What age did you start struggling with weight?

AngInCanada

I'm curious how old everyone else was when they started struggling with their weight?

I remember getting weighed and measured for skiing on grade 7 I was 107 lbs at 5'7. Grade 9 I was 183 lbs. I've gained and lost weight a couple times over the years but have been 190+ lbs for the past 22 years. Scary to think about actually.

SCoil123

25 when I was pregnant, I gained over 80lb. I struggled with body image and an eating disorder starting at age 10 but I had never actually been overweight before.

daniip_la

I've been overweight since I was a toddler. I grew up with a lot of hormone problems (though they might have attributed to my being 6'0", so I'm not going to complain). I've actually never been a normal size, ever, and I'm nearly 27.

I didn't care about my weight until I was in my late teens, though. Things probably would have been better if my parents had given some concern over my size, but I'm also glad that I was a child that didn't have body image issues.

rankinsect

For me it was sometime between age 7 and 9. Maybe I could dig up my old school yearbooks to see the transition from extremely skinny young me to obese older me.

sandflower81

25 which was when I started working full time and trying to be an adult. Smh

DKG28

I was born very premature. The Docs instructions were to feed me as much as I would eat. By the time I was a toddler I was chubby, and used to eating all I could. I was always overweight from then on despite active lifestyle and healthy nutritious diet. I had to sit at the same dinner table as my underweight sister, and when she was urged to eat more, I was urged to eat less. So, pretty much always overweight.

Lounmoun

Since I was 25-26 years old.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

I started gaining weight in my late 20s. before that I was a healthy weight even after I had my kids.I also stopped taking an asthma medicine in my late 20s(theophylline) and thats when the weight gain started,there was no change in my diet either so IM thinking that for some reason it kept my TDEE at a higher number compared to when I stopped taking it.

mariahgab95

Around 10 years old, I gained a lot of weight. I actually weigh less at 21 (current age) than I did when I was 12. At 12, I weighed 170 lbs. I realized this was unhealthy, so I started trying to lose weight around that time with the help of my mom. However, I developed a mild eating disorder that I didn't really start overcoming til I was 18. At 18, I weighed 117 lbs, which was very underweight for me. I gained a lot of weight when I started college in 2013, slowly getting up to 170 lbs again by 2015. I took a fitness class at my college that year and lost 10 lbs that semester. Now, I'm just trying to be healthy, get fit again and have a good attitude about food and my body.

FrothyGibblets

Since birth pretty much. Overweight parents with poor eating habits lead to overweight children and ultimately adults with poor eating habits.

I'm not sure if it feels worse to be overweight for someone who's always been that way, or someone that used to be average/thin.

jemhh

Mid-20s. First management job w/lots of overtime and mental exhaustion. I became much more sedentary. Overtime w/out management responsibilities is less exhausting lol. It was kind of downhill w/some yo-yoing back up until I hit 37 and pulled it together again.

SLLRunner

AngInCanada wrote: »

I'm curious how old everyone else was when they started struggling with their weight?

I remember getting weighed and measured for skiing on grade 7 I was 107 lbs at 5'7. Grade 9 I was 183 lbs. I've gained and lost weight a couple times over the years but have been 190+ lbs for the past 22 years. Scary to think about actually.

My whole life.

At less than a year old, the doctor told my mother to put me on a diet.

The last three years is the first time in my life I have (1) been in the normal weight range and (2) I have been able to maintain my weight with any consistency.

Pretty darned proud of myself.

ponycyndi

Since I hit puberty, at age 11.

My weight skyrocketed for years, with small bouts of me trying to diet and exercise until I tried 17, lost some weight. Then I got married, got a desk job, had three kids, and was back to my highest weight in 2012 after having my third child. It's the same weight I was at 16.

