When did you start gaining weight?

dorisopen9

I was a toddler with the "cute puppy fat". We lived with my grandparents at the time and grandmother would feed me hot chocolate and Danish pastry when I played in the garden; my mother did not know that for a long time and could not explain why I grew so big.

As I got older, the fat stayed but the cuteness went.

heavenlyb14

I've always been small, 5ft 2 and 8stone 5lbs, but when I was 42 I had a brain stem stroke , lack of mobility and not being able to work anymore, I lolloped about all day and put on weight.

After about a year my partner got me a greyhound and I started walking again, but I still gained weight. I have balance and sight issues but I can walk, so i'm slowly losing the weight again :happy:

This is what happened to me too.

purple44444

Never been skinny, and was a fan of sweets since real little. So getting bigger in my 20's kind of came natural! It's slowly starting to come off.

lemonsnlove

College...blame it on the keg stands and munchies

Michaelg235

early childhood i was always the fat kid ..

parkparksarah

I don't think there is trigger for that... ?
If you ate too much and lie down after eating like a couch potato definitely you will gain weight

Michaelg235

College...blame it on the keg stands and munchies

Yea those days did not help .. achool was a killer then eating after getting mad wasted

LoveLiveLaugh123

I gained weight after giving up smoking, which was the start and then my Mother suddenly passed away a few months later. I gained 25kgs within a year.

jessmcanulty

I was 13 when I started to gain weight. I was always the tall skinny kid at school and then one day boom!!! As the years went by I just slowly got more and more. I'm 28 now and am sitting at 103kgs

LesliePierceRN

I was a chubby child, then lost my 'baby fat' around 13. Then I was average sized, I guess, through high school. I got married at 20 and started college, and was still pretty much average size, or maybe a little soft. I played sports through jr high and high school, but not after. I think that kept my physique in check through those years, but married life and then having two kids put a damper on phyiscal activity. In late 2010, at 39, I found myself with a 16 year old and a 13 year old and I was 190 pounds (the heaviest I've ever been without being pregnant) at 5'2". I was fed up and refused to buy bigger clothes or live in sweat pants. I began C25K with a friend and in 9 weeks had dropped 30 pounds. I kept running, signed up for races and branched out in my workouts. I began lifting weights, doing bootcamp classes and have now progressed to obstacle/mud racing and martial arts. I lost about 45 pounds initially with running, and put another 10 back on in muscle lifting weights. I am around a size 6 now, and was 16 at my heaviest.

toothlessjen

Puberty. I was always "chunkier" than the others, but I wasn't heavily overweight. Then I took up smoking and then I quit smoking and it's been downhill since then. I replaced cigarettes with food. Then I was in a bad relationship and food became my comfort. And when the relationship ended I was poor and only bought cheap, rubbish food. And then the cherry on top is having PCOS, which makes it SO easy to gain, but so hard to lose.

darrensurrey

Late 30s when I started climbing less often.

The advantage of having weights at home is that I can now do some kind of resistance exercise even if I'm not going out to a sport.

I actually weigh the same as I did 2 years ago but look the right way round. )

FWIW, my free weights aren't that heavy compared to some of the monsters on here but I am happy with how I look. Naturally, I know there are areas I could improve on but that's mainly down to muscle size rather than unwanted fat.

sinker59

Awesome!

KatyAverill

I graduated from high school 2 weeks after I turned 17. Throughout high school I played volleyball and basketball and stayed at around 140 (for reference I'm 5'8"). However, after I graduated I was still eating the same amount but no longer had sports practices for multiple hours each day and the weight just piled on.

Roxytudor

I pretty much starved myself down to my lowest weight, as soon as I started eating normally I had an endless appetite and gained 40-50lbs. Suffering from anxiety and depression also took away pretty much any motivation to lose it/get healthier.. but now I have sorted out those problems, I'm focusing more on caring about myself, my body and my health. :happy:

NewTnme

When I got pregnant with my first child. 20 years ago. But strangest thing. I weigh now what I did about a year after I had him. I was 160 then I got pregnant went up to 210, came back down to 180 and went back up to 210. Im wanting so bad to be at 160 again. I know the number seems high but boy do I look good at 160:bigsmile:

beardedwarriortx

When my wife passed away giving birth to our daughter....

moij0

my late 30's i gained alot of weight fast from being inactive for 3 months and eating nothing but takeawy food after being bed ridden when my back went (prolapsed discs) while i was carrying my teenage daughter to safety during a seizure.. after losing 3.5 stone the doctors were checking me over a month or two ago to see if i was fit for surgery to fix my back and found i also have an under active thyroid which is most likely why the weight gain and the knock on effect of being over weight is that my pancreas is shutting down too and not producing insulin and the insulin it is still producing is no good, im now looking at prediabetes and i have a heart arrythmia... but im sure i can fix it all if i lose this weight fast

