Hi

Thanks for your message. I'll try to answer your questions, probably in a different order, but here goes.

No, I'm not so young, just having had my 47th birthday. I am also only 4 fet 6 inches tall, so that is why I want to get down so low. In addition my scales weigh light, so it may be nearer a 100 if I ever get there!!!!

Keeping track of calories is not something you thing too much about doing low carbing, but what I sound from other posts was a site called fitday.com which allows you to put in what you eat each day and gives you all the nutritional information including calories, carbs, proteins and fat. This might be a good way to go. You put in your own weight and it calculates how many calories you need a day, depending upon what you do during the day, and you can add in other activities as you do them. As it is an American site it should be right up your street. As a UK resident some of the info does not tally with UK facts and figures, so I use it as a guide. You do need to eat quite a lot on this way of living as if your body thinks its not getting enough then you will not loose weight, however you want to be around 500 kcal less a day, I think, to loose weight.

Sorry to hear about the nasty bits in your life. As you say, give yourself a short term goal and work towards that. My target is to get to where I want to be by the time I'm 50.

Keep cheerful and all the best. Hope this is helpful.

Little Ann