Hi,
JudyNC - I am not TDC. I understand your frustration at people joining the challenges and not understanding the reasons why this is in some ways a 'closed community'. HOwever I read the boards, although this is my first post, becuase I do still find stuff here I really relate to, but I also find it illuminating in understanding the different perspectives people come from.

I don't post, but this post has really struck a chord with me becuase, I am also 21 and a college student and, when I reached goal, had to stop coming to these boards for a couple of months becuase I would just get depressed reading others goals and want to lose more - developing a diet complex.

I think so many people our age have completely warped expectations. I see two extremes - normal people being influenced by media culture to get unhealthyly thin, and another culture that makes people eat and get overweight. I think at college there sometimes seems to be not many people in the middle? And the two camps are completely different! I notice now that I have lost weight, I am party to conversations where people talk to me about how 'afraid' and 'awful' it would be to be obese, so they must go do aerobics tonight blah blah. When I was obese nobody would have ever said that to me!! But now I know what they think! They also seem to think weight is completely controllable, that people who gain weight must have 'lost control' through laziness only.

My advice is, stay AWAY from the students boards and stay away from the maintence boards. Both these boards can be pretty depressing places to hang out. The worst is when I suggest that a weight is a little low, then people say 'I know 95 pounds sounds low, but I am short - only 5'3.5, not tall like you must be for that ideal weight".' At 4ft 11' I then develop a complex about that I want to go lower.

You just need to remember who you are losing weight for and why. You are doing it for you. And everything is relative. THat person who wants to go really low might have serious body image issues. However, I do draw the line when people try to promote the ways in which they have starved themselves to underweight to others, which does go on here on some boards.