1) Having to buy 3X shirts.
2) Finding out that my Great Grandfather, Grandfather, Father and all my Uncles had developed diabetes Type 2 by the time they were 40 and they all weighed LESS than I did.
3) To be completely honest, I want to date (and eventually wed) a healthy and athletic woman, but I can't expect to attract a woman like that if I'm 100lbs overweight and sedetary.

OK, I give up, honesty prevails. I'm single and fat guys don't get laid!

My event was having a baby. It took six months after she was born to find the right method (Atkins) which I had barely heard of before I started it.

I've spent extensive time in my journal going over the machinery of motivation. God knows, I had a lifetime of humiliations to light a fire under me, but none of them ever did. It took a massively positive thing for this lifetime fat guy to decide to be a better man.

The main motivation for me was having my daughter. I never wanted to be seen with my mother because she was overweight, and I didn't want her to feel the same way about me. I also want to be able to have fun with her, playing in the park ect. Not just sitting on the sidelines.

Another motivating factor happened about 4 months after she was born. I was standing on a chair painting her new room and fell, slammed my head against the wall and landed with the chair in my back. I had horrible back pain. After many failed attempts with Dr's for relief of my pain, I asked one of our back surgeons (I work in the OR) to take a look at my x-rays. He said there was nothing wrong, I just needed to lose 100 pounds. Granted, he was right, but when there is a definite onset to your back problems, the weight was not the sole issue. Plus I thought my scrubs hid 30 of those pounds, I guess I was wrong

I've been thinking about this motivation thing, and it's hard to say what finally clicked. I could point to specific things that happened (seeing pictures of myself at my brother's wedding . . .) or the fact that siblings had used Atkins with success (though none of them was particularly large).

However, the real motivation wasn't mine: DH announced that he'd decided to start Atkins, based on a dramatic weight loss by a friend of ours and her endorsement. DH was significantly overweight (over 400 pounds) and has been diagnosed as diabetic. I was also significantly overweight (just shy of 300 pounds) but, at least until last month, had not been diagnosed with any medical problems. I have a real desire to grow old with this guy, and really want him to lose weight and get healthier. Once he announced it, it was easy for me to join him; I just insisted we buy the book and do it "by the book".

Having the two of us doing this together does make it easier. The weight loss following a plan that doesn't leave me feeling deprived is great motivation for continuing.

I woke up one day and realized I just felt sick and horrible and I was on the path to cutting my life short. My father died of heart disease at age 42 and I'd already outlived him - but for how much longer?

Fear can be a great motivator.

It's a cliche: I got sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.

barefoot

I guess there wasn't really one thing that made me want to try this. I've been overweight almost all my life but it never really bothered me (never dieted).

I think what got the ball rolling was probably seeing myself in my wedding pictures (married 2001). I didn't like the way I looked in them which started to make me feel bad about myself. When I first met my husband 7 years ago I was about 175lbs (still overweight but only a little bigger than I am now)...and by the time we got married I had gained a lot of weight without realizing it. I was feeling bad for 2 years...2001 up to 2003...and as I looked back, I made things difficult in the marriage sometimes. For those 2 years I thought about starting a diet but didn't know how or where to start. Last year my mom said she and her boyfriend had tried Atkins after seeing my uncles weight loss. I was skeptical of course but I looked into it online and did some research and realized I could do it. So, I told my husband I was going to try it and I bought the book.

I feel so much better about myself now and even though I've had a great marriage all this time...things seem so much better.

I have been tired and lazy for a long time now. I just had a new born son and i have a 3 year old daughter. I find myself being very mean towards my fiance and my daughter and i think that a change in my size and health will result in a change in my attitude. Plus i dont want to be afraid to take my shirt off at the beach this summer and i want to look good for my wedding which is comming up. I have a stunningly beautiful fiance and she loves me for who i am and has for 10 years(ever since we were 11) It wasnt until 02/02/03 that she finally gave me the time of day and i was the happiest man for about two months and now i still have the same love for her but i dont have the energy to show it. She deserves the old me and i am wanting to give it to her.

