What made you see the light?

eksero2k

My roommate started hitting the gym, figured if he could do it then so could i!

hastingsmassage

Friend told me I was fat, and I am grateful for that...I got very angry with her but she was right, lost 120 lbs this year.

MzzFaith

Health reason was running into a diabetic where I was going to need insulin, and overweight. Ready to come off oxygen.

colortheworld

Had a bad accident that had me on steriods and pretty much sitting for weeks. Hit my highest weight ever, and was like "oh helllll no."

Zekela

I wanted to be as good as the other karatekas in my dojo.
Also, I had a running partner that was on a better diet than I was... eventually she got faster than I was (after I corrected her form and all... the nerve), so to keep up with her, I had to ensure my body was properly nourished. I'm no clean dieter be any means, but I have come a long way.

svsl0928

A reminder that God had spoke to me in 20005 about lacking self control in what I eat and a 2nd BP med added. Now I am down 38.8 and am down to 1 BP med with its mgs reduced 50%.

katieme

I realised I needed to commit to a lifestyle change rather than a diet after I spent nearly 2 years losing and gaining the same 14lbs and never being able to get anywhere near my goal using meal replacement diets. It hasn't been easy but I feel like I'm on the right road mentally now which is translating to losses on the scales I think that I've messed up my metabolism a bit with crash dieting but realising that I dont have to be starving/dizzy/exhausted to be losing weigh has been the most important thing.

Bad food still calls to me but now i have will through correct nourishment to avoid temptation.

Jmoss4852

I saw pictures of myself from 5 years ago, before I started dating my current boyfriend. I went from this ridiculously healthy lifestyle to not caring so much about what I ate/how I looked. I never really thought it was that much of a difference, but when I realized
I had gone up 4 jean sizes, I knew something had to change.

I'm so happy to say I'm on the way to getting that size 6 body back!

I did go back and forth with random diets/diet pills for awhile, but it's always nice to see progress that you've made without the "extra help."

Therealobi1

My roommate started hitting the gym, figured if he could do it then so could i!

mine is similar. my friend joined weight watchers. she made such an effort to lose weight so it inspired me to do the same. I didnt go down the ww route as didnt want to pay to step on the scales. luckily i found this website.

seltzermint555

I think my story is a little different than most who have dieted again and again. I have never truly dieted. I always avoided the topic of my weight with friends and family and would have been embarrassed to join something like Weight Watchers or openly read the Atkins diet book...stuff like that always seemed so humiliating for those around me, especially if they tried and failed.

For most of my adult life I have just eaten whatever. I was always over 240 lb, though.

I did try to change my habits. When I reached a much higher weight than normal (307, my all-time high) due to a sedentary job and eating out WAY more often, I made a conscious effort to include a LOT more exercise in my life. That was a success. I also made sweeping attempts to "eat better" which were pretty lame, I realize now. For example, eating frosted shredded wheat with 1% milk, coffee with agave & non-dairy creamer, and oj, was a high sugar breakfast every day. But I thought "it's better than grabbing McDonalds biscuit or a Sonic burrito". Maybe not much better.

What really changed for me was joining MFP. I was so frustrated at totally changing my lifestyle (in my view) over 4 years and only getting down to 262 which was basically my "usual weight". I realize now it's pretty cool that I did lose 45 lb and keep it off over that time. But it wasn't what I hoped to achieve with all of the perceived changes in my lifestyle.

MFP showed me where my calories should be and how to make the connection between exercise and food consumed. I know a lot of people might scoff at this but I truly believe that I was confusing my body by eating an erratic cal total each day. For example, if I wasn't that hungry there were days I ate 600-800 cal and walked 4 miles, and days that I would have easily consumed at least 3,000 cal between large portions in restaurants and between meals Starbucks lattes. The "math" of MFP is what helped me to get down to my current 208 lb weight in 8 months, which for me is awesome because I have not seen that on the scale ever. I was about 220 at age 15-16 and I'm 37 now.

walkdmc

I was working out for a year then joined a bootcamp class run by a RD/PT. I saw the RD for input/advice on my diet when I was about 220 pounds. She asked me how many times I lost weight, how many pounds I lost and why I was working so hard at exercise but not my food intake. Based on those answers, she stated, "I think you have an eating disorder and should consult with a therapist and I cannot help you at this time."

I made an appointment with a therapist, was diagnosed with binge-eating disorder, kept working out and about 3 sessions into therapy had an "ah ha" moment and haven't looked back since. I left the therapist's office that day a different person. The change was so sudden, it was like a light switch flipped. Around that time, the New England Journal of Medicine did a report on weight loss and diets. Their conclusion was opposite what I read here on the MFP forums repeatedly and I chose to believe the NEJM. I picked a "quick" weight loss diet, continued exercising and therapy and feel like a new person.

Long story short, therapy made me see the light.

jim9097

Chest Pains at age of 39... That should not happen...

