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I’m curious - why are you hungry all the time?

My metabolism is pretty efficient. I seem to get hungry again pretty quickly after a meal. I always blamed it on my northern European heritage (feast and famine in northern climates), but if you told me a virus I got when I was 13 had something to do with it, I wouldn't be surprised.

How did you decide on the diet plan that you follow?

I picked low fat/limited calories. I give myself a fatty dinner most Saturdays. Other than that, it's a lot of healthy eating and controlled, timed snacks.

When on my diet, I limited my calories to the amount that they give bariatric surgery patients. Took less than a year to drop 100 pounds. I gained 20 of that back in '07, and lost 30 of the 20 in '08. Have been on maintenance since June and quit smoking.

The only thing that has kept it off is daily exercise, healthy food, and weighing myself each morning. Most people say not to do that, but it has saved me from gaining for a while now.

I would pick being hungry most of the time over being overweight. I can always have a quick cup of decaf when I'm hungry.

Good for you! I’ve never had 100 pounds to lose - I was once 40 pounds overweight, and it took me many months of different diet plans to figure out how to fix that. We’re all different, I think, in what we can eat. I can’t feel good on a very low fat diet - just adding a slice of whole fat cheese or a tablespoon of ultra rich ice cream to a meal makes a big difference to me. And if I’m hungry an hour after a meal, I eat something - carrot sticks or grapes usually. If your decaf satisfies, that’s the same thing.

But one thing I have to say - none of us should be “on a diet”. We should all have an eating plan that we will stay with for the rest of our lives. You’re not done until you know you will eat that way, happily, forever.