My point isn't the amount of loss involved, but that you could easily be down a pound 1 week and up a pound the next and not know if you're doing anything right. Whereas if you can lose more, at least you know you're going in the right direction and it helps you stick with it.

heck I would be thrilled to death if I could just steadily lose 2 pounds a month! but I am stuck right where I am bleh :-P

Slow and steady keeps the weight off. It is hard on the motivation but only initially. Losing a half a pound a week isn't noticable but it make you 26 pounds lighter at the end of the year. I've been on this WOE for coming up on 3 years now. It is permanent for me because I had/have Syndrome X (high BP, prediabetes). It is hard to take the long term view but time passes and you will look better and that is the biggest motivator of all.

LOw fat did not work for me exercise or not it's funny now because people forget I was much heavier and say too me isn't that fad diet over now?

Well, that LOW-FAT fad diet is over, at least for you! [and most of us here]. Some fads won't go away even when we want them to; others go away when we need them to stay. Pritiken was a great example of a fad diet, so was Scarsdale. One committed suicide and the other was shot by a lady-friend. But new people come in to pick up their batons. Unfortunately we don't have a New Atkins, just some pretenders who spin it just differently enough to not work for many people.

cjl