What Motivated You to Start Losing Weight?

What Motivated You to Start Losing Weight?

Knowing that losing weight is good for us isn’t always enough to make us take that first step. Sometimes it takes something more concrete to get us started. Something happens that makes us realise that we can’t put it off any longer.

A Success Story

One man who found his motivation suddenly was Dan Howie, who has recently discussed the moments that made him realise he needed to change. Six years ago, before he started on this journey, he was finding that his weight got in the way of many normal activities. One example that stands out is that he was no longer able to fit through the turnstiles when going to watch football matches. Realising the restrictions that his weight was placing on him, Dan wanted to lose weight, but the real motivation came when he became an uncle. He had gastric sleeve surgery in 2014 and has now lost more than 24 stone.

Finding Your Motivation

Everyone is different, but some common motivating factors for people to start losing weight include:

• Big life events like moving house or getting married: when something changes, it often makes us think about other areas of our lives that we might want to change too.
• Family changes: one of the biggest motivators for weight loss is a change in your family. Becoming a parent (or an uncle like Dan) or losing a loved one can make us realise how important our health is.
• Wanting to travel or do something in the future: if you find something that you want to do, but don’t feel able to pursue that dream because of your weight, then it can be enough to get you to change.
• Being turned away or prevented from doing something: being told that you can’t do something because you’re too big or finding that you can’t do what you want can be a shock, but it can also be enough to motivate us to change.
• Favourite clothes: simply finding out that you can’t fit into your favourite outfit can be all it takes to make you serious about losing weight.
• Childhood memories: remembering how you used to look and feel can make the difference in your health and weight suddenly apparent.