What motivated you to loose weight?

ShifuYaku

Not wanting to feel like I'm just some "squishy" person who deals with it. Wanting to feel better about myself. Wanting to wear clothes other girls get to wear. Being a different person. Looking good. My boyfriend. My self-esteem is super low. Don't want to be thought of as fat anymore, cuz you know people think it, and are just too nice to say it. There are more... but that's all I can think of now.

Phaedra2014

One day my reflection in a store window caught me off guard. I didn't recognize myself.

PDLUCKY

I have been heavy my whole life and was the fat kid in school. Being obese for pretty much the entire 37 years of my life has given me severe arthritis in my left knee and my right ankle and haveing the orthopedic surgeon tell me that if I don't loose weight and take some stress off my joints I won't make it to 50 which is the age they will start to look at for a knee replacement. I was pushing 265 which was down from the 290 I was in January of 2011. In October 2011 I had my meniscus removed and was put into an unloader brace that I have to wear everyday and walking with a cane I was drinking heavy and started to see the scale climbing. In December I quite drinking in order to keep from killing myself and on January 1st I weighed in at 270 I made a deal with myself that I would not eat any sweets and if I waas hungary between meals I would only eat raw fruits and vegetables until I reached 190. 190 is 1 pound overweight according to the BMI for 6'1". I got back on MFP and started logging my lifestyle change. I realized that I am not on a diet I have made a lifestyle change and I will never go back to what I was. With the arthritis I was told I can no longer do any high impact activities and for cardio I can only swim or bike and do light hiking or walking. As of this last Saturday I weighed in at 200 lbs I feel so much better at this weight and am really enjoying the benefits of not being huge! I swim laps every morning and this guy I see a couple times a week calls me the incredible shrinking man and honestly it feels great!

moosetrap

I've been heavy my entire adult life, but when I was diagnosed with what my doctor called "treatment resistant depression" three and a half years ago, I spiraled out of control. I withdrew from life, from my family. I ate and slept. I really, really let myself go. My wife asked for a divorce, and by the time the divorce was final, she was already pregnant by another man. But, that STILL wasn't enough motivation to do something about the weight and the way I felt about myself. My family doctor told me that I had hypertension, out of this world high liver enzyme levels, and fairly high triglycerides and cholesterol. STILL didn't motivate me to do something about the weight. What did it? I get my five year-old son every other weekend, and I meet my ex at a rest-stop that's halfway between our houses. While I was sitting in my car with my son in the car-seat behind me, waiting for my ex one Sunday, my son saw a guy coming out of the restroom area. He was MORBIDLY obese and I remember thinking, "I'm glad I'm not THAT big. Poor guy has to be seconds away from a heart attack." My son (bless his heart - I love him SO much) innocently says, "Daddy, that man looks just like you!" That was all it took. I immediately made changes to my eating habits. I immediately started being more active. I decided that I wanted to be around for a good long time for my son, and I wanted to be a better example to him. Hell, I wanted to be able to run outside with him when he wants to play "chase". I know that at some point during the whole mess leading up to this that I went above the 300 lb. mark. After exercising for a few weeks, I got a scale. 296 pounds at that point. Down to 210.6 now, about six months later. All thanks to motivation innocently and unknowingly provided by my kiddo.

kalyn_QT

i went wedding dress shopping because my sister is getting married and i realized i want to look incredible on my wedding day too. but more importantly i want to be able to look incredible everyday and get cuter clothes.

mznisaelaine

Me..... I know I allowed myself to gain 50 pounds and I allow other factors contribute to that.
I'm now almost half way to my goal. I won't give up until I get there

iiiEllie

Saw pictures of myself after a vacation and really didn't think I was that big. So they were a huge freaking shocker. I decided that it was time to get rid of that.. I got to a size 12, then got stuck and haven't moved in months, even put some more weight back on. Back on track now with my goal of a size 7/8, working towards a 50 pound loss.

basillowe66

The thing that motivated me to lose weight, I was 235 6'2" was PRIDE!! I am at 210 and going to get under 200

cbh142

Wearing a size 18 was really hard for me. Last thing I wanted to do was buy clothes, but I had to cuz nothing of mine fit. I'm now into size 8!

My legs rubbing together was a big motivator too.

SavitaD

There are two main reasons I decided to lose the weight:

The first is that out of my entire family, I am the only overweight person (including my extended family) and throughout my life starting at the age of 9 (when it was no longer considered cute to be chubby) my parents have told me how I am an embarrassment to them and that I should be ashamed for being overweight. Because of this I tried many times to lose the weight but gave up after a week or two because I am an emotional eater and felt depressed often.

