user: In this task, you're given an article and an answer. Your task is to generate the fill-in-the-blank question for this answer based on the given article. The blanks are always at the end of the question, and can be filled with more than one word or phrase.

Let me give you an example: Article: Homework can put you in a badmood , and that might actually be a good thing. Researchers from the University of Plymouth in England doubted whether mood might affect the way kids learn. To find out the answer, they did two experiments with children. The first experiment tested 30 kids. Someshapes were hidden inside a different, larger picture. The kids had to find the small shapes while sitting in a room with either cheerful or sad music playing in the background. To test their mood, the scientists asked the kids to point to one of five faces, from happy to sad. Children who listened to cheerful music tended to point to the smiley faces while the others pointed to the unhappy ones. The researchers found that sad kids took at least a second less to find the small shapes. They also found an average of three or four more shapes. In the second experiment, 61 children watched one of two scenes from a film. One scene was happy, and the other was sad. Just like in the first experiment, kids who saw the sad scene acted better compared to the others. The researchers guessed that feeling down makes people more likely to focus on a problem or difficult situation. Not all scientists agree with them, however. Other studies argued that maybe, that cheerful music in the first experiment distracted kids from finding shapes. While scientists work on finding out the answers, it still might be wise to choose when to do your tasks according to your mood. After eating a delicious ice cream, for example, write an essay. 
 Answer: whether mood affects their learning ability
The answer to this example can be: Researchers did experiments on kids in order to find out _ .
Here is why: It is clearly mentioned in the article that to the check effect of mood on children is the main purpose of the experiment.

OK. solve this:
Article: As a kid,I was always chubby  .In college I started  _ . It got out of control when I went to law school. I'd made a decision a thousand times:I'm going to lose weight now. But what motivated me to get serious about it was turning 30. I weighed 414 pounds. I was always tired. Some of my family members have suffered from heart disease,and I was scared. I also wanted to look better. So after my birthday,I walked into the office of a weightloss doctor. She was very understanding. Her focus was on balanced meals and she wanted me to exercise. Walking was all I could do at first. I started by walking a few blocks and gradually increased the distance,until one weekend,I found myself saying,"Wow,this seems pretty easy." So I started to run. I was losing nine or ten pounds a month,and I had more energy. I started to think about the New York City Marathon. For years,I watched the runners and thought,"This looks like fun,but I could never do that." But now I realized that maybe I could. I joined the New York Road Runners. I ran a 10km,then a halfmarathon. I still wasn't confident I could run a full 26 miles. But I told myself I was going to do it,no matter what. By my 33rd birthday,I was down to 180 pounds. I started formally training for the marathon. And on the morning of November 1,I stood on the Verrazano Bridge in Staten Island with more than 40,000 other runners,waiting for the event to start. It was unbelievable to have the audience cheering me on,handing me cups of water. And I crossed the finish line. My friends sprayed (......) me with beer,as if I'd won the Super Bowl. And at that moment,I knew:If I set my mind to something,nothing is impossible. 
 Answer: 594
Answer:

assistant: The author who was at the age of 33 had lost   _  pounds in weight during the past three years.