How did you gain weight in the first place

Edie05

I was very skinny all my life (weighed 96 lbs when I got married!) and I could always eat what I wanted and didn't gain weight. I was a picky eater and food wasn't important. When I met my husband, he got me to try new foods and then my love affair with food started. I slowly started to put on weight. I had my first child and developed postpartum depression and was medicated with antidepressants. I never lost the 50 lbs I gained during pregnancy. Had 2 more babies and gained with them too. I just continued to eat what I wanted thinking eventually the weight would come off. I also hated exercise. I developed pre-diabetes and was put on medications and changed my antidepressants to Wellbutrin and the weight started to come off. I got down to a 135 (I'm 5"2') and stayed there for years. In the last year I decided I wanted to get back down to my pre pregnancy weight and started running. I'm now down to 112lbs, size 0 and feel so much better. I still love food. I just don't eat as much!!

Aestuavi

I was always really skinny, so I just ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Cheeseburgers, pasta, fries, pizza, cookies and cakes were all part of my daily diet. When I started taking BC and stopped growing I gained weight because I didn't change lifestyle. I'm not 'fat' or at an unhealthy weight, but I do want to go back to my old weight - a little under 20 (vanity) pounds to lose.

hockey7fan

We always had a ton of junk food in the house when I was a kid. When I was in high school I weighed 135 and was 5'5" and was told by all my friends I was fat. Then when I moved out on my own I ate out 3 meals a day and ate a lot of junk food in between. I didn't care - I liked food. I ate a lot. I never ate vegetables and rarely ate fruit. It was all fast food and restaurant meals and pizza.

Smoofalz

Was chubby as a kid. Once I hit puberty I lost a ton of weight and was actually pretty healthy. Then when I met my high school sweetheart, now husband, we just kept gradually putting on weight together...These last few years I'v stopped gaining, but was just staying at basically the same weight and sizes.. (looked at some old pics and realized I've had the same jean shorts for like 4 years lol)

amy_huckaba

I was a skinny kid and teenager, so I ate whatever I wanted to and didn't gain weight. I had my kids young (at age 18 and 20) and lost the baby weight quickly, so I thought I was ok. It kind of just snuck up on me. I didn't change my eating habits and suddenly at age 25 I was 20 pounds heavier. Then at age 30 I was 35 pounds heavier. Now I'm 35 and need to lose about 50 pounds. It also could be stress eating because my kids are teenagers now.

BigT555

my extreme love of food

JulieAnn72

Pregnancies, mostly. I did gain some in my 20s as I had never had to worry about gaining weight before, so didn't really think about what I was eating and drinking until I had gained a good 25 lbs in that decade! I was still in decent shape at that point, and probably a healthier weight than I had been before. But then I had babies, and while I got down to my pre-pregnancy weight each time, I stopped paying attention to my eating and drinking again a couple years after having my youngest, and packed on 20lbs. I lost it all in 2013, but now I'm slowly gaining it back again because I haven't been diligent about eating and drinking properly!

Veil5577

Doctor put me on Lyrica for my back pain.

cherrilovee

STRESS. I've never been "thin," but my over eating is all due to stress.

Chibukalu908

I see all these people putting their reasons and then-but I don't want to make excuses it really was my fault.....Well just so you know, their are cases were it CAN BE NOT YOUR FAULT...like not being able to walk on one leg for a year and then a month ago getting A METAL PLATE WITH SIX SCREWS, AND TWO METAL CAGES AROUND TWO DISKS IN MY BACK....so excuse me if that sounds like an excuse, IT'S NOT.....I Guess I COULD EXERCISE if I WANTED ANOTHER ROUND OF A BACK SURGURY THIS IS #2. (I'm still using a walker and reacher but hey that sounds like an excuse I should get my lazy *kitten* up and run a marathon! lol)

I understand that you've been through an ordeal, but yes that is an excuse. You can keep weight down even without exercise. You could lower you calories to reflect the reduced level of activity you've facing currently.

strong this

A lot of times people will use an injury as an excuse as to why they gained lots of weight. The injury doesn't force you to overeat beyond your TDEE. It's just that most people who get injured and require rest continue to eat at the level of activity they had before the injury, or they turn to food as comfort and begin to overeat.

