What was the breaking point that inspired you to lose weight?

itspi88 · 5 months

I had snagged what I considered the girl of my dreams, (absurdly intelligent, beautiful) but instead of using that as motivation to improve myself for her, I took it as a reason to start being lazy. I was going out heavily drinking heavily 4-5 times a week, then getting over my hangovers with fast food. I started skipping classes and the grades dropped soon after. Really kind of lost my ambition. She left a little before the summer started, and I don't blame her. I wasn't half the guy I was before, and once I reflected on my actions the past few months, I realized I was a scumbag and if I didn't put my foot down right there, who knows how far I could have fallen. I wanted to be a better me, and I figured the way I start is by improving myself physically. I always identified myself as an athlete, yet in the previous months, instead of going out and playing basketball or soccer, I would take a 24 pack over to a friends house and drink myself stupid. In June, I fell in love with physical activity again. I'm still a work in progress, so far I've dropped 45 lbs (from 220 to 175, 6'1) and still got a few more to go. I've surrounded myself with like-minded people, and it's been an absolute blast. The biggest reward that exercising has given me is peace of mind. I can think clearly, I'm not mentally slow from all the boozing, and I'm just taking everything in stride.

I'll probably be seeing this girl again sometime within the next few months, and I can't wait. Not because I'm hoping to get back together or any of the ex nonsense, but to apologize to her for putting up with my drunk selfishness, and thank her for making the hard choice. It's amazing how some of the most difficult moments can become your strength.

shadowthrone · 5 months

Mainly, getting married. I didn't want people thinking 'oh she looks nice...for a fat girl.'

smooshypoo · 5 months

mine was when I overhead my youngest child say to my oldest " no dont ask mommy, she wont play with us cause she doesn't like to play" It really hurt. I had to ask myself WHY DON'T I go outside and play with them...cause I am fat....and I would rather be on the couch. So I said enough is enough and now I am ten pounds lighter and I DO go outside and play with them now :D GOOD LUCK!

100002152 · 5 months

Male here - After my last day in Junior year of high school, I went home and was ready to enjoy summer break. I was in the bathroom and I looked into the mirror. I realized for the first time that, without scrunching my neck or anything, I had a double chin. I got on the scale and I saw that I weighed about 235 pounds. I became righteously angry. "This will not stand!" I told myself. That summer, I started a moderate exercise plan and ate less food, and I wound up losing 30 pounds.

It's been two and a half years since that day, and I've had my ups and downs. The last 6 months, however, have been the most fortuitous. I'm now down to about 170 pounds and I feel terrific. I am 19 years old and I've never been in this great of shape before. I'm hoping to lose about 30 more pounds, then hit the weight room and pack on some muscle.

fatmalcontent · 5 months

When my doctor recommended lap band surgery.

Fuck that.

Sorted myself out and am 115+lbs lighter now.

hairybalkan · 5 months

I got swine flu last year, which then caused pneumonia. I nearly died and wound up in intensive care. Having 400 pounds while being completely naked, with only a bed sheet to cover you, with all those machines and a catheter plugged in sucked ass. I didn't start after that because I was seriously weakened and I needed months to recover, but as soon as I got better, I started working on weight loss. I actually have major gray streaks of hair (at 25) and was loosing a lot of hair due to stress for a few months after I got out, but the hair I lost is luckily back now (still grey, though).

Once the basics were established, I started the serious work (calorie counting, ect). The start of that was about 2.5-3 months ago.

I simply never want to experience that again.

Calexica · 5 months

When my 'fat' clothes became too small and uncomfy I had to reconsider buying a whole new wardrobe, online, because regular stores no longer fit me.

Now I'm still considering buying a whole new wardrobe, but not until a few more weeks have passed and because everything I own is too big.

godmoderage · 5 months

When I realized that my moobs were rolling over my rolls on my stomach... eww. D;

dtox12 · 5 months

I had to take a fitness class in college. General education credits. Anyway, I saw it as a blow-off and no big deal and such. But, they had us do a full fitness test to determine our fitness level and...good god...here are some of my highlights:

High blood pressure
30% body fat
Could not walk half a mile
Could only bench press 70 lbs

I realized that at the rate I was going, I would end up like my father...fighting obesity my whole life and having a heart attack in my 30s or 40s. I said fuck no to that and lost 35lbs that semester. From 235 to 200lbs. I've worked at regularly since then and I now weigh 219lbs...that extra 20 lbs is nothing but muscle.

lolveets · 5 months

My friend took me along to the campus gym to help me figure out some sort of exercise routine. I went down to the locker room and weighed myself and saw 372.

I knew it was more than 350, and guessed more than 360, but over 370? That's practically 400.

And to add insult to injury, I jogged for ~20 min upstairs afterwards and burst a blood vessel in my eye from just that.

It hit me when I was too fat to run in a circle slowly that something had to change.

em_son · 5 months

It was late December of last year. I saw a lot of success photos on reddit, and recently discovered this wonderful subreddit. I would be going off to college in a few months, and decided it was time to start my new life off as a better (thinner) person. So the motivation was there, and eventually, so was the knowledge that I needed to know in order to really succeed this time. I bought a scale as the new year approached, and on 1/1/11 I started. It's been an awesome journey so far.

johhnymayhem · 5 months

It was two things. I was approaching 250, and something about that was enough that "Holy fuck, no, nonononono I cannot be over 250 for flying fuck's sake.." Second thing, I threw my back out pretty horribly, mostly just due to being out of shape, and was in utter hell for at least 2 weeks.

Lost 40 pounds already, quite eager to see how low I can go.

Zippytuna · 5 months

I am a former flight attendant. On two separate occasions, I ran into old coworkers, one asked me when I was due and the other thought I had just had a baby. I was exercising regularly at a studio and a captain I used to fly with also went there. She also thought I was pregnant. She was shocked that I wasn't. It had been a year since I was a flight attendant, and I gained 40 pounds. None of these people had ever seen me at this size, so I wasn't offended by their asking. It was very motivating to finally do something about my weight gain.

JCY2K · 5 months

I weighed in at a doctor's appointment once and was a hair's breadth of being clinically overweight. I refused to go any further that way and started eating less and exercising more.

notthetalkinghorse · 5 months

I've been big since I can remember but big because I played a lot of physical sport (rugby) and weight trained as well. I guess I used to do about 5 hours of cardio and 2 of weights a week up until I was 18. Anyway, university came and went and I suppose, looking back, I probably didn't look after myself as I should have...too much beer, junk food.

I left university and moved back home, took a bar job and met the woman who I thought I'd spend the rest of my life with. Things were good between us for around 18 months until she met someone else and ditched me...this is really where the trouble started.

I like a drink (Spanish and Chilean reds in particular) and after the breakup I DRANK...A LOT...probably a bottle to myself most nights for about a year.

Skip forward two years and I'd got a new job, was finally over (nearly) my ex and things were looking up. I'd made new friends at work, the job was good but 9 months later I was laid up in hospital after blacking out twice whilst at a party (not alcohol or drug related). I spent two weeks in hospital and was diagnosed with an AV node and left bundle branch block as well as a bicuspid aortic valve. Basically my heart doesn't work as it should and I'll probably need a valve replacement at some point, based on family history and i'll need a pacemaker at some point in the near future.

Skip another two years, to May this year. I bought a pair of jeans over the internet and when they arrived I was naturally quite keen to try them on. They felt comfortable, so I thought "they must look ok, right?" WRONG.

As I stood in front of the mirror and looked at myself I couldn't quite believe what I was looking at and how far i'd let myself go. I was a real fatty. It was as that point I made the decision to change my diet and get a bit fitter so I started to take salads to work for lunch instead of cheese sandwiches, I started walking 3 bus stops further in the morning and cut out carbs in the evening. I must have lost some weight by the time July came round but it wasn't enough so I took the next step and joined a gym. I weighed in at 125kg, not good but after 5 months, i'm down to 116kg. Not the fastest progress but it's progress I can maintain. I intend to keep going to the gym and will keep at it even after I've reached my goal.

I've been pretty lucky in that just after I came out of hospital 2 years ago I met the woman I intend to spend the rest of my life with. She's been awesome through all of this and I highly doubt I'd have gotten this far without her.

It's going to take time but I'm going to do it. I won't be a fatty and I will look good and I will be fitter and healthier for it.

jkalderash · 5 months

Steadily gained weight over the past five years. I realized I was less than ten pounds from being obese. Nope.

SOEDragon · 5 months

It was a couple of things. I'm a graduate student (I've been in the higher education system for over 6 years now) and I've put on and lost a lot of weight in college. I wasn't really aware of any of it but I can see it now looking back through pictures. I woke up one day about 2 to 3 months ago and realized I couldn't keep doing what I was doing. I was tired all the time, I couldn't do the 12 hours a day I needed to in the lab to finish my PhD, I felt like crap, got horrible migraines, and I could feel my pants getting tighter every day. I swore I wouldn't buy new pants because I was too fat for my old ones. My husband agreed that I could probably handle my depression, migraines, and general exhaustion better if I lived a little bit healthier. So the long and short of it is that I decided I needed to be healthier and part of that was losing the extra 30 or 40 lbs I had packed on over the years (and of course, not buying new pants).

VeerWilde · 5 months

I bought a load of new clothes and tried on a terrific belt I'd got in the sale. I could do it up (zip-up Ted Baker waist belt) but when I looked in the mirror all of my fat was rolling over and underneath it. I decided to do something about it.

That was two years ago. I've changed how I eat and recently have started exercising like a motherbitch. I've dropped 50lbs. 30lbs since July. I am no longer obese (just overweight) and I now weigh what I did in high school seven years ago and can fit into my prom dress! (188lbs. UK size 14. 5'7")

Poolstiksamurai · 5 months

Because someone important to me implied that I had no motivation or desire to better myself, that I was content to sitting and whining about it. And at one point, I was pushing 200 pounds. I didn't want to go over that.

I decided to prove this person wrong. They're no longer in my life but it's become important to me for other reasons now too.

janobe · 5 months

We had a bunch of small reasons that suddenly we realized added into a big reason:

My husbands parent's kept calling my husband fat (I weigh more than him... so I was like if he is fat then wtf am I??), we got tired very quickly from watching our nieces and nephews and wondered how tired we would be as parents, we sit in front of computers all day and my back started having chronic pains, we have hyper dogs and couldn't exercise them properly even on bikes, we both used to be athletic and missed being in shape, when I saw my wedding pictures I felt fat (or any picture for that matter).

Finally, there were just too many reasons NOT to work out. We both wanted to do it and now I am getting back into shape and spending quality time with my hubby at the gym :)

fassaction · 5 months

When I looked in the mirror one day and realized how shitty I looked without a shirt on. When I graduated high school I weighed about 150 lbs, wore a size 30 pants. When I hit 25 I was 220 lbs, and wore a size 38. I looked like humpty dumpty because I had this huge belly and big ass, but my arms and legs were skinny. I looked in the mirror one day when i got out of the shower....I was mortified by how I looked.

From 25-28 i got back down to about 187, looked much better. All I did really was hit the gym 2-3 days a week and removed Soda from my diet (I was a mountain dew junkie, drank about 4 dews a day).

It wasnt until last summer when I decided that pudgy was not what I was aiming for. I quit smoking, tackled a better diet, started running again. I am now down to 162....just a few pounds shy of my goal weight!

much happier these days!

StinsonBeach · 5 months

I had the busiest year of my life, second semester of law school, competed in a national moot court (finished 3rd) took the bar exam, started a company, went through a serious crunch time period at that company, and I realized that my weight was going up and down, but overall that I had put on a ton of weight.

It really hit me at my fiance's work's Christmas party. I was getting ready, putting on my studly suit I had bought, already after getting bigger than I wanted to be, so it was a size 37, and it wouldn't fit. I had to go get one of those compression shirts, and pull some bike shorts up over my stomach to hold me in.

I wondered what good being on loseit was if I wasn't actually going to lose weight. I had gone from 218, to 204, all the way up to 235, down to 218, back up to 227 the night of the Christmas party, and after a couple of weeks I'm finally weighing in at 216. I'm going in the right direction, finally.

At first, it really sucked giving up the fast food I had come to love, but after breaking habits, like buying a couple hot dogs for breakfast, a burger for lunch, a burger for dinner, I've started just changing what I eat, and trying to work out at least 3 times a week, usually on my xbox Kinect, and once at the gym on the weekends. Hopefully I can keep it up, I don't want to look fat in court.

lemon_SQUISH · 5 months

I had started working at a cafe, and one of my regulars from my previous job came in. I hadn't seen him in a few months, during which time I had put on a few pounds (I was up to 200 at the time, because of a plethora of bullshit excuses). After talking for a bit, he congratulated me on being pregnant. Cue mega awkward moment as I explain that I was not in fact pregnant. BIG wakeup call. I realized my weight had just kind of snuck up on me, made tons of changes (cut out one more bad thing each week), and now, a year later I'm down to 150, and well on my way to my 130 goal.

DDJo15 · 5 months

My husband and I moved to a new town back in May and I have been very unsuccessful at finding a new job since then. Since I had nothing to do all day and did not know anyone here, I would sit on my butt, watch tv, eat food, play videos games, etc. My breaking point was once I stepped on the scale and saw that I was 164lbs. As a 5'5" female, I had told myself I will never let myself get above 160lbs (it will be accepted though once I get pregnant in a couple of years). I realized at this point I hated having pictures taken of myself and avoided it at all costs. If I ever did have any taken of me, I would never post it on things such as Facebook like I used to. All of my clothing was very TIGHT and my belly stuck out. I'm surprised no one asked if I was pregnant. I didn't want to buy new clothes because I didn't want to know what size I had gotten up to, so I just tried my hardest to squeeze into what I currently had. I figured enough was enough.

Being unemployed, I decided to just make losing weight as my job. I drastically changed my diet and started exercising 60-90 minutes a day. My husband works for a well known bike manufacturer so he bought me a road bike. I started riding that thing everywhere as well as some 30 mile routes. Since Labor Day 2011 weekend, I have lost 20lbs and am hoping to keep on going. I finally have my self confidence back and actually landed an amazing job (received the offer yesterday!). I think losing the weight has helped me in my job search because people could see how uncomfortable I was in my own skin. I'm currently at 144lbs and my goal weight is to get to 139lbs. I would love to get to 135lbs because that is how much I weighed when I graduate high school and I thought I looked amazing then. If I could even get down more than that, that would be amazing! Another one of my goals is to be able to fit into two pairs of my favorite jeans I have saved since high school.

waterbottlebandit · 5 months

To put it simply, a girl. I met someone and felt something I hadn't ever felt before. I realized I wasn't doing myself any favors and if and when I meet someone I want my outward appearance to reflect with how I perceive myself.

Arghlita · 5 months

Finding out one of my classmates, who didn't look more than slightly chubby to begin with, had lost 50 pounds in the year I've known her. I realized I must be looking through life with fluff colored glasses if someone could lose 50 whole pounds and not be underweight without me noticing they were overweight to begin with or noticing any major changes.

Seeing as how I've practically made dieting a contact sport (contact with the couch!), knowing someone I know in real life could achieve permanent and healthy weight loss at a reasonable pace and me not notice was the wake up I needed.

SCRubS77 · 5 months

Not a very touching story, rather, a selfish one, but me and my buddies were out clubbing, and I was dancing with this one pretty gal. We struck up a conversation, it was going well, until my friend came over to talk to me. This friend is in incredible shape, and she instantly was all over him. I just got out of a relationship, and that kind of letdown was pretty harsh. Decided that was the time to change.

Saigonic · 5 months

Typical fat kid in high school despite everyone telling me that I did not need to lose weight, that I was "fine" looking, and just was a naturally big guy. I took this all to heart, believing it, absurdly thinking that a 4XL, and a size 42 waist was a healthy norm for a guy like me. On the outside, I thought I had some pride, but on the inside, my insecurities would tear me apart. I missed out on so many things because of them like memorable school pictures, joining clubs thinking people would only see me for my weight. I was so self conscious, felt helpless, you guys know that whole routine.

After high school, I left a whopping 275 pounds, at 5"10. Being able to wear bigger clothes to hide your fat feels amazing and gave me confidence, however the moment I stepped into the shower or on a beach, I slouched down, attempting to cover every part of my body, being so ashamed of my habits. A lot of it wasn't just my personal issues, it was my family. I had a father just become a crack addict, and my house burnt down, so we had to live in a crack motel for a few years.

My breaking point came when I finally had enough of his addiction. Long story short, I moved in with my brother in Las Vegas and was determined to change myself. It was my second job I've ever had so I wanted to make a good first impression, I wanted to find a new girlfriend, and I knew I couldn't do that by being the fat, insecure slob that I was.

With my hard working job, a table busser at a busy restaurant, I was losing weight with a good nutrition plan, following ScoobysWorkshop. I found myself a girlfriend, who loved me despite my flaws, and she motivated me to look as sexy as possible. Long story short, since my move to Vegas, it was the best move I could have made. I learned to be independent, be confident, and be a man and take care of my family.

TL;DR - Fat obese slob in high school, used life hardships and a new girlfriend as motivation to be healthier and a better person.

Before and After pics, I'm skinner and a little leaner

lipstick_allthedays · 5 months

When I realized that my brand-new bras (which were a whole cup size larger than the last bras I'd purchased about a year beforehand) were giving me double-boob. A little under three weeks in now, and not so much double-boob anymore!

Edit: This double-boob incident sparked a desire to lose a significant amount of weight, not just enough to get rid of the "cups runneth over" look.

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