What prompted you to make a change?

Machka9

For me, it was a cycling jacket that had become too small and the fact that we had moved to a hilly area and I couldn't cycle up hills. That made me sad.

At the same time, my Dr told me that for the first time in my life my cholesterol level was just a tiny bit high. It's always been low. I've had heart issues since I was 4 years old, so the last thing I needed was a high cholesterol level.

So I lost the weight I had gained in recent years ... and then went on to drop down to near the bottom of my normal BMI range, a weight last seen in 2004. Also my high school weight.

I can fit in the jacket. I can climb the hills. And my cholesterol level is normal again.

gradchica27

Thanks, everyone. So interesting to see what everyone 's catalyst was. I see conflicting opinions on Drs and weight loss--it's getting fashionable for people to say their dr "fat/body shamed" them if they suggest weight loss, or they complain their dr didn't say anything when she should have. My friend sincerely wants people to be healthier, but is so discouraged that few to none actually make a change.

I didn't know what to tell him, since my issues aren't impacting my health. I grew up chubby and my parents are obese, so a few months after every pregnancy I look in the mirror and go, "ugh. I will not be the fat mom!" And so far I've always lost the weight before baby's first bday. It's mostly vanity on my part, so far I have good health numbers.

callsitlikeiseeit

i was tired of being fat.

my hips were starting to bother me. my knees were starting to bother me. I didnt have any energy. I hated how EVERYTHING looked on me.

I got fed up of it all.

shinycrazy

I had to do the walk of shame off a roller coaster that my son wanted to ride. Multiple convos with the doctor and t2 diabetes dx did nothing for my mindset. It was that roller coaster. I'm 112lbs down, off my blood pressure meds, and down to 1 diabetes med.

minniestar55

Fursian wrote: »

I wasn't prompted by a doctor. I lead a very hazy few years, for various reasons, and suddenly? I woke up. It sounds abrupt, but it's how I experienced this 'change'. This change also occurred after I moved away from living with parents. I feel very fortunate. Things seem to have fallen into place, stars lining up (or whatever you wish to call it), things..just clicked. There is still a fear of 'falling asleep', though..

This is similar to what happened with me. I was always fit & good weight, but when I retired from USAF, & no longer had to meet strict weight & fitness standards, I had about 2 years of pigging out & not working out. Got married, moved to different country, ate junk...then went "Whoa!!" Took a good look in the mirror & said...I hate this. Did several things to lose weight, including a VLCD, then found WW & got in habit of tracking food. Lost the weight but got tired of paying, plus WW changes program annually. So came over to MFP; since I was already used to measuring & tracking food, found it much easier than WW; have lost an additional 20 lbs so slimmer now than I've been for many years.

I'm happy with my size, & that I am back to working out 6 days week with combo of cardio & strength; I see other women younger than me who are obese, disabled from excessive weight or general lack of fitness, I hear loads of excuses. Here (UK) there is a thing about not mentioning obesity, not offending, etc...& I think it extends to a lot of doctors. I took my husband to cardiac dept of local hospital last week for a checkup (all ok), the nurses were hugely obese! I was in shock. I have friends who are really overweight or obese, some with various medical & mobility issues, & there are always excuses, justifications, rationalising. I'm so grateful that I dug my self-discipline out of the drawer where I misplaced it.

runshellersrun123

My sister posted a picture of us. When I saw it, I completely freaked out, because I looked so big. At first I thought, why would she post such a bad picture of me? Then I realized it wasn't a bad picture of me, it was just how I look.