I'm aiming for an all time low weight near mid-bmi range for my height, another 10lbs or so.

ouryve

In my early 20s. Was u derweight as a teen and took for granted being able to stuff my face.

leslienicole318

I was always super tiny as a kid (60 pounds at 5 feet fall in 5th grade). I was 5'4 and 105 pounds at the end of 7th grade. 5'4 and 120 pounds at the end of 8th grade. 5'4 and 140 pounds at the end of 9th grade. Stayed near 145 through 10th grade. 5'4 and nearly 170 pounds halfway through 11th grade. Lost down to 150 in 12th grade at 5'5. Now I've graduated and trying to lose weight. Honestly I'm not sure why I gained weight because I didn't eat much and played sports. It wasn't muscle either, I got a little belly and chubby arms/legs

Savyna

Since around 16/17. My doctor told me I was trending towards the morbidly obese side of life putting myself in a lot of health risks. I lost about 30-40 pounds to hover around 170. And then forgot about it as I began university. 3 years into it I ended up looking at a full body picture of myself and was like oh wow, I should do something (I looked pretty chubby). I lost weight again (got to 185, then my weight loss stalled and I got frustrated and stopped using MFP, gained the weight back and hovered around 205-210). So now I'm back again at 26 and hoping to make a more permanent change and to learn to keep the weight off. I learned a lot though about nutrition and that I don't have to make drastic caloric deficits to lose weight, so I'm happier and things are much easier.

Alarae21

Since I was 11, when my parents got divorced.

Every weekend I would spend with my dad who wasn't the best cook, so I ate packaged foods. That became takeaways like mcdonalds and KFC, which led to a fattie teenager.

It's only at 23 that I am finally at a healthy BMI since starting my journey in January of this year.

cbstewart88

When I hit about 50 or so...not sure whether menopause played a part, but mainly because I stopped exercising (running, biking), but ate the same amount of food as I always had. Before I knew it - BAM - 35+ pounds!! Finally enrolled in yoga class which helped with my mindset and gave me the encouragement and motivation to drop some weight...but I realized I also had to reduce my intake. So here I am 22 gone...15 to go...

samchez0

I was probably on the high side of healthy weight in high school but still looked ok (although at the time I was sure I was fat). I didn't really start gaining until I had my first kid at 20. After that I just kept steadily getting larger and larger.

RoseTheWarrior

Mostly after I got pregnant the first time. I was always a bit on the bigger side, got teased a lot in school mostly because at that time no one was overweight in school. But looking back I was not huge or anything. When I got pregnant with my first, I thought I should start eating healthier, so I actually started to lose weight. At about 3 months along, my doctor said if I kept losing weight he would put me in the hospital! So, my brain heard "eat everything". In the last 6 months of pregnancy I gained SIXTY pounds. Ever since then I've struggled. Later found I had an under-active thyroid. Anyway, I was 22 when I had my first child. I'm now 47 and this is the 2nd time I'm losing a lot of weight, but I know it will be the last time because I've really learned a lot about healthy eating and healthy thought processes at this point.

arditarose

Since I was a kid. I remember weighing 80-100lbs when everyone weighed less. By 6th grade I was probably 155lbs. I stayed between 155-180 from there until 30. I'm 5'4" so I was never slim. I wore bigger clothes in middle school than I do now.

Timothyh27

I was a really fat baby, but cute. I still am now, cute that is.

almostanangel21

I was a chunky kid all my life, just like the rest of my family, and that was because of diet. We're talking fried meat at every meal, piles of white rice, potatoes, and biscuits, and a token veggie that was either corn or something drenched in cheese sauce. I used to love it when my mom went on the Scarsdale diet simply because it meant I got a break from all the heavy food. In addition, my family has a history of hypothyroidism.

When I left for college, I eventually started dropping weight when I realized I didn't have to eat the things my family had always eaten and could load up on the fresh seafood, fruits, and veggies that are plentiful in Florida. I dropped down to about a size 10 at 5'7, which is still 'fat' according to most of the people around me. Then I started going through a rough time, found out that exercise helped with my mood, started getting compliments about weight loss, started actually counting calories, and then overdid it because Of Course I Did. I stopped when I met my current husband 8 years ago, settled into a reasonable 4-5 hours of exercise per week and 400-500 calories per meal, gained weight, and didn't care too much about it.

My weight started creeping up on me more than it should have, though. The thought of a thyroid problem did occur to me, but my doctor at the time pooh-poohed it, telling me that people who thought they were gaining weight because of a thyroid issue generally just needed to eat less and exercise more. It is true that a thyroid problem alone won't cause massive weight gain; my husband likes to eat out and grab fast food, and I went along with it about 30% of the time instead of cooking my normal healthy meals. My weight crept up from a low of about 105 during the bad period to 207 by the time I got married. I fluctuated about 10 pounds down, but never lower. That kept up for about 5 years.

