Kim, J., K. E. Peterson, K. S. Scanlon, et al. 2006.“Trends in Overweight from 1980 Through 2001 Among Preschool-Aged Children Enrolled in a Health Maintenance Organization.”Obesity. July; 14(7):1107–12. “What I have here stated,” Abell wrote at the end of his detailed account, “must appear incredible to those unacquainted with the history of illusive visions. Those who are overweight or obese, with exceedingly rare exceptions, do not continue to gain weight year in and year out. Rather, they gain weight over long periods of time and then stabilize at a weight that is higher than ideal, remaining there for a long period of time, if not indefinitely. Why, as Bennett asked,“is energy balance achieved at a particular level of fat storage and not some other?” This is another question that any reasonable hypothesis of obesity must address. In 1940, the Northwestern University endocrinologist Hugo Rony described the problem in a way that brings to mind Hirsch’s comment of fifty years later: “An obese person who maintains his weight at 300 pounds indefinitely, is in caloric equilibrium the same as any person of normal weight. The conception that his obesity is due to positive caloric balance might be useful in explaining how he reached this excessive weight,but cannot inform us why he maintains it, why he resists attempts to reduce it to normal, why he tends to regain it after successful reduction.” “When this animal…”: Zimmet et al. 2001.