The first time you realised you were actually over weight.

I was a chubby kid, and my friends made fun of me, and that made me gain even worse. Looking back to pictures from that time, I wasn't really even fat. People are d#cks.

I lost and gained it back several times in my 20's. Several years ago, I realized it had gone too far south when i saw a horrible picture. Plus I remember what it felt like to be fit, and I missed that. Not dying walking up a flight of stairs, etc, so I'm getting rid of it for good this time.
It's going so much slower now that I'm older though.

January 2012---Disney pics--sweet Mother of God-- I ate half of Orlando!

I have always been overweight but what really made me change is getting on the scale about a month before my 29th birthday and seeing that I was the biggest I have ever been! Everyone was telling me that it is all down hill after you hit your 30s and I decided that I wanted to enter my 30s being in the best shape that I have ever been in my life! It has been a slow and steady process but this time I am not looking for a quick fix but a healthy lifestyle that will give me tons of energy to enjoy my life to the fullest.

We went on holidays to Spain, first day there we headed down the beach. Coming from Irleand and having not been away the previous year I wasn;t exactly tanned

So got the sun cream on, and got to sun bathing, and half fell asleep

When I woke up there was a team from the local zoo, hosing me down and a construction crew trying to get a harness under me so the crane could get me back into the water

Just laughed out loud in the office during my lunch break! Thanks for cheering up my day!

Being weighed after having my daughter, and the constant reminder; old photos definately motivate me to get back to what I was. It kills me to think I've let myself go without even noticing

Typing this also makes it hit home that things need to change.

Ever since I can remember. Maybe tumbling class when I was 4? Mom has always said I was 'big boned' and too big. She did ballet, go figure. My sis and I both had to excercise (run behind the car), eat less (but clean your plate!), eat grapefruit, do slimfast and take dexitrim all by the time we were 10. No wonder we both ended up near 300lbs as adults.

I was always on the fit side - at 5'7", I weighed 135 lbs or under most of my life. That was my weight when I got married 13 years ago. I used to wear a size 6.

Fast forward, last year, DH and I went to a wedding (his friend). One of his friends put a few photos from the wedding on facebook. I had worn a short black dress that I thought I looked really great in. I was tagged in those photos. I was horrified when I saw myself next to DH and his friends - they were all skinny, looking awesome - I looked like a beached whale. I removed the tags and assumed it was just bad camera angle ignoring the fact that I was wearing size 10 now.

Then a month ago, we went to a picnic - college reunion picnic for DH - again, saw a couple of photos. Most women were my age but I was the 2nd fattest woman there. I had to then throw out the "metabolism slows down with age" excuse I had been using for the past year or so. Weighed myself - was at 165 - full 30 lbs gained in 13 years. I weigh more than my 6 ft tall DH !!!

Have been on and off on MFP - but this time am on to stay. Have lost about 7 lbs since I started this round. Will continue till I reach my pre-wedding weight.

My mother first noticed me gaining weight in 4th grade and would always check my diet, telling my not to eat so much but I never saw myself as fat. I would say I have been 10 lbs overweight since 4th to 11th grade when I began to gain more weight. I went on a diet and yo-yoed, then I went to college and would work out during school but gain the weight back plus more over the summer. When my mother died my sophomore year I gained 20lbs not even in the span of a year I knew I needed to change.

I buckled down lost 6 lbs and then went back home to the islands for a family member's 50th birthday party. It was there on the beach that a drunken cousin of mine loudly told me that I was fat and getting fatter. That I needed to take up track or do something because I was going to end up fat like the rest of the women in our family. All this infront of strangers and family alike, and broke down in tears embarrased and I definitely knew I was fat then. When I got back to New York I fell of the wagon and gained 15lbs. It was only this May that I took up changing my lifestyle again and so far so good.

My first moment was a photograph of my mother-in-law, father-in-law and myself sitting on a couch. My mother-in-law is a thin woman but I looked like a giant compared to her. I even looked bigger than my father-in-law who is not a small man by any means. I was mortified, but consoled myself with the fact that I had just had a baby 6 months or so before. Fast forward a year and, while waiting at the doctors office, my son took a picture of me with my phone. I was obviously overweight. I started working out but stopped when my husband deployed. Well, a month ago, I was sitting on one of my metal patio chairs and felt the chair slowly moving to the ground. Yes, I broke a metal chair! I almost cried. My ‘baby’ is three years old now, so I can’t use that excuse anymore. From that day forward, I changed my diet and started working out. I haven’t lost pounds, but I have lost inches.

Reading this thread has me thinking back to all of the red flags that I ignored. The office chair that I broke because I put all of my weight on the arm of the chair. Having to by a new swimsuit in size 1X. During a casual conversation, my coworkers stating that I would be able to overpower a full grown man (Dang, am I THAT big?!?!) A photo that my daughter took where my face looks pudgy and bloated. Forming a second chin. A photo of me standing next to my husband and we are the same size. Oh the photos! Those are the worst!

When I had to get a size 14 pant. I wasn't terribly overweight, but for me it was my heaviest. And it killed my self esteem like crazy. Then I started to notice how much larger I was than everyone else around me in photographs and how unhealthy I was.

When I had to go out and buy new XL and XXL clothes after I had gotten rid of most of them the LAST time I lost weight. NEVER AGAIN!!!!

hm.

When I was about 8-9 and family members would verbally abuse me about it, and then I learned a bunch of other things I also should not be happy with, after that

Ugh. Not an awesome day.

I had just started my job and a coworker and I went next door to the gym because they were providing our employees with free body tests. After all of the caliper pinchings, my results came back. 31% body fat! I'm an athletic guy, and I thought that number was just not me. I mean, it's almost a third of me that's just useless fat!

I haven't gone back in for another body assessment, but I've lost some weight and put on some muscle, lost 3 inches from my waist and feel like I'm in much better shape. I'll have to set up the next appointment soon!

With 3 stick-thin sisters, I felt overweight as young as 5 y.o.

I lost a bunch of weight when I was 14 y.o kept it off for 25 years.

Then after an accident, my activity level dropped sharply... as I put on weight I didn't feel any different... so I didn't worry.
All the things I couldn't do any more I attributed to being over 40.

I was amazed at what losing 30 lbs gave me back in my life...

Having a hard time with maintenance, but still at it...

Walking in town and seeing a lady who is wearing something that really doesn't suit her frame, only to realise that it's your reflection in a shop window...

That, and not having any trousers left that fit, so all you can wear is your tunic dresses and leggings.