Who's motivated for health reasons?

I'm a recently diagnosed diabetic (About five weeks ago).  According to "the BMI charts" I need to lose 61 pounds to be at a healthy weight.  I'm already down 15.  I'm wondering if there are others who are motivated to lose weight for health reasons? 

I certainly am! My family has a history of heart disease and I want my as healthy as can be to try and sidetrack my genetics. :) I also want to be as fit and healthy as possible when I get pregnant in a few years. Being healthy would be the best thing for me during the pregnancy and during the birth. I also want my kids to be able to look up to me, not be embarressed. 

idahorose85.. I totally agree. I want to have kids a few years down the road and I want them to be healthy and look up to me.. but how can I expect them to love and respect their bodies if I don't respect mine? I also want to be able to run and play with them.. and not get winded in the first 2 minutes of "tag"...

I am definitely walking for health reasons. I will be 75 in a few days and walk daily 30-40 minutes. When I walk, I feel better physically, mentally and spiritually. I feel good about myself. Keeps me feeling younger and able to do the things I enjoy. I see many people my age who can no longer do much of anything. My lifelong motto has been to be the best that I can be and it hasn't changed.

Bett

Cancer. Was diagnosed and treated two years ago. Still in remission. According to my doctor, one of the very few things I can do to (slightly) influence staying that way is losing weight. Everthing I have read indicates that up to 1/3 of all cancers may be related to what we eat and obesity. So while my particular cancer was probably not directly linked to my obesity it might have been, and the risk for many other cancers, such as colon, breast, pancreatic is increased by obesity.

In a way.

I'm only 16 but my family have a lot of problems due to weight and the kind of foods they ate when they were younger - I'm also prone to an overactive thyroid when I reach middle aged, diabetes, cancers, etc so I thought that maybe if I start looking after myself whilst I'm young I can put those things off either until I'm older, or stop them all together.

I just joined this site and this is my first post, so I"ll  just copy what I put on my profile because that answers this question as well as anything:

I'm a 53 year old female who has a lot of health issues. I have Hepatitis C, Fatty liver disease, Fibromyalgia, Asthma, Irritable Bowel disease, Asthma, Chronic Major Depression and PTSD. I am a comfort eater, but I put a lot of weight on with the steroids I was treated with years ago. I also HATE exercise because it hurts so much. I also eat in my sleep!

My doc says I have to lose 70 lbs in a year in order for him to consider the treatment for my Hepatitis. This site won't even calculate that much weight loss that fast, so I'm just going to do it slower, as good as it can. I started out counting calories because that's what the specialist said I should do. I"m learning a lot on this site, and I have almosts 120 lbs to lose. I"m 5' 1" and 230 lbs. It's going to be a long hard road, and I know it. But it's really do, or die, so I do have some motivation.

I'm looking forward to making friends on this site, and hope that if anyone has anything in common with me they'll get in touch. Maybe we can help encourage each other.

I don't have anything physically wrong with me yet that I know of...

But on my Mom's side of the family, practically everyone died from heart disease, my first cousin died at age 27, my aunt in her 40's and they weren't even over weight! (My highest weight was 245, and I'm 5 foot 3 1/2 and I'm 39 years old.)

Also diabetes runs on my Mom's side of my family as well. My Grandmother had it. My Great Grandmother had it. A cousin had it. And other family members as well.

I was becoming very scared.

That's what motivated me to lose the weight.

I've already lost 76 pounds. And 54 to go to reach my goal of a healthy weight for my size.

Yup, me. I'm 30 and have had high blood pressure since I was 17 (however, I was NOT overweight at all when I was 17 so it's not necessarily linked) and really don't want to have any other problems.

My parents died at 52 and 57. I will live longer than them.