What was your “reason” for gaining the weight?

FitHolly8

I believe everyone has a reason as to why the weight eventually gets packed on whether it be from difficult childhoods, stress, trauma, loneliness etc. What’s your reason? Please don’t be afraid to be vulnerable!

Here’s mine:

I’m almost 25 years old and I’ve always been heavy around 180lbs at 5’1”. I’ve always been a ball of anxiety and self pity/depression. When I was 21 years old my now husband and I found out we were pregnant, we were so excited. Throughout that pregnancy I had gained 35 pounds (215) My son was born full term but was so incredibly sick and had passed at 10 days old. I still blame myself even though we still don’t have answers as to what happened. I gained another 20-25 pounds over the next year or so. Fast forward to when I was 23 and found out we were pregnant again, this pregnancy I didn’t gain a pound and I hovered around 235-240 and thankfully right after I turned 24 my son was born healthy and is now a thriving almost 10 month old. As of today I weigh 230 pounds and have a goal to be 115 pounds or with whatever feels good, I’m just beginning literally this past week and I can already tell this time will be different, I need to be healthy for my baby boy!

quiksylver296

Good luck!

I was just lazy and liked to eat.

hesn92

I got pregnant with my second child and used that as an excuse to eat ALLL the foods. I gained about 60 lbs.

CarvedTones

Depression and problem drinking (each is often found in the company of the other)

ccrdragon

quiksylver296 wrote: »

Good luck!

I was just lazy and liked to eat.

Seconded

shadow2soul

I became lazy, but continued to eat like an active person.

RelCanonical

Combination of over-restricting from a previous weight-loss attempt with untreated anxiety-like disorder = fun little binge eating sessions a few times a week for about six months. Well, "fun".

LiLee2018

Abuse and just not being taught proper health or habits was why I first started gaining weight. Ate the wrong things and too much of it. I as pretty active as a child, but that slowly stopped due to depression.
Was just not brought up in a healthy environment and wasn't encouraged to be active or eat right.
I did eventually lose weight when I was a teen, but I was also smoking like a chimney at the time too. Still saw myself as fat though at 150lbs.
Eventually stopped smoking, but was still pretty lazy and ate whatever and the weight just piled on. I was eventually diagnosed with PCOS, hypothyroidism, & insulin resistant.
My highest weight was 250lbs at 5'3" tall. That's what I weighed right after getting married. Being put on metformin, I lost about 60lbs with no effort over 3years. Finally got pregnant, actually weighed less after the birth, but the weight slowly piled on b/c I got even lazier and ate more junk.
2nd and 3rd child pregnancies and my weight slowly crept back up to 224lbs before I started on this weight loss journey 4 months ago.
Done having babies now so there are no more excuses and finally in the right state of mind to stick with this until I've reached my ultimate goal.

kds10

A huge part of my issue was the "all or nothing" attitude. A perfect day was exercise and eating on track if I deviated from one or both I would view that as a failure and think well maybe I will start again tomorrow. Then often the same thing would happen again, I would "fail" and use that as an excuse to blow it.

NovaSur

Growing up always having to ask permission for every bite i took so i gained a severe binge eating disorder for when i was alone. High school i competitive weight lifted every day and didn't do any cardio so bulked up to 190. Add the joys of going out on my own when i was 18 ( was 185 at this time )and being able to eat anything and everything i wanted when i wanted. Add in a boyfriend who also is a binge eater so we go on binges together and feed off each other. Now i am 24 and got up to 230 at my heaviest. Combination of binge eating , fast food addiction, working night shift and just simply lazy. Ohh and severe PCOS. Which is my motivation to lose weight now. I cant get pregnant or have kids till i lose at least 50 lbs and my chances now of gestational diabetes if i were to get pregnant now are 100%... currently i go to the gym everyday and eat low carb and am now about 213...

amyteacake

My reason was because throughout high school I was bullied for my weight and because of that I was depressed and food became a comfort to me. I comfort ate to make myself feel better and gained more weight, which caused more bullying and the cycle continued until I was 19.

