What was the final straw?

For me, it was always going to beaches/public pools/etc with my friends, but embarrassed to take off my shirt. That's when I decided that I was, for once and for all, going to pick a diet and go to the gym regularly to lose it all.


...but now I seem to have the opposite problem...I cant seem to gain any muscle! :mad:

it seems like it doesn't matter what I eat or how much (granted it's not cookies or cake), I can't gain any weight!

Although I don't have a 6 pack...yet (A 4 pack when flexed...but the remainder might be just a little extra skin...? I'm not sure at the moment), I am...pretty skinny, weighing in at around 140 lbs at 5'11" :(

I think it's time for me to bow down to the almighty can of tuna and hit the gym harder and more often than I do now (hard to go as much as I'd like between school, relationships, and part time jobs :[ ...though, luckily, school will be getting out in about a week :tu: )

I was always thin and had a super high metabolism...until college...In my early 20's I gained 70lbs and got up to 240lbs. I honestly didn't even realize it until I had my yearly physical at work and they told me my weight. Been focused ever since.

Jason

went out one day with my wife to get some shirts.
i always had trouble getting shirts to fit since i was 305lbs. I just got sick of it and made a promise to myself to change my life.

One morning I was taking a piss. I looked at my profile in the bathroom mirror. I was bloated from eating a shitload of pizza and ice cream the night before. I had an enormous gut that overlapped, fat man boobs, and generally looked like an unhealthy lardass. I was totally disgusted with my own reflection. I probably weighed around 320lbs at that point. It wasnt until a few months later that I did something about it, but that morning will always stick with me.

I met a woman I wanted to impress a few weeks after seeing this place on fark. It was motivation enough to hit the gym, then start watching the nutrition. Mission accomplished, :tu: but now I'm hooked enough to want to try a 6 pack on for size.

Went from 205 then to 191 @ ~12% BF now.

I weighed 300 lbs, was enrolled in college, and walking back to the campus from downtown on day in January or February, 1981. While crossing a street the traffic light changed, and I ran across one lane of traffic and was out of breath when I stepped up onto the curb! I knew that couldn't be good, since I was only 19 at the time! So I made a bet with a friend and dropped 60 lbs over the summer. After that I decided to just keep going, and by the following April (1982) had gotten down to 180.

I hate having to buy(and find) 2x/3x/4x clothes that fit, and having to pay extra for them.. or that I would have to go to "Big and Tall" to find anything that would fit.

I hate getting winded after riding a bicycle for only 5 minutes, and feeling like everyone is looking at me funny.

I hate not having my picture taken because I looked worse with every new picture.


I love the fact that I am doing something good for myself, feeling great after a good workout, and improving my health and physique.

Plus, a lot of what you guys have already said..

- YON

One motivator was my 4 year old son crawling into bed one morning and asking why I had such a big belly and telling me I should get rid of it. I couldn't really argue with him since he was right.

It's quite strange actually, but I ow the weight I've lost to getting sick.

During late december last year, I came to a stall in my weightlifting. It almost felt like I lost 10% of my strength just over the course of a few days. I new something was wrong, and sure, New Years Eve I got a fever and my throat was really bad. I had planned on going to a big party with a friend, and since I don't go out that much I was looking forward to it. Instead, I spent New Years, and three more days, at home, sick.

When I was fever free, and everything felt quite okay, I decided that I wanted to exercise. I don't want to do any heavy training the week or so after I've been sick, so I decided that I was going to take at least three two hour walks that week. At the same time I decided that I might as well give weightloss another go. I had lost about 7-8 lbs earlier, in november I think, but gained them right back (can you say "water weight"?). For some reasons, me being sick of not being attractive, mostly, I simply stuck with the program. Now, 40 lbs later, I can't thank my illness enough...

Staring 50 yrs of age straight in the face! I originally set 200 lbs as a goal but once I reached the goal, my ambitions were much higher.

The only thing I miss about my fat days is my built in "lap table". I could sit in my recliner, lean back slightly, and my stomach made a great table for my plate or beer. It was really handy for eating and watching TV, but I don't think I want to go back.

Seeing John's pictures in January. I'd been tired of the way I looked and thinking about starting working out again for years, but after seeing his pictures in VG (a norweigan newspaper) something just clicked and I thought "I can do this too!" and started working out immediately - and I've kept at it ever since.

