Why did you get fat and what triggered the change?

julslea

Getting married and not caring anymore about how I looked.
My desire to change is to be healthier and to be able to be around for my 3 year old when she has kids of her own.

fiberartist219

My journey with weight revolves around health and medical history.

I gained weight due to some hormonal issues and inactivity due to some other health issues I was having. I was inspired to lose it when I found out that my mom and my grandma have diabetes.

Lady_Chadwick

I picked up the extra weight somewhere between kid 3 and kid 5. I also had a great metabolism, combined with constant nursing/pregnant. Made eating something I just tended to do.

And now the youngest is 1.5, I am not pregnant and I Would like that old body back, or at least close to it.

momtimesone

Got pregnant at 19 and thought "well I am pregnant so I am gonna gain weight anyways" I ate massive amounts of fast food. After the baby I went on birth control the side effect being I still craved the fast food like mad. Being told by someone I was in love with that they where not physically attracted to me even thought I never thought of myself as huge triggered me to start losing and now its not about him at all its about me and I feel great

Carlamere84

First I never lost the weight with my first child, however, I did lose the 30lbs from my second child. Also, I quit smoking and gained 48lbs. So total, I need to lose 78lbs to get back to where I was. I feel gross and disgusting, I don't like the way my body looks or feels. This is what triggered me to lose weight.

Macrocarpa

Why did I get fat? Simple. Food tastes awesome and exercise hurts*.

What triggered the change? I interpret this as 'what made you decide to stop being overweight - in the same week, getting a multi-thousand dollar root canal bill from a dentist (sugary drinks = bad teeth) AND a warning from my doctor that another 10 years and I'd start getting sick. .

* I know, I know, exercise hurts less once you're fit, but getting over the first hurdle is the hardest.

Reecebullet

I was quite thin when I was 12, but then we moved into a horrible, horrible area. Out of the entire neighborhood there was only 1 family who were nice, so we bonded with them. Whenever I use to go over there, they'd feed me, then I'd go home and eat again. After about a year or so, I'd put on quite a bit. We lived there for 5 years, which for about 4 of those the same thing happened.

I could've turned down the food, or started eating better, but I didn't, as I was young and just enjoying myself. After we moved out there, I just continued to eat badly. I use to drink a lot of caffeine too, drinking about 2 liters of different caffeine drinks a day.

Living in that area was horrible, was a very nasty place. Suppose I just carried it with me when we moved. Now though, I'm finally doing something about it. Simply motivated by wanting to feel better, and be happy with how I look.

theoddlittleduck

I got "chubby" (went from 150lbs to 170lbs) when I started to date my husband. He has a medical condition and requires more calories... He eats multiple dinners, lots of snacks, fast food, etc - so I started to do the same... 170lbs didn't bother me so much. I was comfortable in a size 12, I felt healthy still.

I gained an additional 15lbs when my FIL was ill. We ate fast food every single night for 6 months. Not healthy fast food, but big macs, buckets of fried chicken, etc. I then got pregnant the same month he passed away. I didn't gain anything too crazy with that pregnant (~35lbs) but have been struggling with my weight since.

What triggered the change? I saw 200lbs on the scale. I wasn't pregnant. I had no excuse. My size 14 pants were now tight. This was up 10lbs from my weigh in for insurance a few months prior.

luvinlaurakate

Hmm let's see... in 7th grade my grandpa was diagnosed with terminal cancel, and I gained 30 pounds. From then until I was 17, I weighed 170-175. I got pregnant at 17, put on over 30 pounds, and developed high blood pressure. I weighed 206 when I got married when my oldest was 4 months old. Over the years I lost some weight, and only gained 18 pounds with my second daughter, and after her got down to 180. Then I got pregnant again, but with twins, and gained alot of weight. My weight has went between 200-220 for the last couple years, and I struggled with some major post-partum depression, which definately hindered my weight loss as well, since I didn't care enough about myself to take care of myself.

What finally made me decide to get with it? Well, my husband came back from Afghanistan in January a much different man than he left as. After 9 years of marriage, there were moments where I really didn't think we would "make it". So one morning, after a horrible night of crying and trying to deal with his issues, I just realized that I couldn't take care of him, and that I needed to take care of myself instead. That I could be happy with or without him, and I knew what the first step to accomplishing that was. Things have gotten better since then... I think that maybe I was trying too hard with him, and he needed the space to work out his own stuff, and my deciding to be independent and focus on myself gave him the room to do that. But that hasn't changed my goal to be healthy again! There is no way I am stopping until I get to where I want to be!

i_love_vinegar

i went through a series of really bad events and began binge eating on sweets afterward...

