how did you get so big?

Ant_M76

Dominos Pizza addiction :ohwell:

Meghan0116

I started gaining a little bit in college, probably 15 lbs or so. Then I worked desk jobs after college, stopped playing sports, and continued consuming the same amount of calories as I had before. I also developed some weird bladder thing which turned out to actually be a kidney thing and my nephrologist has said that it could have led to the weight gain and difficulty getting the weight off. Also, I was a vegetarian and gained quite a bit during those 9 years. Add all that to a rocky relationship and BAM! 254 lbs. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

prettyfitchick

My weight gain started when I was about 17 working at Mcdoanlds I really loved the food proably ate 2 meals a day from there and I was also on birthcontrol help be get 188 pounds I began eating salads for lunch and dinner and silmfast for breakfast and the weight still wouldnt come off So i got off the birthconttol and got down to 150 then life happen to busy to eat right plus when 20 you are you dont think about later slowly began to creep back in the 160s Then after barely making the weight requirements for the navy I knew I need to make a change before basic know one wants to be the fat kid in Basic

quigonnjae

Started out in the automotive field. Working in a tire shop doing large truck / tractor service...Got all the exercise I needed and ate anything I wanted to .. Got injured on the job and started dabbling in PCs. Never went back to the automotive field and continued to eat the way I was. On top of that I started seeing my now wife ... THAT WOMAN CAN COOK!! Put sitting on my butt all day + eating REALLY good = 50+ lbs .. Add a car accident that left me wheel chair bound into the mx and you get to where I WAS 10 weeks ago..

krist3ng

it's awful, but if I don't check myself, I eat like a crazy person. Like, pizza AND chips AND a cupcake AND ice cream as one meal. Or like 4 bowls of cereal for breakfast.
I think my body reacts in such a way that if I restrict calories, my stomach adjusts and I don't get hungry as often, but if I constantly overindulge I then get hungry more quickly.
Also I have this weird aversion to hunger: weird in that I'll preemptively stuff myself to avoid being hungry.
Luckily I have free will and can control this awfulness. And also luckily I end up dieting every few months, which means I'm not as overweight as I easily could be. Not that yoyoing is good, but it's better than NEVER eating healthy.

Also, not to pull the metabolism card but I have the slowest metabolism ever. I can tell because it takes me like 2 and a half hours for medication to hit me.

jonbobfrog

I was bipolar but didn't know it . . . when *kitten* finally hit the fan and I was hospitalized, I left the hospital with a psychiatrist and a prescription for some meds. What I DIDN'T know was that SSRIs and similar anti-depressant/anti-psychotic/mood stabilizers can make you gain weight. And it took over a year to find a combination that kept me on an even keel versus rapid-cycling. I also went through bouts of serious depression during which I ate my feelings.

Hate to blame medication, but go read the side effects of psychotropic meds . . . it's true.

Vaanja

I was always a chubby kid...when I was born, I was 10lbs3oz. When I was growing up, my extremely emotionally-distant (and also quite overweight) parent only knew two ways to show affection - her amazing meals and shopping. When she wanted to make amends for a particularly stressful week, she either prepared one of her awesome dishes or took my sister and I out for a sumptuous lunch and then out for some good ol' retail therapy. Indulgence food = love.

When I got together with my now-husband, I lost 40 lbs the first year without even trying. Lots of walking every day (we couldn't afford a car), lots of 'herb-induced' raiding of the nearby farmer's market for the best fruits and veggies, lots and lots of awesome...togetherness exercises, heh.

In 2003, I was caught in a housefire where I took 3rd degree burns to 30% of my body - my arms and face took the worst of it. My husband stayed right by my side through all of it - the 5 weeks in the burn unit (2 of those in an induced coma), the months of weakness and recovery. He was awesome, and always loving...but internally I just couldn't accept that a sexy beast like him would stay happy with a scarred up little bullfrog like me. I never showed it (bravado has always been a strong-point), but my self esteem went to *kitten*.

So, I started making myself worthy the only way I knew how - food. I turned to the kitchen to get my esteem back. The way I saw myself, I might be *kitten*-ugly, but I was a kick-*kitten* wife and a helluva cook. Mornings meant super-indulgent migas, or made-from-scratch buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy, or trays of bacon and eggs and homemade hashbrowns, or kartoffelkuchen. Dinners were from-scratch chicken and dumplings, chicken-fried-steak and mashed potatoes with gravy...and on and on.

My days were spent totally escaping reality, I became a WoW addict for four years....every day was spent sitting on my *kitten*, stressing about raids and mindlessly snacking on whatever was available, topped with tons and tons of flavoured coffee-creamers.

After having a random epiphany in the beginning of September, I quit the game cold turkey and sought psychatric help. As it turns out, I'm not actually manic depressive or bi-polar (as I had been misdiagnosed since my teens). I've got attention deficit disorder - primarily inattentive. After starting my meds, food made me nauseous the first week so I started keeping a food journal just to make sure I was getting a decent base-minimum of food. Seeing a physical log of everything I put in my body made me want to start cleaning up my diet, and my current weight loss (about 28 lbs now) is really a side-effect of adopting a sense of accountability towards towards how I nourish and care for myself.

^ and Jonbobfrog is correct, weight gain is a well-known side effect of many antidepressants.

MJ7910

grad school, then prego... then breastfeeding... then i kept eating the same amount of calories i was when breastfeeding. i think a woman gains a little higher % body fat when pregnant and i hadn't worked it off. i didn't exercise during my pregnancy at all. i was at a stable weight in grad school but it was 10 lb heavier than i liked to be. then after being prego i got back down to that weight while breastfeeding. however, i kept eating horrible stuff when i was done breastfeeding. i would eat like 3 filled donuts for breakfast... 4 kit kats just at night because i wanted to... heavy peanut butter sandwiches, heavy egg salad sandwhiches, lots of regular sodas. on top of that, no exercise.
also i saw what i looked like and for a mintue i resolved myself to "well, this is just what i look like now"
but then in august of this year i said no more. i wanted to look good again. and here i am. 20 lb lighter.

Secret_Agent_007

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

I could draw you a picture to demonstrate exactly whats causing that.

Secret_Agent_007

I went from living a travel swim team life style and riding my bike EVERYWHERE to quit swimming, buy a car, chase girls and continue to eat whatever whenever. I got away with it for years when I was super active. Once I stopped, I blew up.

artemis222

I was never a skinny mini, but...

I developed early and was (now that I look back) mistakenly called fat. All because I developed hips and a chest. I started eating my pain then in grade school, but I was on enough sports teams and active enough it kept me pretty fit. However, I did start to notice I was gaining a little.

Middle school I became even more self conscious of my weight as most of the girls around me were still stick figures as they developed. Again, my activities mostly saved me. I was only a size 7, but still slowly gaining the weight.

High school I stopped my sports activities and only had my show choir dance and theatre shows to keep me active. No more gym to help. Doesn't help that my mother an I are both really good cook/bakers. Lots of weight gained here.

Cue college. I partied....HARD. Drank every weekend and sometimes during the week. Late nights. Pizza delivered to the dorms. You see where this is going. I turned from curvy to "round".

Married life! Nuff said.

Stuff happened, I lost about 50pds.

Now, I'm exercising and eating healthy. Lost 35pds with this site Yay!