I've tried dieting and excercising many times before, but it's always fizzled out after a few weeks or a month at most. This time is different though, and I think it's because I've learned so much through this forum that I now have a solid foundation of knowledge to base my training and diet on instead of just doing things randomly like in the past. It really helps a lot to know exactly WHY you're doing something instead of just doing 100 situps every evening and wondering why you're belly isn't getting any smaller. (I used to do that)

Now I've lost 25 pounds and gained enough muscles that people have started to comment on it, and I can wear tight t-shirts and tank-tops comfortably - I'm very happy I read that news article about John in January! :)

I went cross country skiing on Feb. 20 this year (in Banff, Alberta). My older cousin literally kicked my ass on the hills - she would get way ahead of me, and then come ski back as I struggled up the hills. After only 15k, I was done for the day -- and that made me mad because it was so beautiful out -- I wanted to do more, but my body said no! I also wanted to play competitive ultimate frisbee this summer, and I knew there was no way I could compete at that level of fitness.

I got home, stepped on the scale, and when I realized that I'd climbed over to over 200 pounds (206 to be exact), I snapped and made a commitment to get fit (and all the way this time, unlike half measures before). Today I weighed under 170 for the first time in a very long time (maybe when I was 15?) -- I'm stronger and faster than I've ever been -- I look better than I ever have, and I feel great!

Being Canadian, I'm used to people being on the chubby side ;) . However when I moved to SoCal I realized that most people here are fit and active, and it seemed that I was in the minority. That was good motivation.

My primary reason for making the change was that I could not believe that my wife married such a fat-slothful guy, and I wanted to make it up to her.

Getting told by College coleagues that I am a fat b@astard and generally taking sh!t from people on a daily basis.

One of the things that I used to really hate was taking my shirt off to go swimming, I once went to Spain with my mum and her friend and never swam the whole week because I was so conscious.

Generally just being unhappy all the time because of how I looked, I wanted to look more attractive for my g/f, even though she said she liked me how I was.

This website is pretty much the sole reason for this intense weightloss. I saw John and how easy it seemed and it made me realize that I could do that too. I always thought losing 50 pounds would take like 2 years, but it was actually way easier.

I started out at around 275 pounds at 6'1" in late January and now I am 213 and dropping still. I am so proud of myself. I used to hate every picture I was in before, but now every picture seems to look really good. etc etc...

Thanks John

The #1 reason is that I saw John's transformation in motion, i.e., the daily pictures from the first year in the animated GIF format. I saw that and said "I can do that, too!"

It was a real revelation for me. I have lifted weights for about 20 years now, and was always "in shape" and "muscular" according to all of my friends. However, I was never to the point where I'd be comfortable taking my shirt off when mowing my lawn, playing basketball on the "skins" side, etc. I was about 180 lbs at 5'10", and I'd estimate anywhere from 15-18% bodyfat for the most of the last 15 years (after a diet (don't ask, probably as unhealthy a diet as you can think of) took me from 215 to 180 that point after my freshman year in college, and I took up lifting).

So, while I was fairly muscular, I had convinced myself after lots of attempts to get a leaner physique that it just wasn't possible for me for some reason (could have been that all of my attempts were just "eat low-fat crap like breakfast bars" instead of real food).

When I saw that video for the first time on 2/11/04, I KNEW that I could make a similar transformation. Heck, I was in better shape than John was at his start, I should be able to get to comparable levels as him, right?

Since then, I've lost 27 lbs, and have gone from ~18% bodyfat @196 lbs (gained 15 in the last 5 years, since my first child's birth) to 10% @169 currently. All thanks to that single video showing that it's possible. Thanks, John.

Had to have been the day that I got wore out walking to my car... It was only about 45 feet away from me. I was huffing and puffing and that was the end of it. I've gone up and down in weight most of my life but never made the dedication that I am making now. I don't have anyone to impress but myself but my wife has been extremely supportive and I have never felt so good. Living in Arizona, we have nice weather year round and I enjoy swimming but was terrified to take my shirt off in public in fear of what others thought due to my own piss poor self image. I'm still weird about it but I'm getting better but I know soon enough I will have the confidence that I've always wanted.

It's also depressing to not be able to play much outside with your own kids due to fatigue.

it wasn't any special moment of looking in the mirror or being told I was a big fatty. nope. me and 12 other friends each put $20 into a pot with whomever losing the most fat at the end of 3 months taking the pot.

looking back, what's funny is that I had always wanted to lose fat and gain muscle. I was addicted to computers and video games from a very early age, so I was a wiz at sitting for long periods of time. in fact, I remember June of 2002 when I asked my wife to marry me, we decided to lose weight before the wedding. in fact, her parents decided to do that as well. THAT wasn't even motivation enough, as I had to get big tux pants. heh.

all that it really took was a $20 bet among friends. you know, honestly, I would have paid 100x that amount to look AND feel as good as I do right now.

ooh, and get this. my friend's fiancee wanted to lose weight for their wedding, so she bought a wedding dress a size too small. that was her motivation. I haven't seen her in a while, but their wedding is at the end of July, and from what I hear, she's doing quite well.

