What made you want to lose weight???

Hello,

I'm new to this website but I love it...I'm 5'6 and weigh 178...I saw a commercial on tv on the 15th of sept. about the 50 million pounds challenge and then I decided to go online and check it out...when I checked my BMI it was at 30.02 and said I was "OBESE" I wanted to die I did not sleep that night and that's when I decided to make a change in my life...I have always been skinny until I had my boys (2) since then I have not done anything to make myself go down to the size that I want...really I have not done anything!!! me and my husband always thinking about food I mean every time I cooked we were already talking about what to eat the next day...how sad....but when I saw that word "OBESE" I said no way...and I started my life changing plan..I eat healthy, count calories and don't eat after 4-5 pm... I started at 187 lbs. and have lost 9 in my first two weeks..and I'm LOVING IT...please share your stories with me and if you want advice I'm here for you!!! 

My desire for weight loss is simple...I want to get pregnant again.  I have PCOS and insulin resistance issues and conceiving is extraordinarily difficult, as is losing weight.  So I am working my tush off and trying to diet within the constraints of the glycemic index to promote fertility.

I decided that I didn't like the excess fat around my stomach.  Its not much.

Coupled with that, I want to be healthier in order to perform better in swimming. 

i have been been overweight the last 8 years of my life, i too am considering pregnancy and want to be fit and in shape so i can have a healthy baby and show my children how to live a healthy lifestyle not one of binge eating when your emotionally unstable.  Also a healthy lifestyle to include exercise is good for depression, which is something i suffer from. that and i'm just sick of being fat.

My goals are a little vain, I have to admit haha. I moved to Hawaii recently and decided the extra gut my partying days gave me has got to go. Can't be parading around in perpetual summer at the beach without feeling good about myself. In addition, I'm an active person and believe losing 15 pounds will really help me in sports. Plus there's just something fulfilling about eating healthy and exercising. Its like giving money to a charity... I just feel like its the right thing to do.

pmorgan i am about to move to Okinawa Japan, roughly same climate as Hawaii, i too want to look good in a bathing suit all year round.

seeing the picture on my profile [the "before" shot], basically.

and.. wanting to fit into cute little shift dresses like the mod I should be, I admit.

My wife and I decided to join the YMCA this summer.

My motivation is that I have a hard time with the summer heat. I love to walk and I feel terrible if I don't get enough activity. I tried to walk really early in the morning, but for me the summer is an indoor event.

In the YMCA we did an introduction class and I learned that i should monitor my heart rate. This was an eye opener for me, since I realized now the difference between walking in the neighborhood and exercising.

I don't want to sound arrogant, but the weight loss started as a side effect of my exercise. And I got so excited about it, that it surprises even me. Now I'm all interested in excrcise and weight control. My BMI is now 25, my weights hasn't been this low in probably 20 years. The next step is a BMI of 24.

Also, I have done some online research for dieting and I have decided that I would not pay for diet programs. This caloriecount web site makes sense to me, and I like it more every day.

I've had a severe weight problem all my life. I've been very lucky though and I never endured a lot of the hardships that many fat people have. I was never overly teased or struggled to make friends. I played sports, I was popular and happy all through school. I'm not going to say I was never teased, I was and it hurt like hell. But it was never what some people have been through.

Anyway, I'm at the point where I'm thinking that I would like settle down and meet someone special and I eventually want to start a family. I cannot picture me doing all those things fat. I actually can't even seem to meet a guy, so there is some vanity involved as well.  Along with that thinking I worry about my health after spending a lifetime being obese. So I need a life change in order to move on to the next phase of my life. I'm a young professional and I finally am ready to be a grown up, just not a fat one.

At about 5'6" and 185 lbs, I had started making some minor changes to my diet and activity because I knew I was overweight and pushing it. It didn't bother me that much though. Then I saw a group picture of me and my co-workers and I didn't recognize myself. It was crazy!

I knew that it was time to step it up!

I have lost 20lbs so far. But I am most excited that I can run a 5K in 38 minutes without feeling like I just got hit by a freight train. And my upper body strength has significantly improved.  And I eat much more healthily. And my acne even cleared up somewhat.  

