i have NO idea what the “average” burden is or how mine compares. some people i can identify have much more than average, obviously, and i am not one of those people.

i have spent enough time talking to people who have more than their share, however, that i know nothing but respect and kindness is called for.

I agree with goddess. But if you are talking about weight I’m less burdened. Then again I come from a long line of dirt poor farmer folk that routinely ate next to nothing, so the genes prevent me from gaining weight no matter what I do.

One of my sisters is 8 1/2 months pregnant and she went from a whopping 115 lbs. to 135 lbs. People are constantly bugging her to eat more, which is fitting seeing a meddler called social services on my mother when said sister was an infant, claiming my mother wasn’t feeding her enough.

I know it’s shocking, but yes people have different body types! ::rolls eyes::

“A bull doesn’t need to look like a cheetah to be healthy.”

That’s true but in this case the soldier does have to lose weight for health reasons. If there were no health reasons… he surely would not go to the trouble but as it is he is trying not to die per my request.

Heh, I feel the soldier’s pain, only it’s years of yo-yo deting that has crashed my metabolism. (It wasn’t fabulous to begin with. I come from a long line of peasant stock, meaning robust, big-boned types: built to last.) These days, if I even look at a brownie sideways, I gain 5 pounds. It’s more than a little frustrating when I’m surrounded by people who eat three times as much as I do, skip the gym and weigh 20 pounds less, but what can you do?

Another part of it is that I love food; Moon trine a Mars-Jupiter conjunction. There’s a sentimental association (I have fond memories of my mom and my grandmother’s baking and homecooked meals) as well as an epicurean love of superior food (and good restaurant food tends to be extremely rich). So it’s doubly frustrating, because not only am I denied more than the average person, I suffer more than the average person because of the deprivation.

I know it’s petty to bitch about such things, as in the grand scheme of things, I have my health and my strength. One of the slimmest girls I knew in law school had Crohn’s disease, which is hellish and means you can’t eat much of anything…so there’s that.

Ther is a way… a sort of atkins diet (but not entirely): eating vegetables, fish and meet, using olive oil or real butter. No bread, no pasta,no potatoes, rice only the one that takes one hour to cook, no sweets, no sugar (ever - drink your tea or coffe without it) - and I mean NEVER. Even a litle bit hurts. Now, fruit… - it has sugar too so you better choose one that’s bitter. The good thing is you can eat LOTS! All the meat (making the sauce with olive oil, tomatoes, salsa, lemons, etc, no flower or other fattening products) you want, all the fish, all the veggies you want. If you try it for a month you Will loose weight.

The problem is when I say it - noone belives me. I lost 25 kilos (maybe 40, 50 pounds?) with it. I can eat the quantity that I want - untill I’m full. Haven’t eaten bread, sugar, cakes, pasta, potatoes for 4 years. Still weigh 56 kilos (pounds?). It works. Anyway - just an idea.

I recently took a short profile quiz on a health site that said I have above average demands on my body, but that I give myself great support. So I would say I have an average burden.
With Pluto touching every angle and planet in my chart and an 8th house moon, I tend towards introspection (Naw, really?!) which helps me out a lot. I know exactly what my limits are and can tell when I’m pushing too hard, which means I also know when to give myself a break or a treat.

As far as the Soldier’s problem, I agree with Rox. I think he’s eating too little and his body thinks he’s starving and trying to hold on to every littlest calorie.
I think you mentioned once he was trying out FitDay? They have a BMR (basal metabolic rate) calculator there that’s handy.
Plug in height and current weight, your activity level isn’t so important. When you get your pie chart/graph (I don’t remember which), there’s a section marked “base” or “basal” and a section marked “activity.”
Your BMR is how many calories you burn if you never even move a muscle all day. You want to make sure you eat about as many calories a day as your “base” to make sure you’re not starving yourself, that your body has enough fuel to run off of for breathing and what-not. Then you work off however many calories you feel comfortable with to lose weight. 3,500 calories burned or not eaten = 1 pound weight loss, so about 500 calories burned a day is about a pound a week — the healthy limit most doctors set.