Do you wish you had started earlier/younger?

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  • ScorpioJack_91
    ScorpioJack_91 Posts: 5,241 Member
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    I was skinny fat and nerdy back in high school (still nerdy but as you can tell by my pictures, I got a lean, muscular physique now) and I started working out at 17-18...made gains but didn't really take it seriously until last year.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
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    It's not that I didn't care about my weight when I was younger- I just lacked appreciation for how years of carrying around all the excess weight was going to impact my life in every way in the long run. It never seemed urgent. Now it seems urgent.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Nope
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    almondbutterbay wrote: »
    Someone mentioned to me how glad they were that they didn't start caring about their weight when they were my age and it made me think. Do you wish you had started being aware of calories earlier in your life or are you glad that you had some years that you were unaware about how much you weighed?

    Well, I did care about my weight and was trying to lose weight when I was younger. I wasn't as serious as I am now perhaps but I still cared. I wasn't doing calorie counting then. I wish I had been because it is so much easier than all the other stuff I went through.

  • DebzNuDa
    DebzNuDa Posts: 252 Member
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    Lounmoun wrote: »
    almondbutterbay wrote: »
    Someone mentioned to me how glad they were that they didn't start caring about their weight when they were my age and it made me think. Do you wish you had started being aware of calories earlier in your life or are you glad that you had some years that you were unaware about how much you weighed?

    Well, I did care about my weight and was trying to lose weight when I was younger. I wasn't as serious as I am now perhaps but I still cared. I wasn't doing calorie counting then. I wish I had been because it is so much easier than all the other stuff I went through.

    ^This
  • geotrice
    geotrice Posts: 274 Member
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    I've cared about my weight for as long as I can remember. I wish MFP had existed earlier and I had found out about it earlier because it helped me stay on track with my goals and how eating at restaurants can destroy an otherwise careful diet. I've found that's the biggest thing that sabotaged all of my exercise as a youth: the excessive calories in most Restaurant grub. MFP gave be back control.
  • ScorpioJack_91
    ScorpioJack_91 Posts: 5,241 Member
    edited May 2015
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    geotrice wrote: »
    I've cared about my weight for as long as I can remember. I wish MFP had existed earlier and I had found out about it earlier because it helped me stay on track with my goals and how eating at restaurants can destroy an otherwise careful diet. I've found that's the biggest thing that sabotaged all of my exercise as a youth: the excessive calories in most Restaurant grub. MFP gave be back control.

    I think MFP was around in 2005 but it probably was obsolete back then compared to how it is now. I never even heard of MFP until last year.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,880 Member
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    Many days I wish I were back 12 years ago when I was thin as a rail and really active ... and could eat anything I wanted whenever I wanted.

    Since then ...

    Between 2009 & 2011, I gained a bit of weight, then lost it over 13 weeks in 2011.

    And between late 2011 & 2015, I gained 15 kg ... which I am getting really close to losing now (11 kg down so far).

    But during this process, I do think back 12 years ago when I could eat some massive dessert ... and wouldn't gain a kg. Would be nice to be there again. :)
  • snowflakesav
    snowflakesav Posts: 644 Member
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    I've had the lifelong battle with weight. I wish I had learned how to maintain weight loss earlier.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    You know, I don't.

    The reason being that I learned how to love myself, and be confident at my old weight. How many people do we all know who have major issues with that, even when they are an 'ideal' weight? That would be a whole lotta folks I know.
  • SkinnyWannabeGal
    SkinnyWannabeGal Posts: 143 Member
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    I am so glad that I wasn't obsessed with my weight at a younger age. I only became overweight during pregnancy. And thank goodness I didn't know anything about counting calories or how many calories I needed to burn or eat in a day to lose weight, until recent years. You see, when I was much younger and didn't have any kids yet, I was engaged to a man who became obsessed with needing me to be thinner. I learned later that I was at the lower end of a healthy weight for my height, but he wanted me to be underweight and would limit how much I ate and even pull food out of my hand and tell me I'm too big to eat. He forced me to exercise even when I was so exhausted from working 13-15 hours a day, 7 days a week for months straight with no day off. And my job was a very physical job, being on my feet and rushing around all day long. Plus, I would walk over 10 blocks to get home every day. I barely had time to eat in a day and would usually skip dinner and just shower and head to bed ASAP when I got home. No matter how hard he pushed me to lose weight, I could never be tiny enough for him. If I had the weightloss knowledge back then that I do now, I would have misused it to be unhealthily underweight and that would have possibly led me to actually marry that guy. So I'm super happy that I was naive about weightloss until recently. And glad that it wasn't until after having my child that I Iearned how to lose weight so that I was able to use that knowledge to get back down to a healthy weight.
  • BuckyArden33
    BuckyArden33 Posts: 146 Member
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    i wish i had started lifting weights in my teens, its taught me to be a better me in so many ways since i started last year
  • YalithKBK
    YalithKBK Posts: 317 Member
    edited May 2015
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    I very much do. I've been overweight since high school. I was healthy once in college as I had a very active summer job (landscaping) but after that year, I got HUGE. I managed to work it off as I was still young and had a good metabolism but it has come back as I've aged.

