My own weight fluctuations have been smaller than a lot of people’s here; my top weight was about 180 on a 5’4” frame, (right after having my third baby) and my lowest adult weight was probably in the 125 range (right after basic training at age 17.)

Before kids, my set point was in the 135 ballpark.

Currently hovering around 150, which is something I can maintain sanely at my current activity level.

I have a lot of small children and lack the freedom to even just take a walk at lunch.

Like virtually every woman I know, I have at various points tried to “reduce” my figure by reducing calories.

Skipped lunch in high school, ate nothing but oatmeal and veggie sandwiches for awhile after boot camp, kept food diaries full of steamed-broccoli lunches as a new mom (INSANE!)

… and if you asked me, I’d claim I’d “never really dieted.” LOL.

The only time I’ve ever “effortlessly” lost weight was during the year I spent in Japan. I was young, single, and childless then. Walked everywhere.

But not “to lose five pounds,” just to get from one place to another. Anytime I had somewhere to go, I walked, and enjoyed it, because I had a destination to get to, yk? It wasn’t dutifully turning a hamster wheel “for my health;” it was walking to get to that great noodle shop.

Don’t know that such a walking-intensive lifestyle would work for me now… one suspects that the urban density that supports such a pedestrian-oriented lifestyle tends to make it hard to raise a large family like mine.

So I’ve made peace with my more matronly figure. :D Life’s pretty darned good if my worst problem is ten excess pounds of fat. LOL

My daily life sounds like the regime tintin describes – working out like a fiend and monitoring my diet very closely. I’m not saying this to brag, but to point out that maintaining a substantial weight loss does take that much day-in, day-out effort. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves.

When I read so much about dieting and hear so many stories of women who tried/trying to get smaller I feel so sad. For me the intense self hatred I had about my size ruled my life and basically precluded me from doing, having or being anything because I felt so ugly and disgusting. I know how much it hurt and how I’d swear this diet would work. Every time I read someone talking about being smaller I can’t help but wonder if they feel that same pain.

Stop trying to lose weight and let your body adjust properly to its size, and you won’t feel sluggish and weak anymore. Also, you’ll feel more confident, more centered, and more energetic. (at least, that’s the effect it has on me. And, yes. I am and pretty much always have been “obese”)

That is all.

In the past, I would hide myself away from the world. I felt like a failure. I shamed myself horribly.

Nowadays, I do not diet. However, sometimes my weight fluctuates, because weight does that. Such is life. If I find myself gaining, I don’t sweat it. I make sure I have comfy clothes, cuz it is majorly depressing to not have clothes that fit properly. ;) Otherwise, I don’t really care. My goal is to love myself no matter what… which is a far more achievable, healthy and kind goal than trying to turn myself into a super-model (which is what I was trying to do before).

Today, I’m on the border of normal and overweight. Sometimes I’m overweight. So freakin’ what. If and when I come off anti-depressants, I might become solidly overweight again. Again – so what. At this point, I just want to go along with the program of my body. It’s far more rewarding to do that and be overweight or even *gasp* obese than to be considered skinny and getting to that weight via restriction or purging or some such..