FourLynne

I started picking up weight after my 2nd child was born, and early 30s. It has continued to climb over the next 20 years and now I am in my early 50s. I have been fortunate not to have any real health issues, but I feel my ole body creaking under this unnecessary weight. So, before I have a real health problem I need to do something about it and that's why I'm back and trying all over again.

sak20011

When I was 14 and my family fell apart. I had always been a little chubby, despite lots of exercise, but suddenly i was comfort eating and gained 20 lbs this continued my first year of college, when I gained the Freshman 15 lbs thanks to crappy food and beer. I subsequently lost it all and more through extreme dieting and exercise, until I was under 100 lbs on graduation day (and miserable!). In my later 30s I slowly gained a healthy amount back and began to treat my body better and get into fun exercise (rock climbing). Then I tore 3 ligaments in my knee, was sidelined before and after surgery and then had kid #1 and #2....and fell out of the exercise/healthy cooking regime.

lewispwest

In 2010 I suddenly developed excruciating migraines situated behind both of my eyes that left me in terrible pain from the moment I woke up to whenever I was able to sleep. I was eating very well until that point but I just binge ate from then onwards to cope.

It subsided in 2013, but it was still an absolute mystery what caused it. Now I just have to suffer the constant pain of a back injury.

RllyGudTweetr

Some time before my mother brought me home from the hospital. . .

Oh. You probably meant something about gaining weight in excess of personal ideals for height and activity level. Carry on.

Jamie3650

Started noticing it was a problem when I didn't feel confidant on my wedding day last year ready to stop making excusses and start seeing results!

sarafischbach9

At first, I needed to gain weight because I was too skinny. This was in 2010. I was about 91 lbs and at a point where I needed to gain weight for health. At first the weight gain was on purpose. It was on purpose until I hit 110 lbs, where I continued counting calories and I maintained weight for a year.

In 2011 I met my boyfriend and I began eating out. At first it was slow... weight gain and eating out. I started out eating out like 1-2 times a week and then by 2013 it was just about every day. I slowly gained 10 lbs throughout 2011 and 2012, from eating out and exercising lightly. In 2013, things got worse.... eating out almost everyday, barely any exercise, and not counting calories at all. My weight shot up 15 lbs in 2013. After Christmas I decided to lose.

dkemple1

After my 3rd child at age 36.

carey1932

Menopause. Was thin my entire life til that hit. Had 2 kids, went right back down to original weight. Then menopause hit & its been a battle ever since. What a booger.

jess17587

i was chubby in my early child hood when my mum would give me too much but i wouldn't no when i had had enough but i became fat/obese in the middle of secondary school when i had a argument with someone and lost the majority of my friends so i wasn't eating breakfast because i didnt have time and i didnt eat lunch because i had no friends so by the time i got home i was starved and i binged beyond anything i didn't have a good relationship with my family either which probably contributed to the over eating.

AlysonG2

When my wife passed away giving birth to our daughter....

Wow, I'm so very sorry for your loss.

Annesoucy1957

was in my mid 20, wanted a child did not have enough body fat following an illness. I packed some weight as suggested by the doc, got pregnant, was real sick, gave birth was 15 pounds lighter than at beginning of pregnancy, was put again on a high calorie diet and from there I lost control, it is as if I forgot how to eat at a normal calorie level.

zichab

Oh my gosh-what a great thread! It is so comforting hearing everyone's stories.

For me, I was a "chubby" child, but once I hit puberty, I thinned right out and of course, spent the next 20 years losing 10-15 vanity pounds every year to wear this or that outfit! LOL However, I started college and then grad school at 40 and eventually became a college professor. All that sitting at a computer, reading and studying and then going through menopause right in the middle of it all really packed on the pounds. Brains require a lot of glucose to learn and teach and I made sure mine was well supplied! :blushing: I finally reached the point where I could not teach my classes without ending up in extreme pain in my knees, feet, and back and when my son and I tried to hike a mountain that we had always hiked and I could not even get 1/4 of the way up, I was DONE WITH IT!!!!!

So, in Aug, 2012 at 59 1/2 years old, I was looking for a "calorie chart" as I wanted to start to counting calories (it was my method of choice for my vanity pounds back in the day) and found MFP. It has basically given me back the old me only better. I work out more now that I ever did and I am much more healthy than I was when I was younger and weighed much less. I am so very grateful to the wonderful people on here who have taught me so much about what good health really is! I suspect I will use this site for the rest of my life because I am not going back to over 200 pounds ever again!!!! :noway: