The first time you realised you were actually over weight.

JakeBrownVB

Does anyone remember the moment they actually realised they were overweight? did it happen in a sudden moment?

What made you finally come to realisation? how did it feel? how long until you kicked into action?



I remember about a year ago, it hit me like a ton of bricks. People kept making (including my girlfriend) off hand fat jokes (oh jake will eat that etc), noone ever told me directly "you are fat or overweight". This happened quite a bit and I was kinda getting a bit self concious but if I ever asked anyone they would say no they were joking.

Then one day I decided to give the running machine a shot as I only ever did lifting, my girlfriend put it to 8 and ran for 15 minutes. I put it on 6 and was gasping for air at the 3 minute mark... it was then I realised... oh man it still hurts now as I type. It was then I realised I was actually overweight, I stopped the machine and kinda just sank with despair.

It took a 3 minute run to actually change my life around and I turned it around from that exact moment. Is it strange that I got hit by a sudden moment of revelation or did this happen to you? want to here your stories ?

CMB1979

I was about 12 years old and broke the zipper on my dad's pants trying to put them on.

BeardedMike

I was always chubby as a youngster. The first time it really hit me was when I was 15 and we had to weight in at school for something, I was just over 100kg. I was so ashamed.

Fast forward 15 years and what kicked me into action was looking at myself in the mirror one day and realising I was starting to get that 'fat neck' thing going on. Literally scared me into action.

thebigcb

Mine,

Went to get a pair of jeans and had to get 38" waist

Said keep your jeans, went home, went running then a friend told me about this

Lost 2 stone, love to get another one off (waist now 32)

BathtubBadger

Looking at a picture in which I was a bridesmaid... Age 13. I felt really pretty and cute, and when I saw the pictures I just wanted to cry.

QueenMother14

The first time I realized I was fat, I was driving down the road and hit a bump and felt my stomach jiggle. UGH.

MiawMiawMiaw

I've always been a little bit overweight maybe 10 pounds but it was never a big deal and a few of my friends were bigger than me.

But over the last 2 years I've been gaining due to poor choices and medication. But I starting wearing floaty skirts and I was still getting a lot of exercise so I didn't worry.

Then I got down to only a few outfits that would fit and I knew I was overweight. They were stretchy dresses and legging so I had no real idea what size I was.

But it really hit home for me a week ago. I needed a shirt and trousers for an interview. I knew I wasn't a size 14 any more so I thought how about a 16? Nope. 18 was too small too. SIze 20 fit. They fit perfectly. Size 20 short. And then to shirts, size 18.

So yeah, I'm now mortified that I've let myself get into this state. Frankly it's embarrassing. I'm officially short AND fat.

Crazeemaz

I was looking at some holiday photos and I said "who's that fat woman in the corner of the photo?" Only to realise with a shock that it was me

seliinac

Seeing myself in pictures and my face was fat. I had a double chin and a pudgy face, making my eyes and mouth look tiny. I could handle a fat body but not a fat face!

sijomial

Aged 31, serious knee injury led to 3 months off work and on crutches. By the time I was able to go back to work none of my trousers fitted.
Still remember asking a shop assistant to show me where to find the "trousers for old, fat, *kitten*" which shows where my self-esteem was at that time.

JakeBrownVB

oh wow! amazing the different scenarios in which people suddenly realised! keep em coming

HeatherKImbell1

There had always been a total disconnect between what I see in the mirror and what I think I look like (I think I am waaaaay "hotter" than I am).
But as for the first time I realized I was overweight...REALLY overweight... when I was at a friend's house (someone I considered really fat) and needed to borrow a pair of shorts after a painting accident and they didn't fit! They fit her but they didn't fit me! I could button the damn things over my fanny pack of stomach flab!
Got the Lap Band 4 months later but what I really needed was a Lap band around my brain not my stomach!
I've only lost 20lbs since surgery and this final push is entirely up to me and doing things the right way!

yinkyo

Always been overweight, but not very bad, since about middle school. Then I went to college and dropped a lot of weight being really active and not eating as much (poor college student and all) When I got back home I didn't realize how quickly I was putting the weight back on until I saw a picture somebody took of me at Jafax (an anime convention) but even then I just thought it was a camera thing, like it was a bit warped or something, because that image was nothing like the one I was seeing in the mirror. It wasn't until I was pregnant, and EVERYBODY was constantly taking pictures of me, that I really knew I was hugely overweight. I weighed more than my fiance, who was overweight himself too, and I couldn't keep up with my son. The last straw was a picture my mom took of me in this outfit I had bought for a concert that I thought I looked HOT in, and when I saw the pictures later, all I saw was a fatty chick in a nice outfit. It was then that I pulled out my dusty Zumba kit, and got a gym membership and started swimming.

