I've been overweight the vast majority of my life - but I have had several periods of rapid weight loss. I am not very good at keeping it off. In my later teens, I worked at a summer camp where I would lose about 60 pounds a summer and look really good. I would gain it all back by spring quarter in school.

In college, I gained even more weight and made it up to ~365 pounds somewhere in my freshman year. There's an interesting thing about that number. If I just eat what I want and go about my normal activities, my body seems to like that 365 pound number. (I'm always interested to hear if others have a similar "equilibrium" weight.)

I might have small drops (up to 40 pounds) here and there, but I generally stayed in this range. This held true through the graduate school and even the start of my first "real" job. (I also got married in there and had 2 wonderful girls.)

When I was about 32, I was out of town at a customer (I travel constantly for my job), and I thought I was having a heart attack. It really scared me. Luckily, it turned out to be nothing. The good that came out of it is that I went to a doctor, and finally started getting treated for some of my health issues. I was diagnosed with low-thyroid, pre-diabetes/diabetes, and high blood pressure.

Sadly enough, that by itself wasn't enough to shock me into doing something. I stabilized for a while - but my weight was still around 365. (I don't check it frequently when I'm at my highest weight.)

About a year later, I first read about low-carb dieting - and read the Dr. Atkins book cover to cover, then I just decided to try it out. I'm not really sure what motivated me that day that wouldn't have been true at any time during the previous years. I just decided it was time.

Over the next 6-8 months, I lost 115 pounds. I was also able to add in exercise - and while I never (ever) got the exercise high that some people speak of, I was able to stick with it. Mostly work on the t