It wouldn't matter if you'd weighed 1000 pounds. 80 pounds in five months is extreme. Nobody would support that. That is unsustainable and it is setting your body up for a big backlash.
I didn't really choose the rate of loss, it just came off when I stopped eating too big of portions and chose lower calorie things. I eat whenever I'm hungry and sometimes when I'm not, if I don't think I had enough calories for the day.
Part of this is true but a lot of better-educated people with better jobs who are thinner don't eat much healthier. It's the stress factor and if your body is constantly doing something unpleasant it will go into maximum stress mode.
I actually enjoy the work (especially since it's easier to do now), it's just sometimes the people I've had to work with haven't been very pleasant. I was under a lot of stress for several months (but still managed to lose) when there was this one girl causing a lot of trouble for me there, but she moved to another state now so things have actually been pretty calm up there now.
There are other ways to get fit than eating only vegetables and consuming toxic chemicals.
You can't eat anything without consuming toxic chemicals just like you can't really avoid insect parts in foods. Celery and some other vegetables have known carcinogens in them, and yet no doctor recommends not eating celery. Garlic and onions have toxins too but are some of the healthiest foods you can eat. Lots of vegetables (even the most healthy) have poisons in them, and I mean natural poisons in addition to whatever pesticide residue is left over. Even low mercury fish have some mercury, etc.
It's all part of eating a varied diet, you should eat different things so that no one food is dominating your diet and causing too much of one kind of toxin.
I'm not eating only vegetables, just a lot of them. I'm also eating meat (including fish and poultry) and grains like oatmeal, bread, cereal, crackers, etc. and I'm eating fruit and yogurt and low fat cheese, etc.
You've said you are much more tired than you used to be. How does that count as feeling better?
I'm less tired than I used to be. I used to be a lot more tired. I might have typoed somewhere. Sorry if I did.
I feel a lot better now. I have a lot more energy. I don't have unlimited energy and I try not to set myself up for failure at work by doing too much during the day but I have a lot more than I did 80 lbs. ago.
It sounds like you are probably genetically programmed to be of a certain body type. Honestly I think people should learn to accept this sort of thing and try to be the healthiest they can for the body type they are supposed to be.
Just because you have a genetic tendency toward being heavy doesn't mean you can't do anything to change it. My sister was skinny most of her life but then started gaining weight recently and she was able to stop it before it went too far. I would hate to see her go through what I did physically because even though I never developed any actual diseases from being really heavy (only by G-d's grace), I could not have been described accurately as being healthy.
The healthy range for me would be around 130, or a little less or a little more. I would be happy with that. I'm not looking to weigh 90 lbs or some other ridiculously low number.
Some people are naturally thin and others, especially females, are naturally heavier. I don't see what is wrong with that unless they are grossly obese or have unhealthy fat concentrations like on the abdomen.
Well I would have fallen into the 'morbidly obese' category at the time, being more than 100 lbs over ideal weight, and experiencing some health issues from it. So I do think something needed to change.
See above. Losing that much weight that fast is never, ever healthy. A pound and a half a week should be anybody's tops: http://www.iliveslim.com/weight-loss-rate.html
Well as Lisa pointed out, people who are very heavy lose weight faster. I didn't choose the rate of weight loss, it just came off that way.
If that's really true then your doctor's not doing a great job.
I agree with him that the very best thing I could have done for my health was to lose excess weight. I was blessed that The blood tests I took while still very heavy came back with normal cholesterol levels and blood sugar and I consider that to be a miracle considering family history and the high level of weight I was carrying.
Are there any places where you can walk uphill, or go hiking so your legs have the added exertion of having to navigate rough ground?
Yes I love walking around my neighborhood on days I'm not going to work that night. I have to be careful not to do any kind of exercise that would injure myself because if I injure myself I won't be able to do my job.