What was your “reason” for gaining the weight?
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Started with alcholic dad which led to anxiety of never knowing what each day would bring. Food was my comfort. Grew up diagnoised with depression and of course stuff happens in life and food was a comfort. Mid 50's shot up to 389 lbs. Went to Ww and 4 yrs later lost 210 lbs. Over the years have gained 75 of it back but I am now doing something about it with myfitness pal16
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I always used the control of food as a coping mechanism. Whether it was undereating back in highschool where I was pretty small, or constantly overeating 2 years ago.
I was in a bad relationship, got out of said bad relationship, was still in school stressed about graduating and everything else & just turned to food. Gained slowly within 3 years.5 -
Food's always been a way to comfort and soothe myself and make up for having to adult such a huge percentage of the time. Just how I am constructed I believe. Have lost the same 20 lbs over and over and over, now struggling to maintain and not regain.6
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Other priorities--I joined a singing group and most of the ladies were overweight. Monitoring calories wasn't a priority.0
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I had to stop working out because I was going through fertility treatments months ago, then got pregnant, put a little more weight on, and unfortunately suffered a miscarriage. I needed to wait for my body to recover before jumping back into working out. I’m excited to get back into better shape13
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sorry to hear about your loss.
Usually I get chubbers due to anxiety/emotional eating - I am an emotional eater for sure.
Before I had my daughter it was relatively easy to lose the chub though after I packed some on. I'd just close my mouth a bit and generally by then whatever the emotional problem I was having would have been dealt with and so it was easier - this was back in my 20's and up to mid 30's. I was also relatively active doing mainly martial arts.
Then, when I got pregnant I gained almost 20kg and only lost like hardly any post-partum. I was depressed, anxious, emotional eating because everything was *kitten* including my marriage. Eventually I tried to diet (someone told me about MFP). I lost some weight on the prescribed 1200 cals but it didn't last long because I was starving. Then I gave up on the logging but joined the gym and would do group classes. I got fit again but I was still chubbers.
Eventually I got sick of going to the gym every single bloody day and still being overweight and feeling awful and not even being able to look in the mirror and I approached one of the trainers there for help and that's how I got into weights and learnt how to diet in a way that was not starving and suited me.
I now hover around the 60kg mark. Sometimes it creeps up when I get emotional for any reason, but i'm finding it easier to lose though when I need to. Less effort required. And I still lift even if I am having an emotional "spell"
Good luck!!!5 -
My father passed away last year 2 days beforeThanksgiving. I just didnt care anymore and would eat horrible and drink to cope with his loss. I gained almost 40lbs.... none of my clothes fit, I'm so uncomfortable and I know he would not approve of what I have been doing to myself. It got to the point that I'm embarrassed to walk into the gym which was always my favorite place to be. I'll be 39 next year and my husband is taking me to the Bahamas for my bday so I gotta tighten up! But gosh looking in the mirror while I lift is killing me.8
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A anorexic at age12then re fed them hospitals meant no exercise, (from underweight to obese basically!)9
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I first put on extra weight because I got pregnant and thought I therefore had no limit how much i could eat, and I really like eating. Particularly, high calorie food and sweets.
I never lost that pregnant belly as I aged. As I got older, being a reasonably short (5'3") female, past 40, and sedentary, my metabolism/calories for maintenance are much lower than I imagined they would be (food labels say the daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so I assumed that was a "normal" adult amount, and thats what I should aim for, although I didnt really count them) and it just kept piling on. When i got REALLY big, i decided "weight was just a number" mostly because, again, I like eating, but not "health food" and didnt want to give that up. One day, I finally had enough and landed here. (Thats the short version)
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I became fat as a child because of abuse; and then got fatter in response to bullying about my weight (among other things). I had terrible problems with endometriosis throughout my 20's and 30's, and gained a lot of weight during that time. Then, in my early 40's, I developed fibromyalgia so severe I had to quit working and go on disability, and I've gained even more weight since.
I'm now in my fifties, and the idea of becoming geriatric while still being very obese is truly ominous. As is the idea of never having the chance to become geriatric at all, due to a stroke or a heart attack or all the other ways obesity can help cause an early death. I've got stuff to do, damnit; and I need to feel well enough, and stay alive long enough, to do it.14 -
An informal and probably not overly accurate tally of the things people have mentioned so far -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!