What was the final straw? I saw John's website on Fark.

I thought "Yeah, that's all well and good, but he doesn't sit on his ass all day in front of a computer like I do."

Then I read some more and found out that he's a network tech, just like me.

My smartass-attitude immediately kicked in: "Well damn. If he can do it, I have ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE."

See my sig for the difference so far :)

The final straws (plural):
-Seeing Johns site

-Realizing that if I continued smoking pot all day long, drinking all night long, and eating everything that came my way I'd turn out to be something I didn't want to even imagine.

-This is the biggest one: I really wanted a date!!! (still haven't had one in the past couple years, but at least I feel really confident and I can look in the mirror and feel proud of my appearance! I was only 190lbs, but I was such a burnout no one wanted me..I still have the burnout reputation, but its starting to fade since I haven't smoked in 4 months and I keep the drinking to a bare minimum of one beer a night on friday and saturday night..and I'm at 160 now!!!)

-Having a professional fitness assessment (my university offers them for free, how cool is that?!?!) and having my VO2 max come back 10 points below the "extemely poor" marking on the chart. I've since gone off the scale the other direction: 55.5!!!!!!

-Did I mention JOHN'FREAKING'STONE!!! YEA BABY!! The guy just SCREAMED to me "Yo, you're a worthless stoner...DO SOMETHING WITH YOURSELF!!"

Was getting dressed for work in some size 38s and the button blew off.
I had to change and was late for work. Felt like such an ass. Decided there was no way in hell I was going to go buy 40s.

I found John Stone site. Fortunately I also have a couple of close friends that also jumped on the fitness bandwagon at the same time. Helps to keep motivated.

I'd seen this site before, and kinda wrote it off. I came back to it not long ago, after a 24 year old good friend of mine fought and lost to cancer. The guy was 4 years younger than me. I realized that in his case they'd tried everything to cure him to no avail, but there I was basically killing myself with all the junk food and total lack of exercise. And THAT *I* could control!

And the change I'm hoping will also be contagious in my family. My mom and dad are in their late 50's, my dad having to take medicine for his high blood pressure all the time. I REALLY hope my eventual transformation will inspire them to buckle down and get in shape.

Being Canadian, I'm used to people being on the chubby side ;) .

My husband just read last night that Americans are fatter than Canadians. Watch those Europeans though, they're about half that size. ;)

It's a little embarrassing, but for me, too, it was being sick that kicked off the weight loss. Specifically, I had a major family crisis and couldn't eat for two days. For the next month, I had no appetite at all. I lost about 5 pounds, I guess.

To pull myself out of my depression, I needed something to focus on, and my body was a natural choice. I loved how I looked at the lower weight, and needed to work hard to keep it up. So I cut out almost all alcohol and pop to start. That was in September. January I started lifting weights, visiting this forum, and slowly changing my eating to cleaner and cleaner foods, and I've been happy almost every day since then. :D

i've always wanted to lose weight, but i never knew how to do it, i would say to myself every summer "this year i'll lose it" but i never knew how!
this year i got educated, my mum got me a membership to a gym for a christmas present (completly unreleated-how freaky!)

i just hated being treated differently because i was obese, i didnt like my image, and really wanted to change it, but never knew how, btu i stumbled only bodybuilding.com which changed my life, from there i found john's site, and the rest is history (im still writing history!!)
went from 125kg+ to 93kg now, still another 5 or so kilo's to go, but im nearly there and it feels great!

I think my main motivation was John's transformation. I was quite athletic in my early years and even competed in tae kwon do but in heavy weight. Then one by one I dropped my hobbies and finally I started to gain weight. By the end of the year 2002 i weighted about 114 kg (251 lbs) and had really high blood pressure... at the age of 25! Then i tried to lose some weight using weight watchers program but it didn't feel right. I managed to lose about 20 kg (44 lbs) but gained back 10 kg (22 lbs) during the next year. Finally my friend showed Johns site to me and it hit in the head like ton of bricks. And like many of you i thought: "If he can do it I can do it." Since then I have lost 8 kg (17,5 lbs) and started to do 1 hr cardio (60%-70% effort) every day, lifting weights 3 times a week and eating clean. My goal is to weight under 80 kg by the end of this year and finally I think it's possible.