Of course people's priorities often change when going through an ordeal like you have, and often body weight concerns fall by the wayside. But do know that it's still your responsibility. I think we all need to own up to our actions.

sistrsprkl

3 pregnancies and... food.

ketoambahh

I took lexapro for a year and my appetite grew tremendously. Mountain Dew and potato chips everyday. i'd get so angry and possessive about it that my Mom didn't even try to stop me. BAM. 50 pounds that year. That was 10 years ago. I wish someone DID stop me.

jstavix

The only time I ever weighed what I was supposed to was the day I was born and it was downhill from then on. I was a chubby baby, chubby toddler and chubby child. At age 8 my mom put me on extreme weight loss programs which did not work. And she was also very abusive and said "sorry" with cookies. Thus began my effed up journey with food. Feel sad? eat! Feel depressed? eat! I finally am taking control of the little kid that lives inside of me and I am no longer emotional eating and I am trying to like myself again....

Meerataila

I took lexapro for a year and my appetite grew tremendously. Mountain Dew and potato chips everyday. i'd get so angry and possessive about it that my Mom didn't even try to stop me. BAM. 50 pounds that year. That was 10 years ago. I wish someone DID stop me.

Even if someone had stopped you, it might only have delayed your overeating until you had control of your own grocery shopping, especially if you stayed on the medication. In fact, it might have ended up even worse if you'd been resentful about your food being controlled. I think part of the fun of my teenage job snackfests was finally getting to eat whatever I wanted without anyone saying no.

larrodarro

I used to be skinny and was always a big eater. I work in an office, but had side jobs cutting grass and firewood, so that helped. Over the years the side jobs fell away, and I didn't try to replace them. Then for four years I sat in front of a keyboard writing novels. I got up to 250 pounds, lost down to 218, then went back up to 240. Last year I decided I had had enough of it. I started losing in September, and 65 pounds later, I have leveled off at 175. I have been this weight for a little over a month now. I still sit at a keyboard far too much, but I eat healthier and do 600-1000 calorie worth of exercise a day.

sbv67

Well, I used to be very active. Then Arther came to live with me. You know Arther-itis. Started with Osteo and then progressed to RA. Severe Ra with Fibromyalgia. The years progressed as they do, and so did the RA. So now i'm 67 yrs old , have had 11 joint surgeries, countless hours of PT:explode: and I am not active at all anymore. My hips, knees, ankle, and feet are fully arthritic. Hard to walk when every step hurts.
I've weighed over 200 lbs most of the past 40 yrs:noway: Docs are always on me about weight, and now let's throw Congestive heart failure into the mix. Are we having fun yet???
Visiting nurses suggested this site for support and ideas on how to eat a low fat, low sodium diet. This is very hard and i'm already sick of having to weigh in every day!!!

beginforthelasttime16

Under-active thyroid

ScoobyM34

Started when I moved to a new area in like 5th grade. Lost all my friends and became involved in video games and not being active. Working a job that does not involve alot of movement and eating McDonald's pretty much everyday got me to where I am now. Lots of Depression, and the meds for it, didn't help out very much either

Ninkyou

Complete lack of regard to my body's nutritional needs. AKA, stuffing my face with high calorie foods.

SrMaggalicious

I get SAD every winter (seasonal affective disorder) and this winter was especially brutal. I shut myself out from the world right after work and throughout the weekends. Every day, on my way home I would grab a large veggie sub with honey mustard dressing and 3 or 4 slices of American cheese, a LARGE bag of kettlle corn (no, bigger....yeah, that one...the one that takes two hands to carry), and 2 LARGE Hershey's chocolate bars. I would add in 2 bags of Utz Salt n' vinegar chips and rush home and gord myself, watching Netflix ad nauseum (House of Cards, Orphan Black, Orange is the New Black, & any murder/detective show on) until bedtime. Then I would do it all over again...I gained almost 40 pounds in about 5 months. Disgusting...really disgusting.

I'm worried about this winter. I need to have a plan in place. Actually meeitng w/my doc on Monday to discuss antidepressants, maybe those ultraviolet lights people w/SAD use...and even a trip to Hawai'i??? It's a great prescription, if you ask me!

Feliciapooh

Just eating WAY too much food all my life.

