What if there's an emergency and you can't escape because you're too unfit to walk more than a mile?

It's for health.

it is definitely worth it!

i started out about where you are now, and i'm down to 258, and i feel so much better ALREADY that i can't imagine how much better i'll feel after 100 more pounds. i can move more, and i don't hurt nearly as much afterwards. i can't believe i never got the hang of it sooner and lost this weight when it started piling on.

it won't happen until you are ready and something clicks in your brain though. for me it was a doctor visit, and the ob/gyn griping at me that if i got pregnant at 300 pounds it would be dangerous for myself and/or the baby. my fatness was affecting not only me now, but my husband and our ability to have children. that's what my mission is. get healthy to have babies

It sounds like you are doing some good work between your ears thinking about this. I agree with you that the numbers on the scale or the clothes from a regular store don't have much value (Just my opinion, I know these things do matter to other people).

For me, when I think about making healthier food and exercise choices it is about feeling better and living longer so I can meet my future grand-babies, being able to do things like walk up flights of stairs and dance with a man and fly in an airplane; those things are valuable to me and motivate me.

Maybe you do have fears. Only you know I discovered there are things I like about being fat, so my motivations had to have more value than the things being fat protected me from. [I'm not saying everyone or anyone is like me, this is just me.]

I want you to know that I feel for you. I hope you discover things about yourself, what is pushing you in one direction, what is pulling you in the other, so you can make the decision about yourself FOR yourself based on what you want and what is important for you. What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? How do you want to feel? When you write the story of your life what kind of chapters do you want to fill your book?

I really like your post, I look forward to hearing where your line of inquiry takes you.

Best Wishes,
Snap

Personally I don't like walking. I swim, I bike and I lift weights. I LOVE doing these things. I couldn't do any of them when I weighed 370 lbs, or even 300 lbs.

I've never been "thin" either. I have bought size 32 clothes (2 sizes too large for Lane Bryant) and I have bought size 12 clothes, and mediums from Target. BUYING REGULAR SIZED CLOTHES IS AWESOME!!!! There is a UNIVERSE of difference!!!!!!! To me, buying regular sized clothes and having them look great is pretty much the #1 benefit from losing weight, other than looking beautiful and having so much energy.

350 was way better than 370. 299 was WAY better than being in the 300s. And being under 225 is a world of difference away from 250. When I'm under 199 that will be a galaxy away from 225, and a universe away from 370.

Only you can answer this for yourself but...why stop? Why not just keep doing what you're doing? Or, if you don't love what you're doing food- and exercise-wise, keep testing new things until you find an eating style and an activity style that you LOVE? It's possible. It's taken me since 8/2008 to really find a lifestyle I can live with forever, but I did it.

I HATED exercise. Hated it. Hated it as a child, hated PE in high school, never voluntarily moved off the couch as an adult. But I kept trying different things and I finally found stuff I love. I LOVE swimming. I voluntarily get up at 5 AM because I WANT to SWIM. I like biking, it's still a hard learning curve but I like it. And I love what lifting weights does for my body, so I like doing that too. I love my eating style. I stay away from carbs except for green vegetables because I don't like how they make me feel. But you have to find what works for you.

Please don't give up. Make this a permanent lifestyle change - the health benefits, and the joy of becoming smaller and tighter and firmer and more energetic - are worth more than you can feel when you're overwhelmed, bored and unmotivated. Please, do it for you because you are totally worth it.

When you do feel motivated again make a list of 50 reasons to change. Little things, big things, weight-related things, non weight- related things. I started my list a month ago and am up to like 38. Its a tall order but has been a LIFESAVER when I feel like I am "done".

Everyone has a different constellation of reasons. For me, I was tired of not being able to do things because of my weight and worse, could see myself further and further limited as I aged. My health and life were worth it.

And I LOVED being down into the 170s! Being able to shop in any store and loving how I looked and feeling great!! I didn't do it for clothes or vanity, but my they were nice side effects!!!!!

Very good questions and a very hard one to answer. It is easy to get use to any weight, it soon becomes the norm and we adjust to the difficulties until they too become the norm. Sometimes we gain so slowly it isn't even noticeable, sometimes we can maintain a weight for years. I once thought how awful it was to be 200 pounds....so how did I manage to get to 317 and not "notice it"?

When I weighed 317, I really felt it. I had weighed about 290-295 for 10 years, never hitting 300, but never really getting under that. A very quick spike in weight is harder to deal with that a slow one. So I can easily relate to the idea that after an initial loss, it seems the crisis is over.

For me, it wasn't over. I waited too long to take the weight off and in my 50's I now have Type 2 Diabetes to manage, my husband has high blood pressure. Not fun when obese.

When I first lost weight, it seemed to take many MANY pounds lost before I really began to feel the difference. I wore the same clothes through a 50 pound loss. So if you had asked me then, while I was breathing easier and walking better, I really didn't feel the loss and I didn't feel like there was THAT much improvement.

When I had lost 60-70 pounds, I REALLY felt it. I started to feel more normal in my movements, my face began emerging, my body was noticeably smaller. I had to look at photographs all the time and compare them just to see it, but I did finally see it and begin to get excited that I had made it that far. Could I go a bit further?

I have lost 85 pounds (only half of what I want to loose). it seems that now, each pound shows more differences, I feel different. Each time I gain even a few pounds I can feel how awful and bloated it feels to move, I get tired and lethargic. When I look back at a photo of me at 317 pounds, I remember so clearly how I felt, how laboured I moved, how depressing it was. I can compare that to now, and wow, what a huge difference in more ways than just weight loss.

Take your time! It is better to lose 25 pounds and get use to maintaining that loss then it is to rush through it and feel stunned at the end and frightened too. I lost 120 pounds in my 30's, way too fast and I had such a hard time adjusting to the attention...I went from being invisible to everyone to being in the spotlight. Very hard for a shy person to deal with.

Basically yes, I feel much different and I am very thankful I kept going through all of the hardships of losing weight and sticking to a diet. It's had it's hellish moments and it has had it's fabulous moments too. And to think that I am only half way there....what will the next 80 pound loss bring me? I cannot even image, even though I have been there before, I was so much younger, now I am older and have no idea what it will mean. I feel just as unsure as you do, never having been thin before. The unknown is always a bit daunting! But we'll never know unless we try!

Do you wear glasses or contacts? If you do, you might remember when you first got them. Before you knew you needed them, you probably didn't have a clue how the world ought to look. Once you got the prescription you needed, everything was a revelation. Trees have leaves! Chalkboards have words! Street signs have letters! And if you wear them, you now probably feel like a blind little mole unearthed from its tunnel when you misplace them and can't see a thing.

Weight loss is like that, only it's a gradual thing so it's not as dramatic to us as putting on a pair of glasses. One day you realize it's okay to park farther away from the store entrance. One day you fit into a smaller size. One day you cross your legs without thinking about it and they actually stay that way. There are a lot more of these incremental changes in store for me, I'm sure of it; I've already found quite a few of them and can't wait to rediscover the things I used to do that I haven't in a while.

You could stop where you are if you're happy and comfortable. I don't foresee reaching the low end of average weight for my height and build; in fact, my goal is still in the "overweight" BMI category and I'm fine with that. But if you do decide to do that, I believe you'll miss out on some discoveries of your own. Walking a mile is great; it's something I couldn't do at 230ish and I admire you for handling something I couldn't. What if you want to take a two-mile walking tour, though? What if you want to run and play the way you did as a kid?

Only you can decide what's worth it to you to do. We each get to stake our own territories, our own patch of stuff we find worth it bounded by the stuff we don't consider worth it. I am enjoying the process of watching those boundaries expand as I shrink more than I enjoyed the process of expanding while watching my boundaries contract around me.

