I too am one who has thought all my life about what i was fat when i was really average size but came from a family of thin people.

i know i used food as a comfort growing up, hiding potato chips under my bed because i wasn't allowed to eat them. i grew up in an alcoholic household so while the parent was not abusive there was a lot of stress and arguing going on. I was a very nervous kid who covered it by being the chubby girl with the good personality and was very athletic. i had an hour glass shape with large chest and carried weight in hips and rearend but again family and my friends were all teeny (size 2 & 4).

Anyway on with the story. in my twenties i would go up and down, starve/binge and finally about 6 years ago i lost 90 pounds. i did this by low fat/exercising daily and basically starving. Now the twist of the story.......after growing up with an alcoholic and having several family members who drank to excess I became an alcoholic. I stopped drinking through AA and a Higher Power who has done what I could not do for myself and have dealt with a lot of the issues of my childhood. BUT.....Due to the lack of sugar from the alcohol my body craved sugar and for the 1st six months i was sober i lived on diet coke and chocolate. i carried a bag of those little hersheys miniatures in my purse everywhere i went! I can laugh about it now but it wasn't funny when i packed on 65 pounds the first year of sobriety and haven't lost it.

Thank Heavens I found Atkins. It has made me realize that I am not a lazy glutton without willpower. My body had basically become immune to low fat because i had gone up and down for so many years. Atkins is working when nothing else did.

sorry to go on so long just got motivated and couldn't stop.