my light bulb moment came when I was so frustrated in a fitting room that I broke down and cried.

When I lost the first 20lbs the light bulb moment was realizing summer was coming and it would be yet another year where I'd be too self-concious to go swimming or wear shorts, and that I was halfway through university and never experienced all the fun that goes with it.

This January, my light bulb moment was realising I did absolutely no exercise at all, and was a couch potato! I started running on January 2nd and now I'm doing 6km runs!

One day I just stopped and thought, now is the time, I am ready to let go of all this extra weight. It was like something inside me changed and was ready.
Candace

This is exactly how I felt. I was just ready to not be fat anymore.

My time was when I had to buy my first sz 14 and and hit 200 on the scale. i didn't even weigh 200 with my highest pregnancy weights

For me it was a lot of little things. I knew that I was gaining weight. I didn't wear half my pants anymore because they were too tight. I kept trying to suck in my gut when I went out in public. One day I took a load of laundry upstairs and when I got to the top my heart was pounding and I was out of breath. "This is ridiculous," was what I thought. I decided to get off my lazy butt and get myself in shape for once.

My weight stabilized (and then actually went up a little) when my 3rd child was 2 months old. I bought a new pair of jeans at Old Navy's half price sale back in the fall and the 18s were so tight I could barely get into them. I was really depressed about my weight, I had been heavy since I was 20-21 (I'm in my mid-30s now) and felt like it was a losing battle. I saw a friend's weight loss ticker and was impressed, and though that hey, if she could do it then I could do it too. I PMd her and asked her about it, then signed up for WW online the next day.

Oh i've had a whole lot of "light bulb moments" in my yo yo dieting, the real light bulb stuff is when I lose in spurts, then I regain and need a two by four over my head... those two by fours and light bulb moments, they are the same right?

mine came when i saw a pic of me on christmas and i looked huge. I hated the way I felt about myself and decided to change. so i did.

Well, I've been trying to lose weight for what seems like most of my life. But I guess the real "oh my God" moment came last weekend. I want skiing and tried out the gear I bought this winter. And it hurt. Every single second on that hill was painful, I could only make it 50 yards before I'd have to stop and rest. (Last winter I was 25 pounds lighter) And it finally occurred to me- I am reaching a point where my weight will stop me from doing the things I love, and keep me from living the life I want to live and deserve to have. Losign weight is no longer an issue of appearances or sizes, but an issue of not wanting to give up on life before I'm 25.

Having to buy 3x tops and finally being ready to change my life and not just diet.

My "light bulb" moment was when I was in the VA Hospital getting a check up and I had two appontments that day and when I finished with one the doctor told me to just carry my medical files to my other appointment because it would be faster and while in transit I was in an elevator and I peeked into my medical files and there I saw my doctor's comment.

Patient is MORBIDLY OBESE .....

... and that's when it really hit me like a punch to the stomach. :(

Flatiron, Your is a lot like mine. I read some notes from a physical exam where the NP said I was a "pleasant, obese female."

Nothing like seeing it in black and white.

I thought, I am not "obese", but then I checked my BMI and I sure was. Took me a couple more years to figure out how to lose the weight and keep it off.

seeing the big 2-0-0 was the wake-up call for me. I got down to 170 unhealthily last summer but was sooo happy with the way I looked. I would pass myself in a mirror and have to stop and stare and look at my arms and look at my belly and I would just well up with happiness.
Then I stopped the unhealthy habits and gained back the weight, of course. I was miserable and depressed for awhile and when I finally climbed back on the scale I weighed 200. I couldn't stand the thought of losing all that progress and going back to being so unhappy with myself.
So i'm losing again.

For me it was when I realised just how close I was to weighing 300 pounds! I was in denial for so long that it never occured to me that I weighed more than most of the people on the Biggest Loser!