ddanderson
I wasn't fat growing up, just got that way when I was 16 and depressed about being a single parent. The whole depression and parenting thing improved, but my weight continued to slowly increase. 20 years and 130 pounds later, here I am... I finally decided, after years of my mom saying "this is your year", that this is my year and I'm going to do something that will actually work, about my weight. We learned in our behavior modification classes that there is only a 4-10% chance of losing a significant amount of weight and keeping it off without surgical intervention. Apparantly our bodies are were designed over 50,000 years ago to eat as much as we could and conserve all of the fat and energy possible. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we no longer need to hunt and kill for our food, or cultivate fields> Add to that, our access to food is dramatically increased, and our activity levels are dramatically decreased. When put that way, it seems no suprise that so much of America is obese. I can't wait to have my surgery (lap-band) and get rid of all of this weight. The journey begins...