What was the initial thing that motivated you to BB or get healthy? Has it changed?

[andrewpoleon]

For me a girl was a reason I started working out. once I got ditched by this girl at prom, my workout intensity increased just to do it, JUST for the girls. Then once I came to the realization that you like what you are doing just for yourself and not the girls, well then I realized I reached that point. This point is where doing all that grueling work is not painful but pleasant because the benefits make scene to you, you want to do it. I am enjoying BB so much more now.

[akm_202]

I didnt get motivated by girls or appearance.

growing up i as a really small and skinny kids, people (including my family) encouraged me to eat more, once i reached near 10 years old i was overweight a few years later i decided to do something with my life because i was constantly dieting and exercising but never truely lost weight.

i never got teased, i was never bullied about being overweight, but i think that was the problem. My life was dandy and i never 'earned' it. I whipped myself into shape, not a huge transformation but my confidence boost was awesome, people noticed it and i have gotten pretty good at sports.

in short, i started getting healthy for myself.

[saluted]

The reason I dropped all my weight was because my aunt kept whining at me at the way I was eating, and plus 300lbs at the age of 16 was quite sad. So I just stopped with fast food and then started taking it seriously. I just eat healthy and workout out now for myself, not for girls or any of that. Honestly, nothing can throw me off track if I am focused on something. I guess dedication is a strong attribute that I am blessed to have.

[-Lucifer]

I got into the iron game because of a friend of mine. He has got like 6-7% of BF and looks very buff.

I did it for myself though, not the girls.

[rojamay]

I got into lifting initially because of sports in school. In college, I did it for me. Now, I use the gym for weight control and it helps me feel good to look in shape.

[rayzon]

I started working out to relieve emotional problems like anxiety and depression, which it was really effective for. At the beginning I just did cardio and machine weights than I started with free weights and loved being and looking stronger so it just went from there.

[Tomek]

Initially it was a girl..

But now it's more of an life experience thing, there is plenty im yet to do which other's my age have done.. Need to catch up. I find that you need edge's in life to progress... Im tired of being mediocre.

[Ragnor187]

I had worked out on and off when i was 16, shortly after I hit a serious low in life and was very depressed,very anti social, contemplated suicide, was seeing a psychiatrist and was on prozac

I started working out jsut to keep busy in life, doing 2000 situps a day and jus crazy amounts of reps on a double arm curl bar and a bench press my uncle gave me for free, it helped me pull out of it. It was my natural high, forget the pills, ever since i been good to go with no weak thoughts

[hankst]

I was a fat sob all my life, always waiting desperately for something to change. When I was 19-20, I decided the only one who can change things was me.

That was about the time I moved out from home, to vienna (university), I lost a lot of weight by just starving it off (there were weeks when I ate less than 1000 calories a day, and then there were days I just did not eat anything). When I reached 78 kg (the second World of Warcraft-Addon was really helpfull! 1 plate of noodles per day, and no time for something else ) I looked into the mirror and thought - okay, nice one, but you might want to get rid of your last fat and get in shape, and so I did.

I am at about 12% bodyfat @ 79-80 kg right now, and I just can't stop training and dieting - but why would I?

[Pull-Up]

I stopped playing basketball so I wasn't into any sport no more. I was also skinny (2 hours of basketball training every day for a few years and eating sweets) so it was a time to start.

[MjlH]

For me a girl was a reason I started working out. once I got ditched by this girl at prom, my workout intensity increased just to do it, JUST for the girls. Then once I came to the realization that you like what you are doing just for yourself and not the girls, well then I realized I reached that point. This point is where doing all that grueling work is not painful but pleasant because the benefits make scene to you, you want to do it. I am enjoying BB so much more now.

1st reason was to look better. Now I'd say I do it as a hobby? It gives me somethin to do and challenges me, otherwise I'd prolly just sit on my comp all day or get into trouble or somethin u know?

[Whomper107]

I was never too good at sports, in spite of having a very lean, athletic looking build. I just lacked the coordination and speed to play any sort of ball-sport effectively. I had a bit of success with wrestling, which I did my freshman year in high school, but decided not to stick with it, but it was through wrestling that I got introduced into weightlifting. So I wrestled my freshman year, spent the first semester sophomore year doing nothing and wasting all my free time, and then just one day decided I didn't feel like being skinny anymore. That day was sometime in November of that semester... and here I am, 4 years later... and still too skinny for my liking

[tallguy21]

I was always into basketball and still am, but my kicker for me was basically looks.....I started blind after a breakup with a female just wanting a lil turn around..(for some reason I always want to change my outlook and improve myself everytime a female and I take a crap, whether thats life, body, ect ect.)

on top of all that I really wasn't in good shape...and I've noticed the more I take care of myself with my diet, lifting ect...the better I honestly feel as a being..

another kicker for me is my majority of my family is overweight, diabetic, has asthma on top of a few other things depending on the person I guess....when I was younger and still to this day you could raid my pantry and see nothing but straight sweets (I live at home blah) along with a freezer full of ice cream, fast carbs, soda, ect...

I grew up somewhat of a fat boy, and the only reason I wasn't obese was because of basketball...well when you get out of highschool and basketball isn't everyday it gets worse...which is what happened to me..

plus on top of that if you just look around in America as a whole...look how many people are weezing because of just walking alone, or how many people have hug bellies and are overweight..

I don't want to be fifty and weezing from one end of the driveway to the other....I want to be healthy for whatever family I have, healthy for my kids whenever I have those too..

I don't understand people that completely let themselves go....how can you not see your weight go up? or your health go down?

so that's my motivation....I've never been blessed with great genetics when it came to body structure....so I can't eat Mcdys and candy bars and still somehow end up ripped....

between my unhealthy family, my natural pear shaped body (I forget the morph they call that), and just wanting to be healthier and look better...that's my motivation.

