What was your main downfall when it came to packing on the pounds?

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Replies

  • WKenL
    WKenL Posts: 64 Member
    Main downfall? Like, just one? Not sure I could narrow it down that well ...

    Here are a few leading candidates:

    - Drinking my calories. I liked Pepsi. I like sweet tea. I drank too much of both.

    - Driving. I developed the habit of eating (and drinking one of those sugar bombs I just mentioned) in the car. I had some long commutes, and a job as a delivery driver. This was bad.

    - Self-deception. I convinced myself that if I skipped breakfast, I'd be okay. Instead, I got something worse to tide me over until lunch.

    - Self-deception, part II. Sure, I can buy that box of Nutty Bars. I'll make it last at least a week.

    - Not getting enough sleep.

    - Depression/Stress-eating. And then feeling stressed that I was stress-eating ... .

  • Monklady123
    Monklady123 Posts: 512 Member
    Salty chips and wine. Seriously, those chips. I can stop at one or two glasses of wine but chips...forget it. You know that old commercial -- "you can't eat just one"? Yeah well that's me. ugh.

    So for now, since I've just started here, I'm cutting them out entirely. Maybe later on I'll add them back in as a treat but I'll only buy a small single-serving bag, not the giant family size one.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Ignorance.

    And with that, a steady diet of pizza, beer, fast food, and low quality carby snacks.
  • lalangela
    lalangela Posts: 23 Member
    Honestly, it was chemotherapy and the steroids associated with the treatment. I like to say I'm the only person who got fat on chemo! haha 18 months post chemo, I'm finally losing!
  • markiend
    markiend Posts: 461 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    Being way too sedentary and lack of moderation when it came to serving sizes.

    this !! and playing world of warcraft
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
    Being lazy and paying no attention to moderation. I knew I didn't have to drink all that soda, eat all those devil dogs & cookies and I did it anyway. Thank goodness, I caught myself early (I would like to lose 15 lbs) before I let it get out of control.
  • ncfitbit
    ncfitbit Posts: 1,058 Member
    Ninkyou wrote: »
    A complete disregard and ignorance of the calories I was consuming compared to what I actually needed.

    In other words, I ate too many calories.

    This.
  • BethClicks
    BethClicks Posts: 61 Member
    Sitting on my butt as much as humanly possible and eating until it was too painful to eat any more.
  • openlynoted
    openlynoted Posts: 21 Member
    Chips while watching TV!
  • North44
    North44 Posts: 359 Member
    At my heaviest I was only a few pounds above my BMI range. I've never been a binge eater/ like eating a whole package of cookies at once or anything like that and have always been concious of CICO but tended to put on about 10 pounds a year- even with exercising . For me it's just a little too much of this and a little too much of that. My favorite foods are things like chips, french fries, booze. But really I love it all!
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    Age, wine, contentment, wine, winter, wine, pizza, wine, computer games, and probably wine.
  • jessilee119
    jessilee119 Posts: 444 Member
    markiend wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    Being way too sedentary and lack of moderation when it came to serving sizes.

    this !! and playing world of warcraft

    Of course you mentioning this makes me think of South Park...

    mwkjt9s1k2yf.jpg


  • Firebolt394
    Firebolt394 Posts: 7 Member
    edited June 2015
    Food, sedentary life style + genetics. I came from a family where everyone is obese or overweight and the lucky ones are skinny fat (what I know now is that it's all just due to disastrous eating habits not really genetics). I used to go days surviving only on chips and french fries, I would buy 6 bags of chips to eat throughout the day (sometimes I ate chips in bread) and when I get bored, I go fry myself some potatos! Other days, I would survive only on fast food, I used to really eat a lot of that crap, as in A LOT, all kinds of it, all day every day. And I am not even going to start on the bread, rice or pasta; I will just say that I used to eat crazy amounts of it. Looking at the bright side, I never liked sweet things, so I didn't particularly crave them but when someone brought them home, well Duh! I would easily eat 2000-3000 calories in one sitting. Staying late at night didn't help either, I used to eat anything I could get my hands on, better yet, I used to buy pizza or some burgers, chips, chocolate, pepsi...etc and keep them to eat at 2am-3am when I am watching my favorite show. What I used to do to myself..... but that's all behind me now, so all's good I guess.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    My lifestyle changed to pretty sedentary but my eating habits did not change. I basically didn't know how many calories I should be consuming for my activity level or how many I was consuming.
    It was frustrating for years because I felt I wasn't eating more food than other people but I wasn't losing weight. Calorie counting has helped so much.
  • EmmaFitzwilliam
    EmmaFitzwilliam Posts: 482 Member
    Eating without consciousness of nutrition content. I love grains and dairy, and had a lot of both, every day. Now I have both much more selectively and more mindfully. Also, a lack of produce.
  • juliebowman4
    juliebowman4 Posts: 784 Member
    erockem wrote: »
    My wife. Best cook ever.....

