How did you get overweight?

ConnieLynn

Hi,

I thought it might help some of us to examine our thoughts and habits as to why we became overweight in the first place.

I had decided I was going to eat what I wanted and not worry about it. Well after doing that for several years, I gained 40 lbs. I also think I did not realize how important it is to examine the calorie content of everything you put in your mouth. It adds up. There are other reasons, but that is the short of it.

What was the choice you made that created your current condition?

Connie Lynn

ConnieLynn

Hi,

I thought it might help some of us to examine our thoughts and habits as to why we became overweight in the first place.

I had decided I was going to eat what I wanted and not worry about it. Well after doing that for several years, I gained 40 lbs. I also think I did not realize how important it is to examine the calorie content of everything you put in your mouth. It adds up. There are other reasons, but that is the short of it.

What was the choice you made that created your current condition?

Connie Lynn

REB89

a combination of things for me. Getting too comfortable in a relationship so not worrying about how i looked and eating out of boredom and stress. Also, generally not paying enough attention to food choices.

TamTastic

That was part of it. Just deciding to not care about it anymore, stop living my life on a diet, stop missing out when everyone else was enjoying life (life meaning eating food!!)........

I also ate out of boredom or habit. Like, if I was watching a movie on the couch, it meant I needed to have a snack too.

I'm not sure what happened to make it click....but I suddenly saw things different. Maybe it was realizing that "life" was not about food or eating....and I WAS missing out on TRUE life. I didn't want to go to the beach with my son, I didn't want to get family pics done....I was embarrassed!! THAT is life!! And I was missing it because of food. It's just NOT worth it to me.

And honestly, I have not suffered at all since starting this in September. I haven't struggled, even through the holiday's. I ate turkey and stuffing and even a small piece of pumpkin pie. Yes, I had a maintain that week, which I saw as a success....BUT, while the average person gains weight between Thanksgiving and New Years, I LOST 14 lbs in that time.

I think that is where everyone needs to get. They need to "GET IT" that you don't have to starve, you don't have to miss out, you don't have to suffer. You JUST need to make better choices and watch your portions. And exercise!!! I love how I feel now and I have lost weight in the past with starving myself and taking diet pills and of course I put the weight back on, and more!! Now, I am educating myself along the way, taking it off slowly and healthy. Learning how to eat to keep it off. I don't take anything for granted and pray every night that I can stay this course and keep the weight off once I get there.

may_marie

Denial is my answer, i just didnt want to think about it, didnt want to think about what i ate nor my size.
i wanted to eat the same as everybody, same as my bf that was one of those are are extremly skinny and eats only fast food.
i was told all my life that i am fat, and i didnt want to listen to it anymore, even thought when i look back at pictures,, i wasnt fat at all, i was normal, but my mom kept telling me that i was, even the doctor told her that i was fine. so being told all the time. i guess i became just that, fat. then i was so used to ignore it, that i didnt even listen to myself,

anyways .. now its all changed !!!
may

myebinger

This is a REALLY good question.

For me, it was a combination of things. I used to take pretty good care of myself. I exercised regularly and I made a point to eat foods that were low in calories. I can't pin point the exact moment but at some point everything got to be too much. Work became more stressful, my son needed more help with school, dinner suddenly became some sort of chore and it was just easier to hit the freezer isle, open the door and through in a frozen box of something than to sniff and squeeze the fruit and inspect the vegetables in the produce section.

I started looking for convenience so I could get a little more done in a day and comfort in my food to help me destress from trying to squeeze so much into a day.

