Why did you gain weight in the first place?

stargirlll

I was lazy. Ohhhh so lazy. I was under the impression that my adolescent metabolism would drive me through my life and I'd never have to worry.

Oh, how wrong I was. In high school I gained 30 pounds without even actually realizing it. Once I reached 150 I knew I had to change as I didn't want to get any heavier.

My triggers definitely have to be boredom and depression, but boredom reigns supreme. If I have nothing to do, I just want to munch on something tasty. Er... EVERYTHING tasty. I'm a binge eater through and through. It's been a tough habit to kick.

These days I'm doing much better with an "iifym" lifestyle and MMA training.. I make progress every single day and my binging days seem to be few and far between. I'm always preoccupied, so I have much less time to think about all the marvellous foods I want to eat.

runshellersrun

I barely gained during my pregnancies, and effortlessly and quickly lost what I did gain. It was not having a minute to myself to exercise or eat right for two years that was the problem. I'm sure the sleep deprivation didn't help either.

Naener

Sad? Food will make me feel better. Happy? Have something nice to eat. Angry? Chocolate will make things better? Celebration? Lets go out to eat etc. That, combined with portion sizes too big with too many carbs

Welcome to the American Way lol

jeffd247

I got ran over by an 18 wheeler on my 21st birthday and couldnt walk anymore and got depressed and stopped living.

STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR YOURSELF!!!1!one!


(Okay getting run over by a truck seems legit. Nvm)

xD

i DID stop! and lost a backstreet boy!

Which one? I hope it was that dude with the aviator sunglasses. He annoyed me.

Naener

A trigger for me is male attention. I guess unconsciously I would rather be invisible to the opposite sex, because the attention makes me feel vulnerable.

I believe my mother has this same issue. she keeps herself un healthy to stay safe...

jackjackattck

Mine was all from college. I drank 5-6 days a week and ate fried foods multiple times a day. I did work out, but not regularly. I actually think I'm pretty lucky that I only gained about 15-20 lbs over the 4 years of college considering how crappy I treated my body. I still have to be careful when going to visit friends because we slip right into that old pattern- tons of alcohol and eating every meal out. It's definitely still a challenge, even now, after 2 yrs of maintenance.

I agree with you completely!! Mine was all from college too. I went from not drinking and living with my parents, eating my moms healthy cooked meals all day... to living in a dorm with the party lifestyle. I didn't know how to cook, so if I wasn't eating take out, it was easy mac or cup of noodles (shudder at the sodium levels!) I consumed tons of beer and super sugary cocktails.. followed by Jack in the Box or Alberto's runs at 3 AM. Then in the morning, I would be too hungover to do much so I would go hit up the drive through again. Since I was taking 8 classes and trying to hold a part time job, ALL of my free time was spent sleeping.. or partying with my friends. I rarely worked out, except for the occasional aerobics class if I needed extra units. The schools really get you with the meetings too, offering free pizza in exchange for attendance. That is pretty appealing to a broke college student!

The "freshman 15" really does exist. In fact for me, it was more like the college 30.. it did not stop at freshman year!

Naener

Oh you lucky *kitten* with high metabolisms in youth lol

Never had much metabolism to work with.... was a chubby kid through middle school, thined out in high school thanks to swimming, water polo and cross training... got chubby again in college.. lost weight again from partying and dancing my *kitten* off as well as an active job... retail is no joke sometimes... then stopped partying, got a cushy desk job and just stopped caring i guess.

Was rasied a tom boy, so i never thought/cared much about my own looks.

thankfully I was never an emotional eater... when i gte sad or depressed I DONT eat.

135, 150, 180, 165, 190, 187, 204.... gain a bunch, lose a little... but i never bothered with portion control or looking at caloric intake.

im currently 164!! and on the way doowwnnnnn!

RobbinRL

For me, I quit smoking and gained 38 pounds. I stayed that way for 1 1/2 years. The smoking issue was done and over. Then I began my journey to lose that 38 pounds and I have! I actually didn't weigh myself for 3 weeks or so when I started MFP, so it is showing 31 lbs. lost. Either way I'm back at my pre smoking weight!

I spoiled myself when I quit, BAD I know but it helped. I "was" and stress WAS a DQ freak, sweet pastries, etc. and turns out I was eating about 3000 calories a day.........OMG I could not believe it. But my size 14 plants going on size 16 proved it. I am now 136 pounds and HOLDING in a size 4 & 6 depending on the style. Since quitting those stupid cig's I DON'T CRAVE SWEETS barely at all. Infact I don't use sugar either too sweet YUCK I use Truvia.