icemom011

I have a doctor story. I was seeing neurologist for hand numbness, and got diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. He said i needed surgery to fix it , before the nerve damage is permanent. I hated the mere idea of surgery, so i asked him what's my alternatives, what else i can try. He suggested that i can try to lose weight, since it might just create a bit of extra space for the nerve. We talked for a while, and he told me his weight loss story, which was i think with weight watchers and his biggest emphasis was on importance of buying their food. I thought that wasn't going to work for me, since we eat organic as mach as possible and i didn't think that that was an option with prepackaged food from them, or it will be outrageously priced. Bu that got me to think, and to start doing something different. He talked about how one can restart metabolism by eating small portions every three hours. I tried that to start my weight loss, and oh miracle, it freed me from my life long sigar addiction. And weight started coming off. I found mfp, and it help me to learn what the portion size really is. Sadly, it all did nothing for my carpal tunnel. I went to see a hand surgeon, he said that that didn't have a chance to work. So i still need a surgery, wich is coming up. Just couple of days after i take my youngest to college and come back home, I'm scheduled to have it done. Scared, but don't want to end up with permanent loss of feeling in my hand.

lthames0810

At my annual physical, my labs showed that I was headed for some problems and I also had high blood pressure. Dr gave me bp med and mentioned very politely that I could use to lose some weight. Then she set up an appointment to recheck me in 6 months. I'm determined to show her real progress by my next visit.

But the big thing was pain in my feet. Walking while on a short vacation caused some real discomfort and stiffness in my feet. I'm determined to get some of this freight unloaded just for relief of pain. The sad thing is though, my feet hurt worse than ever because of the walking I do now. I'm just tolerating it, but it renews my desire to lose weight every day.

YvetteK2015

I've wanted to lose weight for a while now. The last time I saw my headache specialist (I see him every 3 months) he told me that he was going to take me off of one of my migraine preventative medications because my weight has been increasing every since he put me on it. The medicine really, really helps me, and I just can't afford to be off of it, so I just need to do whatever I have to do to drop the weight.
And, I'll be 40 in March. I'd LOVE to be close to the size I used to be the majority of my adult life. I'm so tired of starring back at a fat reflection in the mirror.

ashcky

For the last year I had been having a lot of trouble with my digestive system. Back in the spring it got worse and every time I ate a meal I would get sick to my stomach and sometimes I would even lay in a ball in bed because I was in pain. My doctor advised that I try going gluten free and I haven't looked back. I've learned that I have a sensitivity to dairy as well which is sometimes hard to not eat but I feel so much better. With such a drastic change to my diet I lost weight so then I decided to keep going. I've always been overweight and I don't want to be anymore.

driving_miss_crazy

I finally saw through all my excuses with the help of the forums here on MFP. Reading all the BS excuses and realizing that I have the same ones was very eye-opening. (Thank you to all who keep answering posted questions even though they can be redundant. It does help more people than you know!)

I haven't had many health issues (yet) so talks about weight with any doctors has been brief and not pushy. I wonder what would have happened if one would have been blunt? Maybe nothing. Maybe everyone has to hit a certain point/discomfort before they deem it necessary to make changes.

afort001

My moment that finally made me want to change was actually seeing a picture of myself . I wasn't posing and didn't know someone was taking it . When I saw the picture I knew it was me , but didn't feel like I looked like that. When I looked in the mirror I didn't see myself as that big. I also was uncomfortable in my clothes and would get tired so easily

MagicalGiraffe

Type1 diabetic. I wasn't looking after myself well enough, multiple factors like stress, antibiotics and not carb counting resulted in DKA, comatosing and 3IVs in my neck. Kickstarted me to address my health. This was back in Jan 2014 and I lost 35lbs odd over a year and a half.
I fell off the bandwagon last November - had a seizure in March and I've put 20lbs back on.. Its more important for my health that I weigh my food so I have correct carb ratios for my MDIs. Thats what I mainly use MFP for so I can control my bloods better. Might as well lose weight alongside.

ChristinaOrr65

I have always been self conscious about my body shape, being kinda "pear shaped" my whole life. Unfortunately it was probably the combination of always hearing this shape referred to as not the ideal, and comments from other people, even my own mother, that made me feel this way and want to change my appearance.

I wish I could say I started eating healthier and working out to benefit my health, but it was really because I did not like my body because that is how other people made me feel about it. Body shaming is a real thing, and it seems to be everywhere these days, and I just want my daughter to be healthy and to never feel that way about herself!