    But I wish I would have learned about weight management at that age so that now, when I'm older and my metabolism has slowed, I would have a head start on my weight and I wouldn't have to be learning everything WHILE trying to lose.
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
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    I was thinner when I was younger, but I restricted calories too much. I wish I'd understood that I could eat normally to be healthy, and I wish I'd discovered strength training years ago.

    The reason I've been losing weight over the past few years has been pregnancy, so I don't think it would've made a difference if I were younger. Although maybe I'd have lost weight quicker if I'd had my babies in my 20s instead of in my 30s. Who knows.
  • flrancho
    flrancho Posts: 271 Member
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    I wish I had been more serious and had more will power or something earlier - maybe I would't be almost 30 and still single.

    I'd lost it all but 10 pounds once, stopped my diet and gained it all back in the first diet experience of my life. From then on it was a constant struggle to loose it again and I never could - until a year or so ago when I got off of the medication that, in large part, greatly helped my weight gain along. Now that I'm off of it, I'm steadily loosing weight.
  • nettam3re3
    nettam3re3 Posts: 66 Member
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    I'm one of those people that believe I had to take the journey I did to be the person I am today. Many aspects of my life were impacted by my weight and insecurity but, because of the choices I made back then, I have two wonderful children and a loving hubby today that I may not have had if I'd started taking better care of myself earlier and therefore making different life choices. If I believed being thinner earlier wouldn't have changed anything and I'd still be here doing this today- then I would also have to negate the impacts loosing weight now is having on my confidence, activities and perspective today. This maybe a more philosophical response than you were looking for but today is today and there isn't anything I can do about yesterday :)
  • mygnsac
    mygnsac Posts: 13,413 Member
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    try2again wrote: »
    It's not that I didn't care about my weight when I was younger- I just lacked appreciation for how years of carrying around all the excess weight was going to impact my life in every way in the long run. It never seemed urgent. Now it seems urgent.

    Me too. I'm 50 years old now and I can't help but wish I had smartened up when I was younger. Nothing I can do about that now, but I sure do have regrets.
  • cincysweetheart
    cincysweetheart Posts: 892 Member
    edited May 2015
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    Well, I've always been big. I'm probably smaller than I was in middle school by now and I'm still not at my goal. But I grew up knowing about calories and nutrition and moderation and portion control. None of it was new information for me. I just didn't care.

    Do I wish I had started caring earlier? Started trying to lose weight? No. Not really. And not because I was able to have so much fun eating and drinking everything I wanted. But because I learned to accept myself and love who I was inside. Because I learned an awful lot about myself just in the 5-7 years immediately prior to when I started my weight loss. All of that self-knowledge and understanding was extremely helpful to me when I started planning out how I was going to do this. And in the time that has followed. It has made it so I could be successful. I'm not sure I would have been successful had I started earlier. I started when I was ready and when the time was right for me.

    The only thing I've learned and really wish that I had learned before is how absolutely powerful our brain is. Your body will 100% obey whatever your mind tells it. I wish I had learned (not just known… but learned) this is years ago. It would have saved me so many tears and so much stress (but not related to weight loss).
  • maasha81
    maasha81 Posts: 733 Member
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    I never had weight issues till closer to 30 and I was simply eating too much. I do wish I started strength training earlier though.

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