What are your reasons for losing weight?

Watching my Dad's obesity catch up with him over the last decade. Diabetes, knee replacements, sleep apnea, blood pressure. It was a real eye opener. So I decided I'd avoid that regrettable and completely avoidable outcome.

Oh and to the second part of your question. What’s improved?

What hasn’t

Attitude, confidence, appearance, stick-to-it-iveness, willingness to try new things, improved ability to identify/ignore/avoid negative people. Apparently as a thinner person I am not such a (pardon me) softy. I get more respect.

The improved wardrobe is a plus. Particularly the leggings. 🥳

It's complicated because I know my weight issues are tied to being overweight in childhood, and being called fat by my grandmother, aunts, overhearing boys at school comment on my weight (I went to a small private school where everyone was very thin). I was raised to attach value to size, and the crazy thing is I wasn't really very heavy! I think I weighed 160-170 in high school? I was like a size 14 or so, but I felt enormous. For context I'm 5'4" and I'm not 48 (grew up in the 80s).

I have struggled with my weight my whole life, between 185 (13 years ago) at my heaviest to my lowest which is the past 6 months where I have been maintaining at my goal at 119-124. I have vacillated over the past 12 years between 160-130. I do this in part because I get really depressed and down on myself when I'm overweight which I feel is actually an issue I need to work on because I know it's tied to my issues from childhood. I also LOVE how I look and feel right now - I'm lean and strong and I look amazing in clothes. I am stronger and more fit than I was in my 20s and 30s which makes me happy.

I also don't like feeling out of control, and I get out of control around food, so logging my food and monitoring my weight allows me to feel control, especially during this pandemic when there is so little we can control. So long story, it's complicated, but I know I am happier when I'm healthy and strong and in control.

I was a personal trainer for 4 years. I became obligated to being fit for all the wrong reasons. I stopped working out for years and managed to put on over 50 lbs. I am 32 and my doctor wants to put me on cholesterol meds. I need to get a grasp on my health and find the passion I had for fitness years ago on my own terms.

Health is the big one. Both of my parents are obese with Type 2 diabetes that 100% could have been avoided. At least one of my grandparents also had Type 2, one of them died from complications from it. My fiance's dad died from a heart attack in his 30s. I don't want to be them, and I got sick and tired of feeling like crap all of the time.

Vanity is the other reason, because sure, of course I'd like to at least be closer to conventionally attractive. Not sure that requires further explanation.

I've never been a healthy weight, so the process of losing 110 pounds (so far!) has been a weird ride of so many things becoming easier. Chairs are easier to sit in, tying my shoes is easier, I sleep better, I don't need to worry about weight limits on almost anything anymore, I have more endurance and flexibility and less pain. EVERYTHING is easier. Literally everything. Showering. Playing with the dog. Picking something up off of the floor. Picking MYSELF up off the floor. I could probably go on for days...

The other way of looking at it is:

What are your reasons for staying at your current weight?

Time is going to pass whether or not you are losing weight so what is the advantage of staying put? Worse. What is the advantage of gaining more?

Being heavy cost me so much and getting lighter has given me back so much.

stevehenderson776 wrote: »

Watching my Dad's obesity catch up with him over the last decade. Diabetes, knee replacements, sleep apnea, blood pressure. It was a real eye opener. So I decided I'd avoid that regrettable and completely avoidable outcome.

My 71 YO father has had a knee replacement and a shoulder replacement. He's probably 100 pounds overweight and has always complained about not being able to sleep. I hate that I'm using his life as a warning for what not to do, but he's an adult who has made his own choices.

I couldn't convince myself anymore that it was OK to stay fat, because after all I was pretty fit (objectively true) and that was more important.

Despite being athletically active, my blood pressure and cholesterol/triglycerides were high. My doctor was threatening statins, and I felt like I'd already given up enough cognitive bandwidth to chemotherapy (yup, cancer) and I didn't want to give up more. Then, severe, sudden heartburn and reflux led to gallbladder removal (not stones or sludge, adenomyomatosis), and the pathology report said it was an ugly, cholesterolized thing with holes riddled through it. Yikes. No malignancies in it, thankfully - they'd had to take it out to be sure.

Alongside that, I looked around me. Friends my age (59 then, 64 now) and younger who were severely overweight and inactive were mostly on multiple drugs (so complex side effects), couldn't eat/drink what they wanted (drug or medical contraindications), weren't able to do fun things that involved lots of walking or stairs (festivals, sporting events, museums, etc.), spent more money on drugs and health care, spent more money on services they could no longer do for themselves (or depending on their children and others), and more.

Meanwhile, friends my age and older who'd stayed fairly slim, active and athletic were spending their discretionary income on vaction trips, eating anything they wanted at restaurants, and able to do pretty much any activities they might choose. The latter group got sick less often, needed fewer surgeries, and recovered much more quickly from those they did need, with fewer complications.

Writing on the wall much? Yup.

These days, I think of it as balancing current Ann's wants (aaaalllll the yummy things) with future Ann's health and happiness. I want both current and future me to have as happy and healthy a life as I can reasonably manage. Balance. I'm in year 4+ at a healthy weight. It's great. I highly recommend it. I wish I'd done it decades ago. I was stupid.

No one gets guarantees, but we can certainly shift our odds.

1) health - I was fine, technically. All my bloodwork was in the right places, my weight didn't really prevent me from doing what I wanted, but reality told me that at my weight the chances were not good that I would continue to enjoy decent health as I got older and the consequences of that excess weight came to bear. Plus I seriously do not want to become diabetic and with insulin resistance from PCOS already affecting me, and after seeing my mother, father, and sister all become type 2 diabetics, knowing that diabetes runs in my mom's family, I knew my chances for it were high. And then there's the heart disease that runs in my dad's family, etc.

2) I was so tired of being the fat person in the room wherever I went. No one ever said anything, but it was like the pink elephant in the room. I avoided pictures because I knew what I looked like. I was tired of not being able to buy clothes off the rack, of having to be careful of chairs and ladders and other things for weight limits, of not fitting into booths, and just feeling over all embarrassed and ashamed because of my weight.


The thing is, those two reasons had been looming over me for years and I have tried and failed to lose weight since I was a teenage - the last 25 years. Why it suddenly clicked this time and I was actually able to find success? I have no clue. I think one thing that majorly helped was getting my thyroid levels way down, but other than that, I can't tell you what flips that successful diet and self control switch on and off. I'd love to know, though!