When did you realize you needed to lose weight
 

What made you gain the weight you did & when did you realize you wanted or needed to lose it? I think I have the ability to gain very easily & I love food! With three children there are cupcakes and yummy stuff everywhere. After the birth of my 4 yr old I kept the weight on & than lost it for about a yr than got pg with my last baby who just turned one & didnt lose it after his birth. Since Im done having babies :cry: I thought I really should lose weight--Im tired of hearing from my mother "your too pretty to be fat" - yep, :agree: she tells it like it is. My dh is thrilled that Ive stuck to this. Funny how they say your weight doesnt matter till you actually lose some :) I feel SO much better about myself though--I cant believe the difference! :dazzle:

BTW--I just hit the 20 lbs gone mark!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!

:Party:

I had been chubby my whole life. My mom used to buy my jeans in the husky section of the store when I was a child. Does that area even exist anymore or is the entire store considered husky now?

Anyways, one of the things that did it for me was finding a picture of myself holding my daughter in front of the castle at Disneyland. My wife picked it up and said that it was a good picture of her dad and we should put it in the album. She then realized that it was me and started to laugh. I realized then that if I didn't do something I would turn into yet another potbellied middle-aged man who sits on the park bench watching his kids play rather than running, climbing and jumping with them.

A few weeks later, a friend told me about Atkins and loaned me his copy of DANDR. That was 14 months and 67 pounds ago and I feel better now than I did when I was 18.

Family photos did it for me and the fact that my clothes were shrinking "damn dryer" --- it's not me, it's not me. After that denial phase, bought the Atkins book, read it over the course of the weekend, went shopping and that was that.

Vikki

A supplier asked me if I was "with child" - soooo humiliatiing - she's overweight herself and I think she did it on purpose to make me feel bad...also I had quit smoking 9 months before, had gone through a depression and a vit. B12 defficiency - was already overweight when I quit and then gained at least 30-40 more pounds - I think I've probably lost the "smoking" weight, now have to get serious about reaching a proper weight. Just basically disgusted with myself and was ready finally to do something about it. Another supplier mentioned she has been lo-carbing for years, I researched it and here I am!

When I looked at a picture of myself, and realized WHOA... I am bigger than I like. Same as Vikki, the dryer kept shrinking my clothes... only been LC for 4 days, down 11 pounds. (a lot of water I am sure). Feeling good... it's just the beginning.

Oh yeah. I forgot. I also found out my wife was cutting the tags out of the new pants that she bought me because my 36s were getting too tight but I would refuse to buy 38s. Just slid into a 30 today with a little room to spare. Damn, that feels good.

Yep, my mom bought me the husky jeans too...I was a plus size 16 in the childrens department at age 10. I went on my first diet (counting fat grams) at age 11 and lost 15 pounds...it felt great! Slowly gained it back but since I was growing taller I never looked as heavy as I had been even though the weight came back. After I had packed on too much as a teen I tried eating low-fat again but it never made me lose weight again. I tried diets off and on in high school but they didn't really work or I didn't stick to them very long. I did Atkins my senior year of high school and worked out a lot. I was looking good but lost more inches than pounds...discouraged at not losing a lot of "weight" on the scale I quit. Within the next year I gained 25 pounds eating anything and everything I wanted. After seeing pictures of myself from a recent family vacation I realized I could do better. Also, my BMI was at a high level. The day I got back I started by just cutting back and taking walks. Then I started Atkins and have been with it since. !7 pounds in 4 months baby! Wahoo! I am feeling good.

Insurance Tables don't lie
 

My DH and I purchased term life insurance in March. I was quoted a rate of $380 but after the results of my blood work came in, the rate was $708! My fasting blood sugar was 125 and my total cholesterol, while not too, too bad at 229, had an awful HDL/LDL ratio that put me in the high risk category for heart problems. I worked in IT at Prudential in the late 70s and although I didn't pick up much about insurance I do remember that their tables don't lie. If they say you're a high risk, you are.

