how did you get so big?

jakejacobsen

So today I realized that it is just as important to realize how I got to be 342 pounds as it is for me to loose the weight. So how did you get to your size?

I got here because I am a carpenter, I was able to eat whatever I wanted i put on winter weight but I lost it in the summer so no big deal then I hit 30 and started growing through in a few serious health illness and here I am. I had a pulmonary embolism and gained like 50 pounds in a few months. So on word and up word! time to get healthy.

WifeMomDVM

For me, I was completely undeducated about proper nutrition and exercise. Sure I knew I needed to eat healthy, but it didn't taste good, and I was young, so who cared?

Well, one day I cared and I started educating myself.... haven't looked back ever since!

Contrarian

Too much food and not enough activity.

BarbWhite09

College. Got lazy - & also after I got engaged I think I was just kind of like eh, doesn't matter what i look like now, already got my man. Lmao. Uggh.

taso42

I just didn't really care, never exercised, and drank all the beer I possibly could.

kiminita

I never exercised before..except one summer when I was 19, and was successful but hurt my ankle toward the end of the summer, started my second year of college, and then time management was my biggest issue as to why I didn't keep up the routine. Honestly the women in my family are all big. I was at my smallest at 15-16, at maybe 150 (Which is still overweight, considering I am barely five feet!). As the years passed, I gained a little, and was at about 193 when I started exercising. I went down to 179, and from there ballooned up to about 223 at 22 years old. I think it was a combination of working at a store where I had access to junk food from 2002 to 2008. Also, I bought a car in 2007 and had access to drive thrus, not to mention a way to be less physically active. I think this and just getting a bit older. At 24 going on 25, I discovered MFP and decided to start getting an idea of what I was eating...and wow. I was 228 when I started officially working out and limiting calories in January. I got sidetracked in April, after a 20 lb weight loss. Now, I am back on track, and down to 203 last I officially weighed myself. *Deep breath*
Anyone, please feel free to add me!

AParker1974

I just ate too much and wasn't very active. Also, I had 3 kids and just didn't seem to have the energy to take care of myself.

Puddykat1026

I was super skinny when I met my hubby 10 years ago. I was working & going to school. Then I started working at a cafe & put on about 20 lbs. I went to school & started working 2 jobs, eating whatever I could to sustain life because I was always busy. I tacked on another 20 lbs. I then went to work at my current job where I sit on my butt all day & answer phones. All we do is eat, talk, gossip, answer phones, and eat some more. I gained another 40 lbs over the course of 7 years. I work with my family, so it's so hard to tell them stop feeding me and no I don't want to have a morning meeting with bagels smothered in cream cheese. I thought they'd look out for me, but it's clear to me I'm the only one in this for ME! How I gained 85 lbs and didn't have kids is astonishing. I have no excuse for letting myself go. I felt like a fat, lazy, homebody who didn't want to go out or do anything because I look like a pint sized fatty bear. And yes, I have a cute face... but how far will that get me in life?!?!

Oh, I didn't know I had that bottled up in there! Thanks So here I am, on my journey to be HEALTHY. The looking great part is just an added bonus! Good luck on your journey.

pph79

Working at Wal-Mart nightshift 5-7 years ago, coming home in the AM and eating like a horse, then going straight to bed. Also was living with my ex girlfriend at the time and let down my guard on my food choices. (This is what happens when you get comfortable with someone i guess.)

Now i do what i used to do, like control portions, exercise, and go back to a vegetarian diet.

Yanicka1

I got preggo again, and again, and again, and again and again again

candicemaechling

I was told growing up I couldn't excersize because of my asthma, I didn't learn about calories or anything growing up and I didnt know there was another way of life out there

metisgirl

Having a little boy who was terminally ill, gave me the reason to keep feeding an addiction to food. i just didn't care any more after he passed away....But now, i am kicking myself in the butt and realizing that i deserve to be happy and healthy and that this is what he would want too...

wendibartel

i have always been fairly big. Raised myself on microwavable meals since I was 8 years old. Well about 6 years ago I started going to a gym and working with a personal trainer. I lost an amazing amount of weight, became the smallest I had been in a long time (maybe even as far back as Jr. High). I was so confident in myself. I think ended a relationship and began a new one (very happy I might add in that department) About four years ago I became pregnant. I gained a ton of weight and became the heaviest I have ever been.

So this past June I got myself back together and have since lost 30 pounds. I am detirmed to stay healthy. Although I am eating a ton better then previously when eating out 5 out of 7 days was normal I seem to be stuck. I need to find some energy somewhere and get a move on it again. I have the winter funk.

sarah307

got really depressed and didn't care anymore about getting out of bed - much less exercising or eating healthy!!

TDGee

I just didn't really care, never exercised, and drank all the beer I possibly could.

^^This. And the hole the food goes into is much larger than the one it comes out of.

RoadkingDavid

wow. I just want to friend all of you. I gained weight in grad school after I got married. My immune system malfunctioned and the Doctors finally called it Chronic Fatigue Immune System Dysfunction. Ugh. The steroids ballooned me 100 lbs in a short amount of time. Stress from family drama that I failed to cope with made it worse. But over the last 19 months, I have lost 111 lbs. I have 40 to go to reach my goal.

infamousmk

I just didn't really care, never exercised, and drank all the beer I possibly could.

Same for me.