Miss_Snow_White

I was laready trying to lose weight when I got sick with heart rate issues. They put me on beta blockers to keep my heart rate down and I wasn't allowed to do anything that would make my heart rate go up( such as working out like I liked to) . So it naturally slowed my metabolism down at the same time I suffered a back injury so they put on steroids.. 40 lbs came out of knowehere and being on bed rest and limited in my movement due to back surgery I became depressed and gained some more. But I am mostly recovered from both scenarios and down 21 lbs as of today 😁

cwolfman13

Didn't have an underlying "reason." I was a competitive athlete from 3rd grade through my senior year in high school and then went off to the military. After that I went to college and remained a very active person. I didn't really "workout" much or anything, I was just active...I didn't own a car for much of that time and walked or biked most places...my friends and I were also really into Ultimate Frisbee and Disc Golf and hiking.

I graduated from college at the age of 30 and immediately started working for a CPA firm...I basically went from being a very active person to owning a car and commuting and working 10-12 hour days at a desk and traveling 25 weeks out of the year for business. Having been active my entire life, I never had to think about watching what I ate, so that wasn't something that came naturally to me when I became far less active.

TL/DR...I was always very active, and then I wasn't.

ata1anta

I was fond of "playing" on the equipment at the gym in college. In fact, the coach of women's crew saw me on the rowing machine and invited me to join the team (I declined - sitting in the Schuylkill at 5am was not my idea of fun). I'd "play" on the weight machines, was captain of the Karate team, etc. etc. etc. I wasn't skinny, far from it. I was the poster child for "fat but fit".

Course, once I no longer had the free gym access, it turned to fatter and less fit. Oh, and cheese. My mom owned a couple gourmet shops and when I'd work there, I'd have a cheese feast! Oh, the melted cheese sandwiches you can make!

etherealanwar

My new antipsychotic medication increased my appetite immensely and I did not take notice until I ballooned up to 200 lbs and finally decided to weigh myself only to end up in utter shock and disappointment. Long gone are the days I used to eat intuitively and maintain a slim 120 lbs figure. I feel as though now I will always have to count my calories to prevent my aggressive appetite from taking over. I always blamed my medication for the weight gain foolishly believing it directly caused it without understanding it was the increased appetite= eating way more then I should have.

I suppose preventing manic episodes in turn for some calorie counting is not too bad of a trade off. Just wish it didn't have to be this way.

RachelElser

I got a desk job, moved out of home and went a bit wild with the "do what I want when I want" mentality, meaning I ate out a bunch and didn't exercise.

cerise_noir

So sorry for your loss.


In the past it was lack of knowledge. So much woo until I joined mfp and lost 100+lbs. I was lifting and felt great.

Recently...
My parents passed away, and I felt so much guilt, depression, anger and anxiety that I stopped caring for myself. So, self hate and deep depression did it. I simply didn’t care about me while caring for my pets and others. It took a lot to get out of that dark hole, and I’m glad that I did— it wouldn’t have ended well. There were other things going on as well, which I won’t discuss here.. definitely stressful times.

I’m back at mfp and lifting. Feeling better.

Evamutt

I'm SO sorry for your first baby passing. I was always thin untill my first pregnancy. I gained 75 lbs. It also effected my vision to where I had to start wearing glasses for distance I was never able to lose it all. I didn't eat any more than before. The next 3 I gained around 60 lbs each & was not able to lose it all again. In 1998 I weighed 150 lbs, (not too bad) I ate well, that is veggies, chicken & rice mainly & never was much of a snacker. I started pre menopause early at 42 & gained 50 lbs over the next 13 years. I have lost the 50lbs with mfp but would like to lose 10 more

Asher_Ethan

3 kids.
Nursing makes my hunger cues unreal.
But I'm done with nursing forever so now I have no excuse.

tinak33

For me (in a nutshell) it was depression - mostly feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. I turned to food for comfort (my then husband was also severely depressed and we basically made each other worse), and in 2 years, gained about 40 lbs (went from 153 to about 190). Then I got pregnant. After pregnancy (and divorce) and losing the baby weight (I gained almost 50 lbs), I had intense cravings and didn't know how to handle single mom life. So I ate my feelings and my exhaustion, and put on about 25 lbs - ending at almost 220 lbs.
My daughter was about 10 months old when I decided to make some changes with my eating habits. I have since then dropped about 60 lbs and am still working on dropping another 20-25 lbs.