I was uncomfortable at 189 and couldn't stand how I looked but it took being scared to get me on track. I got down to 185.5 by cutting back on my carbs and then stalled for two weeks. Reread Atkins and started end of April at 185.5

Now my blood sugar is 95, my total cholesterol is 199 and my ratio puts me in the low risk category. I feel wonderful and my only semi complaint is all the extra skin on my face. I never had wrinkles before and now I look like a Sharpei. :lol:

Barb

I gained weight after I got married and then more with each baby, except the last one. The last time I was 40 yrs old and developed gestational diabetes and was put on a special diet and later insulin and ended up weighing less than I when I got pregnant! That soon changed when I was told I could go back to a "normal" diet after my son was born. I quickly put on all the lost weight and then some.
I decided I had to do something when my mother called to tell me that my aunt and uncle weren't doing too well. They both have diabetes (my grandmother died from diabetic complications when I was quite young), both have had to have their knees replaced, both overweight, and now my aunt was having heart problems. I decided that that was not what I wanted to happen to me. So here I am.

Several co-workers were having success on this diet, and I figured I'd give it a whirl. I didn't expect this kind of success, nor did I expect it to be this easy and enjoyable. I thought it would be like every other diet (low-fat) that I'd tried. Was I ever surprised!

How did I gain it: I packed on way too many pounds with each pregnancy. I ate high-carb and was always hungry. No, ravenous. Like an alien appetite machine crawled inside my body.

When did I realize that I needed to lose weight? When I stepped on the scale and saw the number 235. I realized that number was twice my high school weight. I looked in the mirror and did not recognize the person looking back at me.

I have always been " heavy" ...my dads side of the family had the big thighs...the big butts....and my moms side had the big boobs..lol...I got both...lots of curves...but way too many for my liking :)

Then when my DH turned 40 we had a big party at his sisters...well when the pics came back..man I LOOKED so fat...I was so dissapointed in myself...I never really got serious til March this year...but Im SO glad I did....as of today I have lost 83 lbs.. I never thought It could happen to me...only 33 more to go....

I have a group of English friends who get together for lunch every Friday. One week, two of them said they were starting a low carb diet. What a pain, I thought!! Now we will have to make special wierd diet meals! Yuk! O.K I thought, I'd better read the book and see what it's all about.What a revelation. I saw myself on every page. Could this be the reason I was so overweight, even though I ate what was supposed to be a healthy low fat diet? That was on June 16th and I've lost 31 pounds so far. Yay!! One of the other gals lost 25 and one can't stick with it and hasn't lost any. Best book I ever read. Thanks Dr. A.

I put on weight when I got married to my first husband (who was 13 yrs older) at 19. Went from 130 to 200, and there weren't even any children born. At first I think it started because I was in college at the same time, working almost full time, and was expected to be a traditional wife. It was easy to cook pasta casseroles or those frozen meals or bring home a pizza from the restaurant I worked at. After college, I think it was mostly due to being in an unhappy and loveless relationship. We both put on a lot of weight. THen we decided to try marriage counseling, and he said that I had changed and made myself fat, AND made him fat too!! That made me so mad, that the next day I went on Atkins. He tried it for a few days then decided he was too stressed to diet and that I was causing the stress. Needless to say that the marriage ended, but I stuck to the plan until I lost about 40 pounds. I maintained after that just because of all the crazy stuff I was going through. Last year, I put on 20 because I went off Maintenance for a bit. I have since been back to it while pregnant and feel great. Once I am back to normal, I am planning to go gangbusters all the way to my goal of 140.

I have always been heafty. Poor nutricion as a child, poor self esteem, and not enough exercise.

When I was tryign to concieve my first child I was diagnosed with endo. I had to go on a high dose BC pill for 6 months strait. I gained about 30 pounds then. As soon as I stopped taking the BC I got pregnant, so there was more weight on.

When my son was about 1-2 I got my divorce. After that I was having problems cooking for 1 and would get ocnvience foods (I still miss tortini pizzas cooked in microwave until gooey). I got to a point I was just disgusted with myself.

I went on a LF diet and worked out like crazy. I got down to about where I am now. I would have 0 fat on some days, though I would try to keep my protien up.

