What factors contributed to weight gain and how did you (or plan to) over come?
amyers2891
Posts: 30 Member
My reasons for weight gain are pretty basic.
-working in the fast food industry for a period of time
-drinking way too much, too often
-focusing everything around food and cooking
-not fitting in time to exercise
I'm still struggling to over come most of these. I've dug myself into quite the routine. But my plan is to prep healthy meals and snacks for work (I now work in an office setting - lots of donuts and treats), limit the alcohol to a couple drinks a week, eat more nutrient dense foods to stay full longer, and last but definitely not least, wake up early and either go to the gym or run outside almost every day.
-working in the fast food industry for a period of time
-drinking way too much, too often
-focusing everything around food and cooking
-not fitting in time to exercise
I'm still struggling to over come most of these. I've dug myself into quite the routine. But my plan is to prep healthy meals and snacks for work (I now work in an office setting - lots of donuts and treats), limit the alcohol to a couple drinks a week, eat more nutrient dense foods to stay full longer, and last but definitely not least, wake up early and either go to the gym or run outside almost every day.
0
Replies
-
-Getting pregnant and developing hypothyroidism and not taking the medication religiously.
-Moving out on my own
-Cousin in law moving in with me and cooking Mexican food every day.
-Quitting my job and becoming the most sedentary I'd ever been.
in reality I wasn't paying attention to my lifestyle changes and systematically changing my diet to compliment those changes.0 -
Divorce, love food, love wine, menopause, job in the hospitality industry, did I mention I love food and wine?0
-
lauragreenbaum148 wrote: »Divorce, love food, love wine, menopause, job in the hospitality industry, did I mention I love food and wine?
Lol!! Love this answer
0 -
Not caring about my weight is what got me fat. Caring about my weight is what made me lose 40kg. Funny what a change in attitude can do.0
-
Family problems, depression, love of food (I'm looking at you pasta. And chocolate. And sugar in general. Alright cheese too...), already being overweight since I was a kid.0
-
Lupus. Took me from active (I went to college on a dance scholarship), exercising for my job 10-12 hours/day, 6 days a week to bedridden, hooked to a machine pumping steroids into my system to keep my organs from failing. Gained 80 pounds laying in a hospital bed being pumped with meds for 3 months. Spent 2 more months in a rehab center re-learning how to walk...but have been on a constant dose of Prednisone, along with many others for over a decade. I have FINALLY tapered to a low dose (for me, anyway), and have been taken off many of my meds as my symptoms have been remiss since childbirth, so while I'm in "better" health than the past ten years, I'm trying my hardest to get my body to a place where it is healthy again! 40 pounds to go....0
-
I went from being a very active college student in my late 20s to taking a desk job upon graduation at 30. I never spent much time "working out" back then, but I was really active...I didn't own a car for much of that time so biked and walked most places...always walking all over campus...worked as a waiter and in retail so always on my feet...in my free time, I enjoyed playing ultimate Frisbee with my bros and hiking, etc.
I went from that to sitting in a cubicle for 8-12 hours per day. I put on 40-50 Lbs over the course of about 8 years. About 3 1/2 years ago I went to the doc and he had a lot of bad news for me in regards to the direction I was heading as per my blood work...so I decided to work on my nutrition and get moving again...I've been in maintenance for going on three years in May/June...I dumped about 40 Lbs and all of my blood work now looks normal to optimal.0 -
My lifestyle changed, I used to walk much more and exercise much harder.
I'm still a member of a gym and I'm still active, but I've fallen twice since them, badly, and I'm just not as hard-core as I used to be.
0 -
- "Mindless" eating while watching TV or playing video games
- Eating as a means of procrastination
- Eating as an emotional coping mechanism
- Binge eating as a compulsion
1-3: I changed this pretty easily. I just didn't put food within my reach when I was supposed to be focusing on something else or dealing with something. I also took up creative writing as an alternative emotional coping mechanism. I also learned how to do things like watch TV without eating; once I mentally broke the connection between food and entertainment, it became a lot easier.
4: This, I'm still working on. So far, it has involved me keeping trigger foods out of the house, making sure that I stay well-fed so that my hunger doesn't drive me to binge, and making sure that I have something low-calorie to shovel into my mouth should the need to snack on bulk quantities of food become too strong (e.g. veggies and air-popped pop corn).0 -
My opinion of why I gained so much weight, about 90 pounds, continues to change. At first, I thought menopause, divorce, lower income, roommates, unhealthy friends & boyfriends and stress in general.
