Hello There!
A year ago I met Dr. Stephen Van Schoyck who wrote the book 'The Burn Rate Diet'. It is not a diet book as I emphatically do not believe in 'diets' (note diet has the word die in it and I am all about living!). He has found a way to determine the rate at which your body burns calories.
We all have different metabolic rates and without getting technical (go to his site or read his book for more info) he hooked me up to his special machine, I breathed normally for 20 minutes and voila I had the answer I have longed for: my metabolic rate is 1476, which means that that is the amount of calories that I have to eat to maintain my current weight. Eating 1476 calories a day is pretty low considering that most people can eat about 2000. Well I now had scientific confirmation why loosing weight was so difficult for me and I practically had to starve myself to do so. With this new found revelation we began to talk and I found that he was a fount of great information I thought that it might be helpful to have two points of view to the answers to your questions.
So here we have the birth of …

The Model and the Doctor

Mentally Exhausted Dear Natalie, I wanted to tell you that I enjoyed your web site very much. Your story of struggling with your weight in many ways parallels mine. I was an overweight child who grew into an overweight adult, and I am just recently within the last 10 years finally, albeit slowly...coming to grips with the reality and acceptance of living in a 'plus size' body. One of the hardest things I still struggle with is the fact that I cannot go 'cold turkey' against food... Read more!

The Dancer Dear Natalie, I am 14 years old and I have been overweight most of my life. Right now I weigh about 160 lbs. and am about 5'4".A few years ago I had a problem with my nerves and became anorexic but after about a year and a half I gained my weight back. I love to dance and I hope someday to make a career out of it. I want to lose weight to feel better about myself and to improve my dancing I am not trying... Read more!