I'll know I'm done losing weight when those two forces reach equilibrium, I guess.

Everyone else has already said what I would have said if my post had come first. I'd like to add this, though: Long term health has to be our goal. Each of us has a different idea of what is healthy as an individual. But the medical profession has set guidelines regarding healthy weights based on medical statistics regarding diabetes and heart disease and other risks. We can't just push them away. I am just 10 pounds under what is obese for my height. At this weight no one would call me obese, because we have a picture of what "obese" looks like and it is not the same as what a statistically obese person looks like. Yet "obese" is where all the risks come in. You have to ask yourself what matters - I hope you chose long term good health. Keep up the good work you've already started. It's a journey that is well worth the effort.

Lin

Definitely worth it...ive lost 180 pounds and now weigh 194 pounds....its taken me 5 years but its been so worth it...i cant even tell you how much its been worth it....my life is sooooo different now....i can wear girlie dresses....i exercise like a demon....flying is a breeze....i recently climbed the sydney harbor bridge...i have now started dating....everything about my life is so much better....and will continue to get better as i get to goal.

Marking this thread because there is SO much good in it!

Thank you all for sharing. It has added incentive to my "need to do this".

I think it is completely worth it. There are so many reasons that I want to shed my extra person. First because I want to have the energy to play with my daughter, she is almost six (next Tuesday) and wants to play with me. I also want to live and watch her grow up, and one day meet my future grand babies. And I also want to have more children, and due to all my extra weight I am suffering from secondary infertility. And if those reason are not enough, I have some vain ones too. I want to look good for my hubby. I want to be able to wear cute comfortable clothes. I have never been a skinny girl ... I went from chubby to fat. I am tired of being the fat girl!! The personality I have on the inside does not match what you see on the outside. My weight is causing me to be more introverted than I am.

My father worked hard all his life, so that he could enjoy his retirement. Only two years after retiring, he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. By the time he was diagnosed, he'd already lost the peripheral vision in one eye so he had to give up driving.

Then, because of the diabetes, his kidneys failed. He ended up on dialysis three times a week. I watched my dad's life become more and more restricted until he was sleeping in the living room because he no longer had the energy to climb the stairs. After he died, I realised that this was a warning - I could either carry on with the same unhealthy lifestyle as my dad and end up the same way as him, or I could choose to be fit and healthy. Yes, it's difficult and sometimes I'd like to give up, but at the end of the day, I've seen what being overweight can do and it's horrible.

[QUOTE=fatgyrl;3925569]Health...

These pictures of 2 separate Cellulitis incidents in my leg were taken 3 years apart, because apparently I was too dense to get the "need to get healthy" message the first time around.

The first picture is from 2008, the second, 6 weeks ago

My daughter, the renal nurse, says the leg infections are not even the real risk, but I have to worry about Kidney failure being the result of them.

When I lack motivation, I try to remember how much these leg infections hurt, and yes they do hurt like the and I get up and move. I believe this is a huge step (one step at a time) to a total lifestyle change.
----------------------------------------------------

Weight loss really helps with the skin conditions. But try drinking 1/4 cup cranberry juice morning and night.
And also eat 2 tablespoons raw pumpkin seeds every day.
They will both start to heal your skin. (Both will help your kidneys and bladder also) It might take several months to clear up. But keep it up.

You can get good cranberry juice and also the raw pumpkins seeds at Trader Joe's. Or the health food stores.

The cranberry juice will heal without any scarring of the skin.

The health food stores also have certain oils you can take to heal the skin. Ask them what they'd recommend.
Weight loss is the most important thing you can do now for your legs..

As you age the extra weight becomes a bigger burden to your organs.

I have been overweight but reasonably healthy all my life, but at 50 the wheels started to fall off and I realised if I want to live to be a healthy grandmother I needed to shift the weight. Not for jeans, not for pretty shirts, for life.

Amen brother.