If you were obese and now are not ...

I weighed about 250 12 years ago. Lost weight the first time while traveling, backpacking. When you carry what you eat, it is easier to stay reasonable.

Also added in basic calisthenics, which helped.

I gained back up to about 235-240 when I came home.

For the last 5 year, have stayed around 210-215. Around 15%-18% BF.

Most of my motivation related to racing and feeling good. I still overindulge once in a while, but it is the exception, rather than the rule.

Internal motivation is race performance and energy levels.

External motivation is training and racing with group members and the friendly trash talk/competition.

Having a group of friends, and a spouse,  to train and compare with has helped a lot.

If I could get my eating under control......

I am never ashamed to admit I had gastric bypass surgery to help me lose my weight. The factors that motivated me to start were I needed a change. I used to be a soldier in the Army, did 2 tours in Iraq, I had a loving husband and 2 beautiful little girls, I had all the reasons in the world to be happy except for one thing, I was almost 300 pounds and only 26 years old and felt like an old lady. I had tried, really tried, to lose the weight on my own without surgical intervention for 3 years, at one point losing 40 pounds. I had a very slow metabolism, so to lose that 40 I had to use unrealistic calorie restriction and 2-3 workouts a day (thing Biggest Loser style)

I did not want to have surgery, I was against it. After years of trying, all the pain, all the tears, I finally started researching going through surgery. I picked the right surgery for me and started the process.

November 17th 2009 I underwent the surgery and have never looked back. 6 months post-op did my first 5k, did 3 more, then reached my goal weight 8 months post-op, I had lost 140 pounds. 10 months post op did my first sprint tri, then did another. 11 months post op did my first half marathon, then did 2 more. 13 months post op ran my first marathon. 2011 I wanted to do it big, so I did Muncie 70.3 as my first HIM and then did IM Louisville, such an incredible experience, it was my true exodus from obesity.

Ever since I made it to goal weight I have kept the weight off. I am now 2 years post-op. The surgery didn't do all the work for me, it is just a tool to my success, just like my Garmin is a tool, I still had to put in the hard work.

Wanting to do better keeps me going, this year I had 7 podium finishes in races. I am only doing HIMs next year and I have a goal of cutting 20-30 minutes off my time at Muncie. I am running my second marathon on Sunday and I just want to beat last year's time (4:17)

Started in June of 2008, 6' 1",  262 lbs

Today i was 204lbs

The first year i lost 20-25lbs and put it all back on that fall early winter, Starting in January of 2010 i got serious about diet, started being more consistent with my workouts and started doing longer easier work, due to my weight, i struggled with leg injuries, which made me ride my bike more. I found i was good at riding my bike and started racing bicycles, i was one of the largest guys and one of the slowest. I started doing specific workouts, refined my diet and got down to around 220lbs. That winter i did not lull, kept the weight off and when i started again with specific training in January 2011 i was around 218lbs, i kept at it through the spring, where i had my best race season ever, my lowest for the year was around 210lbs, but that was race weight. I kept my weight at around 215-220 or so average. On Nov 1, I once again refined the diet, even more strict, since Nov 1 i am down to 204lbs with a goal around 190lbs by March. I am running more than ever, and started doing p90x to help with the weight loss. Diet is my key to the weight, as i like all the foods that are bad for you. In the summer i tend to not pay as much attention as my training load increases and find it hard to keep enough good calories coming in to my body.

MY motivation is my wedding pic, i still wonder why i did not get harpooned on my honeymoon in Aruba, i keep it around as a constant reminder of what i had let happen to myself.  I also have a 2yo daughter now, i want to set a good example for her and live a long time to see her grow to adulthood.  I feel much better overall, and after finding this site and a few years of consistent training i am more healthy now than when i was in my 20's and 30's.

lost 90 lbs.

I'm still trying to figure out what set me off to lose it--my wife says she remembers the exact moment; I say a picture of myself and wondered out loud if this is how I look.  She said yes.  I got up that minute and ran around the block, about .5 mile.  She'll say, "You haven't stopped since."

did it through diet and daily exercising.

Have not yo-yo'd this time around, although I have in previous attempts.  It's been over 3 years.

I've kept it off one day at a time......

Was 5'10" and 237.

Went to the store, and bought 40" Waist pants.

I said "Eff it!" and started running.

My low weight was 183 right before IM CdA.

I am now fluctuating between 195 and 202.  Dang holiday parties are killing me!

I was 40 pounds overweight when I went for my annual military medical.  The doctor referred me for a Type 2 diabetes test.  I sat around for the two hours of the test thinking about how diabetes would change my life, especially since it is incompatible with my career.  I told myself then that I had to change. 

