Weight Watchers is definately a good program.

Just to put the following story in context:
I'm 6 foot 8 inches or ~203cm. I weigh ~230 lbs and have a very broad frame.

To make a very long story short. By the time I was 17 I weighed 350 pounds. At about this time I dropped out of high school and had several trips to the nut house b/c I was in a deep depression and isolated completely. I wanted to die. I went back to school the following year to finish off everything. At about age 18.5(november/december) I weighed 450 pounds.

One day the thought occured to me that I was going to lose weight and be happy. It was like a switch was flipped. I joined Weight Watchers and by the time I graduated from high school, in June 2001, I was down to 400.

By the time my first semester at community college started that september I was down to 350 and very happy with myself. I decided to quit WW and do it on my own from then on. That december I got a part time job at software development company and my self-confidence _soared_. By Feb. '02 I was 320. I started to slide back in to depression but I had curbed some of the compulsive eating behaviors.

Sometime that spring/summer I pulled out of the depression and started losing weight again. By early in '03 I was at 290, I still felt like a fatass. That semester I started making friends again. I had a bad experience with a girl or two and started hating my body image. I blamed all of my social problems on my body. My caloric intake swung into the highly deficient range. By August '03 I was down to 215 now the problem was that I had a significant amount of loose skin(from a medical perspective I was underweight too). I had transferred to a 4 year college by this time.

I started lifting, running and eating enough and now I'm at 230 and pretty happy with how I look. I've saved enough money that this June I am going to have my excess skin removed.

I still have a lot of problems socializing can't seem to surmount. e.g. I can't move from aquaintance to friend. I can converse all day but when it comes to suggesting an activity or something my confidence implodes.

I really don't know what I'm typing all this out for and revealing all of this to a bunch of folks I don't know. Maybe I just hope that some of it will help the girl. Maybe I hope it will put a spur in my side, I'll be 23 in May there's not much more parents can do for me...

Now I'm going to go engage in my favorite self destructive behavior and run around town until my legs fall off.

Here is more proof that the world and it's news stories revolve around the needs and interests of cellarites.

Doctors recommed DDR for weight loss

That's a very powerful post Grant. It is amazing what you accomplished.