Good Morning!

This is a good topic, and I want to share my observation on this. In my family we have two extremes - I have fought my weight all my life going on my first diet when I was in sixth grade. My oldest sister was thin until a few years after she got married, and has a weight problem now. My little sister goes back and forth between her ideal weight and about 25 lbs over - but my next oldest sister is 6' 2", and in high school weighed 125 lbs. After three kids she weighs 145 now. That is very skinny for a woman that height. She could always eat whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted and didn't gain an ounce.

The reason I bring this up is that the figures in our profiles don't tell the whole story. My sister I just descrbed told me that she wanted to do the Atkins diet to get back to 145 lbs after she had gone up to 152lbs. This sounds like the situation you were talking about, but those 7 lbs on her made her start getting love handles and her jeans weren't fitting.

People who have very small frames, or very low natural body fat (she is 8% without trying) show excess weight very quickly and easily. When she told me she wanted to do this diet, my initial reaction was "why?". After she told me about the love handles and jeans not fitting I understood - and thought that it was great that she was doing something about it. Her "handles" may not have been as big as mine, but they were there nonetheless - and she wanted to get rid of them as much as I want to get rid of mine. It took her 3 months to lose the 7 lbs, but she has and is very encouraging to me, my family, and sisters now because it was the first time she had ever had to do any type of diet change at all.

So - I guess my perspective is this - they may not have much to lose, but as long as they have weight that needs to be lost they are no different than we are. Remember - profile numbers don't tell the whole story. My sister could never weigh what the charts say she should - her frame and muscle mass are way below average.