Light weights and cardio led to running 5 & 10k races, which led to sprint tri, which will lead to longer distances.  Best of all, I am no where near being diabetic, and don't plan to ever be there again.

I was fat all my life, but I carried it pretty well, while I was young and active. 220-245. I had chalked it up to I was just a "fat" person.  I grew up, got a desk job, quit doing active things, learned how to "cook like Paula Dean", drink like Winston Churchill, had a kid and then got really fat; 300 lbs fat. 

It took me years to learn that fat people are made not born.

There was a family member that taught me how to be fat, encouraged it,  nurtured it, even rewarded it.  Looking back at it, it seems so monstrous to do that to a kid.

My awakening came slowly but it a series of definitive moments. 1. My pants size kept going up over my life, and one day while doing laundry I held up a pair of pants, and they looked like clown pants; huge at the top and tiny little holes at the bottom. 2. A picture of the family at my first child's baptism frightened me.  I looked like a giant, fat, pale corpse.  3.  One day while doing something I love, working on a household project, I just could not get off the floor  I had to do a multistage stand up process.

That was ten years ago.

I started running.

I educated myself on nutrition.

I ate for power and not for fun.

I got down to 180lbs (too skinny by my wife's standards.  Currently at 195, but would like to race next year at 185)

None of that was the hard part.  The hard part was the sabotage that the special family member would do to torpedo my weight loss.  Guilt trips, putting butter on the steaks he would serve me.  Adding cream and butter to oatmeal he would serve me.  Plating up food in the kitchen and covering it with gravy, and acting hurt that I would not eat all the food he slaved over.....get it?

Against a lifetime of this treatment and long odds, I took the weight off through diet an exercise.  However, the food fight continued until the day he died, two years ago. The funny thing was that three months after he died, I had a food blow out and blimped up to 225 in about two months.

I started swimming because I had some plantar faciitis.  A buddy said, "Hey try a triathlon, you might like it."  So here I am, back at 195.

Oh well I tried to post a pic, but I don't know how apparently.

5'8" - 195lbs on New Years day 2007 - Not a "fattie" as I did lift for an hour 4x a week but most certainly overweight.

Motivation: Threefold  1) Going home for thanksgiving and seeing how fat my friends from HS were getting and realizing I was on the same path.  2) Became a father and wanted to give myself the best chance at living a long like to see my daughter grow up.  3) Watched my wife run Cooper River Bridge run in Charleston and realized how much fun everyone was having.

Plan: Run Cooper River Bridge 10k

How: Eat more healthy and started running.  Ran XC in high school but hadn't run a mile in 15 years.  ITBS almost derailed my plan but I finished the 10k and had a blast.  In the mean time, weight was starting to fall off (about 20lbs in 4 months).  Set new plan to run HM by end of year.

By July I was down to 160lbs (35lbs loss) and felt great.  I went from running a 26+min 5K in Feb to a 20 flat 5k by August.  Ran my HM and then said "that was easy, lets try triathlons".

Fast Foward 3 years, my weight fluctuates from 158-168 depending on the season (creeping toward the latter now) but is still generally around 162ish "in season".  I have found I have actually gained a little weight when I started tri training and I assume that is muscle (or beer). 

My main issue is going from HIM/Marathon season straight to the off season.  I have a hard time re-adjusting my eating habits and pack on the weight in Nov-Dec.  Usually my wife and I will go on the South Beach diet after new years for a month to help us get our eating habits back under control although that will be harder this year as we are doing a spring marathon.

I think I got it.

Here it is form the last 5k I ran.

Black is slimming, yes?

March 2010 at a Dr visit. Age 42. Get weight/height checked, and was stunned at the scale: 270. I also noticed he'd written "obese" on the line next to it. Total gut punch reality moment. But who was I kidding? I'd been inactive for too long (athletic in youth into 20's), slowly gaining weight, pants size going up all the time (nearly 42" at the time) and totally out of shape. It should have been obvious, but it wasn't. Had to stop.

Went back to the gym within days and restarted a cardio & weight routine I'd done a few years earlier. Also started eating better, leaving out all the garbage I'd been shoving down my face. Also found a fun class at the Y called "Fitness Boot camp" which had me moving as well.

Come May of 2010, I was asked to be the bike leg of a relay for our local sprint tri. I was not a biker, but jumped at the chance, and trained a bit for it. On race day (late June '10) I discovered how awesome it can be to be involved in tris. Was slow as a snail on my street hybrid Trek bike, but decided then and there,  doing tris is something I wasnted to pursue. I couldn't swim, and hadn't run in years, so I needed help. Found BT, a C25K plan, swim lessons, and away I went. I still remember it was July 5th when I took the first 'steps' into this.

