Dotty and Suejonez - I find it fascinating what you say re. amount to lose. This is why I try not to be too hard on people who live on the "I want to lose 10lbs" thread. The thing for me, though, is that I do not want to be unrealistically slim. I am currently aiming for 9 stone 7 and I am 5 ft 2 and a half. Forgetting my messed up teens, I was 9 stone or a couple of pounds under for 12 years or so. Without dieting or giving a care to my weight. That feels like my natural weight so aiming for half a stone more honestly doesn't seem unrealistic to me, I am allowing for a lot more years and hoping not to be constantly dieting to maintain a reasonable weight. TBH, 10 stone would be OK. But if you look up 10 stone on a short small framed woman like me, then that's still overweight! I can't imagine what it would be like if I weighed another 2, 3, 4, 5 or more stone than I do now, and I know some of you on this thread are in that position. Its very interesting what you say, Dotty, about how life has changed for you now you are close to what you feel is an acceptable weight. I'm sure you have already read Fat Is A Feminist Issue - Susie Orbach has a lot of interesting things to say on the subject of feeling that you are "disappearing" as your weight melts away and that one reason (of the myriad reasons there are for why women battle with their weight) is that they subconsciously like to feel visible, in your face, substantial, immovable, not easy to ignore - whatever - which is what a fat woman is. As soon as you become slim, you become the "norm" and in some ways less individual. And I hear where she is coming from.