Like being compared with Mountain Fiji from that 80's program Glow, that hurted me a lot...

But what made me start with LC was actually when I met my stepson 4 years ago, and I had with me some videos from my country, so he wanted to watch them, he saw me there at my brother's wedding ('97, when I was on my healthy weight of 165), I told him that was me - he didn't recognize me - and then asked me: and what happened with you?

He didn't mean to be mean, he adores me, now years later he even calls me mother... but it hurted a lot back then... took me a while to get the courage to start losing weight, and I fell off the wagon big, big time a couple of times since then, but when this - now fully grown teenager - comes visiting every couple of weeks and sees the changes and lets me know, feels like mana from heaven.

On summer not long ago a girl I was fairly obsessed with told me I was the nicest guy she ever met but that she could never date me because she didn't find me physically attractive.

I decided then that I didn't want to be an unnatractive "nice guy" .... went from 325 to 198, met my girlfriend, went back up to 243, now I'm back at 215, looking to go down to 185 and stay there.

Now that I'm recently broken up, my former obsession is all over me, but I'm the one that doesn't find her attractive anymore.

Atkins rules.

As stupid as this sounds.. I checked my hubbies email awhile back and someone had sent him and email. I noticed the date was from awhile back.. like he didn't erase it. It was pics of some almost-necked hottie chicks. It hurt my feelings because he hadn't erased it after he opened it. He said it was becuase he kept meaning to send it to someone else.. anyway, my feelings got hurt and I went through some "maybe he doesn't like what I look like and he wishes he had a hottie wife like that" crap and I finally decided to do something with my huge self. Still have lots of self image issues... trying to make it better though..

I was accumulating a lot of little grievances... tired of waddling, tired of my feet hurting, of the snickers, the stares, the jeopardy to my health.

I could have died from complications of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, and I remember the (400 lbs himself if anything) doctor, not known for his bedside manner, patting my stomach while removing the stitches saying to my (skinny) then-husband. "It was the weight that got in the way of finding it before it was almost too late!" Even THAT wasn't enough..combined with the loss of the baby and dealing with a disintegrating marriage, caring for 2 children (one with a disability) it was a spiral of emotion-driven eating that led me up to almost 300 lbs, and the whole time I'm in denial.

It took a nightmare about dying in my sleep, leaving my disabled son lying there crying for me to wake me up and make me do something. I'm getting very close to the age my Dad died at, from complications of gastric bypass. THAT WILL NOT BE ME!

Five people have asked me "When's it due?" and it breaks my heart every time. The trouble is I can see where they are coming from. I have a photo of myself at nine months pregnant. I have another photo of myself that was taken recently. You would struggle to guess which is which.

I have so many reasons why I finally started to do this. The main one was for myself, I was tired of never being able to find decent clothes for myself and when I did paying 3 times what they were worth at a big and tall mens store.

I have four small children (7,7,9 and 12) and I really want to see them grow up.

I know it seems like a silly reason but we live close to Wild Adventures, a theme park in Valdosta, Ga. My son goes there a lot with my ex-wife and her new hubby and he has been asking me for over two years now to take him and ride the rides with him. (btw ive lost 61 lbs so far and me and my oldest (jacob) rode the log flume together, it was a VERY VERY special moment for both of us, we were both almost in tears. He said one of the coolest things he has ever said to me "Daddy you did it, we are riding a ride together" It will never be forgotten. I just cant wait till I lose the rest of my weight so there are no limitations as to what we can do.


I love my family so much guys, there are so many things I want to do for the first time. It is going to be like reliving my life all over again, the way I have always wanted to.


Sorry for the long post, got really emotional talking about that day with my son at the amusement park.

wow.. that about made me cry. That is awesome!