Today I start Stage 1 of NRoLW... here's to never look back!

texanintokyo

I knew I was gaining weight because my clothes wouldn't fit anymore. Then I'd lose some of it thorough diet and exercise only to quit the routine and gain it back again. I knew I wanted to be back at my old weight before I turned 40 in december 2013, but it seemed so far off that I had plenty of time. Then 2 things happened. One I took my mom on the trip of her dreams Christmas 2012, 3 weeks in India. I spent more than I had ever spent on anything let alone a vacation) and after the first day I didn't want to be in any of the photos. Of course it caused tension between the two of us because here she was all the way from Texas (I live in Japan) and we were in from to the tajmahal and I didn't want to take a photo. I decided right then I didn't want to feel that way on our next family vacation. Yet still I didn't rush to the gym (thinking I still had a year to go). On April 1st a close family friend died, he was the same age as me, 39. They think he had a heart attack in his sleep. He had always been over weight and never taken care of himself. I saw the photos of myself at his funeral and that was it. I knew it was more than about looking hot at my 40th birthday party, it was about saving my life. The day I returned to Japan from the funeral in Texas I joined the gym and got back on MFP.

JakeBrownVB

great stories!

My profile picture is also the key that made me realise I was overweight. If you look at the picture on the left of my avi, I am drinking in a club.
The girls take loads of pictures all night, you wake up hungover, and you look at last nights clubbing pics..

Well I woke up, looked at pics, and saw that picture of me on the left... a massive bloated beer belly.. I was disgusted and went miserable for the rest of the week.

latepaul

I've always been overweight as an adult and I was a chubby child. For a brief moment in my teens I was skinny but that was probably a growth spurt

But my "wake up" moment was a few years ago when I was walking up the steps outside my then work building. No more than about 7-8 steps and I was gasping for breath at the top. It was then I decided I needed to do something. Initially I just wanted to get fit but I soon started wondering if the exercise I was now doing had had an effect on my weight.

That was 4 years ago and I've lost a lot of weight since then. I've put a lot of it back on too. But this time around - been back on the wagon since Nov, doing 5:2 - I'm finding it more sustainable and I don't plan to quit.

sharonfoustmills

when I went to the doctor and realized my current regular weight was higher than what I weighed the day I went to the hospital to deliver my second child

edited to add this: seeing a pic of myself on the beach was a real shocker!

texanintokyo

I started NROW4W last Friday!! Add me.

Hannah_Hopes

Shopping for jeans, simple as.

MyJourney1960

i was "chubby" as a kid.

I remember when i was about 8? (not sure exactly the age, but i had to have been either 8 or 9 because I remember WHERE it happened). summer camp, we were sitting on the grass and everyone was talking about one of the girls who was extremely thin (we were sitting cross legged or on our knees and her legs/kness/calves were the same size all the way through - just skin and bones). and at that moment i realized that MY thighs were bigger than some of the other girls.

then when i was 10, i was my cousin's house and we were supposed to go swimming. i didn't have a suit so i was supposed to borrow one of hers. but she was upset because it was smaller on me than on her so we couldn't go swimming. (yeah, she was a brat and mean to me. ok, she was a total b-word). wow - i didn't even remember this story. now i remember the bathing suit - it had a design near the neck - like three leaves cut out of the fabric and so the "holes" were bigger when i wore the suit. it wasn't like i was a size 20 and she was a zero, i was maybe a LITTLE fuller than her.

so when i was around 13 i went to WW and lost 22 pounds and then throughout HS went on every.crash.diet known to mankind and lost a few more

zyxst

When my mom had to buy me 6x girls pants.

