how much it hurt to be this weight — and every blog entry started with my exact weight. Readers started to cheer me on when the number went down, and encouraged me to stay with it when the number went up. I’m blogging now about how hard it is to maintain a healthy weight.”

Blogging “is kind of like anonymous group therapy, in a way. You get inspired, but you also get practical ideas,” said Reid. (ANI)