Where to start. Im 23; 5'6" and currently 177. Well im from a family of big women and little men! I started dieting and counting calories at about 10 or 11 when i realized my nickname wasn't "butterball" and "garbage disposal" for nothing. I did well to keep at the upper end of my healthy weight rang all through out middle and highschool. In highschool i was up and down between 150 and 155. At the end of highschool i decided to join the military and had to lose 10 lbs to get in but couldn't get below 150 and ended up in a binging/purging "yo-yo" that turned spiralled quickly into an 'no eating/purging what little i did eat' trend. I dropped to 135 in less than a month. Needless to say i made my weight but then realized what i was doing to myself after an incident at home and thank god was able to pull myself out of it before i got in over my head.

After that i maintained at 145 for about a year and graduated basic training and tech school and got sent to Minot, ND and within a year shot up to 210!!!

For about the past 5 years i have been struggling with my weight and its affecting my career. im on the verge of being discharged from the military for multiple PT (physical training) test failures.

Since April of 08 i have lost 35 lbs and have been up and down between 180 and 175. I was at 165 for a week but was right back up again.

So basically my goal is to get down to around 150-155 and maintain. We'll see though!

Also I work out about 3-4 times a week (my job prevents more) for about 1.5 to 2 hours including cardio and strength training and im shooting at eating around 1600 calories a day. all though i normally end up around 1200-1700.

PS I HATE STRETCH MARKS!!