So huge thanks to John!

I was a skinny child till I was 15. Didnt do much sport, didnt have time to spent most of my time studying or infront of a computer. At 15 I started to grow but ate alot of crap. My mainstay in my diet was coke, friends and family were horrified at how much coke I drunk. Thankfully and regretfully I have inherited big hipps from my mother so it hides my belly but doesnt do my butt any favours. Anyhow at 15 I also went to boarding school in england. There I took part in many sports and found I was extremely unfit. Being short and fat didnt do much to help my status within the school so I was often bullied and got into fights. That summer when i came back to Greece and I decided to start going to the gym. I didnt really start to really train until I was 18 due to my parents telling me that I would stay short and would ruin my back.
Thats how I started weight training.

As for cutting well that is influenced by all you guys and girls. I was always able to take off weight whenever I wanted to by just reducing the amount I ate and cutting out sugar for a few weeks, but never have I tried to get my BF% down enough to see my abs clearly and that is what i am aiming for now.

Thanks guys!

What motivated me? A picture. Not just any picture, a picture that had been staring me in the face for over two years!

One day, as I came in the door from work, I bumped a table in the foyer that has our family pictures on it. Among them is a picture of my wife and I from a cruise in October 2001. Oct. '01 was just after I'd become 100% sedentary due to a severe foot injury I sustained. At that time, I ballooned up to my starting transformation weight of 187-lbs. Well, when I bumped the table, that picture fell and hit the ground.

It was almost as if it did it in slow motion; I watched it tumble, fall, and come to a rest facing up at me. As I stood there over the picture, I saw my face - it had become wide, the makings of a double chin were beginning to show, and I looked... fat. I picked the picture up, put it back in its place, and a couple of weeks later after some planning, I put my transformation into high gear.

In just under 14 weeks, I lost 37-lbs.

I've been a skinny twig my whole life. In my teens you could actually see my heart beating through my chest. I worked out on and off my whole life without much effect, mostly because gyms were expensive and inconvenient. I vowed that if I ever got the space to have a home gym, I'd have no excuse left not to work out. So I renovated my basement, bought some equipment and used it ever since.

1.) About two months ago my business was doing very poorly and I needed to get a job. I got an interview at a bank for a teller position. I tried on everything in my closet and couldn't fit into anything. I ended up crying as I ran to Walmart to buy something to wear. While I was there, I bought some dumbells and a bench and started my healthy lifestyle that day. I'm still very new to this but am making progress and seeing a change in my body and attitude. I have educated myself here on this board as well as bodybuilding.com and have started the Body For Life program two weeks ago (tomorrow is day 14).

2.) I want to set an example for my children

3.) My husband laughed at me when I brought the weights home and told him I was going to start lifting. I have to prove him wrong now don't I?? ;)

I seen how many stretchmarks I had, they probably won't ever go away and they are a reminder of what I done to myself. Plus I was sick of being the fat one in my group of friends, the one no girls will look at, and everyone takes the piss out of behind your back.. Looking back I deserved it with the way I ate.

On a normal day I would have Bacon eggs for breakfast, Frozen pizza for lunch, random fatty junk snacks throughout the day, and then top it off with a big dinner. Not to mention the litres of pepsi a day.

I was wanting to loose weight for ages, now and again I lost a few pounds but that came back with the "I'll get back on it tomorow" attitude.

Eventually I decided I had to loose it, I started researching, learned about the metabolism and so on, and I was on my way. I wrote out a quick diet plan (I would be eating about 1000 calories a day), and a poor workout plan, that incorporated no weights. I did actually loose about 10lb from that, probably mostly water though.

Then I found john's site (like most people), on a forum. Went to it, and was amazed, I looked through the website for at least 6 hours on end. I found fatlosstips.com a great help aswell, but not as much as this.

I started, and here I am, I emailed John a few times and got some great info, and went through a lot of articles on bodybuilding.com and thier fatloss forum aswell.

I'm still learning.

My first and main reason, is I want to quit smoking. But instead of replacing it with more fatty foods, and junk. I want to replace it with healthy habits. I have a date set, I'm getting some workout eq in the process. I'm looking up reciepes, and stuff about supplements. My fiance and I have also been talking with our kids, so that they know some changes are coming. It's to get a general idea, of stuff they would also want, but that I didn't have to feel tempted by if it was in the house.

The other reason is it's not fair to both my fiance and our son, since they both has asthma. So, that the second reason, I'm trying to change my life.

I really don't have much to lose, but it's enough combined with the smoking, that I'm out of breathe everytime I walk up a hill. I also have a good support system.