After having lost 62.5 pounds, I realize I took a lot for granted. I have been thin my whole life. I never realized how active I have been in the past. I took karate most of my life, I was a gym rat for a while, I took every PE class in college ... the list is endless.
At my highest weight, I had a knee injury and I thought - it will be fine in a couple of weeks - which turned into a couple of months - then after about a year, I realized I really had to make some serious changes. At this time, my blood pressure was elevated and I had a bunch of other ailments that could have easily led to disaster.
I no longer take my health for granted. I no longer have roommates, all the unhealthy friends are gone, my financial situation has improved. I exercise regularly with a personal trainer. My food intake has been off since Christmas, but I am going to work with a nutritionist.
Perhaps if asked this question next year, I will say I had to learn to be as good to myself as I am to my most cherished friends. This is what I am practicing now, but I have a long way to go.
0 -
I've always had issues with weight since I was a child, and a lot of my issues with food come down to the subconscious connections my mind made about food and my feelings from that period in my life. I was bullied a lot as a child because of a speech impediment and my extremely shy behavior. The bullying was especially intense when I was younger - I have distinct memories of being stabbed in the hand with a pencil by a girl in my kindergarten class because I wouldn't give her the Little Mermaid eraser my mother had given to me as a present to help me make it through the day. Most people don't remember a lot from kindergarten, but the pain is something I'll never forget.
I share this because my mother, who tried her absolute best, was an excellent parent, and wanted nothing but the best for me, would try to soothe me the only way she knew how: food. Usually when issues like what I described would occur I'd be sent home because I would retaliate in a "zero tolerance" school setting and my Mom would take me out for pancakes at IHOP or to the movies with a big bucket of popcorn as an F-U to the school administration.
These memories I have with her are some of my dearest, and represent the haven my mother created for me when I was too young to really understand why my peers treated me so terribly and would instead internalize a lot of pain and hurt. She tried her best to help me see the big picture and we would talk, at my pace, about the future and what it was going to be like when I was older. And of course, we'd eat.
It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I internalized the idea of using food as a tool to put a lid on my suffering. It is only as an adult that I've discovered how unhealthy that connection is, and why I'm prone to binge eating in extreme emotional situations.
At my highest weight I was 190 lbs, and decided to start cooking more at home to save money. What I didn't know at the time was that the decision to cook more at home would turn into an emotional journey.
I encourage everyone to stick to their goals and pursue health - it'll lead you to scary, yet amazing realizations about your own capacity to change.
0 -
Complacency.
I had never done any structured exercise, but maintained a constant weight for decades eating and drinking whatever I liked. I also rode my bike or walked almost everywhere. Otherwise a sloth.
Bought a car, slowed down, not as many nights out dancing, and all of a sudden I gained 30 lbs. ha ha ha.
Counting calories and starting doing some form of structured exercise, 5x60 a week, got me back to the old me.
6 years later, I don't need to count calories, (unless I have a change in routine) but do keep doing 5x60 a week of structured exercises. It's good for me.
Cheers, h.0 -
chunky_pinup wrote: »Lupus. Took me from active (I went to college on a dance scholarship), exercising for my job 10-12 hours/day, 6 days a week to bedridden, hooked to a machine pumping steroids into my system to keep my organs from failing. Gained 80 pounds laying in a hospital bed being pumped with meds for 3 months. Spent 2 more months in a rehab center re-learning how to walk...but have been on a constant dose of Prednisone, along with many others for over a decade. I have FINALLY tapered to a low dose (for me, anyway), and have been taken off many of my meds as my symptoms have been remiss since childbirth, so while I'm in "better" health than the past ten years, I'm trying my hardest to get my body to a place where it is healthy again! 40 pounds to go....
Wow. That is so much for one person to go through. My thoughts and prayers are with you as you continue to move forward : )0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »I went from being a very active college student in my late 20s to taking a desk job upon graduation at 30. I never spent much time "working out" back then, but I was really active...I didn't own a car for much of that time so biked and walked most places...always walking all over campus...worked as a waiter and in retail so always on my feet...in my free time, I enjoyed playing ultimate Frisbee with my bros and hiking, etc.