    Bhahaa
    You win!
  • besaro
    besaro Posts: 1,858 Member
    edited June 2015
    becoming a vegetarian.

    eta: mostly what Sabine_Stroehm says.
  • Jaxxie1181
    Jaxxie1181 Posts: 138 Member
    Lack of portion control. Just mindlessly bringing food to my mouth with little to no regard. Eating whole meals when I wasn't even hungry. 3am nachos piled high with melted cheese, salsa, and sour cream. Pizzas (whole pizzas) every day followed by a pint of ice cream and a 2 liter bottle of soda. Baking cookies and eating a half a dozen before they make it to the cooling rack.
  • heartsstarspll
    heartsstarspll Posts: 47 Member
    Snacking, anxiety eating, cycles where I would starve myself--followed by eating anything I wanted always lead to more weight gain. All that and Hypothyroidism, PCOS, and I hate exercise didn't help. lol I've found that snacking only makes me hungrier, so I cut that out.
  • Clo747
    Clo747 Posts: 112 Member
    @Monklady123 Okay, totally off topic, but how cute is your dog?! That can be my next post. How cute is Monklady123's dog? Off the charts cute!
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  • yankeedownsouth
    yankeedownsouth Posts: 717 Member
    Age, wine, contentment, wine, winter, wine, pizza, wine, computer games, and probably wine.

    This, minus computer games, plus beer.

  • crys_todd
    crys_todd Posts: 41 Member
    Pregnancy and subsequent breastfeeding. I packed on the pounds both times.

    You would think I would have learned the first time but noooooooo.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    BFDeal wrote: »
    Eating out. I'm convinced I could suffer through the 1800 calories a day my body seems to require in order to inch down at a snails pace. But seriously, what's the point of weighing every ounce every single day and working your butt off in the gym if you can't go out to dinner one friggin' day of the week? Oops. Here comes the weigh again for no reason because of one stupid meal. I know. "Box up half." Lame.

    This is exactly why I try to stay below 1300 during the week (I don't always succeed, but I try). So I can live it up on the weekends and still average out at a deficit.
  • soozquu
    soozquu Posts: 66 Member
    soozquu wrote: »
    Pizza and ice cream and inactivity.

    Well, that is really the superficial reason. Thinking about it, it eating for was just a side effect of severe depression, not working, caring for a seriously sick family member and a video game addiction.

  • soozquu
    soozquu Posts: 66 Member
    edited June 2015
    Bah double post
  • soozquu
    soozquu Posts: 66 Member
    soozquu wrote: »
    Pizza and ice cream and inactivity.

    Well, that is really the superficial reason. Thinking about it, it eating for was just a side effect of severe depression, not working, caring for a seriously sick family member and a video game addiction.

  • jnv7594
    jnv7594 Posts: 983 Member
    Pizza...lots of pizza. Sometimes dipped in Ranch, lol. And sweets. I could eat an entire pan of brownies in one night.
  • bpetrosky
    bpetrosky Posts: 3,911 Member
    Portion sizes.
    Krystal Chiks.
    Gyoza, I can eat a dozen easy.
    Sangyupsal, bulgogi & soju. (fat and salt and alcohol, oh my)
    4 cookies when serving size is 2. (because 2 seemed so small on the plate)
    Snacking when bored.

    Among other things...

  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    edited June 2015
    I also spent several years trying to get by on 4-6 hours of sleep (or 2 hours on bad days) and ate much more than I would if I had gotten 8 hours of sleep and felt really rested. So trying to replace lost sleep with food was not helpful.