What motivates you the most to loose weight?
Is it what other people might think of you? Is it a photo of you at your largest? Is it just that you want to be healthy, or live longer? or is it that you think people will like you better if you loose weight?
Being very honest for me it's to be healthy and because of what people might think of me.
Hoping to out - live my mother...she was only 54 when she passed from complications due to diabetes. Oh yeah and I love to shop for clothes and smaller "NORMAL" sized clothing is a lot cheaper than plus sizes!
~H~
Two reasons. I have pretty high cholesterol and a fatty liver, both of which are due to genetics, but weren't being helped at all with my crappy eating habits. Doctor told me I can certainly cut into the problem a bit by losing 15-20 lbs or so. Also, I used to be really slick with women and had no problem picking girls up whenever i wanted, but my face was getting chubby and my muscle definition was starting to get lost under a padding of fat. This made me lose my confidence, so regaining the confidence I had before is my other motivator.
I have several reasons:
1. Heart disease runs like a flooded river through my family, destroying everything in its path. I'm the only one who doesn't have to take medication for some variety of heart ailment - and I plan on keeping it that way.
2. I don't like getting winded doing simple things, like climbing stairs. By being in shape (and therefore also a bit lighter) I have the oomph to do what I want to, and as I get older that becomes more and more important.
3. My knees object to the extra weight. If I shed some, I might not have to wear knee braces when I dance (it's one thing to have to wear them if you're doing something like basketball, but it just looks pathetic when you go dancing).
4. I saw the toll being heavy took on my mother, and what it's doing to my sister. This shall not be repeated by me.
People like me fine whatever weight I am. Having been skinny for many years (undiagosed autoimmune disease), I think my friends think I'm better off now that I'm heavy, and to an extent they're right - I am healthier overall. There is, however, a tipping point, after which it's no longer an advantage to have put on weight; that's where I am now. Unlike one friend, who complains about her weight yet does nothing to change things, I intend to do what I need to in order to honor myself. The buck (or in this case, the pound) stops here.
I want to be healthier and blah blah blah but mostly two words.....cankle jiggle!!!! ick
Other people have always been complimentary: I lost the weight for me alone. I wanted to see if I could lose my slight pear shape and go hourglass. I think it suits my small frame. Oh, and it will help me avoid freaking out when I wear the Slave Leia costume to a sci-fi convention in September. 
But no, that last really wasn't the reason. 
Mostly, I wanted a frame that really complemented my muscle. And I wanted to start eating very healthy, and that naturally led to losing weight.
Well i am nineteen with two older sisters who are freaking skinny. and i also have a baby so i gained weight. i am a bigger frame then my sisters but in my family your fat goes straight to your stomach. its not about being skinny from head to toe. its mostly my stomach. i care a lot of what others think of me. my husband says he doesnt mind my stomach. but i do. i dont want him to touch it actually cause its chunky lol.
My clothes are a little tigher, I want to be able to wear tight shirts instead of those flowy ones that don't show what your stomach really looks like
My biggest motivation is that I want to look and feel healthy. I know I'm far too heavy for my height, and it's taking a toll on my joints. My ankles absolutely kill sometimes when I go down stairs!
Plus, I want to actually feel sexy for my boyfriend. He thinks I'm sexy already...but I want to feel that way too.
My motivation was to see if losing the weight would make me a happier person. However, I've realize that it really hasn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of my weight loss but it's not what I thought it would feel like... Maybe it's that it's been a rough week for me and I'm not in my happiest mood. I'm definitely working on improving myself on the inside in order to truly like my whole self!
On a positive note, I want to say Congrats to everyone for not only having the motivation to lose weight but to actually work hard for it! 
Its interesting to see the different reasons people lose weight. For me, I have a number of things that have motivated me this time around, and while many are similar to the reasons that I lost weight pre baby, I think the priority of those reasons has changed majorly.
So in order of importance, here are my motivations (the first two are somewhat interchangeable)
1. Be healthy so that I feel better both physically and mentally allowing me to be the best at whatever I do (being a mom, my job, etc.)