Now, however, I've found that I can find comfort in other things and I don't HAVE to do EVERYTHING. I don't let my job get to me as much and I've made a point to seperate home and work. I've found cooking to be a way for me to try new things and find different comfort foods that are better for me and my family. And after so many years of the crappy food in the freezer isle I relish finding a nice green head of lettuce and the sweet citric smell of a good orange.

squankish

I got depressed during 7th grade and decided that it was a good idea to pretend to be anorexic at school (I thought this was considered "cool") and then binge every day after school at McDonalds. Needless to say, no one bought the anorexic thing and I ended up getting more depressed and changing schools. After that, my idea of a good sized meal was ridiculously distorted so I continued to overeat and I just got bigger and bigger until sophomore year of high school when I was forced to train for a philmont backpacking trip. That was the first time I felt like I was control of my body. I lost about 40 pounds and I've kept most of it off since then, but I want to lose a bunch more. I still eat emotionally sometimes, but it is a lot less often because I've learned ways of dealing with my emotions other than eating.
yay that's my story bye!

mjj79

I was, literally, a fat baby, child, teenager, etc... I ate whatever was put in front of me and then some. I remember sneaking food at times in middle and high school. I did lose about 50 lbs my senior year in high school, but only kept it off for a year. I put on some weight in college, but wasn't too far above what was recommended. Then I had 3 children in 4 years. That's where I am now. Of course, I didn't realize that I was an emotional eater until the past 5 years. So, a combination of lifestyle, emotional eating and babies.

ConnieLynn

I got depressed during 7th grade and decided that it was a good idea to pretend to be anorexic at school (I thought this was considered "cool") and then binge every day after school at McDonalds. Needless to say, no one bought the anorexic thing and I ended up getting more depressed and changing schools. After that, my idea of a good sized meal was ridiculously distorted so I continued to overeat and I just got bigger and bigger until sophomore year of high school when I was forced to train for a philmont backpacking trip. That was the first time I felt like I was control of my body. I lost about 40 pounds and I've kept most of it off since then, but I want to lose a bunch more. I still eat emotionally sometimes, but it is a lot less often because I've learned ways of dealing with my emotions other than eating.
yay that's my story bye!

Hi,

7th grade is the hardest grade. I had problems in that grade as well. We are not kids anymore and not adults. It is a difficult transition. My son is in 7th grade now and he is angry a lot and I know it is because school can be so exhausting and make you feel overexposed.

Thank you for sharing your story. Your honesty is a sign of great maturity.

I love that you found other ways to deal with your emotions.

Blessings to you,

Connie Lynn

sindyb9

I got very comfortable in my relationship too and never realized how bad the foods I was eating. Then the diets because that is all they were. I would skip meals and gained weight after loosing 65lbs on my diet. Now I never say diet, I eat better food and exercise. Feel better too.

moidyn

I was always larger as a child, but nothing too out of control. I lost some weight my freshman year of college, but then entered into a really hazardous relationship that was on and off for about 5 years. The weight started to pile on and it was a shock the day I decided to weight myself. I'm now only 39 pounds from my goal, and I put on a shirt this morning that I have never worn before. I feel good!!

lietee

well i became obese and it started approx 6 and 1/2 years ago. I moved ot of my ouse in with my bf at 18 years old. Never really knew how to cook and wasa always eating out. I started to gain a little weight then but never really was too concerned. After about a year the relationship i was in went all to heck and I started to eat to confort myself. I ended up meeting someone else and starting a relationship with that person. By then i had gained approx 15 lbs in around a year and a half. Well with the new person i met I ended up pregnant right away and i gained 60lbs wow huh thats a lot!!!! After the baby was born i never lost any of the weight due to the stress in the relationship of no money comming in. A year later I left the relationship and moved back home. I wasnt concerned with what i ate because to me i was alredy FAT even though i was skinny just 2 years earlier, So putting on 75 lbs in 2 years did it for me and i never lost any of the weight. BUt now i am determined to do something about it. Ive lost 16 lbs so far and have another approx 40 to go till i hit my goal.

