Yeah, you're not alone in this...

I was a lean athletic kid and ended up getting really sick (whooping cough) when I was about twelve. I lose a huge amount of weight and at my worst was about 88lbs very sickly not even strong enough to get off the couch most days. The Doctor filled me up with steroids to keep my lungs strong, I got better after almost 8 months of battling and was able to keep food down rather than coughing it back up.

When I got better and was eating, my parents gave me all they could to strengthen me back up help me gain weight and not be a walking skeleton. I gained some weight started easing back into my life but still was babied, and developed some bad eating habits. I started to get bigger and bigger, despite playing sports 3-4 times a week..trying to cut down didn't do me any good I still kept gaining and gaining and found the things I loved to do..baseball, biking, street hockey, were very difficult so I stopped.

Leaving high school, and getting into work I became more sedentary, but tried to keep active through sports but nothing worked my weight would fluctuate. Labor intense jobs or office jobs, either seemed to make a difference.

Tipping out at 425lbs, I found out I had sleep apnea and damaged my heart pretty bad as a result, I was treated and thought I may now finally start losing weight and was given a referral to a weight loss clinic. I battled though 4 appointments a week and what felt like a job..weigh ins, classes, counting calories and after 4 months only lost 10lbs, I stopped going, to me it felt too much like a job.

It wasn't until a friend of mine said "You know, you are less than 100lbs away from being as heavy as Andre the Giant" that I realized I need to change in a drastic way. With the help of a few friends I figured out a happy medium and gave up a bunch of foods I liked and figured out a nice calorie deficit. Stopped drinking pop, juice, alcohol, eating fast food. I started exercising, because of my weight I started with walking about 2k per day.

So in April of this year I started my journey. I struggled at first as it was a big change but it became easier and easier. I set milestones for myself, so whenever I hit a milestone I'd reward myself with a non-food related gift. With the goal of hitting 250 and getting myself a motorcycle.

After a month I was down about 4lbs, I wasn't happy with my results but found my exercise to be getting easier. I started doing Yoga at home in addition and stopped eating most anything processed. Two months I was down 15lbs, but stalled I became really unmotivated as I went about a month dropping only 2lbs then it happened month over month as I increased my exercise adding in resistance exercises, occasional interval training, I was dropping 10lbs + per month. I am down to 360 presently in 6 months.

The last 6 weeks I have been walking about 40-50k per week, I just started tracking my foods on MFP over the last 2 months to make sure I wasn't working at a disadvantage and still my pace has continued.

My biggest struggle I thought would be the food or the time to exercise but its not, its the scale. I found myself living and dying by what that scale said, knowing full well that measurement is a better indicator.

Once I got over that, and saw the results I starting moving forward. I am trying to come up with the money to join the Gym but so far I haven't needed it. I still have a ways to go, but its working and I am finally confident I will get there.

Biggest challenge was when I couldn't lose. After they fixed me...it's all downhill from there!

Giving up the sweets, fried foods and red meat was tough. I liked cheeseburgers and fries! Cake! Donuts, ice cream, all of it. I was quite a perturbed woman. The spoiled child inside me did not want to do that. But I told it to shut the hell up and go to it's room. It behaved much better after a while.

Scale fluctuations sucked. Still not my favorite, truth be told.

Now, the hardest part is having lost SO MUCH weight and still being so fat. I'm where most people are when they start. It's such a long road to a good body. And it keeps getting harder! Frustrating.

Also the loose skin, which is now everywhere. It started in a few places, but now covers my whole body. I worry that when I'm done, I won't even look good. I'll just be smaller.

I just really like food too much.

I lost a bunch, and have maintained the loss for a long time now. I'm now actively trying to lose more, but once you hit a weight that is 'easy' to maintain while still eating whatever the hell you want (just in smaller portions), it's pretty rough to give that up.

I've never been classified as medically overweight, but I was on the border. About 170 lbs at 5'10. I worked part time while going to school full time, and I just didn't want to make the time to work out or plan my meals.

Sometime after college I just decided I wanted to be "in shape." I started lifting weights, eating better, I started my first bulk in January 2012. After a successful bulk, I cut down to 154 lbs and was feeling really good. It was then I made the decision to compete in bikini, hired a coach, and got to work.

Without going into too much detail, the competitors' life is not for me. I got really depressed. Even though I was building muscle and getting leaner, I got less and less satisfied with my body. I started binging. I started fasting to make up for the binge. I tried everything to please my coach, to fit in with the other girls on my team with their 14% body fat. I developed an eating disorder. I developed BDD. It was bad.

I quit the team in May 2014, and took two months off tracking. Of course, this lead me almost back to where I started. I'm close to 170 lbs again. Of course, my body fat is much lower than it was five years ago thanks to all the weight lifting, and I do look pretty different than I did last time I weighed this much.

But trying to repair my relationship with food while still trying to get back down to 150 lbs has been hard. I went to therapy for three months, but the bills piled up and I had to stop. I feel the ED on the edges of my mind. I feel the obsession over food. I feel the compulsion to over exercise. I feel the need to fast for the day. It sucks, and it's hard to ignore. I'm doing my best to lose the last 18 lbs before next summer by losing at a rate of .5 lb a week. Slow and steady. I set myself a calorie minimum, so I can't be tempted to restrict too much. I try really hard not to go to the gym twice a day. I try not to deny myself the foods I want because they're not "healthy" or "clean," I just promise myself I'll set aside enough calories to have the food tomorrow, or the next day.

I can't weigh myself on the scale without triggering, so I'm trying to rely on the way my clothes fit, measurements, and how my body felt/fit when I was 154 last time.

It's every day. It's all day. It's difficult, and I'm trying.

When I was growing up, I always had access to junk food and as long as I can remember I've had an intense sweet tooth. I played some sports in elementary school but I hated them so I stopped and instead replaced that time with watching television while shoving various horrible foods in my face.

When I got into my teens and was more aware of my size, I thought it was just my destiny and that my weight was determined by genetics. My parents were a normal healthy weight, but for some reason I thought your weight was out of your control for the most part and it was just the body genetic chance gave you.

As an adult I never weighed myself except for a few rare instances, and since I rarely go to the doctor I really never knew my weight, but I knew I always was hovering around 200. In college I decided to go on a healthy stint and I lost a little, got down to 185. But when I graduated and moved back home, I stopped all that. I got a desk job and that was really my downward spiral.

I always wanted to lose weight, but I was under the impression that it was extremely difficult and I struggled immensely finding motivation. My first step was sometime last year, I got a "dance fitness for beginners" DVD and tried eating less. Since I never weighed, I will never know if I lost anything. Anyway the DVD made its way to the back of the shelf collecting dust.

Early this year, my boyfriend took me to Jared's to pick out an engagement ring. I started looking at wedding dresses online at the Plus Size and was saddened because I knew they would all look bad on me. Then it occurred to me that I didn't have to condemn myself to a plus size dress.

In March, I ordered Hip Hop Abs and a scale. I was disgusted to see that I weighed 210 and since I had already been trying to eat better, I may have even been heavier before. After Easter I started MFP. At first it was discouraging when I still was disgusted with my reflection in the mirror but I didn't give up. Being a perfectionist, I never let my calories go over my goal.

Here I am 6 months later, still at it. I've lost 43lbs and my boyfriend, now my fiancee, has been doing this with me and has lost 50lbs. I'm in size 10 jeans, the smallest I've ever worn, and am starting to enjoy clothes shopping. I'm officially out of plus size clothing and am very much looking forward to trying on wedding dresses this Spring.

You're all doing an amazing job...keep it up!