why am I fat?

summalovaable

Now don't confuse this question with "how come I'm fat." I know how come: I over ate, and didn't move around enough growing up. But do you ever ask yourself why? What was it that caused you to overeat? To delve into a world of gluttony. I always wonder if it was a chain reaction. My family loved to cook together, we were happy when we all spent time making delicious food and EATING delicious food. At about 10 or so I was diagnosed with a thyroid problem. I had gained a fairly substantial amount of weight. By my early teens (not really caring about my weight yet), I had a chain reaction of tragic events in my life. I wanted to be happy more then anything again, and I turned to the one thing that made me happy: food. I began to eat because I was sad, and when I gained weight I also gained an "I don't care how fat I am" attitude. I've never been more than 30 lbs overweight (at my largest), but my relationship with food has never been healthy. I'm either eating too much of it or not eating enough of it. I'm an emotional eater whose afraid of food, who would have guessed it. I don't know how to find the balance between the two. And right now thats my focus more than anything. Weight loss I can do, moderation I can not.

So that's my story, I'm an emotional over-eater with an overly emotional personality.
So I know why I'm fat, now why are you fat? Would love to hear some responses :flowerforyou:

KaleidoscopeEyes1056

food is yummy and working out isn't...

groomchick

I too am searching for balance. Been doing this to myself all my life....am learning how not to fight with it!

faw1001

One of my reasons is that I really like to have stuff to look forward to. It makes me happy. When there is nothing else, I look forward to eating naughty food (a lot). It is only when looking forward to being thinner outweighs the high I get from from looking forward to eating bad food, that I can stick to a diet. :devil:

MercenaryNoetic26

How do you lose weight without moderation? I'm just curious. I've never been in your boat and can't relate, but you got me with that one line.

Asil_Le

I am also an emotional eater. I eat out of boredom and habit. Also because food is the only thing in my life that hasn't let me down... (so I thought). Turns out, it's been my worst enemy. I was living to eat, not eating to live.

Thanks for sharing.

CharlieLopez2005

Because my body needed extra space to store my additional awesomeness.

chattymisty

hi i am misty i know how u feel i emotionally over eat during holidays i miss my mom so i am trying but its not easy hang in there

dia77

where do I start:? I am an emotional eater and the last 8 years were tough. Four years ago , I was diagnosted with a thyroid disfunction and I went up and down 20-30 pounds every six months. I got jeans between size 5-6 to 10-12. Now I am at size 10 and going down.

summalovaable

How do you lose weight without moderation? I'm just curious. I've never been in your boat and can't relate, but you got me with that one line.

I would eat virtually nothing and work out extensively. Or binge eat and purge. I.e no middle ground (which would be my definition of moderation)

Jill_newimprovedversion

Ok, I will answer this because it's something I've recently been able to share *some*....

I turned to food for comfort- but it turned into gluttony- and I hid behind the gluttony to ward off unwanted attention
which stems from SEVERAL sexually abusive issues in my life, starting as a child and later my best friend's husband
making unwanted advances to me-

all of which I believed somehow *I* had given *signals* that caused these things to happen....
after all, " what do you expect? that's the price you pay when you're attractive." THAT was shoved down my throat my whole life growing up.

Being "repulsive" became my new level of safety....then it threatened my very health...
Until March of this year, when I FINALLY decided I wasn't going to literally die over the creeps in this world.

Debbe2

Similar to you in that every significant memory revolves around an experience with food. Food, eating together and all celebrations are all rolled in to one for me. I needed to start to separate these things from each other and begin to set up different experiences and memories for traditions and celebrations. Not always well received by my family and friends but better for me. I have made a subtle change placing my experiences with people above my experiences with food situations. Much more balance in my life in my opinion. Hope to keep on keeping on!

summalovaable

Because my body needed extra space to store my additional awesomeness.

The best

krypt5

Why? Law of thermodynamics.