AlsDonkBoxSquat

I started exercising when my sister in law (who is a fitness instructor) had such easy pregnancies and labors. I thought to myself "I want some of that." So, a year later I became a step instructor, then a pump instructor, now just general group ex (with still the first 2). I always thought "I eat pretty good, and exercise, why can't I lose weight." When a saw a fit woman exercising I always thought "yeah, well if I had all the time in the world I'd be a skinny b!tch too."

I lost my job, I finally had all the time in the world, then I realized how easy it is as long as you not just eat pretty good, but you portion properly and feed the beast mode.

loribenfield

When my husband had emergency triple bypass (due to genetics). His doctor said that the fact that he was physically fit played a great part in his record book recovery. Seeing just how hard this surgery is on a body first hand was truly and eye opener for me. I am far from where I need to be but I want it to be a life time change. So I keep setting little goals to reach. Some seem very little to others but are huge changes for me.

GothyFaery

I was putting together a souvenir photo book of my trip to the Virgin Islands and realized I was really unhappy about how I looked. The next day I had to break down and buy new work clothes (they were just getting old) and realized I went from a size 14 to a size 16. That was it. I always used to say I was okay with my weight and I liked food to much to change but I realized, I really wasn't okay with my weight, I was unhappy. So I tried MFP and after a week, I realized dieting is actually easy! I never really tried because it was always so confusing. Carbs are bad, carbs are good, some carbs are bad, don't eat red meat, juice fasts, body cleanse, clean eating, starvation mode... I never knew all that was just a bunch of BS! Dieting is actually easy. Find your TDEE, and eat under that number. How simple is that? If you can fit fast food in, do it. If you want to eat a big juicy steak, do it. That was my real turning moment, when I realized how easy it actually was and that I didn't have to starve myself to lose weight.

sabified

I started pushing the 200lb mark. At 5'3, it was INCREDIBLY noticable. I also felt like garbage- I would get home from work and want to sleep right away and those "naps" would last for a couple hours while only giving enough energy to make it through the evening. I was always hungry. Nothing ever fit... I started avoiding stores which were unlikely to carry the things I liked in my size and eventually just avoided shopping (still haven't gotten over this, but can't say that's a bad thing... I spend too much $$ anyway).

I've tried three diets before - the cabbage soup diet, slim fast and the juice diet (I think it was the Hollywood cleanse or something like that). I didn't stick with any of these while on them- the soup diet made me very faint when I'm usually pretty hardy and the slim fast and juice ones were just too expensive to maintain, esp considering I barely lost anything on either. I've also seen others yo-yo with those so wasn't interested in doing it as well.

I don't know when I "saw the light"... I guess I just knew enough about how to be healthy by the time I really started. I am glad I found MFP.... this has been one of the best tools I've used and I recommend it to everyone!

Katla49

DH gave me horseback riding lessons as a surprise gift. I've always been horse crazy, but never had the opportunity to pursue it. During a lesson, I practiced posting at a trot for "a while." I ended up with a very painful knee. It was bursitis. I went to my regular doctor, and to an orthopedist, had x-rays and the works. I finally realized that I was too heavy for my own knees and it made me really determined to get healthy so I can enjoy life. The anger at being unable to ride fueled determination so compelling it sustained me through the beginnings of this process.

After my daughter was born, "way back when," I went on a low calorie diet I think of as a deprivation diet. I lost the weight back then, but regained it all and more when I resumed eating with the family. I knew that would never work long term and didn't want to go that route again. I floundered around for a while. I wondered what to do for a week or two, and finally thought, "I wonder if there is an app for this." It turned out there were two, and I picked MFP. It was the best possible luck.

Anger sustained my motivation at first and got me through the beginnings. The MFP system that allows me to "buy" extra calories by exercising made things much more doable for me, and my husband agreed to do this with me. The best thing we've learned is portion control. We bought a scale and dishers. We still get to have our favorite foods, count our calories, and have never felt deprived. I love being able to do all the calorie counting and record keeping on my phone, because travel doesn't stop me or make things any harder. I didn't find the website for several weeks, and have since come to appreciate all the support that is available here. After a little over a year, we've both lost a lot of weight, and are in the healthy weight range. Life is more enjoyable, and we're committed to this forever.

ibleedunionblue

1. I was jogging (and weighed 225 pounds) and a guy in a red truck yelled out "Keep Running Fatboy!"
2. A woman at work made a casual yet hurtful comment " You look like you have been putting on weight." - It was the truth I needed to hear to spurn me to take control of diet.

FredSetToGetFit

I saw the third picture in my profile pics on facebook after a birthday party. That was just the kick up the behind I needed.

Striving4Fit_MrsOrtiz

I'm still a work-in-progress but, I've learned that after trying and quitting that's it's not worth it. I guess the last time I cried over my weight is when I said enough is enough. I no longer want to lose weight for just the physical appearance. I want lose weight for my health. I'm hypothyroid. I almost became diabetic while I was pregnant. But knowing all the affects that hypothyroid can cause me and knowing that I can possibly be border line diabetic scares the crap out of me. I wanna reach 100years and in order to do that, I must lose the weight!