I went from that to sitting in a cubicle for 8-12 hours per day. I put on 40-50 Lbs over the course of about 8 years. About 3 1/2 years ago I went to the doc and he had a lot of bad news for me in regards to the direction I was heading as per my blood work...so I decided to work on my nutrition and get moving again...I've been in maintenance for going on three years in May/June...I dumped about 40 Lbs and all of my blood work now looks normal to optimal.
Way to go! That's awesome!!0 -
I've always been big, from kindergarten on up. Vegetables were expensive to buy for a low income family and something my mom couldn't eat and my dad wouldn't.. I was not taught portion control until my nutrition class while getting my RN. Shocker there! I watched my mother try and try for years to lose weight, then she was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and couldn't KEEP the weight on.
Food became a comfort, a luxury after I got out on my own as I could buy whatever I wanted, when I wanted and eat however much of it without worrying about there being enough for later.
After multiple pregnancy losses, I no longer cared what I looked like, what I weighed. A half gallon of cherry vanilla ice cream topped with some Hershey's bars made a fine bedtime snack.. or breakfast... etc.
While in college, I had lost 100lbs by joining a gym and working out, college full time and full time job at a store. The weight packed on after MC's and I just kept looking at the scale thinking "I'm not at my heaviest yet, when I get there I will stop and lose again, I did it once, no problem to do it again." Yeah right, 10 years makes a big difference!
SO- Here I am, still working night shift, married, stressed, hormone imbalances and insulin resistant (now being controlled with medications).. and making healthy lifestyle changes to include watching what I'm eating and exercising. Luckily my husband introduced me to real vegetables and I love most of them. (Asparagus and brussell sprouts eugh!) Craving sweets is going to be an ongoing battle, but I'm finding good substitutes.
I didn't get here in a day or month, so I won't get out of here so quickly either. Forward is forward, no matter how fast.0 -
I gained weight while travelling the world for 8 months ... too much good food out there.
Sadly, I'm not travelling the world just now ...... so I might as well lose weight.0 -
For me, it was primarily medication that caused me to gain weight. I'm bipolar, and the meds for bipolar disorder are notorious for causing weight gain. One particular medication (Abilify) caused me to put on 80 pounds! I'm now off that medication, on something else that has less of a chance of weight gain, and trying to lose those 80 pounds I put on. But I'm worried that I will always be overweight because I have to be on medication for the rest of my life.
0 -
For me, primarily having children and never losing the weight. Yo-yo dieting. And my love of food didn't contribute to a slim waist.0
-
i'd like to call my reason for weight gain 'stress eating' but i was/is not stressed I was just tired from work. I can't eat properly (or eat mindfully) when at work so I usually would overeat once i'm home however just after eating I would sleep. my solution is to get more comfortable at eating at work even tho i'm not sure how that will work... I work at a hospital and it's pretty hectic.0
-
-
Erm....
The problem: I gained weight caring for chronically sick parents who died, first my mum, then my dad.
Plan to overcome problem: I've now run out of parents that could die... 0 -
Mine came from binge eating and laziness. Both habits I would like to think I have managed to control now!0
-
1. I'm a good cook.
2. I ate mindlessly.
3. I need to move my body more if I want to eat more.
End. Of. Story.0 -
I kept weight on because of early childhood trauma and a terrifying college environment. I didn't want anyone looking at me.
Then I realized that by keeping myself fat, I was making myself unhealthy and miserable and thus letting the abusers win again.
Enter running, strength training, yoga, fruits and vegetables.
0 -
I gained mostly due to intense depression and I stopped caring about anything in my life, including how I looked. I went from 170lbs (so, not healthy) to 220lbs in one winter. After that, I decided I needed to make a change. First I did it so I would look better, but I soon found out that exercise is excellent for coping with depression.
Since I started losing weight, both my mom and my grandma passed away. So the depression and the reasons for me to be sad haven't really gone away, but I now have a better way to deal with them. I run instead of drinking a 2 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper and eating a ton of pizza. Or I do yoga instead of sitting in front of the TV. Easy changes like that made a huge difference to me.0 -
I love food. Never moved.
..... I still love food. But I've found a balance and realize food tastes so much better when you're not eating too much of it.
Oh. And I sometimes move lol
(cardio at least 1x a week and weights 2-3 times a week)0 -
Factors that contribute to my weight gain was obviously the rejections from girls and my only get away was food. I know it sounds lame but it wouldn't reject me so I just gave up basically just ate what I want..
what made me decide to lose weight is when my mom started crying that was basically an eye opener for me0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 426 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions