hey, phuture,i hope you're still reading this thread; i could only get as far as the 8th page before i could read any more, but i wanted to respond to at least something you said, and i chose this. there are a lot of reasons why people are overweight, no matter to what degree we're discussing. i have a friend who had been overweight since we were in the 5th grade. a year had elapsed between my visits home to nyc, and, in that time, not only had she lost weight, but she was thin. i don't mean "average" or "normal," i mean thin. and if i hadn't met her at her house, i would've easily walked by her without recognizing her. her dad's side of the family is overweight; i thought it was just one of those things you inherit. it wasn't, at least, for her. it took hard, work, i'm not saying it didn't. she's very lucky that she likes cauliflower . my story: i entered college at age 17 (ok, i wasn't finished growing altogether) at 175 lbs., and i graduated at age 21 at 270. i had been on some medication that had made my weight go crazy like that (i mostly gained weight in the last 2 years). after college, a new m.d. switched my meds and i did the slim-fast thing till i got down to 180 (less than 2 years). the meds were a lot of what took it off - a lot of help there - but they were the main thing that put them on. this all happened really fast - the gain and lose - and you're right, the skin didn't "snap back together." but it's not like there's anything hanging around... maybe that happens after liposuction or something, but i just have stretchmarks up the wazoo . granted, those aren't the greatest thing in the world, but, as i said before, we all have features we like better than others. besides, they fade. i got them when i first started to grow breasts when i was 13-ish, and those are long gone. pros and cons, give and take. that's what it's all about .