CaptainGordo

Ingesting too many calories and not being active enough. Started getting bad when I stopped playing sports, and left being a teen for adulthood. I kept up the appetite, but not the calorie expenditure.

catwrangler

Born big. All my sibs were chubby and all outgrew the baby fat except me. Stayed big, emotional eater, no will power, never very active, I have "issues".

Laces_0ut

i was able to eat and drink through my 20's. i kept pretty active and played a lot of sports. turned 30 and dropped my activity to near zero and continued to eat and drink a lot. spent the last 10 years ballooning up.

jecka31

College. Got lazy - & also after I got engaged I think I was just kind of like eh, doesn't matter what i look like now, already got my man. Lmao. Uggh.

This was me!!! Doesn't help that my husband is one of the lucky ones that can eat whatever he wants and doesn't gain a single pound (weighs the exact same as when we meet 15 years ago).

yoshi91610

Well to be completely honest, food was really my "safe haven" I wasn't eating because I was hungry I was eating because I was bored, sad, scared, worried whatever emotion I was feeling I carried it. Then I realized that and became obsessed with losing weight, then nothing I did was fun because I was always obsessed with eating or not eating (it didn't help that the people around me were obsessed with it too) Then I got away from all of that and exercised and ate healthy for about a year.

Then I got married and comfortable, then pregnant. So now, although tracking my food and trying to stay in my calorie range is important, my goal is to not make food so important. I don't want to go to extremes and get back into that zone where I was exercising and eating good. I didn't over eat often and when I did I didn't punish myself. I think thats a safe place to be.

sorry I went over board here explaining things huh?

klewis81

Easy reasons: Stopped being on sports teams, really enjoyed food, really enjoyed drinking, didn't so much like exercising.

The psychological side of it is that when I was younger, my mom (who is tiny) would constantly monitor our food intake and give us hell about bad food choices. When I went away to college, a lot of eating poorly was because for the first time, I *could* do it! I would also overeat as kind of a backlash. I didn't want to try to be skinny because then she would win. This is only something that I have resolved internally in the last year or so. It has taken a long time and a lot of soul searching to realize that I make the food choices and the I have control over what goes into my body, nobody else.

AshDHart

Very active child and teen. Got married and put on a few pounds but nothing major. Had a hormone issue after the 2nd one and put on 90lbs in 4 months. Realized men didn't look so much at that weight and stayed at it using it a "fat shield". Got divorced and remarried. I guess someone was still looking. :bigsmile: Put on even more until I was 377 lbs and couldn't breath well. A 2nd bout with pneumonia landed me in the hospital and I left on oxygen. Still on it now. The doctor told me I had to lose the weight to get back off. Luckily, I have dealt with the emotional issues and have learned to deal with men without needing my "fat shield" anymore.

Working on getting back to my previously active life without needing oxygen tanks.

BrunetteRunner87

Stress from college and also being depressed a lot... Made me eat all the time. Then I got a job with lots of money so I ate and drank a lot! But now I'm more positive and stress from grad school still gets to me but now I recognize why I'm eating. And now I'm too broke to go out!

xSophia19

from the age of 12 i started getting bullied in high school, for different reasons! (i wasnt even fat at the time) people were always nasty to me, make really mean comments about my family, my mum is a single mother to 2 kids who both have different fathers, soo all the lads used to call my mum really harsh names and everything! I did nothing about this, i didnt go to the teachers because i was scared of what the bullies may do to me. So i just kept it between myself, my mum didnt even know!! i then started going home and slouching on the sofa all night infront of the tv, with lots of food, fizzy pop and not doing an excercise what so ever! this was a way for me to relax from the bullies in school.. 6 years down the line i had gained over 7 stone! I had gone from childrens clothes size 11-12years, to an adult size 18 UK!! the weight was slowly creeping on me in those years..

2011 came, i was free from high school, i finished a 2 year course in college. so i thought right, im going to put a stop to this!! i dont want to be a size 18 anymore! its uncomfotable and embarassing!!! soo i joined this website, as i found the app on my ipod, and ive just been watching what im eating, cutting my portions down and excercising everyday, and in 11 months ive lost 39lbs, and ive come down 2 dress sizes! im now a size 14 (UK)..

soo all those bullies out there that bullied me all through high schoool F.UCK YOU!!!! :bigsmile:

_Ben

Have you ever tried double stacks at wendys? Or Cheese Ritz Bitz Crackers? Or my fav, Red Baron Personal Pizzas? Some of those are major reasons why I was as large as I was

Yakisoba

I thought it was "normal" to be overweight since everyone on my mother's side was. o.o

yesiamaduck

I liked binge eating

In that I'd get stoned, watch films/tv series/ youtube clips and eat for hours straight... it was really unhealthy & a habit I had picked up after having an incredibly active job but maintained when I became a dude in an office. I think I gained roughly 100lbs in 2 years. Haven't done that for like a month though & nor do I miss it... my stomach is already a lot better for it I can trust you

wellbert

caloried drinks and convenience food mixed with a high stress job and stress eating.
No more stressful job, much easier to eat better now. Though I still make bad decisions when I'm pressed for time - at least I eat less of them.

capriciousmoon

I always thought it had to do with messing up my metabolism from going long periods of time without eating, then gaining when I did eat even though I didn't really overeat at all. I had someone call me a liar on that though...