What made you realize you needed to lose weight?

Final straw was having to wear size 13 jeans...I looked in the mirror at JC Penny's and started crying! I'm back on my way to size 7, trust me!

The mirror every morning - but the final "straw" was the scale - when it showed I had hit 278 lbs - heaviest in my life - I actually scared myself. Attitude adjustment came right after!!

I forgot to mention the scale as well for me. I was heavier than I had ever been. 40 lbs. heavier than high school which was only 7 very short years ago.

My football coaches suggested I shed a few pounds before my senior season (I was ~315lbs), and that made me think "Am I really that large?" And then I thought about it, and I had to start getting clothes in the XXXL sizes, my watch was uncomfortably tight, and I was shocked when I stepped on a scale to find out I had put on +40 pounds since the last time I was weighed!

After that, I lost about 60 pounds and hovered at 250 for a few years. Then I decided that I wasn't really able to get dates with the ladies because I was too large still. Picked up running, cut out soda, started to think about what I ate, and bam! Another 40 pounds down.

And since the beginning of the year I've dropped another 20 or so, and I'm quite happy with my sub-200 weight That good-lookin' fella in the mirror is closing in on visible abs!

That's awesome guy!! I'm hanging right around 200 lbs. and can't wait to get under!

When I hit 189 and thought how close that was to 200. I had to buy a size 18 and couldn't shop any where except Lane Bryant. I am now at 150 and still have a ways to go, but it feels great to be a size 10 for the first time in years.

When I saw photos of myself. I started feeling winded when I did anything. I felt ashamed of myself. I no longer wanted to be noticed or looked at.

It was around March of last year.

Every time I looked in the mirror and I would feel miserable. I'd keep comparing myself against celebrities, feel even more miserable. My self-esteem was a complete and utter mess (still is), and I knew something had to change before I did something to myself out of sheer hate at the way I look. The moment I told myself 'I'm sick and tired of looking the way I do, time for a change'. No-one thinks I need to lose weight, people are worried about my wanting to lose a lot of weight. I felt people were lying whenever I got compliments. I still do to be honest. Maybe there is a deeper underlying problem, I don't know.
Starting weigh was 140lbs and my height is 5'3. Which my friends don't consider fat but which I thought was disgusting on me.
Still got another 28lbs to lose. Here's to hoping it will come off at some point. I'm still miserable about the way I look, at least I know things will be changing though. Lost 12lbs already..

TL;DR: My self esteem was (is) down in the gutters and I'm trying to improve it by changing my appearance. Vain? Maybe. But so be it.

I've been trying half heartedly for several years. Stuff would come up and I'd go back to my old ways. This year I trained for a half marathon. A few days before that, my oldest daughter turned 7. I had planned to get back "on the wagon" after the 1/2 marathon was over. The day my daughter turned 7, I realized that in those 7 years, I have NEVER seen my body's full "post baby" potential. I couldn't look back at pictures and say "I want to look like THIS again" because all of my skinny pics are prior to having my girls. I then saw the pictures of me running the 1/2 marathon and said that is IT! That body carried and birthed 2 children, ran a half marathon and I OWE IT to that body to have it look and feel its absolute possible BEST that it can be.
My husband and I will celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary in April of next year. We are going on a cruise, so, by that time, I hope to have reached my goal, or at least be much much closer to being the best I can be.

I got told I had high liver enzyme levels from weight gain and high cholesterol. I had been "trying" but after the doctor told me that and my mom went in for a sleep study for sleep apnea that was my final straw.

Then there is the materialistic point of I couldn't fit into my Old Navy fat pants anymore. That made me mad!

I had a heart attack in February. I signed up for a nutrition class at community college right after. Best thing I ever did.

Nice to hear you did that

So many people would brush it off as a freak incident or something. Props to you! :flowerforyou:

LOL I just posted in in my story, the guy in the back of my patrol car calling me a fat *kitten* and it was true! http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/740340-i-lost-60-lbs-at-age-51-anyone-can-any-workout

Almost two and a half years ago, my husband had just run a marathon. At this time, I was at my highest weight (although I didn't realise it at the time!). At the end of the race, we had to walk up quite a steep hill back to our car. Well, my husband (having just completed a marathon) shot up the hill with our two sons, no problem at all and there was me puffing and panting, stopping every few minutes to catch my breath - not good, (. This, I think was the turning point for me!

When my boyfriend stopped fu(%ing me and said he was no longer attracted to me. :noway: :embarassed:

I had a swollen optic nerve and the eye doc made me see a neurologist and I had to have a spinal tap and MRI done. He said it was from excessive weight gain and I need to lose at least 34lbs. Then is when it hit me that I weighed more than when I was pregnant and that was 14 years ago. O.e.

When I saw the # 222lbs.,...changed my life,the next day started walking!

The first time I lost weight, I realized I had to finally buy a size of pants I didn't want to ever admit to owning. I lost 60lbs then, and want to now lose another 20lbs. I would love to get into a bikini next summer!