The conversation Ignoramus, Roger, revek, Luna, and various other
people were having about the prison experiment in which only a minority
of the prisoners trying their hardest to gain weight could do so beyond
a certain point was really thought-provoking for me.

Since my adolescence, my weight has varied by more than 100
pounds--from 120-something to 240 or so--at my current 5'9".

However, in the 10 years since I turned 30, my weight hasn't changed
very much at all--when I was 30, after a solid decade of eating
whatever I wanted, drinking more alcohol than was probably good for me,
and getting next to no exercise, I weighed 240 and wore a size 18.

I didn't feel healthy or comfortable at that weight, which inspired me
to join a gym and start eating low-fat, low-calorie.  I wasn't crazy
about that eating style, but it did help me get down to a relatively
fit size 14 (I don't ordinarily weigh myself, because I associate
weighing myself with the adolescent eating disorder that took me down
to 120, a really unhealthy weight for me).  Then, a stressful job which
involved lots of business lunches, business dinners, and eggplant
parmesan subs eaten at my desk (with a concomitant lack of exercise)
sent me up to a flabby size 16.

Then I discovered low-carb, and now I am a pretty solid, fit size 12.
I have the feeling that if I ate whatever I wanted, every meal, every
day, and gave up on exercise completely, I wouldn't be likely to go
higher than a size 18.

I love to eat; I love to cook; I love lots of calorie-dense foods, like
pate, chocolates, rich sauces, etc., etc., etc.  But I also can't keep
eating after I'm full, or my stomach hurts.

Am I the only person here who got much heavier than he/she wanted to be
while still having a fully-functioning "satiety setting"?  Because that
discussion made me think that I am probably very unusual for someone
with a lifetime of struggling with weight issues in never having had a
"binge" that I can remember.

T.