Last year, I was thrilled to start my first year of law school on a full scholarship. I weighed about 200 pounds and didn't really care. I lost some weight initially because of the extra mile or so of walking I did every day while carrying heavy books, but the weekly stress-induced pit stop at Dairy Queen and the Wednesday drive thru run took their toll. Worse, I wasn't able to exercise anymore because I was just too tired. I'd get home, try to get going on the elliptical, and feel faint; then I'd try to crack open my books but was unable to make sense of the letters on the page. The only fix was a nap - usually two hours or more. That was when I realized there was something wrong, but got the same "eat less and exercise more" from my new doctor. Considering I'd come in worried about my energy levels and inability to concentrate, not even mentioning my weight, I finally figured out that maybe I needed to take matters into my own hands. In the meantime, my GPA was at a solid B - terrible by my standards, and low enough to keep me out of the top 10%. I went to an endocrinologist for a second opinion, who ran a full metabolic panel. He found several nodules in my thyroid and a massive increase in an antibody that essentially renders me hypothyroid. Two boxes of Synthroid later, I had my brain back and made the dean's list via a massive effort to catch up - but it still wasn't enough. I missed the top 10 by two places and lost my scholarship.

At an end-of-semester party in April, a friend posted a picture of me on Facebook that made me realize how bad I looked; I was around 203-204 pounds. I decided that since I had my energy back, I'd get back into a routine of exercising and healthy eating. I'm currently at 187, so I still have a long way to go, but there's a noticeable difference from how I looked 3 months ago. When I got my class schedule, I immediately set up my calendar not only for classes and study time, but for exercise - it helps me focus. Over the past month, I've added a flexibility workout right before bedtime to help me decompress. My hope is that I'll get my weight down enough not to give a bad impression on internship interviews and maybe salvage my chances of landing my dream job working for Southern Poverty Law or the EPA. It's a long shot, but I'm not going to give up, and I'm never going to take someone else's word about my health again.

middlehaitch

54.......
Saw a pic of myself and realized I had let about 30 lbs creep on over 5 years. Got rid of the 30 in a year, and by 56 was well into maintaining the weight I had been most of my life no longer counting calories. I have maintained for 6+ years with no problems.

Edit: I should add it really wasn't a struggle, more a realization that needed to be acted upon.

Cheers, h.

Nikion901

I was 34 when I needed to lose 25 pounds to get to my high school weight. By the time I was 40 I was another 14 pounds heavier ... but still looking and feeling good. ... and then I don't know what shh hit the fan because before I knew it, I was 48 and was obese at another 34 pounds piled on ... and it went from bad to worse until I had gained another 75 pounds on top of all of that by the time I reached my 60's. It's been a struggle, and I am still a long way away from getting back, first to that weight I was at age 40 ... only 31 years back!
PS ... I'm back to below my age 55 weight now and am really looking forward to getting back to 48 again!

JDixon852019

27, I got an office job and gained 40lbs in a 3 year period. I am 5lbs away from being back to my normal.

nowine4me

As long as I can remember.

My parents used to ground me to my room for being overweight rather than encouraging me to go out and play. They were loving, but both had their own issues with food and it was probably easier just to give me whatever I wanted, specifically fast food.

I've had wild weight swings throughout my life, Now, at 50, I finally feel I have control over food and have hit a healthy BMI as of today.

I truly encourage all of you parents out there to set a good example for your kids and to teach them healthy eating habits from the start.

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teamgiff4

Age 10. The people I trusted and loved the most made me see I was fat.... and that's all I have seen since.
A fat little girl with messy hair.

lthames0810

I'm one of those that was fortunate to be slim throughout my youth and young adulthood. After the age of 30 I began to gain very slowly, maybe 2.5 lbs a year. Hardly noticeable.

Now at the age of 61 I find myself 75 lbs overweight. How could I have let that happen?

_annevalerie

I'm 22, turning 23 in December. I believe I noticed that I was much bigger than all the other girls when I was in grade 4. That's when I started worrying about weight. I didn't start any diets until I was in grade 8 tho