In the spring of 1999 I was flirting with the 150lbs mark. I tried to ignore it. I had always been a thin person, until after the birth of my child. My husband made a comment to me. He called my "tubby", Then my husband developed border line type 2 diabetes. I took a long hard look at myself. I was going to die. Along the way to death, I would have high blood sugar, heart disease. So much to look forward to. I heard an interview with Dr. Atkins on TV. I went on the Atkins diet, my first and only try at any diet. It worked.

206 was my "get serious" weight. I had no idea I weighed that much and there I was being weighed for a free body composition test at Curves. I signed up with Curves that day and did my first workout the following day. I've been working out ever since.

well, i am having a hard time getting started on my plan. i am getting close to that size that i just can't bare

It was my freshmen year of college. I didn't even own a scale because I had always been around the same weight and I figured (for some crazy reason) that I'd always be the same weight no matter what I did or ate. Anyway, I did a huge load a of laundry and when I tried to put on my jeans, none of them would fit. I was stuck in sweat pants until I bought some new ones.....size 11. I was so upset I felt sick, I went from a 6 to an 11. I bought a scale and saw to my horror that I was 185 lbs. That day I refused to live in a size 11 body.

You are 5'7" and 123 pounds? You think that's overweight?

I have a high body fat %. My goal is to lose fat and gain muscle. As I said in my intro, it's not so much the # on the scale as it is my body composition.

How high is your body fat? Mine is 23% and my trainer says that's great.

Hello everyone,

I'm a newbie here and jsut wanted to share my story. I'm a new member here and introduced myself in the other forum. Here's my story in a nutshell for those who don't mind reading: I have been on a diet rollercoaster for the last 7 years after my daughter was born. I am 5'1 and have always had a little bit chubby but I didn't mind. The most I had ever been pre-pregnancy was 132 lbs which was a healthy weight. After that, at nine months of pregnancy I went up to 185 lbs. After she was born, I went down to 165 lbs without dieting. Frustrated for a year, I did the Stanley K Berstein diet in Feb 2001 ( I realize this isn't one of the diets mentioned here or supported) and got down to 110 lbs in about 5 months. I was thrilled with the results but didn't have a plan to keep it off and that diet wasn't realistic day to day. Slowly but surely, I gained weight and got up to 170 lbs by July 2004. I am an emotional eater and found this was the kiss of death. I went back to Bernstein and lost 20 lbs. Then realized I couldn't handle starvation diets anymore and started doing Atkins. Since they were both Ketogenic diets, I could stay in ketosis, eat more and not gain back the 20 lbs I lost on Dr. Bernstein. For 9 months, I stayed on Atkins and from from 170 to 131 lbs until 3 people in my family passed away all within 4 months of each other. Two passed away within 12 days of each other. It really hit me hard and i became very depressed. I numbed the pain with food. Five months later, I was back up to 160 lbs and was even more depressed but I kept eating. I started to hide from people I knew, stopped going out and watched life pass before my eyes. I was hiding the real me behind all those layers of fat. I had no energy, started to get pains all over my body and thought I might be diabetic when I recently got tingling in my hands and feet. No longer did I think about vanity, I was scared about my health and I am only 30 years old. I didnt' want to be like this anymore at a high 206 lbs. The breaking point came a few months ago when I developed stretch marks all over my inner thighs. I was horrified and felt ugly and worthless as a woman. Still, it took me a few more months to get back on track. My birthday was a few weeks ago and I vowed to change my lifestyle for myself and my family. My daughter has watched me become less and less energetic and I felt horrible about it. I wanted to do things with her but never had the energy. I've been on Atkins for a week now and have lost 7 lbs. Being 206 ls was no fun and I realized I had to do something or I would age considerably and I am still young. In just a week, I have so much energy now and I know I can stay on this program because it works and the biggest trouble I had was the highs and lows of blood sugar. On Atkins, I find I can stabalize them and I am burning a large amount of ketones.

Hi AtkinsFan! I'm a bit taller than you but I also topped out at 206.

That's interesting...I am 5'1'' and my highest weight was 206 as well.

My highest weight was 185. My breaking point was the culmination of small comments by family, scary looking pictures and seeing my reflection in my computer screen at work.

I decided I HAD to do something about my weight. I couldn't look at myself anymore, and I looked like a bag of potatoes... I felt ugly.

For me, it wasn't so much the scale, but my clothes ALL looked like spandex on me! My jeans, khakis, work clothes... Once I started seeing "camel toe" with EVERYTHING I wore, I decided ENOUGH! Sorry if TMI, but it's a cold fact.

My wake up call was after a visit to my dr and she told me in front of my husband that if I didnt do something about my weight and my eatting habits now I would have diabeties by the time I turned 30.(I'm 28) That I was slowly killing myself. That night my husband held me in bed and said "I love you and I dont want you to die". That was it for me!

My breaking point was when I was 16 and I had reached 252lbs. I realized that I was officially closer to 300lbs than 200lbs and that scared me. I lost about 20lbs and then when I was 19 I reached 252lbs again. I realized that if I keep going on like this its going to be a never ending cycle and its just going to get worse and worse and I am never going to have a good life.

2005 I was 255 lbs, despite being very overweight I didn't have any serious health issues (fine blood work, low cholesterol, steady heart) but I felt very inhibited by my weight - felt unattractive, hated shopping for clothes, sports and physical activities weren't fun. I had an old Volvo and it became harder to get the belt fastened around me. Straining to get the seat belt fastened I decided I really had to do something about my weight.