Codefox

I was always a tall, lanky kid and pretty fit. I first went to the Air Force Academy when I graduated HS and though I didn't finish, when I left the Academy for regular university, I was as fit as I'd ever been and about 6' 1" and 160 - 165lbs. Three years at UF partying and acting like a computer science major, I definitely packed on the pounds and a couple years after graduating I kept it up. About 2 1/2 years after graduating, I knew none of my clothes were fitting me and had purchased a size 38 for the first time (when I left the Academy I was a 33) but it didn't hit me until one day I got on the scale and saw 200lbs. I certainly wasn't morbidly obese but that was not a number I ever thought I'd see on the scale and it kicked my butt into gear.

That was 5 1/2 years ago now and fortunately I've never seen that number again. 8) I do hate looking at my UF graduation pictures though.

aquarabbit

Saw a woman at the beach in the same swimsuit as me, but looked much better. I thought she might be taller or have a smaller bust because she was still soft and curvy, but in the right ways. We met in the bathroom and started talking and I found out that not only was she only an inch or so taller than me, but she was the same bust size as me. I knew I was a little chubby, but that night I calculated my BFP and I was only one percentage over, but I was in the obese category. So I joined MFP and began to workout.

SideSteel

Yes, sort of.

I mean, I knew I was putting on some weight but I never saw myself as actually being overweight/overfat.

A friend of mine who hadn't seen me in several years, just got back from Japan and the first thing he said to me was "hey, what the hell happened here?" while he pointed to my gut.

lauren3101

It didn't really hit me suddenly, I always knew I was overweight, I just didn't care enough. What made me decide enough was enough was when I slipped a disc last year, and my doctor looked at me sadly and told me that if I wasn't so overweight, it may not have happened, and that if I lost weight, I have a much better chance of it not happening again.

Being in that much pain and bed bound to the point where my other half had to help me go to the toilet definitely made me realise I needed to do something! :laugh:

penelopeyvonne

Honestly, I can't remember a time when I wasn't.

Apparently, my mother took me to the doctor when I was about 6 or 8 as she was so worried because I was a skinny little thing, but I don't remember that. The doctor took one look at me and said, "Don't worry, she's not ill or anything and she'll grow...". I look at photos of myself at that age and yes, I'm kind of skinny, but not ill-skinny!!

There have been times when being overweight has been rammed home to me by one thing or another, over the years, and I've taken some kind of action, but then it all goes back to "normal" ie over-indulging and not moving around enough (I can't even dignify that with the word "exercise".

Why did it all change this time? Haven't a clue. It just did, about a year ago, and it worked, on & off. But then I heard about MFP at the beginning of this year and it just WORKED. So, whereas my ticker says 31 or 32 lbs lost (can't remember offhand!) since January, I've lost around 42 since May last year.

And, for I think the first time ever, have got rid of all my "fat clothes" as I've been going along rather than keeping them "just in case" :happy:

JakeBrownVB

Yes, sort of.

I mean, I knew I was putting on some weight but I never saw myself as actually being overweight/overfat.

A friend of mine who hadn't seen me in several years, just got back from Japan and the first thing he said to me was "hey, what the hell happened here?" while he pointed to my gut.

ouch..!

socrates02

when I couldnt suck my stomach in anymore and at the same time my 4 year old told me to put that thing away (meaning my stomach)when I had my stomach out cause I was hot.

zophiel67

I was looking at some holiday photos and I said "who's that fat woman in the corner of the photo?" Only to realise with a shock that it was me

Same thing here. Except it was just me and a friend. I didn't really remember posing for the picture, but when I saw it on her facebook a few weeks later I remember thinking, "Who's that fat redhead with Amy? She looks really familiar..." It actually took me a minute of looking at the actual picture (thumbnail wasn't enough) to realize it was me.

Wilhellmina

Of course we all know that we are gaining a 'bit', but the real wake up call came when I stepped on the scale and it showed me 3 metric digits. That was immidiately my big turning point and I never have been so heavy anymore ever since.
(102 kilos = almost 225 lbs)

JakeBrownVB

when I couldnt suck my stomach in anymore and at the same time my 4 year old told me to put that thing away (meaning my stomach)when I had my stomach out cause I was hot.

oh my god i remember constantly trying to hold my stomach in! I actually got really good at it!