What made you gain the weight you did & when did you realize you wanted or needed to lose it? I think I have the ability to gain very easily & I love food! With three children there are cupcakes and yummy stuff everywhere. After the birth of my 4 yr old I kept the weight on & than lost it for about a yr than got pg with my last baby who just turned one & didnt lose it after his birth. Since Im done having babies I thought I really should lose weight--Im tired of hearing from my mother "your too pretty to be fat" - yep, she tells it like it is. My dh is thrilled that Ive stuck to this. Funny how they say your weight doesnt matter till you actually lose some I feel SO much better about myself though--I cant believe the difference!

BTW--I just hit the 20 lbs gone mark!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!

I had been chubby my whole life. My mom used to buy my jeans in the husky section of the store when I was a child. Does that area even exist anymore or is the entire store considered husky now?

Anyways, one of the things that did it for me was finding a picture of myself holding my daughter in front of the castle at Disneyland. My wife picked it up and said that it was a good picture of her dad and we should put it in the album. She then realized that it was me and started to laugh. I realized then that if I didn't do something I would turn into yet another potbellied middle-aged man who sits on the park bench watching his kids play rather than running, climbing and jumping with them.

A few weeks later, a friend told me about Atkins and loaned me his copy of DANDR. That was 14 months and 67 pounds ago and I feel better now than I did when I was 18.

Family photos did it for me and the fact that my clothes were shrinking "damn dryer" --- it's not me, it's not me. After that denial phase, bought the Atkins book, read it over the course of the weekend, went shopping and that was that.

Vikki

A supplier asked me if I was "with child" - soooo humiliatiing - she's overweight herself and I think she did it on purpose to make me feel bad...also I had quit smoking 9 months before, had gone through a depression and a vit. B12 defficiency - was already overweight when I quit and then gained at least 30-40 more pounds - I think I've probably lost the "smoking" weight, now have to get serious about reaching a proper weight. Just basically disgusted with myself and was ready finally to do something about it. Another supplier mentioned she has been lo-carbing for years, I researched it and here I am!

When I looked at a picture of myself, and realized WHOA... I am bigger than I like. Same as Vikki, the dryer kept shrinking my clothes... only been LC for 4 days, down 11 pounds. (a lot of water I am sure). Feeling good... it's just the beginning.

Oh yeah. I forgot. I also found out my wife was cutting the tags out of the new pants that she bought me because my 36s were getting too tight but I would refuse to buy 38s. Just slid into a 30 today with a little room to spare. Damn, that feels good.

Yep, my mom bought me the husky jeans too...I was a plus size 16 in the childrens department at age 10. I went on my first diet (counting fat grams) at age 11 and lost 15 pounds...it felt great! Slowly gained it back but since I was growing taller I never looked as heavy as I had been even though the weight came back. After I had packed on too much as a teen I tried eating low-fat again but it never made me lose weight again. I tried diets off and on in high school but they didn't really work or I didn't stick to them very long. I did Atkins my senior year of high school and worked out a lot. I was looking good but lost more inches than pounds...discouraged at not losing a lot of "weight" on the scale I quit. Within the next year I gained 25 pounds eating anything and everything I wanted. After seeing pictures of myself from a recent family vacation I realized I could do better. Also, my BMI was at a high level. The day I got back I started by just cutting back and taking walks. Then I started Atkins and have been with it since. !7 pounds in 4 months baby! Wahoo! I am feeling good.

My DH and I purchased term life insurance in March. I was quoted a rate of $380 but after the results of my blood work came in, the rate was $708! My fasting blood sugar was 125 and my total cholesterol, while not too, too bad at 229, had an awful HDL/LDL ratio that put me in the high risk category for heart problems. I worked in IT at Prudential in the late 70s and although I didn't pick up much about insurance I do remember that their tables don't lie. If they say you're a high risk, you are.

I was uncomfortable at 189 and couldn't stand how I looked but it took being scared to get me on track. I got down to 185.5 by cutting back on my carbs and then stalled for two weeks. Reread Atkins and started end of April at 185.5

Now my blood sugar is 95, my total cholesterol is 199 and my ratio puts me in the low risk category. I feel wonderful and my only semi complaint is all the extra skin on my face. I never had wrinkles before and now I look like a Sharpei.