Pregnancy: 11
Menopause: 2
PCOS: 2
Depression: 8
Abuse: 7
Alcoholism: 3
Anxiety: 2
Eating Disorder: 3
Bad nutritional & weight-loss education/information: 4
Other Illness, Injuries, and/or Medications: 6
Death of loved one (including miscarriage): 5
Divorce: 5
Other Extraordinary Life Stress: 2
Quit Smoking: 1
Change to Sedentary Job/Retirement: 6
Priorities/Social Milieu: 1
Lazy: 6
Simply Ate All The Foods: 829 -
I could give a huge long winded explanation about drinking and mental health issues, but I won't because the root of it is: I went from an active person who cared about quality food intake to a lazy, sedentary, POS who ate garbage.
I honestly think going from fit to fat was worse in a lot of ways than what I remember of the years before I got fit. The worst part was looking at old pics and remembering old accomplishments, feats of strength, and knowing how I felt about myself back then. For me it stung more knowing full well what my body is actually capable of.11 -
For me it started early, been dieting since I was 12, was told as a teen by my mom I would be sooo pretty if I was thin. In my teens I made a game of seeing how long I could go without eating. At my lowest I was 140 at 5'5. Mainly always been 'chubby'. After I had my 9 yr old I got on depo, which made me ravenous and I ended up gaining back all the pregnancy weight. After that I was in a relationship with someone who was severely overweight, I would eat when he ate, and pretty much all the same stuff. After that I've been yo-yoing. Hopefully I've learned to stop that and finally be healthy.7
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Both times seem to be when a new partner came into my life. I lost 113 pounds during college, then I met my ex who I was with for 6 years. During the first 3 years I gained back around 80 pounds. I think it was just the distraction of new love, going out on dates and eating whatever. Then just letting myself go. Finally got my butt in gear and lost almost 90 pounds the last 3 years. We broke up and I met my current partner. I again got distracted. I maintained for a bit before I started gaining. I gained back 65 pounds and am currently back down 41 pounds from that. So, I guess the cliche is true in my case!10
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I had a knee injury that took me out of training for a year, without exercise I was kind of stuffed as I had previously been training a lot, and without burning those calories, I really wasn't able to sustain the amount that I was eating. Adding onto that the stress of a house move that was anything but ordinary (don't even start); stress from being made redundant from work (and no long cycling an hour each way for my commute); and generally being lazy and eating the same as what my boyfriend (1ft taller than me) ate. I piled on the pounds
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Denial8
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Gave up smoking and gained 30 kilos in a year. Because I ate all the foods. Because I LOVE the taste of food.
I was very slim prior without trying, so it's taken a while to educate myself on counting delicious points. I don't want to lose the full 30 kilos.
Basically I'm going to lose until I'm comfortable in NZ size 10, whatever weight that is. I was down 16 but gained 6 this year after not getting back on track after a holiday. Am getting back on track now.4 -
I've always been a very skinny child so my parents, in good faith, tried to get as much food into me as possible. I remained skinny and could eat whatever I wanted (including loads of junk and sweets), as much as I wanted, until in my mid 20s my doctor convinced me to swap contraceptive pill for implant. It was the worst decision in my life, as a month later I was 3 stones heavier:( I took the implant out a few years ago, but my metabolism never went back to the way it was, it's like now no matter how careful I am and how healthy I eat, I loose weight very slowly and gain very quickly:( The worst thing is, I'm always hungry, cause most of my life I was able to eat as much as I wanted and used to eat till I was completely full:(14
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Hmm I wrote so much but it didnt add. Lesson learned. Basically chubby all my life, loss of parent, abusive partner coupled with binge eating. Got down to 179 last year, introduced a crazy amount of stress into my life, gained back to 210lbs. Eager to slim down as most of that stress is gone.8
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My previous wife, she was a hell of a chef. At the moment following Keto, and my GF seems to be a good Keto chef.
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Moving house + fairly serious illness or injury usually does it for me.
Moving house by itself isn't bad.
Illness or injury aren't too bad on their own.
But put the two things within about 6 months of each other ... and there's weight gain.3 -
Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »
An informal and probably not overly accurate tally of the things people have mentioned so far -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!
Pregnancy: 11
Menopause: 2
PCOS: 2
Depression: 8
Abuse: 7
Alcoholism: 3
Anxiety: 2
Eating Disorder: 3
Bad nutritional & weight-loss education/information: 4
Other Illness, Injuries, and/or Medications: 6
Death of loved one (including miscarriage): 5
Divorce: 5
Other Extraordinary Life Stress: 2
Quit Smoking: 1
Change to Sedentary Job/Retirement: 6
Priorities/Social Milieu: 1
Lazy: 6
Simply Ate All The Foods: 8
Hmmm ... no one else mentioned moving house?
