what made you decide to lose weight?

F1953

I commend you, everyone who is working on it. We are all works in progress!

KingofWisdom

I tried to lose weight before for health reasons, but I wasn't able to stick to it. My current effort was actually sparked by my joining a dating site, and basically feeling like I couldn't message the people I found attractive because I was so embarrassed by my weight. I also found that all the pants I had didn't fit me (it's FL, shorts are fine for most of the year). I joined MFP soon after.

thebigcb

It was that moment, you know when you jsut stop fooling yourself that you are "a big guy", these shirts sleeves are too long for my ehight blah blah blah

For me it was a trip away with friend to Fuereventura. 6 of us down the beach, all lying out realxing, catching the rays. All the others went for a walk up the beach so I stayed to keep on eye on all our belongings and I fell asleep

Well when I woke up there was a load of Greenpeace Volunteers pouring buckets of water over me, trying to keep me cool and a crane was positioning itself to lift me back into the water

Talk about embarassing

toaster6

My grandmom died. She had complications from being overweight which prevented her from being able to undergo a surgery that could have saved her life. That, and not wanting diabetes. Daily (non-alcoholic) shots? No thanks.

F1953

Dezb64--Commendable weight loss! I have a friend who had surgery in the early years. She has developed other health problems since then as a direct result, and had to have the band removed. Now, she is in constant pain, and can't keep her weight up.

emmaelisenl

I had known for a long time that I had to lose weight but was never ready for it
One evening last month, I was looking at old pictures and suddenly got so sad, the girl in the pictures was so much thinner and I wanted to be like that again. The next morning I started my journey and so far I have lost 12 lbs.

benefiting

I may be remembering wrong but I was gaining and gaining and I didn't want to get to 80kg+ again and I didn't like what I saw in the mirror when it came to my weight either. I always wanted to lose weight and be thinner but I never made a real effort like I did when I first started. I lost my way for a bit but I'm back at it... better than I ever was before I believe!

jenilla1

you know,that moment when you said "**** it I'm going on a diet"...

I've never actually been on a diet. I consider "diets" to be temporary (which makes them useless to me since the weight just returns on anyone I've ever known who has dieted), and just too restrictive to be sustainable. The idea of doing a "diet" has never appealed to me. I've never actually been technically overweight, but I was inching up to the upper range of a healthy weight as the years went by and I got older. I wanted to stop the slow creep before it became an issue.

I've always exercised and eaten healthy. There was, however, a moment that I decided to permanently alter my lifestyle to include paying attention to the amount of food I was consuming. There's just a point at which one needs to start becoming aware of HOW MUCH food is going in. My sister joined MFP and wanted a motivational buddy. I joined too, and found the program to be fun and easy, like a game, so I was hooked. I lost the extra pounds and have been here on maintenance for almost 3 years now. No diets or restricting of foods necessary. Eating what I want, but just eating within my calorie limits.

jenilla1

Posted this before.

Summer 2012 I got an epiphany that I was a fatass. The elevator was out at work and I was breathing like a beached pilot whale from climbing three flights of stairs. I remember thinking, "Is THIS what you've become? Is THIS the best you can be?"

I took a long hard, and truthful look at myself. At the advanced age of forty five I'd ballooned up from my physical work weight of one hundred fifty-five pounds to two hundred thirty pounds. My BMI was 34.5, and I was a mere fifteen pounds from being classified as 'morbidly obese'. I was tired all of the time. I didn't really do anything that involved being physical. I'd stopped working in the wood shop I have. Yard work requiring more than me pushing a self-propelled mower didn't get done.

Starting lifting, made gains. Humped 1/4 of my new bodyweight in a pack 30-40 miles a week.

The results:

Weight: down from 230 lbs to 159
BMI: down from 35.4 to 24.9
Body fat (guess from pictures): 40%+ to ~20%
Waist: down from 40 to 33

On December 4th I fainted at work. On December 9th I had a 16cc benign tumor removed from my heart.

Getting fit made the tumor detectable by sonogram in the ER - it blocked 95% of the atrium.

Getting fit is making my recovery worlds faster - I was turning miles at nearly the pace I did pre-op at eight weeks post-op.

Getting fit saved my life.

I love this story!

Seabee74

A couple reasons really.. My wife and I went to an amusement park, I love roller coasters, I sat in the seat and it took the guy a minute and a lot of pushing to get the bar locked down on me. I was a little worried once the ride started .. Then there were the restaurants.. I always love sitting in a booth because of the coziness and comfort, well not for me, I got to the point where I could barely squeeze into the booth.. I remember saying to my wife "why are they making these things smaller. Well it was a table in the restaurant after that. BTW I fit just fine, in both places now . But I'm still not done !

Trishsimon

My wedding pictures that we received on honeymoon whilst sitting at the pool drinking beer and gigantic bags of crisps, I knew when I saw the pictures I had to do something and that is what has kept me going I have a picture on my mantle piece so see the huge elephant I was on my wedding day and dont ever want to be that girl again....The FAT BRIDE

kanstulpants

I've been trying lose weight, always "starting fresh" every day, for probably the last 12 years. I could never stick to anything for more than three days because I would always find some excuse to go off my diet.

One day I was messing around on the internet and got sucked into reading a forum thread of ER horror stories, where nurses and other medical personnel relate their experiences of their craziest or most disgusting patient they had to take care of. Among all the stories one would expect to hear, there are plenty of stories about extremely obese people, who are unable to even take care of their own personal hygiene, requiring multiple nurses to hold up their flab while a catheter is inserted, etc.

Now, I'm nowhere near that point. But, there were a few years in my life (about 9-10 years ago) where I had gained a lot of weight, and then it sort of leveled off. Except, it didn't really level off. I realized that I've been steadily putting on about 4-5 pounds a year for the last 8 years, but not really noticing.

Then I thought, when does it stop? If I don't do something, 20-30 years from now I could be that 450 pound woman in the ER. I really don't want to be that woman....

That was the final motivation I needed, to be able to stick to my diet and quit going to Starbucks for a frappucino "just this one time".

I can't wait to walk into my doctor's office for my annual appointment and hopefully be 100 pounds lighter than I was at my previous appointment.