Blueseraphchaos

Two kids close together, then a birth control method that simply did not agree with me, and a complete lack of awareness that i was eating more than i should have been eating to maintain my weight. Suddenly, i was fat. Lol

Really, it was a lack of awareness that i couldn't eat the same way I'd been eating after my metabolism and hormones changed.

rachnmatt53009

I go to school during the day and work at night. Sometimes all I have time to eat are the quick things, and those aren't always the best things. Plus, I just learned that I inherited PCOS from my mom. Yay...

Guitarlos2

Reading some of these responses reminds me how crazy the human body can be. There are so many conditions and things that have to be in balance or whooom - weight gain! I am in the process of losing weight, but mine crept up on me over the course of three years. I was fairly thin and athletic and all of a sudden I began to crave the foods I really liked more and more. Next thing I knew, I was eating pizza a few times a week and dipping into fast food more often than ever. I wonder if I have candida? The cravings became almost insatiable and just recently I have been making a serious effort to fight them. Some of this food is almost like a drug sometimes, its ridiculous....

DellaWiedel

I was always pretty thin/in shape during my teenage and young adult years, then I think a few things happened:

1. I moved from the boonies into a city where I could get fast food and food delivery, and I felt the need to eat fast food like EVERY MEAL to make up for all the years I'd been deprived. LOL

2. I got married and felt like I needed to be a "good wife" by making my husband food covered in gravy and cheese for every meal, followed up by some sort of rich homemade dessert, and of course Southern style sweet tea to wash it all down!! (Of course, he never complained about my cooking, but it definitely packed the weight on both of us... LOL)

3. I got a job at Starbucks, where you can get as many free drinks as you want while you're on the clock, and I had waaaaaaay too many mochas and sweet teas.

But basically all those things boil down to the same thing, which is I was consuming way more calories that I could burn in a day.

I've cut back on restaurants, and if I do go out to eat, I try to check out the nutrition counts first so I can get the healthier items. Definitely not gonna cut out restaurants all together, sometimes I just don't feel like cooking or I want to go out for a special occasion. But I try to make better choices when I do go out. I also have learned to cook healthier meals at home. I no longer work for Starbucks, so I guess that solved that problem. LOL

NicoleLFifield

I really do not know, I have always been fat, I remember the kids teasing me in 1st grade calling me Miss Piggy....I really packed on the pounds as an adult having worked in convenience stores for over 13 years with free soda all day, every day...One day I figured it out and I was averaging at least a gallon of Pepsi a day that I was drinking....Had myself up to 248 pounds and borderline diabetic by the time I was 30....

Iwishyouwell

Reading some of these responses reminds me how crazy the human body can be. There are so many conditions and things that have to be in balance or whooom - weight gain!

And yet the overwhelming majority of people's bodies are perfectly in balance to avoid weight gain if they simply control their caloric intake.

It's incredibly disingenuous for people to continue bringing up RARE disorders and situations that make maintaining a "normal" weight more difficult (not impossible) while failing to acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of people just don't have these issues.

LoryBear

I've been a gamer since I was 5 years old, and since the time I was about 12 I've been slowly putting on weight. Sitting around and eating all day has it's downsides... I love my video games, but I can have the best of both worlds--A good figure and my games.

I mean, I was never really really overweight, I just had a lot of chub on me from it. It was evenly dispersed, but it just made me feel so bad (climbing stairs became a chore) that I just had to make a change.

Sammun

I make excuses and I say "I'll start eating healthy tomorrow" a lot!

I wasn't big as a kid but I thought I was. I thought it didn't really matter what I ate because I was big anyway. I loved chips and as I developed I didn't really realize how big I was. I finished school at 200 pounds or so. Boobs and hips sort of appeared when they were supposed to and I didn't think much of it.
Moved out of home, started an awful job, they didn't pay me much and I worked a long day and had a hour long commute. I would smash fruit loops in the morning, not eat all day then find a drive thru on the way home, order 2 or 3 meals and gorge all the way home, go to bed and repeat. Moved home, ate somewhat normal again and the weight dropped off... or so I thought. When I weighed in 2 months later I was 230 still. I was likely up around 250-260 before. I really knuckled down, dropped 40 pounds, picked it up again, dropped it again, picked it up. Every time something stressful happens I pick up those pounds... I eat. This time around I'm trying the "not making excuses" route.

levitateme

Stuffing ridiculous amounts of food in my face and laying around too much.