The second reason that really got me motivated and dedicated to losing the weight was that when I came home from university after this last term I found that I could no longer fit into my regular size 14 jeans...I couldn't even fit into size 16s! I had gained an extra 30 pounds in just 4 months and I knew it was time to get healthy

Naytahlee

A video my boyfriend took of me flying his remote control helicopter. I was scared and I wanted to scream, who's that giant ugly girl wearing my clothes? I was embarrassed. I couldnt even see the "pretty face" anymore.

scubaheather

It was in 2010 and I stepped on the scale and it read back 242lbs... I had my high school graduation party and saw pictures of myself and I honestly thought I looked like a whale. From then on, it was nothing but healthy eating and excercising. I'm down 78lbs now and have only 24 more to go. Its been a long journey, but it's been completely worth it. I never thought I'd be able to do this.

MakeItWork_75

After a life time of weight loss/weight gain, I made the decision 2 years ago that I had spent too much time being fat and miserable. I became very focused on becoming healthy. I lost close to 40lbs and was on track to becoming a full blown exercise junkie. I married the love of my life in October of 2010 and life was amazing! In December of that year I starting having unmanageable migraine headaches. The doctor I was seeing at the time prescribed me a medication called Topamax. Then in January of 2011, I had a bicycle accident and broke my right shoulder. During my recovery time, I lost all motivation to exercise. I didn't realize at the time, but the medication I was taking for my migraines was making me have a chemical inbalance. I would go to the doctor in tears, for no reason. I was depressed, even though my life was pretty much perfect. He prescribed me a anti-depressant to counteract the way the migraine medication was making me feel. Even though I was taking all this medication, I still was missing work because of my migraines, and depression. I finally decided that I had to get a grip on life and took myself off all medication. I decided to see a new doctor in April and he prescribed me a new medication to control my migraines that does not have adverse psychological side effects. This has been my miracle drug. During all the turmoil, I gained the 40 lbs back I had lost and about 20 more to go with it! My breaking point this time was when my husband and I went camping on the weekend of June 1st. We decided to take a short hike down to a waterfall. It turned out that it really wasn't a hike, but a series of steps down to the bottom of this gorge. The whole way down I was apprehensive, because I knew we had to come back up. 398 steps later, I knew I was in trouble. I made a resolution to myself at the moment that if I could make it back up those steps, without dying, I would make a change. Since then I have been very focused on changing my life.. mentally and physically. I want to be a better person for myself and my health first and foremost, but I want to be a better person for my son and my husband as well. Now's the time.. I am not getting any younger and I do not want to waste another day being miserable.

artessa546

I was sitting on the floor arranging baby clothes and realized I was having way too much trouble getting up and down, I want to be able to crawl and play all over the place with my kid.

ImKindOfABigDeal40

Looking in the mirror and not liking what I saw

Wpbarr

Several reasons:

1) The sudden death of some co-workers close to my age
2) To save my own life, or at least increase the odds of living longer without health problems
3) I want to re-new my private pilot license and there can be weight limits
4) I'm sick and tired of being sick, tired and depressed

Fear, frustration and desire pretty much sum it up.

dinhorin

I was overweight and thought about losing the weight all the time. But what finally pushed me over the edge to do it was being jealous of my cousin and her skinny little body, only to have her surprise the family that night with the news that she was 5 months pregnant!

So fat that I was jealous of a pregnant woman's body? Yeah, time to do something about this!

Shakila87

Short and sweet version...When I tried to roll out of bed! Fit people do not roll out of bed, they just get up! That was my epiphany moment :-)

catsinpajamas

4 things in a relatively short amount of time...

1. I realized I was purposely not looking in the full length mirror while getting dressed (it was RIGHT by the dresser)

2. I was a bridesmaid in a wedding and the dress, my go to 'large size' didn't fit... like, as two other bridesmaids and the power of spanx were zipping me into the dress, all I could think was, 'dear god, please don't break the zipper.

3. I had a horrifying dream that all of the bone structure in my face and facial features were disappearing (which, they were) at an alarming rate

4. I got on the scale and nearly broke it

cortezpj

For me this one's easy to answer.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In my case, a picture of me taken back in April of this year told a story that was only three words long: Enough is Enough ! The way I was sitting and leaning in the picture taken with friends made me very sad and almost sick to my stomach. How could I have let myself gain so much weight ???

Just after the picture was taken, I stumbled across MFP through a work-related blog and played around with it, quickly writing it off. A few days later, I gave it another try and, over 60 days later, I'm still at it. My starting weight on April 24, 2012 was 214lbs. Yesterday, on June 27, 2012, I weighed in at 193lbs -- a total loss of over 21lbs ! ! ! My goal is to lose 35lbs and I'm so psyched that I'm only fourteen pounds away from that !

So yes, all it took was a picture taken over dinner at a restaurant to slap some sense into me. I plan to post it to my profile once I reach my goal with a caption noting that it was the tipping point for me.