2. Be a healthy, fit mommy who sets a good example for my 2 year old daughter and teaches her how to live a healthy lifestyle so that she hopefully never has to struggle with her weight throughout her life, so that she never has to be the "fat" kid, and so that she hopefully learns how to love herself and her body for what it is and doesn't struggle too much with body image issues. I grew up that kid and wouldn't wish that on ANYONE. Unfortunately, my mom is naturally thin and had no idea how to help me and it wasn't until I reached my mid 20's that I was able to start to take control of my weight.
3. To get back to the weight I was at in my mid 20's before I got married and had a baby and stay there for good this time around!
4. Because I hate the way clothes look on me when I am heavy, but LOVE LOVE LOVE clothes shopping when I can go into a store and pick out sizes smaller than I ever wore when I was in high school!
5. So that I can be the "thin" sister/sibling. My brothers and my sister were all normal sized growing up and never had weight issues (my older sister was tiny as a teen), and I was always the "fat" one, although maybe a little petty, it is a nice feeling to not be the heavy sibling anymore... and to wear a smaller size than my sister! (yes, so there is still a little sibling rivalry)
6. So that I weigh less than my husband and can fit into his clothes. He is 5'10" and all of 132 lbs soaking wet and wears a 29" waist pants (has since he was 16 years old), and I have outweighed him (I am 5'4") since I met him. But, I now am JUST under his weight and I could easily slip into his clothes if I wanted to!
To get rid of my love handles, feel comfortable in everything I wear, and to look good/feel comfortable in my bikini!!!
Wow, vain much?
To look sexy, feel sexy and be sexy!
This isn't probably the best answer and not entirely my reason for loosing weight but one day I was with my sister-in-law and a friend and they were talking about weight. They were saying how they didn't worry about their weight and wouldn't unless they were like a size 12 and then they would freak out. You can imagine how I felt sitting there wearing my size 12's!! I have never forgotten that day and now that I have lost 31 pounds and getting really close to wearing a size 4, I intend to rub it in their face now that I AM THE SKINNY ONE.
And on the brighter side of things, I want to be healthy and energetic for my kids while they are growing up.
My friend managed to lose 60 lbs a few years ago, and to motivate herself she stuck a photo of herself looking very large on her fridge door. So everytime she went to reach for some fatty food in the fridge she would be reminded of the consequences.
A bit harsh on yourself, but it worked ...
;)
To beat out genetics and to get back to my weight before the hubby and I moved in together. I also want to feel healthier and more amped up to do my yoga practice.
Original Post by loislain:
Is it what other people might think of you? Is it a photo of you at your largest? Is it just that you want to be healthy, or live longer? or is it that you think people will like you better if you loose weight?
Being very honest for me it's to be healthy and because of what people might think of me.
As far as my experience runs, people do like you better if you lose weight. Maybe I know a lot of shallow people and work in a shallow profession, but I've actually heard people say as much...and the contrary for that matter.
More immedately, it's these clothes. Hell if I'm going to spend money to get new clothes in this economy. I'd rather slim down to fit the ones I already have.
I always get confused for an older age. I'm sixteen and people think I'm already in college. :[
Original Post by lovelybecca:
My motivation was to see if losing the weight would make me a happier person. However, I've realize that it really hasn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of my weight loss but it's not what I thought it would feel like... Maybe it's that it's been a rough week for me and I'm not in my happiest mood. I'm definitely working on improving myself on the inside in order to truly like my whole self!
On a positive note, I want to say Congrats to everyone for not only having the motivation to lose weight but to actually work hard for it!
I know so well what you mean. For years i assumed that the world would like me better if i was thin. And for years i was scared about losing weight to find out the world STILL doesn't like me. I linked size directly with happiness. And all previous attempts to lose weight failed spectacularly. When i started this journey last year i was in a much happier place. Emotionally a hell of a lot more stable. Now i lose weight because i want to see my 2 kids grow up and get married. I want to be a good example for them, i want to feel comfortable in my clothes and be able to buy something in a 'normal' shop instead of the specialist 'fatty' places.
But realising that skinny does nOT equal happiness was probably the biggest lightbulb going off over my head. And boy did that make me feel lighter already!
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