ShrinkingChelle

My story is slightly longer, growing up I was fat, we didnt have a lot of money so we didnt eat really healthy. We never played sports and my parents watched a lot of tv so guess what so did I. About 5 years ago I lost a lot of weight because I got sick, didnt really expect to keep it all off, but for awhile I did because I was eating good portions of healthy foods. Then life took another turn, I ended up working graveyards, as a baker. Due to the horrible hours and other commitments in my life I never had proper sleep so I eat more and it wasnt good foods it was quick pick up and junk. And my friends always invited me to eat out, and at most restaurants I over eat because I was raised to clean my plate. I found myself now weighting more then I ever had before so I knew it was time for a change. I found MFP and those red number that it gives me when I over eat are like red marks to me on a test and i just cant stand them so i find its holding me more accountable. The people on this site have also helped me get more into fitness, Yay! So thats the whole rambled story.

Starla_

It was easier to be lazy, everyone else was, no one pushed me, I didnt push myself. I sunk back into myself and my depression and anxiety and as a result I piled on the kilos and ended up being diagnosed with pcos which i used as an excuse for a sluggish metabolism. I was full of excuses actually.

Now I have motivation and determination and I honestly can't believe I didnt do this sooner. If I could go back and kick myself in the *kitten* I would.

thintyanhuey

mumy cook good food and i eat too much sweet stuff!!my fault!

kimibunny

Because there aren't any foods I won't eat. haha x)

Asil_Le

I FINALLY decided I wasn't going to literally die over the creeps in this world.

Very sad, but abuse can lead to some very dysfunctional ideas. I love your last sentence. Good for you!

Minnesnowtagurl

...Because overeating, buying bigger clothes and sitting around with feeling sorry for myself and not committing to a life style change somehow felt like an easier path.

tidmutt

I have all sorts of theories as to why I was overweight as a child (and struggled ever since). They are all fairly unproven but there is some solid science behind them.

- I wasn't breastfed (not my mom's fault) which impacted my initial Leptin levels (since Leptin is provided in the colostrum)

- I gained weight when I had my tonsils removed as a child. This is actually a common pattern and has been studied, theories range from "the mother overfed the child when they returned from hospital" which I think is ludicrous. The most viable theory I've heard to explain this is removing the tonsils results in better sleep resulting in less hyperactivity meaning the child burns less calories and gains weight.

- I wasn't born naturally. This has been studied as well although I confess I'm not familiar with the details. I have seen claims that a baby inherits their gut bacteria from the mother as they pass through the birth canal (nasty - lol) so perhaps this has an impact. Just speculation on my part.

Ultimately as I grew to adulthood I made bad choices, I ate too much and didn't manage to lose the weight and keep it off. I'm not avoiding personal responsibility here but I was fat from quite a young age possibly for the reasons above which meant the odds were stacked against me later on. I can't help but feel that there was an underlying cause behind my tendency to gain weight easily as a child other than just being a glutton. I've never used being overweight as an excuse to not strive for the very best but I will say that it's impacted every area of my life and it's a curse I would not wish on anyone. I'm a new dad, my daughter is 4 months old and I know I will do everything I can to make sure she avoids a similar fate.

dimpleschick

I'm not fat, but I have gained weight due to having thyroid disease and the general effects of aging. Metabolism screeches to a halt around age 50, compounded by having a sluggish thyroid. So I want to lose the extra pounds so stay healthy and look good in my clothes.

Rayman79

In my case:

Genetics (root cause) and a general lack of knowledge about how to change - leads to reluctant acceptance of current unhealthy self and perhaps most importantly a complete lack of understanding of an alternate (fit/healthy) existence.

Numerous studies tell us that change and the unknown are inherantly fear inducing for the vast majority of human kind. Therefore the option of remaining in my unhealthy yet familiar state was subconsciously more comfortable than commiting to a change.

In my opinion it is often only when the current reality suddenly becomes uncomfortable (eg major health scare) that the idea of change becomes a comparitively less scary proposition.

My pearl of wisdom for you all for today :bigsmile: