well I think my story would help some of the new members with training and motivation. when I was a young kid I was extremely over weight at age 12 I weighed in at 250 pounds 6 feet tall and as I got older my weight kept shooting up. when I was 16 I could no longer be weighed by a regular scale {no shit I had to go to the local feed mill and get on the scale there I ballooned up to 465 pounds and stood 6,4 tall. I was miserable depressed and blamed the world for my weight, I thought there has to be something wrong with me Its not my fault I am this big has to be a medical reason for this so my parents took me to the doctor and they ran test on me and could find nothing wrong so that even deepened my depression more. the final straw for me was when I was 17 I could not fly on a commercial airplane because I was to fat to fit in the seat and was escorted off the plane in front of my classmates on a school trip I was humiliated.. so I got home and contiplated suicide .. I stared at myself in the mirror for hours that day till something inside of me snapped and said ( if your not happy with what you see then change it and stop feeling sorry for yourself) so that's exactly what I did I bought some books on diet and nutrition and started to educate myself on foods. I had no idea that it was the foods I was eating and the lack of exercise I was not doing. now realize this was in the late 80's and early 90's when nutrition and exercise was not main stream or at least it wasn't in my area. I started to make small changes in my diet and started exercising, week by week month by month the weight came off and I began to see dramatic results in myself. 2 years later I had dropped 245 pounds and weighed in at 215-230 ish and my depression was gone I was finally happy in my life for the first time I took control of the situation and changed it. after that I have basically dedicated my life to nutrition and exercise as a lifestyle not a hobby and I have enjoyed the journey so far. now I am 36 years old I still have the loose skin in places but I like that because its a reminder of where I came from and overcame. I guess the point to this is take charge of your own situation and own it. if anyone has nutrition question you can always PM me and I will be more than happy to help.