There I am busy packing yet again with no time to eat regular meals, so I'm eating whatever I can grab from a takeaway or frozen section of the grocery.
Plus when I get into the kitchen there's all that food ... half a box of cereal I have to get rid of because I don't want to pack it. Three boxes of cake mix. Half a bottle of syrup. 1/3 of a jar of jam. Etc. Etc. Etc. So I eat all that stuff to get rid of it. Dinners end up being half a cake with a side of cheerios topped with strawberry jam.
Plus my only exercise is packing boxes which is a lot less than usual.9 -
Depression and alcoholism played a huge part in my weight gain.
It sounds like an excuse but it's hard to pull yourself together and be healthy for any prolonged period of time when you can't be bothered to care about much of anything. On top of the binge drinking, which piled on the calories.
It's (sort of but not really) funny, but when I wanted to lose weight but didn't want to stop drinking, I used to just not eat all day and use all/most of my calories for alcohol. Plus I got drunk faster, so it was win-win.
I was hospitalized for a suicide attempt 2 years ago and it was the best thing that's ever happened to me. It saved my life, and I've been sober ever since. And I've lost 40 lbs this year so that's cool too.30 -
I always had big hips but at the end of this past spring I didn't have a flat stomach for the first time in years--I had fallen and was in pain for a couple of months from a tailbone injury I got in the fall. So I gained 15 pounds. I've now lost that 15 pounds but it feels good and i want to keep losing and not be overweight.4
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First go around: Went on an insulin pump. Blood sugar control improved (yay), but because I was terrified of carbs, because carbs = insulin, and I was afraid that more insulin would make me fat (hi, eating disorder), I snacked on pepperoni and provolone and other cheese All The Damn Time.
I really like cheese. I didn't track *any* of it. If I was hungry, I'd grab more cheese. We're talking easily 4 oz in a sitting.
Gained 10 pounds. Vowed I would never let that happen again.
Second go around: Was at a weight that I liked, but my endocrinologist thought was on the low side. New endocrinologist botched my thyroid management. Gained 13 pounds over eight months. Now I see a new endocrinologist for thyroid (and a separate one for diabetes), and the weight is slowly coming off, as expected, now that the damn water weight is coming off. I'm two pounds away from my first mini goal, and at this rate, should hit my original weight by early January.6 -
Simply put I'm so busy giving to others I barely care for myself nutritionally. My self care is exercise, sometimes twice a day. But it's overridden by 1500 calorie binges almost nightly because I use food to relax myself and escape. No one messes with me when I'm eating, but if I'm reading, watching a show, or heavens forbid taking a nap, my whole household is in my face. Right now I'm gaining and losing the same 7lbs almost monthly.7
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Everything I could think of just sounded like excuses, but basically the reason I gained weight is because of YEARS of starving myself and then binging repeatedly.
I starved myself all the time as a child/teen, starting probably at age 11, because I was known as the fat girl and was tired of it. When I say starved, I mean I was eating 200 calories or less a day sometimes. It was a never ending cycle of up and down. Fast forward ten years to 2016 when I decided to take charge of my health when I realized I was getting close to the 300lb mark. I lost 115lbs.
But now, of that 115 I lost, I've gained 40 back. I'm tired of the excuses and want to be as healthy as ever. Why did I gain 40lbs back? Well, laziness, and binge eating, and cravings.
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I gained weight because I ate whatever I wanted most of my life and wasn't active. Then after pregnancy I put on about 20 or so lbs and kept eating like I was pregnant after so put on another 30 lbs. Then I gained a lot on medications even after I wanted to change for some reason the meds made me want to eat everything and I put on over 100 lbs.
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collectingblues wrote: »First go around: Went on an insulin pump. Blood sugar control improved (yay), but because I was terrified of carbs, because carbs = insulin, and I was afraid that more insulin would make me fat (hi, eating disorder), I snacked on pepperoni and provolone and other cheese All The Damn Time.
I really like cheese. I didn't track *any* of it. If I was hungry, I'd grab more cheese. We're talking easily 4 oz in a sitting.
Gained 10 pounds. Vowed I would never let that happen again.
Second go around: Was at a weight that I liked, but my endocrinologist thought was on the low side. New endocrinologist botched my thyroid management. Gained 13 pounds over eight months. Now I see a new endocrinologist for thyroid (and a separate one for diabetes), and the weight is slowly coming off, as expected, now that the damn water weight is coming off. I'm two pounds away from my first mini goal, and at this rate, should hit my original weight by early January.
Cheese is sooooooo gooooooood!2
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