I continue to love me withough huffing and puffing and smelling LIKE CRAP. Couldn't believe I did that for so long. What an idiot I was.

jbg17200

I was always active with sports as a kid, to the extent that I would have 2 dinners and still be struggling to maintain weight. As I got older and started working, I still had very active jobs that all involved being outside and running around and moving heavy things and could eat whatever I wanted. After college I got my first "real" job which involved sitting at a desk most of the day, happy hours, and bringing "treats" to work. To compound this I had also gone on the "boyfriend diet" for a few years and was eating what, and more importantly how much he ate which started the weight gain. A few years later after moving around and breaking up I got really depressed and turned to food as my only comfort. While I have gotten out of the location and job that made me so unhappy, I am still working on getting my relationship with food back undercontrol and rebuilding my self esteem and self worth to realize it is OK to focus on me!

It also does not help that I LOVE sweets and have a very hard time turning them down, so I am working on allowing myself a treat but in a smaller portion. Now anything I bake, I bake in 1/2 portions so 1 cookie is automatically smaller than what it used to be.

hstoblish

I've gone through three major weight gains in my life that added up to putting me into the overweight category.

Once when I went from high school (5'2", 95 pounds), during which I played center midfield and ATE so much yet still looked underweight, to university (5'2", 125 - probably my best weight ever) where I stopped working out but kept up my bad diet - perogie day in the cafeteria was my favourite day ever! Eventually I started swimming about 2 km a day and while I stayed the same weight (thankfully!) I got into great shape.

Once when I started dating my husband (5'2", 125), which coincided with my graduation from university. I stopped swimming as much and went up to around 145 pounds.

Then I got sick. I was trying to lose weight, but lost it everywhere but my belly. Turns out I had an ovarian tumor that got to be the size of a football by the time I got a doctor to acknowledge that I was sick. I was up to about 145 after surgery and recovery. During recovery, I started weight training and got into good shape then, but I didn't watch my diet at all, so I went up to my highest weight of 165. Then I got pregnant, during which I went up to 185, which is totally a normal weight to gain during pregnancy.

I had my baby 10 months ago and through bootcamp and breastfeeding, by about 4 months after she was born, I got back down to 165, but held there for a little bit before joining MFP and taking diet into account. I've always been afraid of getting into dieting because I've watched so many people yo-yo diet throughout my life. Now, I'm managing some other health conditions and my weight and am back down to 146.5 as of yesterday.

What I've learned is that I don't manage my health well during transitions in life - I need to move from job to job and from life stage to life stage without failing myself. Oh and not get any more ovarian tumors... ugh. I need to keep up physical activity, and learn more about managing my calories. I also need to not be afraid of the scale. When I don't check it often enough, it can get out of control while I stay in denial.

Faye_Anderson

I ate too many calories and did too little exercise.

Yeah, this. I have no idea what a "trigger food" is, and there aren't any excuses for my starting weight, just too much food and wine and not enough movement :flowerforyou:

grillnchill

Moved states to be with my sweetheart. We wined and dined a whole lot. The first year I maintained a little but fluctuated between 5-8 pounds. Then 8 turned to 12 and so on. Here I am now...45+ lbs and two years of lusciousness later. Wowsers.

mandeenicoleb

It's as simple as me eating whatever I want whenever I want and eating when I'm not hungry. I don't like wasting food and will eat everything on my plate even if I felt sick afterwards. It took a while to adjust this mentality, but I have!

cwolfman13

I used to be pretty active...growing up I was always involved in sports/athletics...then I went into the military out of high school. When I got out i was still in the neighborhood of 10% BF. Being out of the military and going back to school, I remained generally active but not nearly as active as I was and slowly put on a little weight because I was eating more or less the same as I was before...it was no biggie really...I bumped up to about 15% - 16% BF and stayed there for quite awhile and was pretty comfortable in my own skin.

I didn't really start packing on the pounds until I was 30 and started working a desk job and lots of hours and traveling a lot for business. From 30 - 38 y.o. I went from about 170 - 220 @ 5' 10". It was pretty slow and gradual at first and sort of easy to just ignore and brush off as "getting older" or whatever...but really, from 35 - 38 things couldn't be ignored. In those three years I put on a whopping 35 of those 50 lbs and my health really took a dive. My health is what ultimately got me off my *kitten* and moving again...I was heading down a path that ends no where good to be sure...

