Nancy Makin was obese, but at more than 700 pounds, hers was an extreme case.

"You feel very hopeless," she explained. "Doctors have even given up on you. You're just there and you're waiting to die."

That hopelessness overtook Makin, and it didn't let go for more than a decade.

"I was isolated in my home for 12 years," she recalled.

She'll tell her story to a nationwide audience this week on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

But for those 12 years, her family members were the only people who saw her.

Then a gift from family brought Nancy Makin out of that isolation.

Her sister gave her a computer.

Makin said she wasn't one to embrace technology but she was bored and liked talking with people.

She found a connection in an online chat room.

"Faceless strangers helped save my life because the anonymity of the internet allowed me to connect to people who wouldn't out of hand reject me because of my appearance," Makin said.

Now with people to talk to, she began to lose weight naturally.

Makin figures she lost more than 100 pounds without even noticing.

She didn't plan certain meals.

She didn't have surgery.

Once in a while, Makin would get some exercise by walking down the stairs of her apartment building instead of taking the elevator.

But mostly, Makin said, she just found herself with emotional connections that replaced her desire to constantly eat.

She lost more than 500 pounds in less than three years.

"I wasn't really dieting," Makin said. "I was eating because I was hungry."

Using food as an "emotional coping mechanism" as she did is common, according to Dr. Randall Baker, who runs bariatrics for Spectrum Health.

Baker says Nancy's success isn't unheard of.

"Does it happen occasionally? Yes," he said. "Is it usual? No."

"The statistics are that 99 percent of people won't be able to take it off and keep it off long term."

Baker says Makin's story is an inspirational one, but he's worried it might give others struggling with obesity false hope that everyone can do it on his or her own without medical help.

Makin says she just hopes she can help some of those who deal with obesity find some catalyst, whether it's an emotional connection or something else to end that isolation and save their lives.

"It feels pretty normal now. I'm pretty used to it," Makin said of her weight loss.

It wasn't that way to begin with.

"I hadn't driven a car since 1987. I didn't even know what a digital gas pump was," she said. "I had to ask the man if this car takes unleaded fuel."

"And I said, 'Pardon me, I've been away for a long time.'"

Makin has been "back" for more than three years now. She says everything about her life has changed.