I was born in 1972 as a normal weighing child.  I pretty much led a
normal life, but have always been heavy.  At the age of 3 months, my
mother was feeding me what a 1 year old would eat.  She always said I
was happiest when I ate.

All throughout my childhood, I was teased, and ridiculed about my
weight.  We all know how mean kids can be.  I was not only big, but an
early bloomer also.  By the age of 13 I was already 511 and weighed
220 pounds.  I almost looked ridiculous entering the six grade, when
most kids that age are about 5 120 pounds.

When I was 16 years old, I ballooned to the weight of approximately 280
pounds.  I was fairly active playing high school football, and
competing in the weight lifting.  I was encouraged to be this size by
coaches, because my weight was useful.  As any male of that age, I
began taking a great interest in girls.  I decided that I was going to
lose weight, and began on my first weight loss venture that summer.
During the summer I lost about 60 pounds, and started my junior year of
high school.  I eventually got down to in high school at the weight of
205.  I looked and felt great, and since I was still lifting weights,
my physic was still intact.  I lost my weight doing lots of exercise,
and really watching my diet.  No specific diet, but just cutting down
foods, not drinking full sugar sodas, etc.

During my junior, I experienced my first real love, and began packing
on pounds.  By the time I had graduated from high school, and began
college I was at about 290 pounds.  At the age of 19, I ballooned to
the weight of 309, and I decided that this was enough.  This was around
1991, where No FAT was the most popular thing.  I invented my own diet
where I tried to eat no fat, and as little protein as possible.  Within
7 months I dropped 109 lbs.  I got as slow as 172 lbs by the time I
realized I needed to stop losing weight.  My diet basically consisted
of:

Breakfast: nothing
Lunch:  small can of tuna, with as many saltines as I wanted
Dinner:  bagel, or yellow rice, or pasta with tomatoes sauce (it was
either 1 of these)
Drank gallons of water a day

I did tremendous amounts of exercise.  Living at my parents house
(going to college), I would basically play 2 hours of basketball
everyday.  Living in Florida, during the summer, you could imagine the
heat and humidity.  The weight just came off like melting butter.

Within 2 years, I gained approximately 60-70 pounds, and weighing about
250.  Trying to eat normally after starving myself was very hard, and
just started eating like always did, too much.  Around this time, a
family member mentioned Atkins to me.  At that time I thought it was a
crazy way to eat, and gave it a try.  Unfortunately, my first attempt
was very half hearted, and I quit after about a two week time period.
Never reading the book, just was told eat meat and you will lose
weight.

During that time I began working at night while still going to school.
I was working at a super market distribution center, and the work was
very labor intensive.  I lost 40 pounds during 1-year period just
because of the amount of labor involved. Trying to work at night and
trying to go to school, it was just so hectic that eating was
secondary.

A few years went by, probably around 1999, I had basically gained if
not all most of any weight I had lost and was hovering around 300
pounds again.  At that time I was in bad shape, and was working in the
computer industry.  As we all know that these types of jobs are very
sedentary, and my job was also fairly stressful.  When I was 16, I
started smoking, and continued during this whole time.  At this point
in my life I was smoking about 2 packs a day, weighing around 300
pounds, and doing zero exercise.  I had to make a significant change,
or I figured I was going to either have any of numerous diseases being
over weight causes, or be dead by 40.

At this point I had already roller coasted 3 times, and really needed
to find a permanent solution to my weight loss.  This was approximately
early 2000, where I was watching TV and caught a special on the Atkins
diet.  Basically got a rundown of ketosis, and what was involved.  The
information I got seemed like a simple thing to do, even though TV
program portrayed it as unhealthy method of weight loss.  I decided, I
had nothing to lose, went out and bought the book.

I thoroughly read the book, and pretty much understanding all the
phases began the diet.  Starting with induction, I began losing weight.
At first, I was really apprehensive on weighing myself because of the
fear of knowing how much I really weighed.  After about 2-3 weeks, it
was very noticeable that this was working.  Not really doing any
exercise, following a very strict induction, the weight began falling
off.  I stayed in induction level carbs for about 9 months and got down
to 205 lbs.  I did start during that time doing some exercise, which
was 2-3 times a week I would go to a driving range and hit golf balls.
Might not seem like exercise, but hitting a jumbo basket (150 golf
balls) in about an hour can build up a sweat.  At 205 lbs, I felt
great, and looked that way also.  I had also quit smoking, which really
made it a double whammy.

During the next couple of years (2001-2003), I maintained a fairly low
carb diet.  Not really the maintenance phase, but never returning to
eating the way I used to.  Not really restricting my intake, and almost
doing zero exercise I began packing on the pounds again.

In January 2003, I joined a gym and began to religiously go everyday.
I lost a few pounds, but quickly quit going after about 2 months.  My
job had become even more stressful, and the company I had been working
for (7 years) began having serious financial problems.  Having just
recently bought a new home, money, and stress began to get the best of
me.  By the time I found a new job I was weighing 237 lbs, this was
August of 2003.  By January of 2004, I was weighing 245 lbs.