What triggered the change was taking control of my life...got out of the unhappy relationship, someone else got sent to jail for a few years, I moved first cities and then countries, started scheduling my days better, saw a counselor etc.

Naturally, with this came my wanting to lose the weight (and health problems) I had gained in those few months...

Once I hit my original weight, I realized I wasn't as small as I thought I was, and decided to continue losing for aesthetic reasons >.<

I got fat eating around 5,000+ calories per day (not even exaggerating...3 white gummy jamba juices, a carton of haagen dazs, few king size candy bars, extra buttered popcorn, pasta, a few bowls of cereal, cheeseburger with fries, few slices of pizza, carton of cream-on-top whole milk, etc...what I ate daily )...that is how I got fat...at the age of 20/21. o-o

cofakid

i always thought i was fat and was told i was fat (now id kill to be that thin again) but i steadily put on the weight after school. i guess new lifestyle more time lots of takeaway and snaking and uni creates odd hours for meals with big snacks. procrastination eating to avoid assignments and stress. my last 10 kilos i gained from my stressful stressful job. a combination of uni and stressful work means no time to eat right or exercise. plus i like food, and junk food at that, and i hate exercise. or well i did im starting to enjoy it now. and a year or two of binge drinking and maccas hang over cures didnt help. plus i worked at maccas for 4 years so i ate it at least once a week when i was working there.

ive posted before about what triggered my change but it was a combination of feeling disgusted by my body and some health issues that came up due to my unhealthty life style

AnnaRocks79

My Reasons for getting fat...(Jeez i hate the word FAT)!!
1) My Mother is always at the back of my mind since my childhood "Eat everything on your plate"
2) I had two wonderful children within 3 years
3) My hubby eats what he wants and burns it quicker then i do
4) I started having bad eating habbits since leaving HS
5) Never really cared thinking "Ill do something tomorrow...and tomorrow turned into weeks...months..years"
6) Two weeks ago I have an ultrasound cause i had pain on my left side of my stomach on and off sharp pangs...found out that its fatty tissue around my Liver and I have high colesterol starting.

My reasons for wanting to loose the "FAT"
1) To be Healthy again
2) to have a bit of time for myself..to work on myself at the GYM
3) For my Kids...I want to experience and be there for every milestone yet to happen
4) For my Husband, so I can feel more comfortable in my own skin
5) Confident....right now I don't have any confidence in myself
6) Self-Esteem....I hate hiding my self in pictures...I'm a very emotional person....I'd like to change that!!
7) I want to be a stronger person, to look in the mirror and stand taller..
8) I want to be able to do things I can't right now...wear what I want, sit without a blanket on the couch, be able to be in front in pictures with the people I love...the list goes on
9) I just want what everyone wants to FEEL ALIVE!!

The good always out wins the bad!!

zombiesama

a combination of drinking/getting high/eating way to much/being lazy and that's about it.

looking at old pics of myself and knowing all my friends are in good shape but me.

RiseandGrind77

Why did I get fat?

Just enjoying food way to damn much, eating big meals really late. Also being in relationships where the girl I was with didn't mind that I was fat.

What triggered the change?

I was working in retail and a customer was pissed about something that wasn't in my control. As she was cussing me out she called me a fatass and I thought it was odd because I thought she was more out of shape than me. The next day I was walking back to work from lunch (huge meal from panda express) I looked at my reflection on a window from a store I was passing. I couldn't believe my gut was sticking out that much. It was reality slapping me in the face!!!

aquarianpixi

I've always been heavy. Always the "fat kid."

I decided it was time to change when I realized how much my weight and my self image was taking away from my life. I know if I kept on the same track I was going I would die young and alone.

woou

I never wanted any of the food my parents cooked. I only wanted fast food. Then college hit, got a job and could buy anything I wanted. Went on some yo-yo diets and maybe this is just another one. Time will tell.

What triggered the change this time was living with a classmate for a week. She is very smart and disciplined, qualities I aspire to. She also takes care of both her parents and her 2 kids. My mom is taking care of me. :frown: English is her second language, but she blows my grades in school out of the water, and I was born here with no language barrier. She wakes up and exercises every morning and eats her 3 meals a day. She works full-time and goes to school. I often don't see her relaxing until 11pm M-R. She relaxes after 5pm on Fridays and rest on Saturdays. She studies on Sundays. That saying, "be the change you want to see," has a lot of merit.