Barb

I gained weight after I got married and then more with each baby, except the last one. The last time I was 40 yrs old and developed gestational diabetes and was put on a special diet and later insulin and ended up weighing less than I when I got pregnant! That soon changed when I was told I could go back to a "normal" diet after my son was born. I quickly put on all the lost weight and then some.
I decided I had to do something when my mother called to tell me that my aunt and uncle weren't doing too well. They both have diabetes (my grandmother died from diabetic complications when I was quite young), both have had to have their knees replaced, both overweight, and now my aunt was having heart problems. I decided that that was not what I wanted to happen to me. So here I am.

Several co-workers were having success on this diet, and I figured I'd give it a whirl. I didn't expect this kind of success, nor did I expect it to be this easy and enjoyable. I thought it would be like every other diet (low-fat) that I'd tried. Was I ever surprised!

How did I gain it: I packed on way too many pounds with each pregnancy. I ate high-carb and was always hungry. No, ravenous. Like an alien appetite machine crawled inside my body.

When did I realize that I needed to lose weight? When I stepped on the scale and saw the number 235. I realized that number was twice my high school weight. I looked in the mirror and did not recognize the person looking back at me.

I have always been " heavy" ...my dads side of the family had the big thighs...the big butts....and my moms side had the big boobs..lol...I got both...lots of curves...but way too many for my liking

Then when my DH turned 40 we had a big party at his sisters...well when the pics came back..man I LOOKED so fat...I was so dissapointed in myself...I never really got serious til March this year...but Im SO glad I did....as of today I have lost 83 lbs.. I never thought It could happen to me...only 33 more to go....

I have a group of English friends who get together for lunch every Friday. One week, two of them said they were starting a low carb diet. What a pain, I thought!! Now we will have to make special wierd diet meals! Yuk! O.K I thought, I'd better read the book and see what it's all about.What a revelation. I saw myself on every page. Could this be the reason I was so overweight, even though I ate what was supposed to be a healthy low fat diet? That was on June 16th and I've lost 31 pounds so far. Yay!! One of the other gals lost 25 and one can't stick with it and hasn't lost any. Best book I ever read. Thanks Dr. A.

I put on weight when I got married to my first husband (who was 13 yrs older) at 19. Went from 130 to 200, and there weren't even any children born. At first I think it started because I was in college at the same time, working almost full time, and was expected to be a traditional wife. It was easy to cook pasta casseroles or those frozen meals or bring home a pizza from the restaurant I worked at. After college, I think it was mostly due to being in an unhappy and loveless relationship. We both put on a lot of weight. THen we decided to try marriage counseling, and he said that I had changed and made myself fat, AND made him fat too!! That made me so mad, that the next day I went on Atkins. He tried it for a few days then decided he was too stressed to diet and that I was causing the stress. Needless to say that the marriage ended, but I stuck to the plan until I lost about 40 pounds. I maintained after that just because of all the crazy stuff I was going through. Last year, I put on 20 because I went off Maintenance for a bit. I have since been back to it while pregnant and feel great. Once I am back to normal, I am planning to go gangbusters all the way to my goal of 140.

I have always been heafty. Poor nutricion as a child, poor self esteem, and not enough exercise.

When I was tryign to concieve my first child I was diagnosed with endo. I had to go on a high dose BC pill for 6 months strait. I gained about 30 pounds then. As soon as I stopped taking the BC I got pregnant, so there was more weight on.

When my son was about 1-2 I got my divorce. After that I was having problems cooking for 1 and would get ocnvience foods (I still miss tortini pizzas cooked in microwave until gooey). I got to a point I was just disgusted with myself.

I went on a LF diet and worked out like crazy. I got down to about where I am now. I would have 0 fat on some days, though I would try to keep my protien up.

That summer I started working full time and had no chance to workout. I was absolutely exausted at the end of each day and wasn't gainign weight, although I was participating in the once a week company breakfasts of all kinds of goodies. Silly me I thought I was just exercising enough at work to maintain. It was later that summer I found out I was preggie with #2 :P

I gained around 40 pounds with my second pregnancy. After I had the baby I returned to working out, though less then before, and eating LF. The weight would just not budge though, and I was getting severly depressed after having a small taste of being a healthy weight.

I first read the Zone and was going to start with that. I found a copy of DANDR though, which led me to thier web site. I decided to give Atkins a go from the web site until my Zone books arrive. I had such success with Atkins in the begining though, I decided to stick to it