At 245 lbs, I said no way.  I am not getting to 300 lbs again, and
having to work my behind off to lose it.  This would be my 4th roller
coaster ride, and I was getting tired of it.  Being 32 years of age, I
knew that several things would start working against me:
1.    Age
2.    Lifestyle
3.    Work
4.    Disease

So on January 5th, 2004 I began my new years resolution.  I started
going back to the gym I had been paying for and never going to, and I
started induction again.  I was working real hard, and noticed that the
weight was not really coming off like it had before.  I persisted, and
weight slowly started coming off.  It has taken me 12 months to lose 45
pounds.  Not insignificant, but compared to my either ventures, quite
slow.  One of major differences I am doing this time is more weight
training along with cardio, so weight training could partially be too
blame.  Also, I have heard that doing low carb way of eating the second
time can be more difficult.

Currently (2/17/2004) I am weighing 203 pounds.  My goal is to get
below 195.  My diet is fairly healthy and here is an example:

Breakfast:  Protein shake with Hoods Lo-Carb Chocolate Milk & Flax Seed
powder.  56 Grams of Protein, 7 grams fiber, 13 grams of carbs
1st Snack:  Either Hoods Yogurt, Nuts (Peanuts, Almonds), Lo-Carb fruit
Lunch:  Spinach salad with red bell, hard-boiled egg, mushrooms, and
other veggies.  Always include some source of protein, i.e. 6 ounces of
tuna, chicken breast, etc.  Usually 2-3 tablespoons of full fat ranch
2nd Snack:  Any listed for 1st Snack
Optional 3rd Snack:  This is if I do weight training, for recovering, I
will drink protein shake same as for breakfast.
Dinner:  Usually some protein with a low carb side (Beans, salad, etc.)

I do take quite a bit of vitamins, and always having when doing any
type of diet.  Currently my supplements are:
    Multi vitamin
    L-Glutamin (twice daily)
    Chromium Piccolanate
    Flax Seed OIL (EFA complex) (twice daily)
    Ogema-3 (twice daily)
    CoQ10

I do drink quite a bit of water during the day, and do drink as much
caffeine as I want.  I have never restricted my caffeine, and always
thought it was bogus that Atkins said you should.

The exercise I do is as follows:

Weight Training:
3 day split, 1 set to failure
Monday: Push exercises (Chest, Tris, Shoulders)
Tuesday: Legs (Squats, Leg Ext., Hamstrings, Calfs)
Thursday: Bull exercises (Back, Bis, Traps)

Cardio:
Monday: 10 mins walking at highest incline, or running before workout
for warm-up
Tuesday: Same as Monday
Wednesday: 30-45 mins of cardio.  This can vary; it depends on what I
feel like doing that day.  For example it can high intensity interval
training where I will sprint for 30 seconds, and then run for a minute
and do that 6 times, and then run for the remainder of the time for a
total of 30 mins of exercise.  Another example is walk at 3.5mph at 15
incline for 30 mins, and then ride a bike for 15 mins.
Thursday: Same as Monday (Sometimes skip)
Friday: abdominal workout, and cardio (30 mins)

Saturday & Sunday: if I feel like going to the gym, I might do Cardio
or weight training

I tried to get to the gym at least 4 days a week.  Unfortunately, my
job sometimes does not allow the days I want, so I make up days on the
weekends.

I do use Fitday to track my intake, but not religiously.  I vary
between 1500-2000 calories a day, and about 30-50 grams of carbs a day.
I tried to keep my body in question of what is coming next, and what I
mean by that is 1 week I might reduce my calories, and then the next
week increase it.  Sometimes on the weekends, I will do a full day of
carb loading, which causes tremendous amounts of water gain, but does
feel great when doing the weight training.

My experiences and opinions are that weight loss is not easy, and is
very easy to gain weight.  I think our society is obsessed with weight
and image.  In one way, we produce so much food, and having the highest
obesity rate in the world, but yet we look everywhere and see very fit,
skinny, and attractive images.

Also, I am concerned about how our government and scientist play us for
fools.  I think the food pyramid is the biggest sham ever, and I cannot
believe society even puts up with it.  Having a eating guidelines
produced by a commerce dept and not a scientific dept is almost stupid
(Food pyramid was developed by the USDA which is a commerce dept.)  No
wonder all the high carb foods are the most plentiful to eat.

I do believe that weight loss does come down to calories consume versus
calories expended.  Anyone believing you can eat whatever, just as long
as it is low carb is being misled.  This logic will usually work at the
beginning, because of the tremendous amounts of water loss, but after
while it does not apply.  I also believe that a low carb type of eating
is healthy combined with low carb food.  These foods are meats,
veggies, fruits, grains, etc.  I do not believe in fake low carb food,
even though I do consume some of them (specifically Hoods), most are
either junk, taste terrible, or flat out lie about their
macronutrients.  People have to realize that eating ice cream is
neither low carb, low in calories, nor low in fat.  Ice cream is ice
cream, and not a diet food.

I also believe that doing a significant weight loss while low carbing
the second time around is harder.   I do not know what it is, but I
think your body is already adjusted to a low carb way of eating, or
does not react in the same way.  During my last weight gain, I never
really returned to regular eating.  I ate higher carb foods, but
would rarely eat something like a donut, bagel, or pasta.

Once I reach my goal, I intend to continue eating low carb, but being
mostly concerned with the GI index versus just carb count.  My goal
will be to stay under 100 carbs a day, and consume about 2000-2500
calories a day.  I do plan on continuing my exercise regiment, because
I enjoy it.

I give no excuses for my weight other than I love to eat.  Eating is a
pleasure for me, and I still enjoy it today.  I just need to learn to
enjoy it and not abuse it.  I hope this information helps and maybe
encourages someone to stick to it.