Why do you want to lose weight?

[Georgiestar]

I went out with a few friends this evening and we started to talk about health. My friends brother mentioned about my friend saying that he was concerned about his weight and that theres a history of heart problems in the family so my friend can't put too much weight on.

Anyway it occured to me that I'm trying to lose weight to look better and I haven't really thought about my health. Don't get me wrong I have been eating more healthy food and excersise but I should be focusing on my health rather than focusing on my appearance and the scales. I should definitely keep up with making healthier lifestyle choices.

This question has probably been up before.
I just wanted to see why other people here are losing weight.

 

[Enough]

I have been diagnosed with
"non-alcoholic fatty liver disease"
..and in my case it's been caused by eating the wrong foods.
I have a 3 year old and I'm terrified of dying from liver disease and leaving my little girl without a Mum.
I have never taken my health all that seriously before now, but if I don't have this body, I don't have a life and my little girl wont have a Mum.
If something happens to my car I get a new one, if something happens to my shoes I buy some more. I only have this body. I can't get another.

 

[Elanor]

For me it is a few reasons. I would like to be able to just go into a shop and not worry about whether they will have something in my size. I'd also like to go into a clothes shop aimed at smaller people with my friends, and not feel embarrassed and out of place. I've been in shops before, where the staff make you feel like you shouldn't be there because of your size.

I also need to for my health. Aches and pains are a daily part of my life, and I am so unfit it is ridiculous. There is a history of heart disease on my Dad's side of the family, and I know being overweight is not helping my heart.

Lastly, I am comfort eater. So when I'm eating bad food, it's because I'm unhappy, stressed, anxious etc. So losing weight would help my mental health as well. It would mean that I am overcoming things, and heading towards a happier, healthier me. Physically and mentally.

 

[Georgiestar]

Thanks for replying, it's good to share our experiences and learn from it. At least we are all trying to change and improve.

 

[Determined_one]

It's a health and fitness thing for me. Had a few instances last year where my fitness level became an issue at work and it was embarrassing! I've really enjoyed getting more fit over the past few months since joining a gym back at the beginning of the year

 

[tipperary]

For me being overweight was a vanity issue to start with. I gained weight slowly and was OK with it, I knew I was overweight but didnt really know how much. Then two things happened. One day someone came into my husbands office were I was working at the time looking for me, she didn't know my name and asked for "the stout girl" , I could hear her and was mortified. The second was my brothers wedding. My sister has always been big but when I looked at his wedding photos I was so much bigger..I was huge and round and bloated and realised that these photos would exist for ever. My vanity took a huge knock and I lost all confidence in myself. I tried hard to lose weight but nothing happened.
I am the oldest of my siblings and cousins and we all come from unhealthy parents. I made a comment to a cousin one day that we all need to watch ourselves as genetically things weren't looking good. She poo pooed the idea but as I said it, it struck a chord with me. Two aunts died at 54 of heart attacks, others in the family have had major strokes in early 50s. All put on weight at middle age, lots have type 2 diabetes and they alone could keep the county medical profession busy. I decided that isn't going to be me.

I work hard and when I retire I want to still have some life left in me and be able to be fit enough to travel and have fun. I now have the cutest grandson ever and want to bring him on holidays or even just have energy for him when he comes to stay.
My confidence is improving as I shrink but more importantly I can feel my health improving. I now have a new job that I couldn't have done this January...I wouldn't even have considered applying for it.
In two weeks time I get my regular thyroid, cholesterol and diabetes blood tests and am hoping so much for things to be good. I am on thyroid meds and seem to be completely stable now, I was prescribed cholesterol meds but choose not to take them but hoping diet had caused a reduction. And I have kept type 2 diabetes away so far and hope I still have ( mam. Dad, younger brother and sister all have it). We also have a large amount of fatty liver disease in the family, both alcohol and non alcohol so trying to avoid that too.

Sorry, long post but simply put I tried losing weight for vanity reasons and it didn't work but for health reasons it was serious enough to scare me into doing it.