That summer I started working full time and had no chance to workout. I was absolutely exausted at the end of each day and wasn't gainign weight, although I was participating in the once a week company breakfasts of all kinds of goodies. Silly me I thought I was just exercising enough at work to maintain. It was later that summer I found out I was preggie with #2 :P

I gained around 40 pounds with my second pregnancy. After I had the baby I returned to working out, though less then before, and eating LF. The weight would just not budge though, and I was getting severly depressed after having a small taste of being a healthy weight.

I first read the Zone and was going to start with that. I found a copy of DANDR though, which led me to thier web site. I decided to give Atkins a go from the web site until my Zone books arrive. I had such success with Atkins in the begining though, I decided to stick to it :)

I have been chubby since I was 15ish. Prior to that I was into a lot of sports. When we moved, I became sedentary and was depressed. I believe I used food as my comfort. In high school I was happier, but no more active and while I had many friends the depression was still there. I partied a lot and ate terribly. At 17 I became pregnant and lost 25 Lbs. the first 2 mos. The doctor told me that I was harming my baby and that I had to eat, eat , eat. So I did, I ate myself up to 235 Lbs. by the time my daughter was born! After that to yo-yo began until this year, at my highest (known) weight of 318, I told myself that I needed to put all my excuses behind me and wake up. I tried weight watchers for a couple months, and the points system didn't work for me. Mostly due to the fact that if I am "allowed" to eat my 5 points worth of Doritos, I will! So frustrated and starving from not eating right, I went on a huge binge. I fell into a major rut. I needed help so I went to my Dr. He decided my problem was something requiring an anti depressant and that was his band-aid for me. Well, I didn't lose weight and I became more frustrated. I stopped taking the pills and decided to give Somercising a whirl. I still can't handle all the carbs you can have on her program but it did condition me for the leap into Atkins. So here I am.
If I wanted to be around for my kids, and able to be an active part of their life, I NEEDED to be healthier. I have great success and feel tremendously better about myself and life in general now. I joined Curves and work out 5x a week, and I can't get enough of the great feeling I have now.

I always thought I was fat, my friends when I was younger were all really really thin (size 2 small) so I looked big next to them. I was not that big (size 7 or so). I was always active in school, cheerleading, volleyball, etc... When I moved out and got married, I stayed active and worked, then I got pregnant... I gained 62.5 pounds my first pregnancy and never really lost it all. I got busy, we bought a house we both worked, cheap easy meals are a carb nightmare, but what did I know. Then i got pregnant with second child and lost it, got depressed... gained weight... got pregnant with last baby and didnt gain much, but never lost it. when the youngest was about 5 years old, I had a bout with kidney stones and spent alot of time in and out of hospitals and having surgeries, was on a liquid diet for a while and a lot of drugs... when that episode was over I woke up and found myself smaller than I had ever been, even in school. I started eating healthy (so I thought) and enjoyed feelling that good about myself. My DH commented that I ate less than him, how was I gaining weight... he wanted to gain weight. I hadnt noticed, so I cut back even more on food and excercised...gained more... 2 years ago I had a hysterectomy and that was it for me, right back to were I was before the "big loss" I tried everything I knew to take the weight off but nothing. I would look at pictures of myself and be disgusted, I avoid the front of a camera at all costs. I would always say, I take horrible pictures but that is what I looked like...horrible.
One day at work, 5 of us made a bet about losing weight... whoever lost the most in a month won the pool. I was talking to another girl that had recently lost some weight rather quickly and she told me atkins... i was thinking that I think that is bad for you if you are on it a long time, but what will a month hurt...
well almost 4 months later I am into the second phase of the atkins diet, losing weight still and feeling better about myself than I have in a long time.
Oh, and by the way, I won the bet at work, and they have all gone off their "diets" and some are even bigger than when they made the bet. When they are ready to come over to the light, I will welcome them with open arms!!!

It was seeing family pictures that did it for me. Especially video. I know that the camera adds pounds, but this was out of control! I still can't stand to have my picture taken, but at least I'm looking better in them now.

