For me, it's 90% about looks. Health is 10%. Don't get me wrong, health is important to me, but I am tired of being the one with the pretty face. It's old. I want to have a great figure so I can wear cute clothes and feel good about how I look when I go out.

well, I still have a ways to go, but Lori Bell's answer rang true with me. Now, I don't have many of those problems I had when I was larger.

since my health feels like it's less of an issue, and as I lose weight, and can wear nicer clothes and feel like I look better in them, the vanity is starting to play a bigger part. though I still feel like I need to get my weight down to be really healthy.

there's a trainer at my local Y, a woman in her late 20s or 30s. she's not a skinny woman, very curvy with extra weight. I'm sure she's very fit. is nice to see that.

I would have to say looks and health probably play equal roles in why I am doing this. On one side I couldn't stand shopping in the fat stores anymore. I was constantly frustrated. This lent to a lot of health problems, and social ones too.. not wanting to go out, not wanting to participate in things.. I also knew continuing on the path I was going was only going to end me up more miserable and more isolated. So here I am, 35lbs less and I already feel such a huge difference in how much energy I have and how much I am enjoying life. The difference in my looks has given me more confidence and that for me is what I really needed.

Some of mine is definitely vanity, clothing choices, and male attention. :)

I was 46 when I started this and it was all about health. I actually was very comfortable with the way I looked. For years I had convinced myself that you could be overweight (obese) and still be fit, and that worked for awhile. Eventually though all that weight on your joints does catch-up with you and I reached that point.

There is definitely some vanity now though. I love, love, love trying on clothes that almost always fit and look good. And I really like never worrying about fitting into seats, doorways, or other narrow spots.

- I started exercise when i gained 20 lbs. I still in normal weight range by then, but I see myself not doing anything but just skipping meals to get a lower weight. At that time i realized no matter how many kgs i weight, if my body isn't lean then it's just a waste of time and a waste of health. So i decided to start exercise and eating properly. As the journey continue, I want to keep this habit so i can teach my children in the future - because i don't want to have that "anorexia" thoughts like i did when i was younger.

- Absolutely, I didn't start this journey because of HEALTH like most of you did. I started because i just wanted to have smaller number on the scale. But as the journey goes on, I care more about my health and worry about my "anorexia" alike thoughts and worry that without health knowledge like I used to, I would kill myself by skipping meals. So as I continue to work my ways up, it's more about health than the numbers on scale.

- But of course, as i continue, the reason to be able to keep going and not quitting for so many times is because the LOOKS that i get now. I have leaner thighs, I have better image of myself, I fit better than clothes and not to mention, I look good in them. Those things that keep me going and will continue to keep me going. Without them, I definitely can't keep up this journey and probably has quitted a long time ago (like my youth's yoyo-diets).

- I don't weight myself very often. The image I have is now WAY MORE IMPORTANT than the number on scale. I see my thighs and how I look in clothes and how my thighs look, how my belly feels slightly heavier than normal are more important than the 5lbs gained on scale. :) That's why I don't use my scale very much like when i was much younger and worry over my numbers on scale than how i actually look.

Hope this answered your question ^_^

Same here. Though from reading about others' health issues here, I can see that I must've been just about to have health problems as well.

Of course, I have been increasingly concerned with overall health from month #2 on. Nutrition. Fitness level. Dental health. Smoking (I am giving myself a pass throughout losing, but plan to quit while maintaining my goal weight).

That is an interesting question, isn't it. For me, health comes first. My family, both sides, has a history of health problems (high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, etc) so being so overweight increases those risks. Right now I am borderline high blood pressure and cholesterol and I have hypothyroidism. And I can't have kids because of my weight.

After health, looking good and feeling good comes next. When I feel I look good then I feel better about ME. I see bigger smiles and a more outgoing person. I've never been a small person, even as a child, so to see smaller pants, tops and even undies feels great. But that vanity is only a small part of why I need to drop the weight. And I admit I weigh every morning to keep track of my progress. When the number is up I get bummed, sure, but I just need to evaluate what I did (or failed to do) the previous day. When it's down, it's a good feeling that you want to continue.

The only aspect of looks that is important to me is looking "normal." I don't want obesity to be people's first impression of me. Being hot or pretty or whatever-- I couldn't give a rip about that. So mainly I'm doing this because I don't have any health problems, and I don't WANT any.

I think I definitely started my journey mostly for vanity. I felt fairly healthy but the weight was steadily creeping on. I refused to shop in plus size stores but I kept finding larger and larger sizes in the "regular" shops, so I was somewhat fooling myself.

Once I started my journey, I felt better both physically and mentally. I had no idea how much more energy I would get from losing weight. I feel and look fit and healthy now. Now that I am fit and healthy, it is both about my health and vanity. I feel like I'll live forever now and be able to physically get around so much better than people who are much heavier.

Five pounds does make a difference to me mentally. Probably less to me physically but my clothes do fit differently if I gain just a few pounds. My goal is set at 135 but I try to stay around 125. My absolute red line is still 135 though. I weighed 135 when I got married almost 23 years ago at age 20 so I always keep that in the back of my mind.

Absolutely. It was about health for me. Sleep apnea, painful joints, aching back, labored breathing, inability to walk comfortably for any kind of a distance, constantly being hot from all the weight, discomfort during sex not to mention the embarassment I felt being nude in bed, swollen feet and legs, heart palpitations, high blood pressure and the headaches that goes with it, high cholesterol, and that's what I can come up with right now. Yeah it is great to be able to wear smaller clothes and look better but it absolutely was about health for me. I was slowly killing myself in a type of unintentional suicide. I didn't want to kill myself but I was. If it wouldn't have been one thing it would have been another. It was also about my daughter no longer being ashamed of me which she was and didn't want to be seen with me. I understand though because I was very much ashamed of myself. I am healthier now. I even do light jogging/running now. The other things came later such as vanity issues, etc but I had to get my self together or else I was going to self destruct.