What was your catalyst for weight loss?

britishbeau · May 2016

What was that moment when everything just clicked into place and you could finally lose some weight.

Ive been wanting to diet for over a year. I always thought 'ill start monday' or give up after a day, but always hated myself for getting fatter and never losing. This week i was looking for motivation, like pretty much every other week, when I saw one pin on pinterest. No photo, just words.

Being fat is hard.
Dieting is hard
Pick your hard.

and eveything just fell into place. something clicked in my brain and i went out and bought vegetables, this week i have actually eaten vegetables instead of letting them go moldy in the fridge as usual, and ive lost 2lbs already. What was it for you? a picture? a situation? something someone said? I would love to know.

fr33sia12 · May 2016

For me it was going to the Doctors for a check up and him telling me I needed to lose weight, cut down on sugar and sodium and exercise. I pretty much knew I needed to anyway, but coming from an expert really pushed me. So I decided not to just lose weight or go on a "diet" but to change my lifestyle. I gave up alcohol and meat (except fish), most processed foods, introduced more healthy foods and began walking all which I have been wanting to do for a while. Now I've lost 9lb in 4 week.

snowflake954 · May 2016

My clothes got too tight.

Bluepegasus · May 2016

I put on weight after a horse riding accident left me unable to walk for 3 months. Over the course of a year I drank and ate far too much and just got to the point where I was sick of only being able to fit into two items of clothing out of my whole wardrobe! I was in denial for a long time! Though really I wasn't ever "fat" as such, just heavier than I wanted to be. January this year I just decided that I need to get back down to my normal weight to feel happy within myself, now I'm pretty much there, I'm just going to keep going, I hope to get back down to the weight I was before I had kids. I have a cut off point when I put on weight, where I reach a certain weight (just over the high end of my normal BMI) and suddenly decide that's too much, any further and I will be fat.

paganvegan · May 2016

I want to have a baby. I have fertility issues so the dr there told me i need to lose a minimum of 50 lbs before I'll get any help. 45 to go

middlehaitch · May 2016

Saw a picture of myself- fat, frumpy, and 50+.
Just so not who I was inside.

Started counting calories and exercising, the first time ever, that week.
Now the outside person matches the inside person.

Cheers, h.

LivingtheLeanDream · May 2016

I was fed up seeing all the blubber piling over the waistband of my jeans as my (UK) size 14s were getting too tight/uncomfortable.
Trying on new clothes was a nightmare and always ended with me in tears.

I've been maintaining my weight loss for 3+ years and I LOVE the fact that I can look good in and out of my clothes

ladyreva78 · May 2016

Being told that I had to chose between my liver and my overweight. Having it repeated (with some images taken during a laparoscopy in Nov2015 shown besides what a healthy liver should look like) by the surgeon who took out my gall bladder.

Realizing that my physical health was just as important as, if not more than, my mental health and that I had to find something else for comfort than food and alcohol.

Started counting calories, allowing myself to keep eating all the things I loved just in appropriate amounts. Cut out alcohol completely. Started exercising more when I realized that it was even better for my mental health than all the amounts of food I used to eat. Now I don't miss a day in the gym unless I'm sick.

Another 29kg to go and the last blood work came in pretty near to 'looking good'. According to the doctors, another 5-10 kg lost and they might be able to give me a clean bill of health!

violet_wister · May 2016

This article came out the day after I'd looked at myself in a hotel mirror and thought 'I don't look like me anymore, I look like me in a fat suit' https://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/my-weight-loss#.ljK3ndDOL and the combination of me not feeling like myself and reading that it could be done (even though a lot of that is about her going to Weight Watchers, which I don't do) just flipped a switch in my mind. I weighed myself, downloaded MFP and Happy Scale as soon as I finished reading that article and I'm down 48lbs in 3 months. I still eat everything I like and I still eat out, I just do it less and with more thought.

Unknown · May 2016

This content has been removed.

michael_jordan7 · May 2016

Being told that insulin shots to treat diabetes was my future, with five children (youngest was under 2 at the time) this was not acceptable. I prayed to God for the strength I needed and have lost 130 lbs. since then and I am off all medications!

suzilla53 · May 2016

No being able to find clothes that fit properly,Being short and fat was hell,nothing looked good,nothing fit well.

Rapril2000 · May 2016

Mine was simple. I got on scale after avoiding it for awhile and saw a number Id never wanted to see again. Time for a change....especcially when I have a wedding dress and pictures to look good in coming up.

The first time, when I was at my all time high its because I was at Busch Gardens Tampa and was embarrassed as hell I couldnt fit into the normal seat on the roller coaster and had to wait to go on a different one than my friends. That was my wake up call.....

ReaderGirl3 · May 2016

High glucose number. T2 runs in our family and I saw where I was headed. Dropped around 50lbs and now have glucose numbers in the 80s.

BoxerBrawler · May 2016

Don't laugh but for me it was Indian food

My work place has a lovely cafeteria with many options and each day there is a station with some type of ethnic food e.g., sushi, Italian, Indian, etc. So one day I got a big plate of Indian food and in my mind I thought I was making the best choice... I mean it's all vegetables pretty much right? So I got a lot of it and was sitting at my desk, woofing it down and multi-tasking (working)... A friend walked by my desk and said "Oh I love Indian food but too bad it's so bad for you, calorie and fat laden!" Of course I disagreed with her and after she left my desk I started to look up the nutritional content of this big glorious (healthy) lunch that I was eating. I couldn't believe what I was reading and what shocked me even more is that I "thought" I was making a healthy choice. I suddenly could feel the sides of my butt squeezed into my chair. From there I started to think about how I drank barely any water, and I never exercised, and I thought into the future and could picture myself having to purchase two plane tickets for one seat... I then thought about the fact that I'd already eat a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich with hash-browns for breakfast just hours before and I'd already had two large iced coffees with cream and sugar and I thought about how later on for dinner I was planning to make some huge pasta dish with tons of gravy and a lot of Italian bread with butter... I panicked! Something in my head snapped and I thought "This has to stop right here, right now!" and it did. I tossed out the rest of my lunch and drank water for the rest of the day and the evening. The very next morning I got up and did a bunch of jumping jacks, sit ups and push ups (barely any). The very first change I made was ordering my large iced coffee black. It was a very small change, but a change. That was 189 LBs and almost 3 years ago. I never looked back and today I maintain at 120 LBs with clean vegetarian eating and a strict exercise program that involves heavy weight training, running, MMA/boxing and dance - 7 days per week. I only take an active rest day when my body demands it. I've also worked to earn licenses in both general nutrition and holistic nutrition (counseling), I'm currently working on my sports nutrition license and will have my Masters by the end of next year. In one moment I changed everything about my life and it's wonderful!

dragon_girl26 · May 2016

Reminds me of a quote I saw recently, "You are one decision away from a completely different life." For me, it was stepping on the scale one day at the gym and seeing my highest weight ever. I realized that if I kept going the way I was, I would never be healthy and would just keep gaining. This was November 2012. I just came to realize that I was going to have to lose the weight on my own, that no one was going to do it for me. So I did, and it was the best decision I've ever made. When I look at older pictures of myself sometimes I am still amazed that I did it because I always fed myself excuses before. I guess I finally ran out of excuses.
Much happier where I am now, and clothes shopping is definitely a lot more enjoyable since I don't have to go to the plus size section anymore.

caammph · May 2016

For me, it was injuring my back for the third time. Being told I'm going to need surgery sucked. I know that getting the weight off is going to help. I just have to do it.

samwiserabbit · May 2016

I ordered a suit online. I had been feeling a little fatter than usual (didn't own a scale at the time) so I ordered it one size bigger than what I thought of as my "bigger" size. I could barely squeeze into it. When I went out and bought a scale I "saw a number I never wanted to see again" (@Rapril2000) so I started counting calories the next day.

I worry about counting calories and having a scale in the house because I have a history of disordered behavior around food and exercise, but so far the demons have been pretty quiet.

RobinvdM · May 2016

My first go around I found myself at the bottom of hell and depression and realised I was fat because I hated myself and challenged me to lose 50lbs in a year or go to bypass surgery. I lost 50lbs in 6months, and kept losing simply by walking and counting calories. That's it, that simple. I was so proud of myself.

Then I got pregnant, PPD kicked my face in, and I regained almost all of the 130lbs I lost. I struggled to get back on MFP and it wasn't until I saw 329 on the scale and went osnap! Im now 2 months later and back down closer to 300 and dealing with my demons again.

Bry_Fitness70 · May 2016

Midlife crisis! I have always perceived myself (and therefore felt that other perceived me) as being fit, and I just looked in the mirror in my early 40s and realized that I was going to lose that forever if I didn't make some changes.

xbowhunter · May 2016

High Cholesterol & over-weight. Doctors orders to eat better & get back to a health weight before it starts to affect my health.. This was in January. I have dropped the 15lbs that I needed to & my eating is in order now. I go for my next blood test tomorrow so hope all is good now.

Tedebearduff · May 2016

britishbeau wrote: »

What was that moment when everything just clicked into place and you could finally lose some weight.

Ive been wanting to diet for over a year. I always thought 'ill start monday' or give up after a day, but always hated myself for getting fatter and never losing. This week i was looking for motivation, like pretty much every other week, when I saw one pin on pinterest. No photo, just words.

Being fat is hard.
Dieting is hard
Pick your hard.

and eveything just fell into place. something clicked in my brain and i went out and bought vegetables, this week i have actually eaten vegetables instead of letting them go moldy in the fridge as usual, and ive lost 2lbs already. What was it for you? a picture? a situation? something someone said? I would love to know.

"Think of where you could be if you had started a year ago today."

CorneliusPhoton · May 2016

I realized that if I want to look like a fit person, I have to act like one. Long term.

Machka9 · May 2016

I've been slender most of my life ... I crept up into the overweight range during a few recent unsettled years when the last thing I wanted to do was to focus on diet ... lots of moves and travel.

In 2014 we moved to our current location and settled ... for now.

As a part of settling, I was finally able to focus more attention on health and fitness. I was already going to the gym and cycling and walking, but during the 10-day break over Christmas 2014, I decided to step it up a notch and do a lot more cycling plus weightlifting. And I dropped a bit of weight.

January 2015 brought everything to a screeching halt when I was rushed into two surgeries for two unrelated cancer scares. Happily, I was given the "all clear" on one ... the other was OK but showed signs of something, so I'm being monitored for about 5 years to ensure it stays OK.

By the end of January I was the heaviest weight I've ever been. Some of that was stress eating, but some was likely water weight from the surgeries. And of course, I couldn't exercise for several weeks.

During my recovery process, I started looking around for a calorie tracking site. I've used them before to drop a bit of weight now and then if I started to creep up toward the high end of my normal BMI range. They worked those times, but I wasn't convinced that it was going to work this time. However, in February 2015, I decided on MFP and so it began.

lizzy_satellite · May 2016

I was scrolling through my facebook feed and saw that a friend had posted photos from a recent Tough Mudder, and it looked like fun. I caught myself thinking “You’re far too useless to ever try to drag your fat butt over obstacles. It would be farcical. Don’t even think about it”.
I pulled myself up mid-negative thought and actually paid attention to how I spoke to myself, then decided that I was going to turn things around. 43lbs later here I am.

cariduttry · May 2016

blood work. and the scale. i was told by my doctor that being on high blood pressure and cholesterol medication is probably in my future (due to family history), but it's up to me how far in my future it is. she's giving me one last chance to improve my cholesterol numbers before i have to go on meds. that appointment is in september and i plan on killing the numbers!

SacredCoffee · May 2016

For me, it was when I read the book Savor by Thich Naht Hahn. The first paragraph in chapter one was speaking directly to me and everything changed. It's been almost 9 months and I haven't looked back once (91 lbs total so far).

lmew91 · May 2016

My upcoming wedding. I had counted calories before, off and on. I knew I had gained some weight but always telling myself it "isn't that bad," "I'm not that big; I'm not overweight." But the truth is I was too big for my own comfort, and my BMI was just slightly in the overweight zone. I just kind of avoided buying new clothes, wore what I was comfortable in, didn't take a lot of pictures, etc. Knowing that in September I will be walking down the aisle in front of family and friends, and being in a ton of pictures, no matter what my size is, I finally decided that it was time to apply myself and get serious about being a healthier person. I know this is superficial, but I didn't want people to see me and think "She really should have picked a more flattering dress," or "Why didn't she try to look better for her big day?" Or look back in a few years and think that I could have tried just a little harder to look decent for my wedding. It really isn't just about my size though, it's about how I am so much happier when I feel good on the inside. Being able to fit into the clothes that have been hanging in my closet again is a great bonus!

Shells918 · May 2016

When I had to start buying higher sized clothes. Sizes I never thought I'd wear again. And seeing myself in pictures wearing the clothes.
Most people see themselves as heavier than they are. I never think I look as bad as I do till I see a picture and see the lack of definition in my face, the bigger arms ......it's total vanity but it makes me eat less and move more so it works.

laur357 · May 2016

I was very fat due to some medical problems and excessive overeating/binging. And I realized that I was not really living my life, just hiding. So I made a list of all the things I wanted to do, but wouldn't let myself because of being so fat (both mentally and physically). Dating, surfing, getting promotions, hiking, shopping at normal stores, actually liking clothes I owned, plus I have some hormonal issues that improve with weight loss. The list was roughly 2 full pages of my tiny handwriting and devastatingly sad.

Now I'm over halfway to losing 110 pounds, running, doing intense exercise classes, etc. etc. Life is much better.

2011rocket3touring · May 2016

Last year had my 10th anniversary at a dead end job I despise. Been looking sending out resumes, done a few (very) interviews and it's been extremely frustrating. I happen to thin up very well, look better lean than I have a right to so I thought that will hopefully help me land a better job.
..not looking forward to the wife becoming jealous again.

What was your catalyst for weight loss?

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