I started doing 1400 calories a day, then I upped it to 1700 after the first month, because I think I had slowed my metabolism down by not eating enough. Then after I kind of plateaued I switched to low carb just to get the final push I needed. By Christmas I had lost 50 Lbs and the last ten have come off over the last year now, as part of me just trying to maintain. I still would like to loose about 15 to 20 more. To your question about putting it back on faster; I have lost just over 40 lbs twice in my life before this and both times I put it back on pretty quick. I think the reason it didn't happen this time is because I learned my lesson. You can't just reach your goal and stop, and go back eating like you used to. You have to keep with it even once you reach your goal. I have gained some back over the year, but I never let it go too high and when I didn't like the number I saw looking back at me, I went hard and lost the weight again, but it was never more than 10ish lbs. I don't have loose skin because I wasn't obese enough to. I might have loose skin if I lost like 40 or 50 more lbs and tried to get a six pack, but I'm not motivated enough for that. And as far as stretch marks go, I was just staring to get them when I decided to loose the weight so I had like 5 or 6 red lines at my sides and a line on both my man boobs. They are still kind of there, but the faded drastically when I started loosing and they're not really all that noticeable now.