It is going to sound funny but I woke up fat, I looked at myself in the mirror and seen rolls,a double chin and no space between my thighs and I was getting dressed for work one morning. I ask my then husband how long I had been this way. He bluntly said to me well you have been fat for years now (we had been married 10 when I "woke up")

I guess working years in resturants and living off of 1/2 price food on the buffet and steak fries could have something to do with the gain. 90 lbs in 10 years WOW! At that point I went on low-fat plus went through a divorce and lost bunches. Got happy with the help of Zoloft and a piece of paper with judges signature on it and all the sudden the low-fat stopped working plus I was begged to stop Metabolife shhhh : - X and now here I am, reading your stories and giving you mine.. Hi I'm Brenda and i'm addicted to Snickers bars. nuf said

I gained the weight from poor eating habits. My husband (at the time) would eat ice cream or popcorn every evening while watching the evening news. I picked up the habit and added other bad habits. I had never had a weight problem until the late 80's- early 90's, after my 3rd child was born and I never lost the pregnancy weight. I also didn't exercise.

After losing 190 lbs of useless weight (divorce) I started to ditch bad eating habits and started exercising. I got down into the 135-140 range which isn't technically overweight for someone my height, but it wasn't lean and sexy either. My current partner is 5'10" tall and he weighs 142 lbs soaking wet. He eats like crazy, but attends aerobics classes or works out several days a week. In May when I realized that I weighed more than he did (my weight had creeped up to 143 lbs) I decided that I needed to do something. I had success with Atkins the previous summer, but went back to poor eating habits last fall. By spring the damage had been done.

This time around I've finally figured out that it's not a temporary fix, but a permanent way to live. Not only have I improved my lipid levels and low blood sugar, but I'm looking leaner than I have in a long time.

That's my story.
Joan

I'm a product of the classic vicious cycle - start a chubby kid, get insulted, eat to make yourself feel better, get chubbier, get picked on, eat to feel better... yadda yadda yadda, wake up a fat adult stuck in a rut. I never really dieted, never thought I could ever lose any weight, never had the discipline or hope I guess it was.
What started me on this was a combination of seeing a horrific picture of myself in a bathing suit that a friend innocently took and sent me - I didn't know the camera was there! - and conversations with the same friend about her discovery of Somersizing. That sounded lame to me - it's Suzanne Somers ferpetesakes - but I figured I could check into the whole low carb thing. Boy oh BOY am I glad I did. I haven't felt this good about myself since...well, ever maybe. And where there used to be only despair and self loathing, now there is confidence that I can and WILL be thin. It may take another year, but I will make it. And then watch out world!

I gained weight after an ectopic pregnancy, c-section and tube removal. My system basically slowed down to a crawl. I was never very thin, about 145-150. I did not actually see myself until last Thanksgiving when my friend took some pictures :rolleyes:

I was actually very thin as a child and all through my 20's to the point I see pictures now and I looked anorexic. When I was married the 1st time at 27, I weighed 105 lbs.

Then I turned 30 and was working at a desk job and the weight came on between a sedentary job and 2 babies! When I went through my divorce 6 years ago, I lost 30 lbs thanks to stress. Since then I've re-married and become fat and happy again! I'm a sweets addict and that contributed ALOT to my weight gain.

What caused me to want to loose is pictures of myself looking like a moose, and never feeling attractive in anything I wore. Got tired of wearing tunics and big baggy things to not show how fat I was. It's great to be in size medium in most things these days and not be afraid to tuck in my shirt! !!! :yay:

I've realised I needed to lose weight for over 16 yrs. Back then I was only 50 over weight. . .the reason I started is a mystery to me. no big moment of "That is the final insult." or Doctor's dire warning. This is just the year of changes for me. And less me seems to be one of those changes. Did not get my drivers license until I was 36 (will be 42 in a few weeks) so I have been slowly evolving for a while. But this year was an explosion. redawn:)

I have been big from day one. I remember my parents telling me to get rid of my body fat. I thought they wanted me to literally cut all the fat from my body with a knife. ( I was 5 at the time).

I can't really say if there was a trigger event, but I just decided on May 1, 2003 that I was going to start to lose weight, and that I was going to put my effort into it.
So far, I think I've been successful (250 lbs May 1-70 lbs = 180lbs today). Now my goal is to get muscles.