Too Fat for the Gym?

Meet Tiff. She started off her weight loss journey weighing 352 pounds. The top photo you see above is one she considers her 'wake up call'. In the last photo she weighs about 225. Though her plan for exercise initially was just to walk a lot, she decided to face her fear of joining a gym and went ahead and started working out regularly at her local community center. She's lost about 130 pounds so far! Check out her story at Project 365.

Obese at Age 29, Super Fit Now

Thanks much to Luis for sending in this story and for sending in these before and after pics;

Here is my weight loss story.

I was born and raised in México until the age of 12. I have always been a tall person, but I was a skinny and tall kid while growing up in México. Food did not come around as easy back then.

When we moved to the United States it became a whole different world. The first meal I had in the new country was a Big Mac at McDonalds. The meals kept coming in the form of pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, burritos. Everything you can possibly imagine. I started getting bigger and bigger. My weight did not register at that time because by the time I was an 8th grader I was 6'5'' and weighted 285 pounds. I never got picked on because of my size, instead I got idolized. They looked at me as the big football player. I kept eating and lifting weights. By the time I was 21 I was 6'8'' and weighed 370 pounds. I struggled to get in shape for football and my weight was holding me back from excelling in the sport I thought I was made for. Well, I played division two college football and got a career. After all was said and done I still had the weight. I did not need the weight anymore. I tried a bunch of different diets and exercise regimes and none of them worked. I thought I was an athlete and should have been able to shed the weight easily. Nothing was working and I just kept eating. Before I knew it I was 400 pounds and was on a second medication to control hypertension at age 29.

I felt like I was changing for the worst. I was losing my friends, my family, my loved ones. I was losing myself. That's when I decided to fix me. I started working out with a video game on the XBOX Kinect. I lost my first 50 pounds within 3 months. I was hooked. I played that game so much that I broke it. I must have scratched it or something. It forced me to look for something else.

I started doing research on Google and looking at fitness and diet videos on YouTube. I also started purchasing equipment. Before I knew it I had my own gym in my garage and friends joined in to workout with me. I have lost 140 pounds in 10 months and got my health back. I am not taking any pills anymore. My blood pressure is normal. I tell people that my physical change is about 10% of the change I have made. I tell them that the real change happened inside. I now love myself. That is where it all began.

Taking that First Step

This is not a success story. This is the story of a first step to weight loss. Here I only point you to one woman who has decided she really wants to lose weight and she is starting on her goal of losing 130 pounds now.

She weighs 260 pounds now, wants to lose 100 pounds over one year, and then 30 more pounds after that. See her initial thoughts about why she wants to lose weight and how she thinks sugar (including fake sugar) is the culprit. Check out her new start at The Journey of a 100lbs.

Help Motivate Diminishing Lucy

In 2008 Lucy made the decision to transform herself from an obese 275 pound goddess to "a lithe and supple goddess of healthier proportions". She has lost about 85 pounds so far and feels she has about 38 more to go.
She has a great blog at Diminishing Lucy. Please go visit and give encouragement.

AOL Success Stories - Submit Yours

I've just stumbled on a great selection of weight loss success stories at AOL's "That's Fit" website. Check it out at That's Fit: Success Stories. They have motivational stories from a diverse range of people of all age groups.

If you would like your weight loss story profiled at this AOL website, please contact Martha Edwards there. They have also put out the call to feature and link to bloggers who have weight loss success stories.

Weight Loss Success Stories on Reddit

Reddit.com is a great source of genuine weight loss success stories. The photos shown here were submitted by jxmac just seven hours ago and she has already received over 2,000 comments. She has lost 65 pounds. Check out her weight loss story and other people's comments here.

Western Food is Making the World Diabetic

Listen to this interesting 13 minute NPR audio on Diet and Diabetes, where one doctor discusses the differences he noticed between Afghan patients and the bodies of North American patients. He says;

"Typical Afghan civilians and soldiers would have been 140 pounds or so as adults. And when we operated on them, what we were aware of was the absence of any fat or any adipose tissue underneath the skin," Patterson says. "Of course, when we operated on Canadians or Americans or Europeans, what was normal was to have most of the organs encased in fat. It had a visceral potency to it when you could see it directly there."