 

[Georgiestar]

Its motivating to see these posts. Your diet is a great attribute to health and making it healthy will improve your life phisically and mentally! A lot of people diet for vanity and forget about health implications. Its also difficult if your family or the people you live with eats unhealthily because then you get drawn in to the way they eat. I'm quite lucky that I'm in control most of the time as we dont have much junk food in the house and we cook quite healthy food. Im definitely eating better and cooking as well which will improve my health.

 

[Princess Tiger]

I've always been a 'bigger' girl, even as a child. As I've got older I've just got bigger and bigger. I've been trying to lose weight on and off for years. Mainly for vanity reasons, even when I had gallstones which ended with me having my gallblader removed I still wasn't overly worried about my health...
Now I'm sick of the joint pains, the struggling to move in bed, the stupid cpap machine I have to wear when I sleep so I don't stop breathing. I want to play with my daughter and take her places without having to sit down because my body hurts and I need to catch my breath. I also really want to fit in Primark clothes, especially their Disney items

 

[tipperary]

Aaahh...chainstore clothes, the cheap luxury for skinny people

 

[Mom38]

1. To get my blood pressure to normal and my bmi to a healthy range and get fitter.

2. To look good in clothes.

3. To not be worried about being too heavy for something.

4. To relish the "wow youve lost a lot of weight". Yep...im owning it....I LOVE that comment lol.

 

[Razorbill]

To not have to look in the mirror and cringe, or at least not cringe as much.

 

[Escapade]

I want to do it for my mental health I guess is the best way to explain it.

I have gone from a super confident person to having very little confidence, I'm lonely but make excuses to not go out and see people because I am embarrassed about my weight. I also am unhappy with my job but I don't have the confidence to go to interviews while I am this size.

Its really shocked me how I have become in terms of my self worth and confidence issues, because I was always the happy go lucky, confident, laughing, centre of attention type of person and now I sit indoors feeling sad and alone, pathetic huh?

 

[Baby_Caddy]

Mine is mostly for health reasons. I was always tiny and then I had a difficult pregnancy and piled on the weight and have never been able to shift it. I've decided this is the year for me to finally get my normal size, shape and health back. I hate how I look right now, and with a medical family history of diabetes, cancers and heart diseases I want to do everything I can to not follow suit and to be a good example of healthy living for my kids.

 

[CarshaltonClaret]

This is something I have really been trying to nail the past year. Previously I have lost weight with a motivation to look good/wear smaller clothes etc etc - vanity, basically.

However that's not me (at least now I am no longer in my teens and twenties!) because I am not vain and it's not of particular importance what I look like. I'd rather be considered smart, funny, kind, generous than pretty, slim or beautiful, if I am really honest.

I think for me, not having the right reasons to lose weight, for it not aligning with my values, has meant it's not really clicked for me.

It's only really as I have lost weight that I have started to appreciated the benefits and am finding the reasons to keep trying to lose the remainder of the wait, rather than piling it back on again. This is what I have come up with so far:

1) I like being fit, I like being able to move my body. I love to walk and being able to walk 15 miles in one go, up hill and down dale, makes me feel so alive. I never want to stop being fit enough to do that.
2) I like how much better my health is. I am not out of breath, I don't get headaches, I sleep better, I don't feel this constant weight dragging me down, my heart's not racing.
3) I am way more energetic and productive, I get more out of one day than I used to in one week. I'd previously spend evenings and weekends flopped on the sofa and dragging myself up was a chore. I like now that I spend much time on my feet, out and about, pottering at home.
4) I am happier, I am not only physically but metaphorically lighter.
5) This is the big one for me: I am in control. I am living my life in line with what's important to me and it feels really true. The times I slip off the wagon, I feel like I am whirling out of control and I can't actually wait to find my feet again. Those periods of binge eating, emotional eating, overeating have become, for me, the exception to the rule, whereas it was before a rut I'd fallen into and couldn't escape.

 

[Loz1986]

My main reason for wanting to lose weight is to have IVF (or other fertility treatment).

But I also want to do other things - I would love to go canoeing and climbing again and I really want to learn how to horse ride.

I also want to look good.

And then there is the health side. I don't want to develop any of the health conditions assosciated with obesity.