In March 2012, not all that long ago, I was considered obese. Living a life primarily behind the computer screen while leading an engineering team at a rapidly growing startup (over 100% growth in the last year alone) left little time for me to consider my fitness.
I'd eat trash -- burritos four or five times a week, pizza or fast food the rest. I never cooked, because I "didn't have time." I didn't work out for the same half-assed reason.
I realized in early April that I weighed more than I ever had before, that I was not satisfied in my appearance, and that I was very likely introducing unwanted health issues.
Like many other things in my life (coding, managing, infosec, etc.) I took the "dive deep" approach into health and fitness.
I experimented with several diet and fitness plans, until finally finding one that seemed sustainable for me. I'm not trying to start a flame war about diets -- I've seen far too many of them in the last few months -- but a very low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet (called "keto") works extremely well for me.
I found a reddit community (surprise!) called /r/keto that shares recipes, support, and tips with each other. Especially in the beginning of my diet, it was an invaluable resource.
I started my keto diet on April 18th, at about 255 lbs. Today I weigh 189.
I'm still not where I want to be (yet), but I can personally attest to the extremely kind and supportive atmosphere that reddit provides when working towards a goal like this. We rejoice in each others' victories and help each other through the harder times.
That said, there are downsides, too. I already mentioned the diet/exercise flame wars that go on -- for example, Low-Carb/High-Fat (LCHF) diets vs. High-Protein/Low Fat vs. Low-Fat Generalized, etc. I think that each of these diets can work (science supports that), but different people need to figure out what works for them.
The problem with these subreddits -- /r/fitness included -- is that they develop a hive-mind towards their respective goal. /r/fitness almost makes a joke of it ("join a gym, quit facebook, get girls"), and "starting strength" is recommended all the time, in response to pretty much everything. Not that these are bad recommendations at all, just something that I see a lot.
The communities are very welcoming, but when an individual strays from the hive mind, they can also be very discouraging.
Hope this lends a little insight and personality to the article!