Why weren't you concerned about weight till now/recently?

ninerbuff · February 17

I train clients and love to hear their stories on what started them on their journeys. Everyone's story has a different reason to a point. What's yours?

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 40 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

sollyn23l2 · February 17

I didn't realize there was anything wrong with my weight, until one day I saw a picture of myself taken at work. It horrified me and made me realize I needed to change something. It took that feeling of absolute shock and horror to make a change.

Alatariel75 · February 17

I've always been concerned about my weight, I just generally couldn't find the right motivation or determination to do something about it.

Recently my life started going to hell, and finally getting healthy and mobile was an oasis of control and victory in a sea of chaos.

yirara · February 17

I never was. I was concerned with being able to work out. Turns out I have a congenital muscle condition, and all the working out did nothing. I still work out.

Lietchi · February 17

It had been 'brewing' in my sub/semi-conscious mind for a while - not feeling comfortable in my own skin, having a hard time finding clothes that fit/suit me, having difficulties enjoying holidays (hiking progressively harder to do). I had gained weight slowly but surely over 15 or so years since starting college.
I started by buying a well-known brand of diet pills (the ones that stop you from absorbing all of the carbs in your food), but never really got around to using them regularly.
Then I saw an ad for Noom on Facebook, which spoke to me - so I signed up. I enjoyed the start of it (different lessons each day), but when it came to having a coach assigned to me, I flaked - I really didn't want to be held accountable by some stranger, a stranger judging my motivation and actions...
But I liked the idea of tracking my food intake, so I looked for a calorie counting app (I wasn't that impressed by Noom's red, orange and green foods idea) and found MFP. And the rest, as they say, is history

I lost 75+lbs over 3 years or so, starting in 2019. And I'm also no longer a couch potato!

spiriteagle99 · February 17

I was a yoyo dieter most of my life, starting when I was about 12. I'd lose and regain 20-30 pounds, over and over. Because I was active, hiking and long-distance backpacking, I got in the habit of eating a lot without worrying about calories or nutrition. That didn't work well when I was working full time and less active. Fattening lunches out meant I continued to gain weight, which would lead to intermittent attempts to lose it as quickly as possible. I didn't really pay much attention most of the time, but occasionally I would see a photo of myself, freak out, and go on a diet to lose some of the weight I had gained.

When my husband and I retired, we spent the first 5 years traveling, doing a lot of hiking and backpacking and exploring the US and Canada. Thanks to too many restaurant meals on the road, I reached my largest size. When I realized I was going to need to go shopping (horrors!) and buy new clothes, I decided to get serious and lose weight so I could fit into my old clothes. At that point we were stationary again, so I could do all my own cooking and focus on eating better. I lost 35 pounds fairly quickly, eating mostly low carb, then decided to start running since we weren't hiking much any more and I needed the physical outlet to manage my depression. Over the next couple of years I lost another 20 lbs. and have maintained it by watching what I eat plus a lot of walking and running.

Corina1143 · February 17

Divorce - lost 40
Ex died - lost 50

nossmf · February 17

I knew I had gained weight while working a desk job, but hadn't really realized how much weight until my wife took a photo of me playing with our infant daughter. The photo was a side-profile which showed my shirtless gut resembling how her gut looked pre-birth. She thought it was hilarious, I was horrified.

It was at about this time I left the military and was having trouble finding a civilian job, savings wouldn't keep food on the table forever, was getting very snappish at kids just being kids. The photo proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back, except instead of sending me into a total self-destructive spiral it did the opposite, drove me to fix myself first. Used precious savings money to join a gym, researched online until I found MFP to handle the calories side of the equation, poured all my frustration and aggression into fixing me. Worked, too, because I regained the peaceful equilibrium at home, my body image and self-image improved drastically, and found a job I've enjoyed ever since. That was 15 years ago, and at age 47 I'm better than ever.

ngagne · February 17

I was always healthy and in shape. After my first kid, I bounced back relatively well. After my second kid.... my 2nd was born in the beginning of covid. In my location (not USA), everything actually closed. We weren't even allowed to leave our houses except for once a day for an hour for "mental health" walk in our area, and we could not walk or interact with anyone else either.
So after my 2nd child's birth, I just didn't do much of anything. I never lost the pregnancy weight, and with the forced "hermit", I didn't try.
As things started relaxing.... I was just comfortable. I was happy with my family and life - and there's so many overweight people everywhere that seem happy and fine with it - I didn't think it was a big deal to be alittle 'pleasantly plump' (I am 5'5 and was about 175 for most that time.). I was just like everyone else.
I always told myself I'd go back to healthy weight, but just never really tried. That false sense that everything was fine since everyone else does it....
I ended up getting a spine injury. The medications further spike my blood pressure. Losing weight helped reduce the pain from the injury and is helping reduce my blood pressure back to a normal range.

So after 4 years of being overweight... I learned I can't be fat and happy. Because me being healthy matters most to me (healthy = happy), and I'm sort of mad at myself for not having known better that you can't be fat and healthy, despite how much in America that idea is told to us that you can. (I'm born and raised American, and we still typically get all our news and television and culture from America)

megd44 · February 17

Went from obese to slender in my early-mid twenties, literally decades ago. Kept it off until early onset menopause in my early 40s (hence my mfp name) and came here and got it back off until I quit smoking in 2023. I focused on that first, then the weight I had gained.

This time around, I am taking a very different approach and listening to many experienced folks about sustainability. Taking me longer to lose, but have confidence that I'll keep it off this time.

isaiah22603 · February 18

I had blood work done and I’m 42 3 grown kids and I clean houses for a living and come home tired and just wanted to watch tv and eat. The results read high cholesterol and pre diabetic!!! I’m ready to do something different and need this app and
Community for help

ElfBodGoals · February 19

Always been worried, I was ignoring how I felt because there's no quick way out of it and most of my friends are also fat and get upset if I talk about weight loss... but I kept gaining. Now I'm mad. I want to lock in. I kinda want some already fit friends to throw into the mix so that I've got people whose feelings aren't hurt when I drink water and don't complain when I run across a crosswalk.

PAV8888 · February 20

"Why weren't you concerned about weight till now/recently?"

There is a difference between concerned, between believing you can do something about it, doing something about it, and doing something EFFECTIVE about it.

I mean my recent starting point is now ~11 years ago. So recent is relative.

But I had tried a few times to lose weight/lost weight/regained it. So was I concerned? Sure. But I didn't really believe that I could do something about it. Especially something that would work long term.

You may have had individual examples of people successfully losing weight through your work @ninerbuff. But from where I was sitting everyone I knew who had lost weight (relatives, friends, myself) had regained it in short order. HAES was also becoming more popular in the 2008-2013 time frame. Which seemed to reinforce that losing weight was impossible.

So. What do you do if you don't actually believe that you can change something? Do you worry about it? Is that what you spending your time concerning yourself with? Or do you optimize within the horizons of possibility that you perceive?

To some degree change requires something. Anger? Discomfort? Something to prod you out of your day to day routine. If you are happy watching 6 hours of TV a day... why would you want to change that? And why would you not seek to optimize your happiness within the parameters of what you perceive as possible?

work. entertainment. good food. company of friends. no movement other than a once a week "long walk" with the dog for 40 minutes to an hour (but of course have a dog walker walk the dog the rest of the time because you do recognize the dog needs walking but not that you do)

At ~48 I was actively avoiding doing things that required exertion... because I felt I couldn't do them. The funny thing is that my friends who I told this to didn't actually believe me. They thought I was being dramatic or silly when I turned down the zip-lining, river rafting, leisurely cycling, hot air balloon and even shopping or museum "excursions".

And then one day I asked myself what was it that I would do if and when I retired. And I had to honestly conclude that if I could not or would not do most things that involved being out of the house when I was 48.... why the **kittens** did I think that I would be able to do them after I retired in my 60's?

In late 2013 had been playing with step counting apps on my phone and was realizing that there were multiple days that I would literally not even hit 1000 steps in a day.

So I started up with the goal of improving my "athletic" performance. Trying to hit at least 2000 steps every day... before even "officially" starting). And by 2014 I decided to go "all in"

Success would be a "full month without a single day with less than 5000 steps". It took me three months to get that one in the bag! Probably dropped 5 to 10lbs while doing it.

By April I decided that maybe "I will try to lose some weight this summer".
By October/November I was ready to give up.

Because after some success in the summer and minimal/non regain traveling in September, I was doubling down by October and losing a lb a day and could not see how I could possibly continue eating and moving like that for the rest of my life.

Yes. That dumb.

I had to be told that hitting 10,000 steps as a minimum was not being sedentary.

I had to figure out that people who maintain their weight don't eat at multi-thousand Cal deficits and so I COULD actually eat food that was satiating as opposed to just making "well known diet choices" and eating the least I could while moving the most I could and it would still work.

I had to actually "model" what eating at goal might actually look like in order to start perceiving it as normal and not get lost in a fog of diet food to lose weight.

So I don't know that people are not "concerned" or have not been "concerned'. But, if they don't see the possibility of a win they may not have place the whole thing on their daily radar.

Being told that keto could save me (standard information for 10+ years of doctors visits) was not helpful given that I literally knew several people who had lost weight (and regained it) following the Atkins diet.

So. Sometimes knowing that something is possible is a requirement. Which is where MFP came in a bit more than 10 years ago. It even has people who successfully keep to a ketogenic diet, even if I don't!