1 year later and I've turned things around considerably...I've dropped 40 lbs and am down to around 180ish. I'd still like to drop another 10 - 15 and get back to my pre "real job" body and I'm working on that very, very slowly. My primary mission has been accomplished and that is to reverse all of my bad blood work with diet and exercise. I'm significantly more fit than I've been in years...probably right around where I was at 28 y.o. Now I'm in for the detail work of sculpting my body and working that spare tire.

yoovie

I got ran over by an 18 wheeler on my 21st birthday and couldnt walk anymore and got depressed and stopped living.

STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR YOURSELF!!!1!one!


(Okay getting run over by a truck seems legit. Nvm)

xD

i DID stop! and lost a backstreet boy!

Which one? I hope it was that dude with the aviator sunglasses. He annoyed me.

erm... it was the skinny one - wait no - that was lindsay lohan. yeah - i lost her.

BarbieAS

I've got a couple of factors.

First off, I've always been chubby, since the moment I was born, all through childhood and teenage years. Not necessarily obese, but husky. Thick. Just teetering on the edge of overweight. When I graduated high school, I was 5'5" (well, still am, lol) about about 145-150, and I actually had leaned out a noticeable amount due to sports and such. So, I started out with a slight disadvantage (no excuses, just a factor that's in play).

Then, in the first part of college, I just went through some...stuff. You know, boy problems, loss of direction in school, etc. Nothing earth shattering but absolutely a mild to moderate depression on and off. Food made me feel better - still does, but I'm fighting it. I'm a grown up and should be able to control myself, but I recognize that my mom comes into play here - that's how we were raised. She had a hard time showing affection, but "treats" and stuff were how she told us that she loved us. It, again, isn't an excuse, but it ingrained that emotional response and impulse into me and added another disadvantage that I need to overcome. Crappy day? Nachos will help. Doesn't matter if I'm actually hungry or not. I don't know how much I really realized it back then, but I sure notice it now. By about 5 or 6 years after high school, that 145 was about 245.

At some point I regained control of myself, and over the course of a year I lost 85lbs and got back down to 160. I was ok with that weight. Very soon after I got there, I met my (then future) husband. After we met, I yo-yoed up and down a bit, ultimately putting on about 25-30lbs of happy fat, and then got pregnant with my son, and due to quitting smoking plus the sudden license (in my head) to stop the dieting I put on another 60 while pregnant with him. I managed to not really lose any of it before I got pregnant with my daughter 18 months later (just laziness, plus breastfeeding actually made it harder for me, rather than easier, as some say), and while I didn't put much more on with her, I ended up at 242 when it was all said and done. Now she's 2, and I'm finally on my way back down.

tula1980

Bed rest whilst very ill during pregnancy, spent the whole 9 months vomiting. Almost bled to death during c-section. As a result of being so depleted I was both 'skinny fat' and absolutely starving. I spent 5-6 months just eating and (over all from pre preg) put on ~40lb fat and lost a lot (~10lb ish) of muscle.

An8888

The first time I gained too much weight is it's own story, but the second time, and what brought me here, was pretty much a relationship with a lazy guy. In retrospect, it wasn't a very healthy relationship in a lot of ways. He ended up being a very different guy than who I thought he was, and had anger issues that caused me a lot of depression and anxiety. On top of everything else, we were always getting fast food. Usually, he was buying the food for me, too. So I was like, hey! It's free and I feel crappy. Why not? It's funny how much easier it is to eat fattening food when you have a loved one's "permission", so to speak. When they're offering it to you almost as a gift, or an apology. Now I'm here, starting over in more ways than one.

Confucius08

Like everyone else: stress, boredom and a little depression that has led to mindless and/or emotional eating. I will beat this!

StormSparks1994

My parents wouldn't say no when I'd ask for more food combined with a lazy teenager. and here i am.

Nikoruo

I've answered this a few times myself already. I've always been big from birth to adulthood. Bigger than norm and always considered overweight. Drs say it's a mixture of genetics, health issues, stopping my exercising and unhealthy eating.

TrailRunner61

Well, the first time it was because I was lazy. I was on my computer all day and ate 2 meals, lunch and dinner, and then ate other 'junk' until I went to bed. I also ate the wrong kind of foods. Mostly frozen dinners, pizza, ice cream, canned soups, etc.
I lost 40 pounds by walking 2-4 miles per day, and eating mostly 'normal' food.

Then, I went on prednisone for chronic hives/cluster migraines and had a bad reaction to it, that lasted for weeks. I was in pain 24/7 and my appetite was insane. All I wanted was.. well, everything I could eat. I gained 20 of it back over summer.

Now I'm 1 1/2 weeks back into my 'lifestyle' and I've lost 2lbs and am starting to feel better already.