I have a choice - eat right or die. If I don't eat right, I eat wrong and gain weight, plus all the diseases that come with that. Besides, I'm tired of being fat. I can' do the things I want to do - like hike, or just *play* - and people don' think of me the same as they would a thin *me.* I know, I've lost weight before and it really made a night and day difference. I'm 58 and unwilling to sit out the rest of my life. I still want to *do* some things! A lot of things! Besides, it doesn't hurt to be nice looking. And, it's fun. ;-)

My biggest reason is that I know the way I've been living for the last few months isn't healthy and I want to show my daughter that living a healthy lifestyle is important to overall wellbeing. My second reason is that I want to feel sexy again. The third is that I don't want to be a statistic. I'm done with the unhealthy.

My biggest reason is really for my health. I'm sick of puffing when I bend over to do up my shoelaces. I'm sick of not being able to keep up with my kids when we go on bushwalks. I'm sick of feeling tired and not sleeping properly.

But my one single "vanity" reason is that my ex-husband's sister is getting married next year. I still get along really well with his family, and am going to the wedding. And I want to look smoking when I catch up with all the interstate relatives I haven't seen for a couple of years, and I definitely want to look waaaay hotter than his fiancee, who will be his wife by then.

Shallow? So sue me!

Vanity was and is my #1 motivator.

I hated both the way I looked, and the way I felt about it. I was miserable on the inside because I loathed how I looked on the outside.

Now that I've dropped some weight, those negative feelings have melted away too.

I do want to get into prime physical health, yes, this is true. But I am for the most part pretty healthy, according to my doctor, so like Carinna said, **** YEAH, I wanna look DAAAAAMN good.

Let's be real here ladies! A lot of people try to be virtuous and say "I'm doing it for my health and blah blah." Okay, fine, but you know as well as I do that you want to look fantastic as well! Sometimes on this forum it's like a sin to say you want to lose weight to look good, but I don't think it is. Some people will like righteously attack you for saying "I want to lose weight to look good" but come on, WE ALL DO.

After thinking for years how I would like to be a cop if only I was in shape, I decided to "s--t or get off the pot", so to speak. When I made that decision, I was about 290 pounds at 5' tall, so if you put a police uniform on me, I would have looked like Chief Wiggum from the Simpsons. Actually, the uniform I wear now and did then is "official" looking so I probably already looked like Wiggum!

Even at my highest weight, I never had a problem with high blood pressure or cholesterol or anything like that, so health reasons weren't a real big motivator for me. Looking good (only today I was able to get into a pair of size-12 jeans for the first time in God-knows-how-many years), being able to do more physical stuff (I have just started running up and down stairs to prepare my body for the physical side of police work), and getting more attention from men, is all just icing on the cake!

im motivated mostly by vanity. i want to be able to swap clothes with my friends. I want to go shoppin with them for my first bikini. I want to look healthy and lean

I also want my asthma to improve. I want to be fitter. I dont want to have to worry about being left behind in physical things

Honestly, it's mostly for fashion reasons :-)
I don't dress the way I want because the way I want to dress requires a size 7/8 or 9/10 body. THAT'S what I'm looking forward to!!!

~Choirgirl~

I'm about 50/50, I now know that I have PCOS and insulin resistance, I have an abnormal period and need to shave my face...it is just gross. Whenever I stay on plan (south beach, which is a perfect plan for PCOS), I get my period like clockwork, and whenever I go off I don't. It really motivates me to stay on plan because I don't want to deal with the complications of PCOS when the time comes to think about kids (infertility, miscarrage etc).

Overall I'm pretty content with the way I look, but there is always room for improvement. Come spring semester when I only have 2 easy classes left I want to get another job to pay off my student loans. I currently work as a cocktail waitress at a sports bar that is away from the downtown area with an older semi-white trashish crowd. I would like my second job (next year) to be at one of the hipper downtown bars where the waitresses wear skimpier outfits and are all skinny. I would make a ton more money and would be able to pay off my loans and save up more money. Plus it would be GREAT to be strutting around looking fabulous at my new job and run into people I know.

I do it for my my appearance, health (diabetic), and cause I hold myself back cause of my weight, so I want to lose weight to go out and dance and run and enjoy myself without guilt/worry/an issue. And I want to be normal and average, basically. And it makes me feel physicailly ill to eat too much everyday.

I think that the issue isn't "why" so much as "whether." I've seen many, many reasons for people wanting to lose in the years I've been coming here. They range from The Wedding to serious health conditions and everything in between.

The "whether" part has to do with whether a person is willing to get serious about it. Maybe you want to avoid diabetes... maybe you just want to wear a bikini and feel good about your hotness... All reasons are good reasons, if they actually lead to losing in a healthy way, to reach a healthy weight!

By "get serious" I don't mean rigid, military-style hup-2-3-4 dieting, although for some folks that does work best in the beginning. I mean, serious enough to pay attention and make conscious choices about food. Follow WW, SBD, Atkins, count calories, or follow intuitive eating--but have a commitment to being mindful about whatever it is.

My own reasons were primarily for health. Bikini? Not important. Looking good? Yes, I like to wear smaller sizes and feel that I look nice. Main concern is being healthy as I get older--avoiding diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, increasing joint problems. Becoming fit so that I can walk, hike, participate in activites like volleyball, swim, etc. And, having lost 50 pounds and made regular exercise a part of my life, my blood glucose is great, my blood pressure is super, I went hiking in the Rockies on my vacation in June, and I look just fine in my new, smaller clothes.

Cheers!
Jay

I, of course want to look good, feel fit and strong. But also as I get older I want to avoid major weight related illnesses.
I love shopping for cute tendy clothes,a and plan on going on a major shopping spree when I reach my goal.

It's funny, I got started on this for health reasons, mostly. At around 300 pounds I was losing my mobility and not able to do the things I could before. Thinking about health wasn't about being "virtuous" -- it was about reclaiming my life!!!

Fitting into smaller clothes and liking how I look are certainly great 'side effects' of losing over 100 pounds, however!

My health of course, but also because I am sick of people giving me those "looks of disgust" it makes me not even want to meet anybody because of my weight........I have to train a new girl next week at work and I totally dread it and I know its mostly due to my weight................