I was BMI 43(+). Have been below BMI 26 for 9+ years. Have been as low as BMI 23 in that time frame. And as high as BMI 26 on a rebound from that. But most of the time, including now, I am around BMI 24. And I remain very active. With "average step counts for the year" in the 17 to 19,000 range. Up by a bit from when I was actively losing. And yes, my daily routines HAVE changed. Because new interests are more important to me than older ones.

AnnPT77 · February 20

I wasn't an overweight child, but gained a bit in adolescence, probably around the upper end of normal BMI, but not much muscle so a bit squishy at that weight for my build. The only previous time in adulthood that I was at what I'd consider a good weight for me was in college, and just a bit beyond: Very physical job, walking/biking lots daily for transportation on a big university campus. Once I graduated and got a desk job, I gradually gained weight, highest probably mid-high in class 1 obese range, BMI 32-33.

I didn't diet much, let alone repeatedly yo-yo. I had a stressful, long-hours sedentary IT job, grad school classes in addition to job for a few years, and more: My attention was elsewhere than on my weight. I was episodically somewhat active, but never consistent.

Eventually, I got breast cancer, stage III, locally advanced - a type more likely if overweight. After cancer treatment, I realized that if I ever wanted to feel strong, energetic, maybe even happy again, I'd need to work at it. I took a couple of community education yoga classes, then weight lifting, tried a few other things, gradually increasing consistent activity level. A couple of years in, there was a breast cancer survivors rowing team forming, and I joined. I got addicted to rowing, joined the local club, too. Soon, I was training pretty hard 6 days most weeks, even competing, and not always unsuccessfully in age-group racing.

I didn't lose weight. I did get much fitter - kind of the semi-mythical pretty-fit fat woman: Resting heart rate in the low 50s, enough endurance to row in multiple races in a day or row for around 5 hours daily at rowing camps, etc. Eventually, I actually got smaller - recomposition - but still didn't lose weight.

I was able to convince myself that being fit was more important for health than being at a lower weight, and believed that yo-yo-ing was worse for health than staying at the heavier weight (both of which may have some truth to them). I was already a pretty healthy eater, too: Long-term vegetarian, not a fast-food eater, lot of whole grains and veggies/fruit . . . just too big portions, and some calorie-dense foods in the mix.

Eventually, my doctor's increasing insistence that I take a statin for high cholesterol led me to try various dietary interventions and supplements, with minimal results. I didn't want to take the statin, because I figured I'd given up enough cognitive bandwidth already to chemotherapy. So, finally I committed to losing weight. Shortly into that process, I had a scan that showed my gallbladder looked iffy - adenomyomatosis that could be masking gallbladder cancer. When they took it out, it was an ugly, thickened, cholesterolized thing with actual holes in it. (Fortunately, no cancer.) That pretty much cemented my commitment to get cholesterol under control.

I rough-estimated calories for a while, then joined MFP when rough counting became unpredictable. That was perfect: A fun, productive science-fair experiment for grown ups, where I got to eat the maximum possible number of calories of yummy food that I could, while still giving my future self a chance to be healthy and happy, too. I thought menopause and hypothyrodism would make loss super hard, but it was surprisingly much simpler than I expected, too.

Now 9+ years at a healthy weight, after about 30 previous years of overweight/obesity, still athletically active and fairly fit for a li'l ol' lady of 69, still eating mostly healthy food, and with cholesterol/triglycerides my PCP literally called "phenomenal".

ninerbuff · February 20

This stories are so great to hear and likely inspire many who are apprehensive about trying to lose weight themselves. Keep em coming.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 40 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

elisa123gal · February 20

I, like many of you, have lost and gained the same amount of weight over and over in my lifetime. For me.. my scream weight gain is 20 to 30 pounds. I've noticed we all have our upper limit as I read posts.
So..this time what does "concern" me ( instead of losing weigh to look my best and feel good).. is my acquired knowledge about the health dangers of visceral fat and insulin resistance. Those facts scare the crap out of me. Especially, as I am now older. And.. it is a drag..but so much more can go wrong in the older years of life. So, I am motivated to get rid of my mid section fat to ward off health complications. This is simply a harsh reality.
For those who are young..and wanting to get a revenge body ... I'm super jealous. I long for those times. ha.

ninerbuff · February 22

For me I'm about to leave the US this year due to retirement and want to live in the Philippines where life is more easy and free and IMO safer and less volatile. But I'm going to be on a beach with a gym as a business, so I NEED to at least look the part and want to see if I can get in to contest shape again without having to do a contest!!! So till the end of Novemeber, I'm shooting for a low of 175lbs which I haven't been in like 20 years.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 40 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Why weren't you concerned about weight till now/recently?

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