Best of luck to everyone!!

bricker06

i lived what i learned. my entire family is heavy. even as a child. i cooked the way my mom cooked, we ate what she made. over the years it just slowly packed on. then i met my husband also a heavy man, and in 3 years i gained 55 ponds. eating is what we did, movie, date night, party, bbq, friends, its just what we did. food is, i mean was my life. i think when your over weight you dont notice 5 or 10 pounds then one day 55 has packed on and you finally notice. then the changing day came. i hit my rock bottom. christmas 2007 we ate for 3 days off a buffet of snacks and crap. i couldnt breathe or walk i felt like garbage. that was the day i decide to take my life back. you can teach an old dog new tricks. i have taught myself to cook in a healthy manor. i have found any recipie can be converted into a good for you meal. yesterday i took a pizza casserole recipie from 672 cals per serving to 335 cals. yumm and i dont feel bad. for me its all about educating myself and making better choices. i dont want to be the ball of death with diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and just sitting back waiting to die. i want to be around for a long long time and i want to LIVE MY LIFE!!!! congrats to all of us.

msarro

I've always been overweight, in fact I can remember neighborhood kids calling me names when I was... 7 years old? How did I get there though... most likely a combination of my mom being an amazing (but amazingly unhealthy) cook, and when I hit middle school, my only eating one meal a day up until college when I got even worse. I started eating one meal every day, sometimes every other or every three days depending on my schedule and what I could afford. My whole life was spotted with binges on top of that. So, I suppose it makes sense I am where I am.

Cool thread, never really thought about it before

eriny

buffet tables

kerrilucko

I've always been overweight, I think it was my eating habits. I did manage to lose 30 lbs when I was 19, but then I met my current fiance and he helped me put it back on. It was the comfort of a relationship but also the matching of portion sizes. Guys eat a lot, especially active guys like him... And if he was eating I would too.... Plus all those yummy restaurants he took me to. I'm not blaming, I'm just recognizing.

dulceluva

For me, I have always been overweight whether it be slightly or greatly and it was usually on a steady increase.

I am an emotional eating and I have to admit that I lived most of my life with regrets. My childhood, teenage days and even early adulthood hasn't been the most exciting and I think I am blaming myself for my really boring life....really boring. But even then I was, sure, not thrilled about my weight, but it wasn't depressing me. I kind of lost all of my friends due to a situation,, very personal, but it prooved that thy werent; good friends to begin with. At the tender age of 18-19, someone finally looked at me... wanted to talk to me...wanted to date me and I didnt care who that person was because I was that desperate (its quite sad hahahah). :laugh: We dated for like 5 years and I tried to break up with him every year for 5 years and he would threatn me and my friends and its like i couldn't break up with him.... at one point e was my reason for eating more, a lot more.... and then ne day, I started to change my life. I got a new job, I went on vacation by myself (to stay with family) and then came back and broke up with him. BUT the reason I broke up with him is because 2 years earlier I told myself the only way to get out , is to get a new boyfriend or new interest. So I started losing weight (weight watchers) and I went to y oga everyday, I would do work out videos and home and for 2+ y ears I was really diligent.

That weight and confidence lasted a little longer than a year but I started to fall back into a state of sadness. Probably because I wasn't getting those interests/boyfriends that I thought I deserved. I ate more and more and more and I thought.... ahh who cares, its only a cookie, its only thing andi ts only that and a year later...60 lbs gained! WOW!!!!

So now its a year later and I need to get this weight off but my mind isn't in the same mindframe as above and I need to get my mind/body motivated.

yoginimary

I'm a competitive/social eater. I eat when other people are eating and I eat as much as they do. Many times my choices are worse than theirs - and I love dessert. I was having chocolate 2 times a day. I have exercised for some time though and have always been active (never in an organized way though). Also, what I could eat when I was 20 is not the same as when I am 36.

