What made you start dieting?

For me it was my two older cousins being pregnant. I want to have a child more than anything but I don’t have a guy and I’m way too fat to have one. I was on my bed trying to sleep at 2 am and thinking about my cousins and realizing I’m 23 and wasting my life away so I suddenly woke up, turn on my computer, searched for a diet book and bought the south beach diet book and exercise DVD. The next day I found this site and realize cc is really good and 9 weeks and 19 lbs lost later I’m happier than ever and actually eating better than before and never hungry. If I had know I would feel this good dieting I would have done it a long time ago.

So what’s your story?

I just flat out told myself "I want to be healthier."

I looked at a picture of myself and couldn't believe it.  Then, a week later, my friend and I were talking about "fat" woman who carry their weight well, and she said that I did.  That made me realize I was fat (not my doctors warnings or my hight bmi).  I'm always hiding my belly in clothing, and nothing fits right.  I have always been the skinnest in my family so it took me a long time to realize the effects of my overeating.  I have made a really commitiment to myself to get healthy and to feel good about myself once again.

A good (male) friend of mine lost a lot of weight, and I just woke up and realized this weight wasn't something I was stuck with, that I could lose it too.

I'd been maintaining for a number of years, so I figured if I could maintian how hard could it be to finally lose?

I'm not going to lie.  I've never been overweight.  But I like to be trim, and honestly when I eat healthy I feel awesome!  I have so much energy. I never dose off at work, I workout every day after work, and feel great a majority of the time! When I eat crap (try not too!) I feel like crap, sluggish and no motivation.  I'd rather make the most of my life everyday feeling good!

I'm 4'8 200lbs and I look I am huge this is the highest my weight has ever been.  So I had to do something and I been count calories for a week and I think I lost a pound(Yay me!!!!!!!!). Im making progress

For me it was a combination of things. I'm 23, single, and never been in a serious relationship. I was relatively happy with my body in high school, a pretty carefree person with lots of energy and the desire to go out with my friends all the time. I did stay single in high school; but that doesn't mean I lacked a date for the prom or didn't have fun on my weekends... ;-)

Then college happened. My parents divorced. I felt much like a small fish in a sea FULL of fish at the university. Everything in my life seemed to spiral downward all at once. The only thing that did NOT spiral downward was my weight. I ballooned from 135 to nearly 175.

It's packed on slowly in the last 5 years. But with the weight came me hiding out, avoiding social situations, and making up excuses as to why I couldn't attend a certain function.

I've finally had it. I'm sick of being embarassed about the way I look. I hate that I don't go shopping with my girlfriends anymore. I can no longer stand being disgusted looking into the mirror. And I just plain want to get healthy again!

I work at a middle school and we've just started a competition amongst employees to see who can drop the most weight by spring break. What a great motivator!!! We formed 5 teams of 4 people and paid $5 to join. Every Monday, the school nurse weighs us in for $1. And we pay an additional $1 for every pound we gain.The winning team gets the pot of the money (which will be about $400 even if no one gains weight the entire time).

The money isn't motivating me nearly as much as my obligation to the team. I don't wanna be "that one person" who brings the team down.

I'm happy to say we've weighed in 5 times and I haven't gained a single pound. In fact, I've lost 10 already!

It was when I was sick of binge eating everyday and feeling the guilt and disgust of myself. Feeling bloated, swollen and just plain icky.

The fact that none of my old clothes fit. The fact that people who saw me so thin at one time were noticing the massive weight gain. The fact that I no longer felt self worth or even attractive and would dress accordingly.

When I finally saw a picture of me in my new weight and was mortified and could not believe that girl was *me.*

The fact I wanted to be healthy again and feel proud of myself. Keeping on with that path I knew I never would.

My boobs gave me backache and I couldn't buy dresses without having them altered, and all the other bad things that come along with it.

I also wanted to take on the diet and lifestyle I'd been brought up with, but lost once I'd moved out of home. My mum is seriously into nutrition and health and I want to be able to look as amazing as my mum at 55!

A friend of mine lost weight and looked fantastic!  Honestly I didn't even think about losing weight until she lost weight and I thought if she can do it why not me?  Once I made up my mind I lost almost 20 lbs in about 4 months and have maintained since August.  I'd like to lose another 6 or so to bring me below 140 (I'm 45 and 5'6") which should get rid of the last lumps and bumps without looking haggard!

I just had my second child and had to go to a 6 week training course for work ( Military). There was a fitness portion of the course and I couldn't even do 10 push ups! True, I had just had a baby 8 weeks prior, but it still bugged me. I've been exercising and dieting gradually in the last 8 months, and have lost about 30 lbs.

More importantly I can do 40 pushups now!  Still look like a mushy, blubber-pot but it's slowly getting firmer.