Carfoodel

3 kids in 3 years, pnuemonia that screwed up my lungs and seemed to leave me with half the energy I used to have, insane amount of things trying to cram into my life - at one time I worked 3 jobs when the boys were young and my husband didn't help with the housework so I had to run the house as well. even now I am a full time student, work weekends, do a nightclass, have high demands within the family due to people with depression, agoraphobia, asperger's etc and still have to run the house myself. I am the size I am as fast food and takeaways seemed a logical fast way of taking something off the list of things to do. I honestly thought that inbetween takeaways I was fairly healthy - but MFP has shown me that really wasn't the case lol. So yeah I ate too much of the wrong kind of food and didn't exercise enough.

What changed is that I realised that instead of killing myself slowly with food as a group activity, I had to work out what triggered the trips to the fridge and it may sound weird but when my house is shiny clean I don't feel guilty about going to the gym and the more I get to the gym the easier it is for me to eat healthy as I work my butt off and hate the thought of undoing the good of the sweat pouring off me and the scarlett face I have earned. I also realised that there is no point delaying this change to a healthy lifestyle for when my husband is ready to tackle our fast food (for lack of a better word) addiction. Also there is no point waiting for him to support me with the housework etc so I decided that the only way I feel good about the gym is by making that extra push to run the house inbetween work uni etc and supporting my lads. It does make me sad that it means we are growing apart as a couple, but I don't want our love of indulgence to be the thing we have in common.

What made me want to get to the gym? - I was daunted by climbing to the top of the building at uni and I had to pretend to nip to the loo half way up so that I could catch my breath so that I wasn't gasping for breath when the lecture started. - so ashamed and so annoyed that my lung capacity had dwindled again so much as it took me ages last time to build it up.

byoml2013

Boredom. Instead of getting up and and doing something productive, I'll open a packet of something and mindlessly finish it. By then you're ashamed and the notion of doing anything is too much hassle. I've moved countries recently and instead of facing things and taking steps forward to integrate into my new city, I'll sit about and eat. It's easier than getting out there and potentially facing something challenging. A few weeks ago, I got so sick of this cycle and joined a gym. Baby steps, but it gives me something rewarding to do and makes me feel like I'm doing something productive. With this, my eating habits have changed because instead of seeing two or three biscuits, I see 40 minutes on the cross trainer working them off.

wcsangel

I was a skinny child. I was a skinny teenager. I didn't pass 5 stone until I was 13, that's how tiny I was.

Then I went to university, and got mixed up with a bunch of people who I thought were my friends. I became depressed, and because I was living on the other side of the country from any one I loved, I turned to food to make me feel better. In my third year, I did make better friends, but I couldn't cut the old ones out of my life (they were on the same course, and had a lot of the same classes as me). However, by then, the habits were already set. I ate mostly junk food; chips, chocolate, crisps... When I graduated, I moved back home, but it didn't really change anything. I kept eating too much bad stuff and not enough of anything that was actually good for me.

My turning point was on a shopping trip with my best friend, just before my 22nd birthday (31/01/2011). I *begrudgingly* tried on a size 18 (UK) dress for her, and I couldn't zip it up. It was then that I took a good hard look in the mirror and saw my size 14/16 t-shirts barely stretching over my stomach, and the size 12 jeans that I could only *just* do up. I realised that if I didn't do something about it, it was just going to get worse and worse.

So I made a pact with her that if I could lose a stone by her birthday (13/08), we'd go shopping again. Well, on that date, I had dropped 19 lbs. I'm now 24.5 lbs down, and hoping to make it 26 by Christmas. I'm eating healthier, exercising more, and taking much better care of myself. I've also managed (in that time) to quit biting my nails, which is another habit I thought I was stuck with.

SeattleLove

I have been skinny all of my life, people even made fun of me during my childhood because I was too skinny.
But then I gained a lot of weight during my exchange year in the USA. Probably gained about 20 lbs. It didn't bother me while I was in the USA, because everybody was a little chubby where I lived (Especially the family I lived with had weight-problem) but as soon as I returned to germany i realized how much I really gained and how much my appareance has changed. Well, then I changed my diet, startetd working out and lost all of the fat and even more