MontanaGirl

Food, for me, has been a way to camoflauge pain. I started getting a little chunky after my brother died when I was 6. There is quite a difference between my school pic at 6 and at 7. Then I became a victim of sexual abuse. By my teens, I was heavy, but not obese. Then I lost weight due to several factors and was pretty good my senior year, except for the reumatoid inflamatory arthritis that cause the loss of the last 10 lbs. I went through a serious depression at 20 and literally gained about 100 lbs in the course of a year. I was a single mom, struggling on minimum wage to try to support my son and everything that I had avoided dealing with in my life was coming up - so I ate. And ate, and ate and ate. I would order 2 med pizzas from Pizza Hut and by the time I got done, my son would have eaten 1 slice - he was 1.5 - 2 yrs old, and there would be 1 slice left, if I was lucky!! That kind of stuff. I gained 5 - 10 lbs per month - so I know how much you have to ingest to gain that much weight. So trust me when I say when you gain 5 lbs "overnight" its water!! :laugh:

So my journey is about emotional health as well as physical health. The more I deal with my "demons" the easier it is to lose weight - after dealing with the thyroid issus that is :laugh:

pbkfit70

I was always fat. I can remember starting a new senior school (age 12) and they didn't have big enough shorts for me. I used to love playing tennis and other sports, but I would always have at least 1 chocolate bar each day.

When I started work things were OK, but then I was transferred and lived in a hotel for 4 months... cooked breakfasts and full meals in the evening meant I put on 40lb.

It got desperate and the doctor actually prescribed slimming pills (chocolate flavoured!!!!!).
They didn't last long but after many years, got down to sensible weight (I'll never be thin).

Then had two children, was made redundant twice within a year, put 30lb back on. Retrained as a teacher ended up in a disaster of a school and put another 40lb on.

Finally resigned, now working as a ICT tutor and things are looking up. It's going to be a long haul, particularly with a skinny family, but I'm determined. I want to be fit, healthy and live to 100 (well 80 will do)

Smilineyes

I was an athlete in high school so I could always eat what I wanted without gaining weight. I never changed my eating habits after I stopped playing sports so I gained the normal after high school weight. Then there were issues with low self esteem and a horrible boyfriend which led to emotional eating. Ended up being 50 lbs heavier than I was in high school. I'm proud to say that I am now only about 30 lbs heavier and getting lower

Kels

tracypaprocki

It started after my second child. My marriage was bad and I was stressed all of the time. During my divorce I decided I also wanted to go to nursing school. So needless to say with 2 jobs, nursing school, 2 children and a divorce, I ate like crap. I then started working night shift and eating in the middle of the night (also like crap). Lastly I quit smoking. I overall had gained 50 pounds. Wow, I didn't really even realize how much. So far I've lost 35 pounds and still want to lose that other 15 pounds. It has taken about 1 and a half years so far. I hope I have now set myself up for the rest of my life to me healthy.

RKJR925

Struggled with weight since college. Bottom Line

I love food and lots of it.

I lived in Charlotte, NC for a year and work 80 hours per week. the last 4 month i was there i lost 65 pounds through diet and exercise (and not having anytime outside of work and exercise to eat)

So I move to Birmingham, AL in May of 2004 and I am back in the land of the best BBQ in the world hands down. However, in addition to that there are so many restaurants called "meat and two's) where you can get a truly home cooked meat and two veggies plus homemade pie and bread. When I say home cooked I mean momma in the back cooking in most.

Well on top of that believe it or not Birmingham has some of the best restaurants rangin from Thai to seafood that are out of this world and very, very affordable.

So 2 years into being in Birmingham I went from 225 to 300 pounds because i like to eat.

Portion control is the most evil thing I battle everyday of my life

DBranchaud

As far back as I remember I've been over wieght. I remeber being teased at school for being fat.I was about 190 in my last year before highschool. One good thing is that I'm in my final year of highschool and 170, and I never want to get big again. You think 170 wouldn't look bad ...but it does I'm only around 5 foot

I hate looking a pictures of myself that show my body shape and My mom has been for years trying different diets and we've both failed.

mommared53

I prefer to blame it on menopause but I think it's mostly eating too much fast food and junk food, not exercising, being lazy and having an office job where most of my work day is sitting at a desk.

