In a nutshell: I was a skinny kid, and never dreamed that I would ever be fighting the battle of the bulge. I don't eat fruit, so my parents allowed me to eat as much as I wanted, of what I would eat; so I did. For a while, it was a non issue, and I frequently ate seconds, and on holidays, thirds, with no adverse affect. Relatives often joked that I must have a hollow leg, to eat so much, and still be skinny. The long and the short of it is, it started to catch up to me in my mid twenties; and after varying degrees of success, with low calorie diets, fasting a couple of days a week, and brief forays into low carb, but not sticking with it; I found myself weighing 417 pounds, at the age of 42. At that time, I decided to get serious about doing Atkins again, got enrolled in Karate classes, for regular workouts, and over the course of a year, lost 100 pounds. Since then, I've lost and gained back some of the weight, and I'm now on a quest to lose the excess weight once and for all. It's not over until I win!!! Low Carb or Bust. I subsequently earned my Blackbelt in 2006.