How did you gain your weight in the first place?

sherbear702

Over ate when I was pregnant. Gained 30 lbs with both pregnancies. Then waited a year after the 2nd baby to do anything about it. Now I'm 10lbs away from my ideal weight.

Optimistical1

Soccer injury(immobility) + happy hours + Chinese takeout + midnight pizza delivery + stressful life event (happy hours turn to evening hours on daily basis) + even more midnight pizza delivery (the beer munchies) =35 extra pounds in 2 years :-(.

markiend

ate the same amount but sat around too much

NikiChicken

Many reasons, but the biggest was probably because I just gave up.

I was always overweight - from the time I was a very small child - and I just kept getting more and more overweight/obese as I aged. I had tried to lose weight many times and had limited success, but I never really learned that you don't have to quit eating all your favorite foods and exercise like crazy to be successful, so I would crash diet, lose 10, 20 even 50 pounds, then burn out and gain everything, plus more, back. I had gotten to the point where I had convinced myself that that it was just how my body was and there was no point trying to change it and once I got to that point, it was easy to just keep gaining.

I never had a real "Ah Ha" moment to start my weight loss though. One day, I started planning a vacation that was going to require a lot of walking and I realized I couldn't walk a block without being in pain and out of breath. I decided to start walking every day at lunch until my vacation so I could at least maybe enjoy the vacation. I started walking every day and after about a week of that, I decided that since I was walking, maybe I should track my food intake as well and just pay attention to actual portion sizes and how much I was eating. After I lost 20 pounds doing that, THAT is when it dawned on me that I could change things without making myself completely miserable.

MrsSylvie

up till around july of this year, i basically blamed my gaining weight the last few years on my not very active lifestyle, my food choices and eating one big meal instead of eating more regularly throughout the day.....turns out the major culprit was the 870 calories i was consuming everyday just with my must have four big mugs of sugared milk coffee!
it was really an eye opener for not once did i ever consider my coffee drinking as the reason for my weight gain. needless to say getting rid of my sugar coffee addiction and logging everything into mfp, has made it pretty easy to lose weight now.

rsclause

Beer, beer, too much fattening food, and did I mention beer?

jbuzzed

Boredom and way too large portions.

klund13

Unfortunately my parents did not teach me good eating habits as a child. Then I became a teenage mother and wife which led to a bout of depression and me eating my feelings. Then I had 3 more children in a span of about 8 years. During that time I consumed way too much pizza, chinese food, and Dr. Pepper putting me about 80 pounds overweight. I have lost 40 so far, so I am halfway there!

RobynLB83

Binge eating chocolate by the lb.

Francl27

If I wanted to eat something, I just ate it.. didn't matter what it was, if I was hungry or not, etc, etc. And I ate huge portions of stuff.

doesthisappmakemelookfat

I wish I could click on these and reply right underneath. (are you reading that MFP?). Thanks for the input. Keep'em coming. Very interesting. Boredom seems to be a biggy....

kdz526

My family tends to be on the larger size. Every holiday or get together there is a TON of yummy food. As a kid, i was chunky but not way over weight, and as a young adult I just ate whatever and did not think twice about it. College is where I really packed on the pounds. Beer, late night munchies with friends, beer, eatting whatever crap I could get (cheap food can have alot of calories). I do find that when I am celebrating, its food related rewards, when I am upset or stressed, its food related soothing. Finding what triggers the mindless munching and diverting myself from that to something else helps. The knowledge of how many calories are actually in something, dissuades me from partaking now, which before I had a IDGF attitude, I want it, i shall have it.
I knew I was over weight, but untill i actually put forth the effort to gain the knowledge of how over weight I was, and what I could do about it, it did not click in my head. The internet and apps are wonderful tools.

cbnorris

just eating what I wanted when I wanted and not exercising. I'd say after I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had my thyroid removed it seemed to pile on even more.

cerise_noir

It went something like this
Oh, hi food!
OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM
Bye, food.

In all seriousness, though.... Lots (and lots and lots) of emotional binge eating, and the whole "I've put on xx amount of weight" (proceeds to eat the fridge). Also, I would go days eating only 400-600 cals, then binge a few days later... *shudder*

I had the whole salty-sweet-salty-sweet-salty cycle going on. I was eating at maintenance for me at 230lbs....

Now I do IIFYM and CICO.

cwolfman13

I graduated college at 30 and took a job that was primarily at a desk and involved 12 hour days on average and about 25 weeks of travel per year.

prior to that, I was always a pretty active person. I was an athlete growing up and even though I didn't participate in sport in college or do any deliberate gym going, I was still pretty active...ultimate Frisbee with the guys, Frisbee golf, hiking and backpacking in the mountains, and I didn't own a car for most of that time so I walked and biked everywhere.

getting a job after school changed all of that.

rybo

There were 2x I gained weight. 1st time I was relocated for work and lived off a per diem. Fast food and eating every meal out for 2 months.
The other time was when I stopped working out regularly but kept eating the same.

Bj0223

married a military man and moved around a lot. I gained 15-20 pounds at every new base. I didn't know anyone and didn't get out much. I would say emotional eating, I missed my family and friends. 18 years later I found myself 80 pounds overweight.

However the last two years I have logged my food and added exercise and have lost almost 70 pounds!

Husband is 2 years from retirement and we are staying put in Tucson

brenn24179

neglectful parents, emotional eating when overtired or stressed at work. Food is like a drug to me like alcohol to an alcoholic, easier to eat than cope. Now trying to count calories and deal more with life, face it rather than run away and eat, run to the gym instead or some other exercise.

ckfox95

Honestly, I was so bad. I ate too much of whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Lots of eating out, lots of fried foods, beer, chocolate,etc. I would sit down in front of the TV and snack all day long.