About 4 years ago, I lost about 80 lbs. I now have a BMI of 23...but...keeping the weight off is literally hell on earth. I **must** weight and measure every crumb. Literally! Even one small Oreo cookie over my allotted 1,200 calories a day is enough to put on weight the very next day. This regimen also includes vigorous mountain biking and skiing 5 times a week.
Every day I wake up and the first thing I thing about is how hungry I am, how hungry I will be, and how much work and **determination** it will take just to get through the next 24 hours. I dread family and social events because of the food involved.
Some weeks ago I went to our local medical school library and did some research on hunger and weight loss. The only thing that works is surgery. Those having surgery have the best chance of losing weight and keeping it off.
By the way, there is a new operation called a vagotomy, that snips the vagus nerve as it exits the stomach. It is a 20 minute laporoscopy operation and the patients leave the hospital an hour after the operation and go back to work the next day. Unfortunately, I was not able to find any papers published by the surgeons doing this operation and only read about in the popular press. The surgeons are located in San Francisco and Pittsburgh.
Anyway...Here it is morning,..and I have another day of facing constant hunger and only 1,200 calories to feed it. I **know** from experience that any more than that and I will gain weight. There are more than 15 hunger hormones that drive weight gain, metabolism, and hunger and it is **very** hard to trick Mother Nature.
If there is food in heaven, I will turn around and go to hell. Hell could not be worse.
Wow, you have my sympathy.
It doesn’t completely support what Nathan said, but formerly fat people have a much harder time staying at a normal weight than normal weight people. Not only do their metabolisms plummet, but they are literally driven insane by their bodies. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/08/healthscience/snfat.php?page=1
Unfortunately, the only way nonsurgical, reliable way to get thin is to not to get fat.
Sorry if that was depressing, but at least you know you’re not a freak...