It's funny, I was actually just reminded about all of this after seeing this story about the body shaming ads from Gold's Gym the other day, specifically about body shaming "pear shaped" women, and I could not believe that stuff like this is out there!

gradchica27

ChristinaOrr65 wrote: »

It's funny, I was actually just reminded about all of this after seeing this story about the body shaming ads from Gold's Gym the other day, specifically about body shaming "pear shaped" women, and I could not believe that stuff like this is out there!

That is crazy! I'm pear shaped too, though I never felt shamed about carrying weight in hips/thighs. My Apple shaped friends always seemed to complain more about being unhappy with their figures than my pear shaped friends...weird. Maybe we all took Sir Mix A Lot too seriously back in the day

babybear_mt

I've always battled my weight so last summer, I decided to make that change. I started jogging and logging what I ate. I got pregnant with my son and was scared of miscarrying. (Yes, I understand that women can and should still exercise and watch what they eat when pregnant, but I was still scared.) So I quit everything, only walked a few times, ate like a cow, and gained almost 50 pounds. Now, my son is 4.5 months old, and I want him to have a healthy role model and parent in his life. I lost 25 pounds in the first couple weeks postpartum, mostly due to water retention, and am now working on the last 24 pounds to my pre-pregnancy weight, and then another 45 pounds to my goal weight.

That, and I've always wanted to be smaller than my husband, and have never been....

Orphia

I found out that calorie counting was easy. (If you use MFP).

My back would go out on me regularly, and I knew losing weight would help as my doctor had told me, but didn't want to starve myself like I'd done in the past.

A friend had lost 50 kg counting calories, and when she told me she'd done it using MFP, I signed up immediately.

496 days later, I've lost 38 kg, reached my goal weight, and maintained it for over 4 months.

People think losing weight means starvation and deprivation, and that calorie counting requires a Master's in mathematics and endless spreadsheets. Hell no.

If more doctors told people this, it might help a lot of people.

sarahalgar1918

I was considering it at the time already and making a half hearted attempt, but this was the true wake up call. I was always a bit in denial about how overweight I was. "Yeah I'm big, but I'm not THAT big" "Other people weigh just the same or more than I do!" "Oh I'm not so fat that I'm laying in bed all day haha!"

So we went to a theme park, and for the first time in my life, I got kicked off of a ride because I was too fat and the barrier wouldn't buckle in. With everyone in line and on the ride watching me, I had to amble out of the ride. I was mortified. My weight had officially started to stop me from truly living my life, and that was that.

The very next day, I got home and downloaded mfp and tracked everything, weighed everything, and followed my calorie limit. That was almost two weeks back. I'm still going strong and not even thinking about stopping.

danielle001988

Having yo yo dieted all my life but being overweight even as young as 5, I've only ever dieted for appearance reasons but ever since my younger sister having a baby, it's made me broody. I know that at the weight I am, being pregnant is almost definitely dangerous, and that's if I was even able to conceive. Having my periods disappear for a few months, I was worried that being fat was making me infertile and that is why I decided to make a change, I'm in no way ready to have a baby but if I can lose weight and get healthy over the next few years, at least I will be healthy enough should I be ready. At 28, I've never been in a rush to have a baby but potentially having that choice taken away from me was something I really struggled with.

I'm 3 stone down nearly with an extremely long way to go but I'm hoping this is the motivation I needed to not give up after losing a few stone as I've done in the part. I've already noticed some health benefits as I lose weight which is a good sign and so far my periods are back.

mdonsbach

It subtly started when I would give blood and they told my my blood pressure was close to being high. I just stopped giving blood because I didn't want to have to hear that again. Then more recently I noticed my arms and feet would start to tingle for no apparent reason and they would fall asleep much easier than normal. Then my wife started a friendly competition with one of her friends so I took that as a sign to join them.

BTW I'm blowing them out of the water with that competition.