In looking at the various diet threads over the past few weeks it made me hark back to just when I realized I needed to lose weight. I suppose it was when my feet were beginning to hurt, my clothes were too tight and my scale said.
When did you know it was time to lose weight?
When I broke not one, but two of the chairs from my parents’ former dining room set :eek:
(it’s mine now, and fortunately there were 8 chairs and we only have room for 4, but my dad still doesn’t know…)
My pants were hard to button. I resisted for years. I got a new job that required a bit more “physical activity”. I bought the next size up pants. They are too loose and fall down, giving me “Rapper Ass”.
Oh, what a difference an inch makes!
I saw a photograph from my trip to Italy this past spring. I knew I’d gained some weight, but I didn’t realize how much until I saw that picture. I couldn’t wait to see this one particular picture of my mon, sister and I in Capri. When I got my film back I looked so fat I burst into tears. Then I went online and found a Weight Watchers meeting that same night. So far I’ve lost 25 lbs in about 6 mos. It’s coming off slowly, but steadily. That’s fine with me.
I had myself convinced for a while that most of my weight was muscle, even though I hadn’t been to the gym in several months. After getting a membership at the place next to my new apartment, I took a body composition reading and came back with rating “OBESE”. Granted, on the Japanese scale, obese is defined as a BMI of 25+ with a body fat of 20%+, but it still shocked me into making some serious changes. I stopped buying candy bars, chips and cookies. Stopped getting snacks in the afternoon. Stopped eating fried and fast foods. Stopped eating as much meat, and starting exercising regularly and eating more fruits and vegetables. I also made sure I was changing my diet in a way that I was comfortable with doing permanently.
After six months, I’m down to 175lbs (I’m 6’1") and actually have abs again.
Dammit! Everyone has abs but me! I’m 5’5½" and 134 lbs, I work out so much you’d think I got paid for it, and I have abs of fucking steel… underneath the padding of fat. But it’s going, mark my words. If I have to live on nothing but egg whites and weight training, I’ll get my visible abs if it kills me.
At least my corpse will look great!
I knew it was time to lose weight when my normally perfectly spherical and emminently visible belly button disappeared under a layer of flab when I was laying in the bath one day.
That was a year and a half ago.
I’m hoping to seeing my umbilicus again one day, when I get around to exercising and stuff. 
After I had an attack of GOUT for the second time I found out that the most effective way to prevent gout was to lose weight. GOUT is the most painful thing I have ever experienced and my most vivid childhood memory was a spinal tap at age 7. I’ve discovered a new weight loss program: eat less, do more. It’s like magic and it is not only cheap, it saves money. I’ve dropped 30 pounds since February. 
When a colleague from another office, who I only ever see at bi-annual meetings, but who I know to be a lovely woman who never say anything malicious, asked me: “So when does your maternity leave start then?”
Obviously, I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me and my huge stomach, but it was the kick up the arse I needed to start a diet. I’m now a healthy weight for my height, and wear (US) size 6-8 clothes - I can’t wait for our meeting next month so I can shake her hand and thank her for motivating me!
Pod’s Doctor: Blah blah blah high blood pressure blah blahh hypertension blah blah blah overweight blah blah estrogen effect blah blah blah NO MORE BIRTH CONTROL PILLS FOR YOU!!!
Pod: :eek:
But there’s always tofu, Podkayne!
I’ve known I needed to lose weight for ages, now. When I hit 400, I decided the time had come.
When I unsnapped my jeans, I looked like a can of biscuits opening…
Sex can be a very good motivator!
My clothes got tight and I realized I had a bit of that “top-of-the-pants” overhang that I DESPISE on the mall rat girls.
I’ve lost 3.5 lbs and I hope to lose another 5 to 7.
I had worn a very large size for years. We were about to go on vacation so I went to do a little shopping for new summer clothes at the Very Large Size Clothing Store. In the fitting room, I was surprised to realize that I needed to buy the NEXT very large size. For some reason, that was the big moment when I said "This has GOT TO STOP.
It still seems a little funny to me that I was content with the one very large size for a long time, but the next larger size was completely unacceptable to me – I wasn’t even one of those people who would think “oh, I should lose a few pounds.” But in that moment, it was like my mindset did a 180 turn.
I met my goal of being able to buy my clothes in Normal Size Clothing Stores, instead of the Very Large Size Clothing Store.
I was self employed, very broke, and only had 1 pair of pants that fit properly. This pair developed a hole in the crotch, so I took a few weeks to save my pennies to buy a new pair. I went to the store only to find I couldn’t fit into a 38, and barely fit into a 40. I put the pants back, walked over to the shoe section, and bought running shoes with the money I’d been saving. I lost a little more than 70 pounds when all was said and done.
I normally wear a 31-32 inch waist. I’d stopped exercising for 7 years and noticed that a) I was starting to have problems squeezing into a 33 and b) I was starting to develop old man-style back and knee aches. Decided to take care of things before I was really overweight…
I had known I was getting fat, but I pretty much assumed I was still in the 230-240 range. Then I got a physical and when the doctor weighed me it said I was almost 280.
:eek:
I’m back down to 230 now.
When my Hawaiian shirts started getting tight.
When
(A) my knee decided to detach itself from the rest of my body - it “went out on me”.
(B) I was diagnosed with high blood pressure
(C) I found a name for the reason I was waking up every morning feeling like Buford Pusser had worked me over with a 2X4 - why I almost dozed off once while driving to work - why I couldn’t focus on anything more than about 3.2 minutes - sleep apnea.
(D) When I realized that B & C were bad enough alone - but when combined were potentially fatal.
I had gastric bypass surgery almost 1 year ago and I have lost 144 pounds from a high of 334. I don’t advocate the surgery for anyone - I just know it worked for me.
VCNJ~
I was a lean muscular 190lb bachelor who had a strict diet since I lived alone, went to the gym, rollerbladed, swam in the ocean daily, and was on my feet all day at my job.
Then I met the right girl, got engaged, moved out of town, quit the gym, and got a desk job.
Fast forward 2 years later and a few things sent up some red flags:
-It was difficult to put on socks and shoes cause my stomach was in the way when I’d bend over.
-After going up two flights of stairs at work I was out of breath.
-I saw a picture of myself next to a friend and I looked bloated.
-When I went back to where I used to work, people said I looked… different.
-I had no more muscles and the scale read 240lbs.
1 year ago I decided to hit the gym and eat better.
I got my muscles back and I’m back down to 200lbs.
