What was your breaking point?

For me, it was being told by my endocrinologist that 1000 calories a day was what I needed to eat to lose weight and that I might be put on insulin shots throughout the day rather than just my long-acting insulin. I want nothing to do with either of those! That visit motivated me to be more honest with how much I was eating and how I can get on track to lose weight and reduce my diabetes medications. (And, it would be fabulous to walk in to his office with better fasting numbers and reduced weight in September without spending every day hungry.)

The day I found out the guy I had dated for years, who I was still in love with, got engaged less than a year after we broke up. It killed me, but it's exactly what I needed to turn my life around.

The day I learned I had a medical condition cause by my weight. I figured to be having medical issues at 22, it was probably time to change.

Weighing myself at the end of my first year of teaching and seeing the scale hit 198 was a huge wake up call for me. I have always struggled with my weight, but never weighed more than about 175 previously. I could not let myself hit 200 pounds. Also, literally trying on every pair of pants I own and realizing that only one pair fit-tightly.

I know losing weight will be slow. I know it will be hard. But, I'm still young and I refuse to let this be a problem for me in the future. It's now or never I guess!

It was May 16th of this year. I was trying on the bathing suit I would wear when the condo pool opened for Memorial Day. I got the suit up to the bottom of my thighs and it wouldn't go any farther. I bough the suit a year before because my other suit was too small. I sat on my bed and cried. That was the moment. Two days later, on the advice of a friend, I joined MFP and I haven't looked back.

I knew I needed to change myself when I realized my "fat" clothes (of several years) were getting tight.

When the fact that looking in the mirror makes me cry started to get to me.

^ this exactly.

Stepped on a scale and it registered at 240. Made me go "WTF am I doing?!" and launched an all out effort to change.

I had a conversation with a friend of mine who was going through similar issues as myself: isolated in a rural community without friends/family support; a intellectually enervating job; weight gains that were causing health issues and; marriages that were in trouble. We were both unhappy; but during the course of the conversation we realized that in essence, we were not taking enough responsibility for our own happiness. We decided to imagine our future selves and work towards those goals. And you know what? In taking our destinies in hand, a lot of things took care of themselves :-)

I was putting off looking in the mirror, eating myself silly because I was in denial. My fiance told me I was beautiful no matter what size so I used that as an excuse to eat a whole pizza, fatty food ect. When my mum had a stroke at the start of this year she told me to lose the weight, she didn't want me in a hospital bed like her. She wanted me to be healthy.

So I moved out and back into my parents as I quit my fast food job to care for her plus save money. I was starting my first semester of university (studying nursing), I was the biggest girl in every class I had and thought to myself HOW can an overweight nurse help people be healthy when they arent themselves? While on holidays I had a lot of time to think about my life and where I want to go. The one thing I was so unhappy about was my weight and one day I decided to go for a long walk. That long walk took me 45 minutes, with a lot of huffing and puffing. I was so unfit and missed my figure before I graduated high school. I walked to and from school daily, had a part time job and a social life. I wanted that back. I made a promise to myself to lose the weight. I walked back, joined MFP a few days later and started logging my food... And the rest is history. That same track I walked I can walk now in 30 minutes! I have lost almost 15kg since April.. and am aiming to lose another 20 to be at goal in the next year. :flowerforyou: I now am so happier, healthier and confident.

This is a life long journey, mistakes are bound to happen and a few bad days. Never give up on yourself!

This is going to sound weird and corny.

My daughter and I were on a road trip in Missouri. A delay in our schedule meant we hit St. Louis at rush hour. For a lady from rural Mississippi, this was panic time. 70+ mph with just a few feet between our car and others. When we made it out the other side alive I had this feeling of "I can do anything!" and the next day it occurred to me that if I could drive through St. Louis at 5pm, I might be able to do other things too. Hey, I could eat a freaking salad for lunch, maybe even work out some.

my breaking point was when I saw a picture of myself standing next to my husband, granted he is thin as a rail, but next to him I looked ginormous!! Now I am thirty pounds thinner and I work out twice as hard everytime I look at that picture.

I was too big for men's size 38 jeans and had to start wearing 20W. When I checked my weight I found out I was up to 220 lbs and that's pretty damn big for 5'4"!

The thing that had me join MFP was not being able to fit in my jeans. I lost 100 lbs on my own and gained back 20.

Mine was realising how much i hated photos of me going on Facebook - because i couldn't stand the extra fat I had put on, and how swollen i looked around my face and upper body not to mention lower body. When I looked back at all my pics i could not find one that I liked. When I'd binge eat and couldn't stop myself - when I looked at my calorie counters and realised i regularly ate about 1/3 more than I needed to every day - when I can't sleep on my stomach because my breasts make it too uncomfortable - when I can't fit into my 'fat' jeans anymore and I don't even know where my 'normal' ones are - when I think that summer is coming here in the southern hemisphere - when everything else in my life seemed to be in place but this one obsession is ruining my happiness and enjoyment of life - when I saw photos of myself surrounded by high school friends at a recent wedding and looked so bloated, I was embarrassed - when the scales hit 75kg, which they NEVER have in my life - when i don't feel like being intimate with my partner because I felt unattractive - when I wanted to clean up my diet because of ongoing colds and flu - when I realised I didn't want to go out dancing because I felt ugly - when I couldn't remember the last time I bought clothes because a) i could not face the changing room mirror and b) I kept thinking "i'll be skinny soon and I don't want to waste money" - when I bought a house and realised I couldn't afford to eat out and drink anymore - when I discovered and enjoyed one of the training apps on my phone - when watching the incredible bodies at the Olympics - when I realised I had been harping on the same theme for about a decade, and how much negative time and energy I had WASTED on worrying about my appearance - when I thought "life doesn't have to be like this".

Loved all your replies! Well done on all your achievements so far.