I'm right chuffed....

"Also, I have done some online research for dieting and I have decided that I would not pay for diet programs. This caloriecount web site makes sense to me, and I like it more every day."

My thoughts exactly!

There is a picture in my gallery on this website that seriously brought me back to reality and encouraged me to make a change.

My philophy: If I don't like the situation, change the situation. If that's not possible, change the way I feel about the situation.

 

I know many people who have to check their weight everyday. Well, I have the opposite problem. I'm always afraid to see how much I weigh, so I could go for months not knowing what my actual weight was.

After a summer of eating crap food without a thought and (shamefully) not exercising at all, I finally decided to take a peak at the scale. At the beginning of September I was up to 174 lbs. Something inside of me snapped and I decided that I can't do this anymore.

Luckily, very soon after I made this decision, I found this wonderful website. I'm just about a month into my "lifestyle" change (not a diet!) and I've never done this well! Thanks to the tools set up here and the great support system, I'm on my way to transitioning to a healthy lifestyle.

I'm still afraid to look at the scale on my weekly weigh-in day, but once I get over the fear and look - I actually like what I see!

- i felt like crap
- almost weighing as much as my s.o.
- that obese thing too
- saw a picture
- hated shopping
- family health risks that related to wt

a ton of things...and also...i wanted to prove the whole "once your fat thats it! it will never come off and dieting is too hard at that point" thing wrong. i wanted to see if i could do it.

when i moved in my house their was and still is a huge mirror on the back of the door. at 190 lbs. i took one look at myself and said "I need to change"...however it did take six months for me to actually get started...now i'm 117...and feel great when i look in that mirror.

Seeing pictures of myself on a projection screen as a member of friends' wedding party. There was no hiding. It was all the motivation i needed to lose some post surgery weight and the pounds I'd put on in my first few years teaching.

I've always been on the chubby side, and to tell you the truth, I have no clue why I didn't do anything about it even though I was constantly self-conscious about it. I guess it was because it never really was a probably for me back then (I was a bit of a nerd, and still is), that is, until one of my "friends" started poking my stomach and squeezing my arms while saying "ooo, pudgy" in her oh-so-sweet voice. Yeah, she really got to me. Then, that summer, I decided to stop eating meat, stop eating junk food, get some exercise, lose the fat, show her that I can become just as skinny as she is (if not skinnier) and see what she else she'll have to say about my weight.

The funny thing is, after I got back to school, I took another good look at her and realized that, hey, she wasn't as skinny as I thought.

My doctor told me rather rudely that i need to lose weight.

But what really made me do it was when i saw some photos of me recently, i didn't like what i saw, and i want to get back to the size i was when i met my boyfriend, i was happy then

.... because none of my clothes fit.... because I don't recognize myself when I look in the mirror..... because I want to be me again.. to go back to the time when I was fit and hot and had to beat the men off with sticks!! lol!!!

I got married.  I felt even more pressure to look good now that I had to keep the attention of one man, and keep his attention off other women for the next 50 plus years.

I can't say I had a single epiphany moment.  Getting out of an unhappy relationship and realizing that none of my clothes fit anymore was the first tip off, but even after that it took some time before I seriously committed and became entrenched in a healthy lifestyle.  What keeps me motivated now is how much it has improved my running (I actually placed in a race last weekend...I was shocked...), how much more energy I have, and how much more fun clothes shopping is now!

I can definitely relate to the "obese" thing.  And I refuse to have my picture taken because I know what the picture will look like! 

My youngest just went off to college a few weeks ago.  Since I've been a single mom for the last 14 years, I've never had time to focus on me.  I was always grabbing fast food going from one event to another.  Now that I have a little more time, I've started cooking at home more, even taking lunches to work rather than grabbing fast food (and I'm saving money to boot!!!)  I've lost 5 lbs. in 10 days.  Only 45 more to go!!!!

And probably the most important reason for losing weight is because of the lifestyle we have lived, my daughter is having some of the same weight issues.  I want to be a good, healthy example to her so hopefully she doesn't fall into the "freshman 15" trap (or what turned out to be the college 50 for me!)