Everyone, just seeing the progress that you all have made is in and of itself inspiring.
Some of you touched on an important point - body composition versus "weight". I use weight because it is common and when you have a lot of body fat to lose, it is often easier to measure overall weight.
My personal goals reflect that I want to improve my body composition much more than I simply want to lose weight. Ultimately what we all tend to want is a lower body fat percentage.
During the quest to lose bodyfat the gaining of muscle mass is essential as I am sure everyone will tell you. When I first started learning about fitness and nutrition two of the hardest concepts to get my head around were that in many cases I needed to eat MORE and that I needed to build muscle.
Thank you all for your posts...
Newman