Hi Guys, Sorry I'm so late in responding to your questions. I don't sleep because I speed on the pain pills that I have to take to survive. I mentioned them in another post. Of course, if I didn't speed on them I wouldn't be able to have any life at all as the other reaction for most people is to be a zombie. I take 60 mgs of MS Contin at 7AM, 3 PM and 11 PM every day. I take Percocet 10/650 for breakthrough pain. I've been on these or a variation for 10 years now. I started at 125 at 44 yrs old when 1 back surgery turned into 5, then I remained bedridden for 23 mos and began menopause. It's been 10 years and I weigh 190. I've been exercising at a gym, or walks or the pool for the past 4 years. The first 2 years when I was bedridden I gained 40 lbs. Back then people were always saying that it was good because I was too skinny anyway. I went from living an extremely active life running a horse boarding, lesson and show stable to this. I gained another 10 lbs when caring for my (then) blind and demented mother. This year I gained another 5 lbs when I got plantar faciitus and couldn't walk or swim for the past 6 mos. For the past 4 yrs I have actively tried to loose weight trying: vegetarianism, The Zone, Flat Belly Diet, Atkins and Weight Watchers. Every time I thought I had found "IT" and failed. In WW I had to give up my "extra 49" weekly pts in order to loose. That left me so hungry I decided that I could starve without spending money! I'm committed to FTS because I believe the science and the help from FTS is the first real help I've ever gotten from anyone. Oh yeah, my Dr. put me on 1200 calories per day.....and I didn't loose. You are the first to mention that I might need to not use any sugar substitutes and I bought FTS zero. So far, as I've posted recently in two months of effort I've lost 0 lbs. I keep readjusting. I've used sleeping pills and Ambian had me eating at night with no memory of it the next day! I currently take Flexiril a muscle relaxant and it helps to get some sleep. I am never that tired because I don't do very much, but I know other people wheelchair bound etc can loose weight. I keep adding water, cutting sweetener use, quit eating OMMs but still nothing. I am truly miserable but the e mail I got from SarahC the other day helped. I'm willing to keep trying. The weight on my gut is very bad for my back and that's where most of it is. I was going to start posting my menus a few days ago but got burdened with a lot of computer work to help my husband with resume and job apps. I'll start posting today. Thanks for everything, Catznflwrz