[lilhomeboy07]

bitches.

haha jp


i started b/c i was going on vacation to cancun and didnt wanna look sloppy but it grew on me once people at my old highschool started calling me "swole"

[Caskel]

Before I started working out I was fairly overweight. I decided to change my body when I came to the conclusion I wanted to be a paramedic but realized I did not have anywhere near the physical strength to do it. Now while I may not exactly want to become a paramedic anymore (going into nursing) I have seen how my body has transformed over the past year and I am determined to finish the transformation and maintain it.

[fortybelow]

I do it for the girls, sports and to get a better self image.

[chmbs1]

This is quite the confession:

I started because I wanted to get so buff and good-looking, that my ex would get overwhelmed with jealousy the next time she saw me (Which was pointless because she always told me when we were dating that I didn't need to work out).

Pretty immature, huh?

I was younger, then. I do it now because I love the pumps and I love the feeling of strength and power. That's my main drive. Honestly, what women think of me is no longer on my list of priorites, it's all about me now.

[chmbs1]

I was always into basketball and still am, but my kicker for me was basically looks.....I started blind after a breakup with a female just wanting a lil turn around..(for some reason I always want to change my outlook and improve myself everytime a female and I take a crap, whether thats life, body, ect ect.)

on top of all that I really wasn't in good shape...and I've noticed the more I take care of myself with my diet, lifting ect...the better I honestly feel as a being..

another kicker for me is my majority of my family is overweight, diabetic, has asthma on top of a few other things depending on the person I guess....when I was younger and still to this day you could raid my pantry and see nothing but straight sweets (I live at home blah) along with a freezer full of ice cream, fast carbs, soda, ect...

I grew up somewhat of a fat boy, and the only reason I wasn't obese was because of basketball...well when you get out of highschool and basketball isn't everyday it gets worse...which is what happened to me..

plus on top of that if you just look around in America as a whole...look how many people are weezing because of just walking alone, or how many people have hug bellies and are overweight..

I don't want to be fifty and weezing from one end of the driveway to the other....I want to be healthy for whatever family I have, healthy for my kids whenever I have those too..

I don't understand people that completely let themselves go....how can you not see your weight go up? or your health go down?

so that's my motivation....I've never been blessed with great genetics when it came to body structure....so I can't eat Mcdys and candy bars and still somehow end up ripped....

between my unhealthy family, my natural pear shaped body (I forget the morph they call that), and just wanting to be healthier and look better...that's my motivation.

I don't understand why people let themselves go, either. You feel so much better being fit. My mom and dad are both severely overweight and they tell people about how buff they were in their early twenties. I don't understand that because what about now? Why live in the past? Live for today and tomorrow. Besides, being fit makes everything so much better-energy, strength, libido. Overweight people are missing out on LIFE. You only live once, so why live FAT?

Oh yeah, I've always envied the guys who can down junk food after junk food and still look ripped as hell. You have no idea how much I envy these guys...

[dchuck90]

I used to lift in high school for football but never really had the diet thing down or cared that much. Anyways after high school ended I kinda just stopped all exercise and started drinking a lot more. Overtime I gained weight but didn't really notice. Until I was at the doctors and had my shirt off and my mom said something. Then I was like damn what have I been doing. So I started doing cardio on a bike type thing 3 days a week (couldn't lift at the time because collar bone was broken). After I started doing this I felt a lot better and seemed to be more motivated to get stuff done (like school work and other chores). I liked the feeling i got.Then once my collar bone healed i added in a ton of body weight exercises and also fixed my diet. Then I eventually found this place and now I am pretty addicted to working out and reading articles off of here. I read so much stuff off here it has keep me busy for hours upon end.

So to sum it up I guess the feeling of being healthier and feeling good about my body motivated me and it was just kick started by someone opening my eyes.

Edit:Also I think i helped motivate my dad to get back into training. He used to run every night before he opened his own business after he retired from the air force. Anyways after he saw me lose weight/gain muscle and after losing to my little brother in a race he started running again. Now he runs every day and is no longer eating mounds of horrible food anymore. He is 56 and never really looked bad but hated losing to us in anything . Right now he is still going strong on his own and just ran in a fundraiser race with us think he got 3 miles in 26 minutes. 2 months ago I don't even think he could have finished.

[TheAntar]

I almost hit 300 pounds. When I tipped the scale at 297, I thought to myself, do I really want to be that 300 pound guy?

I dropped the first 20 pounds pretty easily just by cutting out mcdonalds and reducing the number of large bags of chips I was eating in a week from 5-6 to 2-3. But after plateauing at 275-280, I decided it was time to improve beyond that. Plus I love playing hockey, and while I'm all right at it, I can imagine how much better I'd be at 10% bf and 25 pounds lighter.

I plugged my measurements into a BF calc and came up with 22 % bf... or 60 pounds of fat. And I thought self... you are carrying around 60 pounds of fat and wonder why you aren't as quick on your feet as you want to be? Why your back got injured this last season? Grow a brain.

And so I'm here. And this site has been fantastic for getting a diet into order. There's so much misinfo and BS out there that finding a bunch of people talking about "eat 500 less calories than you burn and burn a pound a week of fat" ... it just makes so much sense to me.

And today I'm happy because I hit my macros EXACTLY. Yay!

[Spire]

I was a fatty, and wanted to be skinny .. so I started on the cardio. Then I was skinny, and realised that was just as unattractive as being fat, so I wanted to be hyoooge .. so I started weights.

Somewhere along the lines I've gotten addicted to the strength gains. I'm definitely much bigger - but I care less about being big now, and more about being strong.