Well it was a combination of things that made me finally get serious.  I've been overweight since the birth of my second child (don't ask, it was a lont time ago) but never really worried about it too much hubby loved me just as I was.  Every now and then I'd try some diet (Adkin or whatever) and I'd lose a little weight, but gain it all back.  I just liked things like french fries and pizza too much and I honestly didn't realize how fattening the meals I'd been preparing were.  It's been a long time since I was comfortable in public in a bathing suit, so I would just wear jeans and a tee shirt to the bearch.  Things started happening a couple of years ago when we went to St. Lucia.  I saw the pictures later and wondered who that fat lady was with my husband.  When we came back I did another half-hearted attempt at dieting, still failed.  I worked at a Radiology facility and lived in scrubs which hide a world of sins, so as long as I stayed away from a mirror I could be in denial that it wasn't too bad.  I quit smoking a year ago and gained 30 pounds but was still happily in denial.  Then I got an office job and needed "business casual" clothing.  To my dismay I had to buy them at the "Big Girls" store.  It was depressing but it still didn't motivate me to stay on the diet.  Then in June we had physicals for life insurance and I had to be weighed.  My 5'3" frame weighed in at 200 pounds and that did it.  I'm now down almost 38 pounds, lost all the weight from quitting smoking and this time I'm doing it.  We went to Key West over Halloween week-end and found men were starting to look at me again after all these years of being invisible.  Not that I want other men, but it's nice to be flirted with again!  I'm looking forward to wearing my bathing suit in public this summer for the first time since I got pregnant with my second child.

I have been upset about my weight for a while, but haven't really been motivated to do anything about it.  It has been a culmination of things that have forced me to realize that I HAVE to do something about my weight in order to be happy again.

I was always thin - until college.  When I went from 120 lbs to 140 lbs in college, I freaked out and lost almost all of it.  Now, over 2 years after college, I'm over 150 lbs - I'm 24 years old and 5'7".  I know I'm not HUGE - and that's what's always kept me feeling like it's not a HUGE deal to lose it.  However, this past summer I realized that I didn't wear a bathing suit even once.  I only wore shorts a few times - and each time I was so self-conscious the entire time. 

My boyfriend of four years is great and tells me I'm beautiful - however, he wants me to wear bikinis, shorts, and dresses... and, looking like this, I just refuse to do so.

We just returned from a trip to Las Vegas and I realized that I spent most of the trip looking at the other girls I saw with jealousy.  I was so angry that they could wear those dresses and that I would look terrible.  Then I realized - I could wear them too... I just need to lose about 20 pounds!

I started this weight loss journey at around 153 pounds, and last night's weigh-in said I am 149.8 lbs.  My goal is to weigh 130 for my birthday, April 30th... just in time for summer!  Bring on the bikinis & shorts!

I was watching The Biggest Loser last night and Michelle said something that keeps resonating with me each time I'm tempted by food: "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels."  I'm keeping that in mind, and I know I'll make my goal!

Original Post by silentdeadlyrose:

It was when I was sick of binge eating everyday and feeling the guilt and disgust of myself. Feeling bloated, swollen and just plain icky.

The fact that none of my old clothes fit. The fact that people who saw me so thin at one time were noticing the massive weight gain. The fact that I no longer felt self worth or even attractive and would dress accordingly.

When I finally saw a picture of me in my new weight and was mortified and could not believe that girl was *me.*

The fact I wanted to be healthy again and feel proud of myself. Keeping on with that path I knew I never would.

 That says it right there. When I was *normal*, I would at least try to wear cute clothes, (HEELS! Heeee!!) wear makeup, fix my hair, etc. But now that I've been this size for so long I just sort of gave up. I wear comfy tshirts and tennis shoes instead of the 15 pairs of sexy heels I have organized neatly in my closet. I only wear makeup and straighten my hair when it's a special occasion. It sucks. I miss feeling normal and happy.

I hit my all time high this summer. 201. On a 5'3" body, that was a bit much to handle. I'm down 16 lbs with another 44 to go. I feel so much better and happier knowing that if I can make it 16 lbs, I can make it 60. Yay me.  :)

I saw some beach pictures my wife took while I was playing with our kids in the sand.  What depression hit on the realization on how fat I had become.  I was overweight (at that time I was 235) and now I really knew it in picture form.

There was an article on MSN after logging out of my hotmail account a month later that detailed this old couple that lost 100 pounds together.   It detailed calorie counting and this special doctor that held their hands during the process.  All the formulas were there though for figuring everything out about what I needed daily in calories to function and what to cut to lose two pounds a week.   The next day, armed with this info and my new notebook (a small one to track foods) I found this site (when it was calorie-count.com).

I did well with CC... managed to get down to just under 200 pounds for the first time in 10 years.   But with a job change, serious new stress, and other complications I ended up in yet another unhealthy lifestyle.   Now I'm back under control.  I'm 218... so I didn't gain back all the weight... but I gained enough to add several months ahead of me just to get back to where I was.  I'm in it for the long haul now.

My guard is up against all the food temptations and critical responses I got before (one of my closests friends said I was looking emaciated (sp?) ... which really hurt my feelings pretty bad as I was still overweight at the time).

Now nothing is going to stop me from being healthy.

It was August 1st of this year and I was 174 pounds at 5"4. I woke up a bit too early to my liking but I couldnt fall back asleep. So I just sat there in my bed; lazy to get up and turn the t.v on.

I layed in my bed thinking "I can sleep through the entire summer or I can do something productive" (thats back when I thought googling stuff was productive). Nevertheless I found CC through sheer luck and I'm so so glad I did.

I'm sitting here 32 pounds lighter, with new goals, and still googling stuff. =]