How did you get overweight?

amandagreen1980

What a great topic, i just spent ages reading all the interesting posts!

Well, i have been on the heavy side most of my life too, or so i thought anyway. As a child i had a tall skinny younger sister so always felt fat compared to her anyway, and most of my friends were tiny too, so i always felt fat and didn't reallt have a clue what to do about it so i deceided to just accept it and not worry about what i eat. Actually looking back at photos i wasn't that big at all, its all comparisons really!

But then i met my boyfriend (now hubby) when i was 17, at first i lost 14 lbs and felt great! Then we got comfortable and i put weight on slowly, it crept up on me and before i knew it i was 60lbs overweight! I then decided to do something about it and lost 60lbs in a year and felt great, i was wearing short denim skirts and timy tops and getting loads of attention!! (i'm a leo so i loved that!)

Then my boyfriend became my fiancee and with contentment the weight started to pile on, even my upcoming wedding didn't do much to stop me, i put the whole 60lbs back on in a bout a year. Then i decided to lose some for my wedding and ended up losing 30lbs which wasn't too bad, i looked great on the wedding pics and was very happy! Then we went on a caribbean cruise for 2 weeks for our honeymoon and i just ate and ate and ate and ate, i swear i put on 10lbs in 2 weeks!! The clothes i took on honeymoon didn't fit me for the last couple of days it was that bad!!

I think i would have done something about it when i got back from honeymoon but then my mother got diagnosed with cancer. So not using it as an excuse, but with me when i am trying to get my 'diet/lifestyle' backon track it has to be in the forefront of my mind, i have to give it my all, and i just couldn't with my mum being ill. And of course i just comfort ate and didn't bother looking in a full length mirror for a few months. My mum got diagnosed in august 2006 and i weighted roughly 190lbs, she had chemo etc and was in remission by February 2007 then i could finally breath and had the shock of my life, i finally weighed myself and i was 230lbs!!! I had put on 40lbs inabout 5 months! i felt like crap and it had gone too far, i couldn't do anything about it as it was just too overwhelming! I now had a mammoth 84lbs to lose!!

I didn't do anything about it until October 2007. And the thing that made me do something about it? I went to go and be part of the x-factor audience and we got vip tickets so we ended up being on the tv loads! it was very exciting but when i watched the show on tv i felt sick, i couldn't deny it anymore, there it was in full view of the whole country, how OBESE i really was! I googled a calorie caounter, stumbled across mfp and have never looked back. I have lost 63lbs in 6 months and have 21lbs to go!!

icandoit

Went to work for a bagel place and also was a cook. Lots of taking and the easy convience of drive thru.
All a thing of the past now.

InaBluMoon

:embarassed: Skinny my entire life. Athletic and in the 60's not many girls were. I was always called, "the skinny curly haired redhead". I vowed to gain enough weight with my first child to never be called skinny again. Didn't work. Lost the weight with the other children. Then two things happened within 6 months. I was in my 20's and had an emergeny hysterectomy and then had a serious accident. Someone hit and ran me. I was found 50 feet from my bicycle. Long time/coma hospital/surgeries and the weight started piling on because I ate to make the pain go away. I always baked and still do. My husband is a great guy and helped as much as he could. His weight is perfect and mine went up very gradually. He never mentioned my weight. Not one family member is overweight and the amazing thing-no one every brought up my weight.

So I want to become healthy. My parents are. The push for me came because my husband's old 60's band is having a reunion in our home state. The old band members haven't seen my weight and they are all fit...just the push I needed.

I still bake but now log my calories.

I love this site.:laugh:

GTOgirl1969

I became overweight when I got pregnant with my first child. I gained almost 70 lbs.:noway: :frown: holy crap!! I didn't lose much of it afterward...I was so tired and stressed out with having the baby that I just ate and ate and ate! I lost about 50 lbs. when I was going through some relationship problems.:grumble: but I gained it all back and then some. I'm taking it off slowly this time so that I have more of a chance of KEEPING it off.

Cruizer

I am an emotional eater. Food is comfort for me. I have had a weight problem since I was 10 years old and have gone up and down so many times that I have lost count. My highest weight is 230 and my lowest (Adult) weight has been 135. I am 5'8 and my healthy weight is between 145 and 165. Right now I am 230 and this site is acutally helping me pay more attention to what I am eating.

abbychelle07

I am an emotional eater. Food is comfort for me. I have had a weight problem since I was 10 years old and have gone up and down so many times that I have lost count. My highest weight is 230 and my lowest (Adult) weight has been 135. I am 5'8 and my healthy weight is between 145 and 165. Right now I am 230 and this site is acutally helping me pay more attention to what I am eating.

I am 5'7" and 205, hoping for 145. Good luck! Keep going!

Mireille

This is an incredible thread! I feel so connected to everyone.
I was always a little overweight most of my life. I think my weight problem started around the age of 6. We were pretty poor and ate a lot of PBJ sandwich for dinner. Once my dad became a trucker, money was better and the cupboards were always full of food. I think I used to eat because I was terrified that things were going to be ruff again. Than at about the age of 10, my parents started having marital problems and separated. My mom went through a huge depression for about a year and a half and we basically fed ourselves. We were 4 kids, 7, 10 (me), 15 and 17. I remember sitting in front of the tv on Saturday morning with my siblings, each of us with our own big bag of chips. That was breakfast for the longest time.
Then we moved out of the province when I was 15 and I was devastated. I didn't want to leave my friends. Once we got there, my brother and I went to the corner store every night and each got a large bag of Sour Cream Cheddar chips (man, those were good). I gained weight quickly (about 175lbs) About 6 months later I decided to go on a crash diet and lost 30lbs in 1 month. I had an apple for breakfast, soup for lunch and an apple for dinner. I stopped having bowel movement and my period stopped. Everybody kept telling me how great I looked, blah, blah, blah not realizing or not wanting to realize that I was harming myself. I too had a mom who always commented whether I looked thin or fat. I used to hate going home for those dreaded first comments.
We ended up moving back to my home town a year later and I stayed healthy (size 11-12) up until after I had my second child.
I started a child service out of my home and I started eating all the cookies and goodies I was baking and started using it as a method for feeling good. I became a serious emotional eater. At 181, I decided to make a life change. Some days are great and some are days I struggle. I need to learn how to handle life challenges, big or small without using food. Once I can do that, I will feel so free!!

ali106

Wow!!! Thank you all so much for sharing all your stories and for starting this thread awesome and like many of you I relate to soooo many of you! ...hugs!

I was pretty average growing up but had super skinny friends and always felt chubby, looking back at pics of me as a child I was NOT...oh and then I had an aunt who thought it was cute to call me the "chubby ballerina" because I was in dancing and her pencil rail daughter didn't like it....so that started my issues with weight, probably about 7 or 8....

I think in highschool I weighed about 135 my freshman year, I'm 5'2" and used to have an athletic curvy body so it was skinny for me, like a size 5 jeans....and again because of all those darn Jordache Jean's adds w/ the skeletor women in them I felt huge! lol...I started doing diet pills w/ a girlfriend at school and got sooo wired on them we both vowed NO MORE! we both lost 10 then gained back 15 so that started the yo yo....oh plus I danced my whole life and played sports so I had a good appetite and was ashamed of it so instead of eating a healthy meal I'd just graze on like lettuce no dressing and diet coke and then at night PIG OUT in private....its was horrible....I even dabbled in purging...gross I know but that's were I was...I was suppose to be skinny skinny like a ballerina, not a chubby ballarina which I think was always burned in my mind...sigh... so I stayed in check w/ my weight as unhealthy as it was....

I quit dancing to start working and college and gained another 25 lbs....so from 18-24 I was about 160-150 and felt gross, still was like a size 8-10 but def. chubby....then my dad died suddenly of congestive heart failure when I was 25....it rocked my world....he was overweight and Italian old school so we ate really good (BAD) food so when he died like that and left us four kids ( I was the oldest, my baby brother was 14) and my mom like that I reevaluated my life....my health etc.....so did my mom....

I began running again, eating really healthy and dropped 40 lbs....I had met my future hubby by then and he loved me at all my weights....so I was doing it for me.....when we got married I weighed 128 was a size 4 and soooo fit! and ate normal, no binging, no dieting, just being smart!

I got pregnant three months later and was sooo thrilled, I jogged/walked and did lite aerobics up to 8 mnth and felt great! I gained 44 lbs but it was all belly....I was happy....

My son was born in Dec and OMG....the fear and insecurity of having your first baby, then being so cold that you're stuck inside and no one really visits....that had me in depressed mode, not w/ the baby but w/ everything else...I was breastfeeding and the nurse said you'll need a little more cals because of it and the weight will drip off you!!! OKAY....that was a lie! lol for me...plus I think I played w/ that "alittle more" ....it was more like all day grazing....sigh....I went back to my first appt and did not lose anything after the baby was born....talk about depressed....

I got back into it finally and lost like 25 lbs and was happy, then my son was diagnosed w/ Autism and well that led to more stress and emotional eating gained it all back....and the guilt of doing for myself.....

Basically anything would and will make me feel guilty....I want to make things harmonious around me and when I can't or its too much for me....I turn to food and stop exercising....

Now...I'm doing really well...., lost 12 lbs and 14 inches since the end of Jan and even though I'm doing it for me, my intentions are helping me w/ the guilt....I'm doing it for my son too!...who has come soooo far, bless his amazing beautiful soul!...so if he can do it, man I can do it! lol....

sorry to ramble and group hugs!!!
Ali