Kkmama

I have been overweight since I was 8 or 9 years old. Girls can be really mean and I had a friend, or so I thought who turned all my friends against me. I still do not know to this day why she did it. But anyway food became my friend. I would run home from school and eat anything, usually toast or anything sweet and clean up before my parents got home from work. I did my first tour of WW at age 11 and lost some weight. But at 11 I really thought it was punishment. My weight continued to balloon until grade 12 where I went to WW again and lost 35 lbs. Then off to college in the fall and by the time I came home at Christmas all the weight I lost had found me again. I have lost and gained the same 50 pounds for over 20 years.
So hear I am and this time it is going to work. So I am hoping to lose this weight once and for all. It will be a slow process, as I don't want to diet anymore, I am making much better choices and now am exercising everyday, and doing it so I don't hate it. I walk every day and work out at the gym 3- 4 times a week.

Thanks for asking the question. And thank you everyone for answering so honestly. I find having extra weight very isolating, but I feel that I have unconditional support here.

Enjoy your day. It is raining here today, in Ottawa, Canada. And I feel bummed, but am going to get to the gym today just to get the endorphins going.

peej76

I was never the "proper" weight. I was always a pretty chunky kid, don't really remember eating anything too unhealthy when we were kids, like I don't remember being allowed to eat alot of snacks or treats. Eating out and junk food were treats.

As a teenager I was severly depressed for a good many years and used food to make me feel better, also ate when I was bored.

There were also times when I would diet, succeed then think that was all I had to do and get back into my old habits. So I have just been retraining myself over the last few years. I find I eat relatively healthy now, not the best because I am a very picky eater. I realize it will take time to experiment with different foods and preparing foods in different ways. I'm just positive now that I will beat this!!

abbychelle07

I was a skinny kid and teenager until I went to college. I don't think I ate differently in college than high school, but I hit 18-20 and my metabolism went CRASH! I still ate cookies and pizza and everything else as the weight just piled on. Also possible that I used to exercise and walk more places in high school. I definitely ate like a pig when I was skinny though.

When I think about it, my mom has pictures of her in a teeny bikini when she was 18 or 20 and then really heavy pictures pretty much since then.

I am totally going to warn my daughter...you can't eat like you are young forever! Not that I want her to count calories, but just to let her know that your body can really change and it's a bummer. Family history of hitting their twenties and ballooning.

I am cooking so healthy lately, I hope I can keep it up and teach my daughter to eat well from the beginning! She is one year old now.

abbychelle07

Oh, I forgot. I have been with my husband for 8 years and I was keeping up with his eating. Unfortunately, he is 6' 2" and I am 5' 7" plus I am a girl! So if we were eating dinner or at a BBQ and he had a second helping or second brat, I had one too.

Recipe for disaster. Now I really try not to match him. He can eat a lot and not gain weight. Obviously that is not true for me.

carrierella

I had oodles of children... and adopted my husband's love of junk food.

When I met him, I ate ONLY whole foods, organic...

Then came Steve.

Suddenly, I learned to appreciate the fun of Little Debbies and whatnot.

Gaining 50lbs average per each of my nine full term pregnancies did NOT help any!

By the time baby #4 rolled around, I was no longer losing EVERYTHING gained during the pregnancy within my "usual" 3 mths postpartum.

Shock.

Now, here I am. Bigger than I ever was.

I went from friends and family telling me I looked "too skinny".... to what I am today: someone too chunky with bad blood pressure!

carrie

carrierella

I had oodles of children... and adopted my husband's love of junk food.

When I met him, I ate ONLY whole foods, organic...

Then came Steve.

Suddenly, I learned to appreciate the fun of Little Debbies and whatnot.

Gaining 50lbs average per each of my nine full term pregnancies did NOT help any!

By the time baby #4 rolled around, I was no longer losing EVERYTHING gained during the pregnancy within my "usual" 3 mths postpartum.

Shock.

Now, here I am. Bigger than I ever was.

I went from friends and family telling me I looked "too skinny".... to what I am today: someone too chunky with bad blood pressure!

carrie