Aaron,

Would be interested to hear more about women supposedly thriving best
on 'heavy' diets as opposed to 'light'.... and take it this means
thriving at a weight range I would consider attractive today.

I have heard of some fairly recent research in which they discovered
(!) that women do well on highish fat diets (duh). Also very interested
in any thoughts about eating/dieting patterns and the menstrual cycle.
Very recent research found that women quitting smoking pre-menstruation
gained more weight than those who quit once their period arrived:

<<Researchers at the University of
Memphis found that women who quit during their prememstrual stage
gained an
average of four pounnds within two weeks, while those who stopped as
their
period started gained less then half a pound - despite the fact that
they
all consumed about the same number of calories. It may be that the
premenstrual group retained more fluid and that the weight differences
would have evened out eventually.>>

I found that interesting, and certainly quitting smoking plays with
hormone and neurotransmitter levels. Rather than necessarily just being
a water issue, it could be related to some other mechanism of
'set-point' regulation... a number of drugs supposedly affect this
according to a certain line of research theory.. among them, nicotine,
amphetamine, some others. Bear in mind I'm not saying these things
'simply help you lose weight', but tend to re-establish your body's
weight stat at a specific lower level, independent of food intake and
simple metabolic outgo.

Donna
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