I was always pretty normal - bordering on thin - until I got pregnant. I about doubled in size - but I lost that weight. Then after my second baby when he was not quite 3 I woke up one day and gained 5 pounds, then 2 the next day and so on. In less then a month I had put on more then 30 pounds. I continued to gain weight despite extreme exercise and diets. All I could do was stop the weight gain rapidly piling up - but I couldn't reverse it. I tried Ma-Huang - which did help me lose weight but also made me very ill and I blame it for my current heart problems. On Atkins hard core for 6 months - I lost about 13 pounds - worked out 3 times a day and actually ended up flabby. All that weight came back. I have been on various diet pills and diets - now I just watching the GI and I have been put on Metformin....