Amazing story! And the science is great too! So, those nutritionists who say it boils down to calories in versus calories out are right - they just don't get that it matters too, realistically, as you so expertly state, whether you get there by starvation with 6 meals a week, or by making a healthy choice of foods!

What is amazing in your graphs that they hardly slow down.

I did try to get an excel file graph into my journal and couldn't - I don't know how you managed. Mine -with very different starting parameters - started with a quick loss - then a slower loss, and then a very slow loss, and for now 10 months sort of stable. I thought that is normal, but you have only a very small reduction in the loss per week towards the end - that is amazing. Maybe you will have the experience one of my buddies on this forum, PSTART (Bill) had: he went down to 6 lbs below his target weight while starting maintenance!

You should be on CNN when they badmouth low carb diets and talk longer about surgery, and the only person who lost weight consistently is now running an aerobics studio and exercising like 6 hours a day. It is sad that the only example they had of success long term is largely unrealistic for most of us. They should have a realistic example - you state that you are sitting/quite 13-14 hours a day - that is most of us! And you still eat healthy and are successful.

I have lots of questions even though your report was extensive.

- how did you get excel graphs into this forum?

Those who have the stomach surgery always have hanging skin that is flabby and can be feet long - and then have another surgery to remove the skin. Was your weight loss plus exercise slow enough to avoid that consequence?

- Do you often find that people who haven't seen you for more than a year don't recognize you?

(It seems from various forum lists that one has to loose about 15-20 lbs for someone to comment - people notice often earlier but aren't sure enough to comment - so I am wondering how much one has to loose to not be recognized.)