Ended up losing 60 pounds, and have kept it off for the most part. I'm about 220 right now, but my waist size is the same as it was at 210 (36), so I'm thinking its muscle added especially from swimming. I feel great, continue to try to eat smart, and have been active training & participating in tri's since September of 2010.  Don't see it stopping. Only thing holding me back right now is injury, and I've lost 4 months of running time this year due to foot & knee issues. Once that heals, I'm all in for the long haul.

Lost the weight through myfitnesspal.com religious usage, and marathon training.  I do yo-yo within a ten pound range, but usually only during my heaviest training periods.

I didn't keep it off too well, but I started using myfitnesspal again with the mobile apps, and it seems to be just right.

I was 220+ back in  early 2000. I lost 50 pounds in 4 months the summer of 2000. It was done through exercise (biking extensively and weight lifting) and a diet of about 1500 calories/day. That put me at about 170. I yo-yoed back and forth between 170-185 for the next several years. Then I starting getting serious about running and that took me down into the 160s. In the last couple of years I got even more serious and am now in the mid 150s and have been for over a year.

I don't really watch what I eat, but over the course of time have simply eliminated some things. Fast food and soda are probably the main things. Fried foods are always a rarity now as are high fat snack foods.

For a few years I had trouble this time of year because I ate more and stopped exercising. The last few years this hasn't happened because I kept on exercising the whole time. The past couple years in December I ran 200-300+ miles and doing that much running tends to keep the weight off.

From 240 to 175.   Previous pack-a-day smoker

Woke up one day, looked in the mirror and realized it was time to grow up.

Whenever i do something, i try to do my best at it (career, golf, video games) -- i put that same energy into fitness, which turned into triathlons, which turned into a completely new me.

I hover between 175-185, but i always know if i want to lose it, i can, and i know how -- sometimes i enjoy the mental break and enjoy some food.

Great story Jillian, and congrats!

Early March 2004 I began a journey to get rid of the blubber.  According to those pesky height and weight charts in the Dr office I was obese.  Yeah, I guess at 5'5" and 202 lbs that was obese.  I started to really eat right with the help of South Beach Diet....great way to lose the weight and really is healthy after you get off the first few weeks.  Watched the pounds go away --sometimes really S-L-O-W, sometimes "whoosh" they're gone!  Working out every morning at 5 AM while my husband was home with the kids who were  in second and third grade homeschool at the time.  I'd get in from the gym and he'd be out the door to work.  Good thing the hospital was less than 10 minutes from our house!  We moved to VA in the fall and I had lost 65 lbs.  I have gotten as low as 128 but that didn't last long cause I bonked a lot at that weight.
Six years later.....let's see I'm in my fourth year triathlon.  I've done 6   10K's, 4 half mary's, a 5 K (just not long enough for me to enjoy it!), a couple 8 K's. 6 sprint tris, 3 oly's and one oly turned du...let's not forget learning to love my bike and my first Century ride or the 1 mile river swim with Jen.  I think the weight is gone for good.  I went from an overstuffed sausage in size 16 pants (should have been an 18 but I refused to buy that size) to a size 4.  What a journey it has been

I copied this from my blog, wrote it in 2010 just before my 50th birthday.  Hard work, that's how I lost my weight. Currently weigh in 145.3.

At my high water mark, I was borderline obese (judging by standard definitions).  It was a classic case:  I looked in the mirror (on my 40th birthday no less) and was embarrassed, and felt like I was being a horrible role model for my kids, not just with my state of health, but with my overall lifestyle.  In fact, the weight was really just a marker for me that I was not living well.  I went out right then and ran about a mile, and it darn near killed me.  I kept doing that until I injured myself and couldn't run; that's when I took up cycling, and soon thereafter, aspired to do a triathlon.

Staying active and staying away from certain foods and drinks has kept it off for me.  My main food-related problem is that there are certain things that, if I eat them, I will be very tempted to eat too much.  I've got no problem with lovely BBQ or some other 'fattening' foods -- I can enjoy them in moderation. I know which foods and drinks will tempt me to over-consume, and I stay away from them.  I could probably train myself to resist the temptation, but I'd rather just avoid them.

I am 5'-9" and went from 210 to 160 over about 8 months.

I have kept the weight off and have not really yo-yo'ed.  But the question I highlighted above is the one I am struggling with mentally right now.  To lose the weight I really felt like I had to be "obsesive" about food; I would joke to my wife that the best way to lose weight was to develop an eating disorder.  My question now is, "what now?  do I have to be obsessive the rest of my life about food?"  Really not sure what the answer is.  Someone else on this forum a while back was of the opinion that a person who was overweight for most of their lives would have to maintain this "eating disorder" forever.  Not sure I disagree.