Why are you fat???

x_biggirl

I am fat because I am an emotional eater, I moved to the UK in 2008 on my own. I missed all my friends back home and started eating here like I was still on a vacation. I then had my gallbladder removed, got into a relationship where I've become extremely comfortable. My Aunt who lived here who was pretty much like my Mum died August 2nd 2010 of lymph node cancer. I was so overcome with grief and still continued to use my food as a coping mechanism. My Oma died on June 5th and I flew back to Canada to say goodbye. As well I noticed now that I used to use food as rewards as well not only as comfort and have ballooned out to my highest weight of 207 pounds.

davidlbass

Could come up with lots of excuses but the simple fact is I got lazy.

firesoforion

I was about this weight during high school, and then I lost everything during college. Then I went abroad for my Master's and the first year (Glasgow) I was relatively good (not enough worse to overcompensate for the increased amount of walking I was doing), until the last month or so, when there were goodbye drinks, meals, eating out, junk food, you name it. I gained about 10 pounds (estimation). Not terrible, but then I came home for a month and loaded up on all the food I'd missed before. I'd say I gained another 5-ish there. Again, nothing too horrible. Then I went for my second year (Krakow), and again, managed to not gain too much through the first 6 or 7 months, with increased general activity pretty much making up for any increased caloric intake. Then I had my dissertation, and long story short, for a lot of reasons, it was really stressful. I was only supposed to have a month or so after classes (and most classes were on stuff I did not know anything about, so my focus was going to them) to finish my dissertation (most people get 3-4 months after classes, plus right before the dissertation was finals, which were stressful and I did the same stuff to a lesser extent during finals, plus afterwards, I knew I would have to make some decisions about my future.). So I sat in my dorm room for days on end (it was not terribly uncommon for me to not leave the dorm for 4 days at a time). I drank coffee to stay awake, but it just made me more stressed. At first I was eating relatively healthy, oatmeal most mornings, grilled cheese most lunches, lentils most nights, sometimes frozen vegetables (but I had no freezer so I couldn't do that on a day to day basis), but then I kept getting sick! I thought it was just the stress initially, but then my mom randomly sent me this article that said that undercooked legumes could give you food poisoning. I didn't have time to sit there and baby a pot of lentils every day, and I couldn't leave it because I shared a kitchen with half of the floor of the dorm so leaving it was not really an option either. I decided to just dump the lentils and go for pasta. Bad.choice. I'd had a "no pasta no pizza" policy (except as a rare treat) for my entire time abroad, but that went out the window. Oh, and ice cream. Oh, and cookies (you know, to go with the coffee and tea, which I'd started drinking hearing it could help alleviate stress. I didn't put sugar in the drinks, or milk, but did I mention I was stressed?). And also, you know, because I shared a dorm with half of the floor, I had to know when the fewest people were in there to go do my cooking, so even when I wasn't hungry, if it was a time that the kitchen was empty (bonus points if my roommate was away), I went and did my food anyway. But my month deadline passed. And my two month deadline passed. And then I got it in for review by my advisor and started to be able to do a little better, but then I just had to wait for another month (it wasn't officially in at this point, he had to approve it, and at this point, it was getting *seriously* close to my not even being able to graduate, and no word at all from him). I ultimately send him an email asking if he's done and stressing the urgency of my situation, and then I get an email back saying that I needed to double the length (in about two weeks), it wasn't acceptable, and it was unlikely that I could graduate on time. So I did the same for another two weeks. I made it. I was able to graduate on time (got the news literally on the last possible day). Victory, but in the meantime, I'd gained about 40 pounds. Yikes. I don't know if the eating helped me in any way to alleviate the stress, but you know what? I was practically paralyzed with stress. I did not care ...

Ladyloraella

I found takeaways. They were my downfall!!

rubygarcia86

Easy. I'm fat because of me. I lost 45 lbs back in 2009 and I got alot of attention and compliments and I felt good. Then I started to go out to bars more often (drinking beer, late night drunk eating). Went on dates(free food), then got into a relationship (got too comfortable, tried to eat as much as my boyfriend does, our only forms of dates were eating out). There. thats why I'm fat lol OH and I rather snuggle than go walking/jogging/anything remotely physical.

TheFitHooker

Well there are all sorts of reasons.

1. Because growing up I always ate what I wanted to eat knowing my metabolism was slow.

2. I never worked out ever.

3. I got pregnant with my son, gained a lot of weight, had him and kept eating what I wanted.

4. I had PPD during the after birth of my son, which caused a lot of emotional eating.

5. 6 years of being lazy and doing what I wanted to do in the moment.

It wasn't till I ended up pregnant with my daughter in 2010 that I found out I had Diabetes. Was placed on a strict diet, was on bed rest most of the pregnancy, lost 70lbs. Had her, diabetes went away, went back to eating and being lazy. Gained 25lbs back. I've lost 25lbs plus an extra 15lbs since September. Just today I reached pre-pregnancy with my son, but the difference is I'm in the best shape of my life.

Aviendha_RJ

I think mine is self esteem. And feeling abandonned after my mom died. I ate because of stress... because of needing comfort I couldn't get. It was emotional. Feeling like I needed someone to make me feel better... something... anything... hey! This tastes good!

karenwill2

Defense mechanism from extreme Daddy issues. Bad guys tend to not hide their ways to a fat girl. I lost almost all my weight once and then my husband broke my heart and I gained 100 lbs immediately and then another 50 or 60 for good measure over the last 7 yrs. Well, he knew he made a mistake and 150-160 lbs doesn't make him go away. He loves me for me. Now that I realize that.... I can once again focus on me. 31 lbs down and he is very proud and supportive of me.

cdthom

Emotional eating excuses excuses being lazy getting to a point were you say Im already fat if I want to eat I will eat it wont matter at this point

thenewjennie

I am fat because food is comfort. I eat when I am emotional. I eat when I am hungry. I eat when I am not hungry but bored or angry or sad. I eat the most when I am glued to a television. I could blame my career choice. I teach Kindergarten and I am always feeding small children snacks. The truth is ,however, that I did this to myself. Now, I want to feel better about me. This is my first step. I am so glad that I found this site.

rodeogirl4ever

I have always been a little heavy but in high school I played lots of sports and could control it. I got married right out of high school and my husband was diagnosed with cancer I put on 60 pounds just from stress. Now he is in remission and I want to get back down to a normal weight.

BADGIRLstl

I have always battld w/ weight. I come from a family that fried everything. Snacks were always arms length away...and I never exercised. I had a lot of reprogramming to do. I look back at my old pics and I look beautiful...but stil at he time I took the pictures I was still bigger than my friends and didn't like my physical aparance. So my fat story is that I had no discipline. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted it. Water was a no no and tasted nasty. I als felt that I "had" to finish my food, b/c u darebetter not waste money. I was taught this as a kid too. But I am a new being..I know better and do better...

KatSparkles1

When I'm upset or stressed I tend to crave carbs, particularly fast food. I tend to skip breakfast a lot too. My job is stressful to begin with and having 3 vending machines in the lunch is a recipe for disaster. As well at home, with my husband working opposite shifts than me, we rarely have dinners together. This often leads to me either going to a fast food restaurant, buying a prepackged meal at the store, or just not eating dinner in the evening at all. I'm now trying to make a soild effort to eat breakfast every day and eat healthy throughout the day.

altorock13

I grew up in a home that knew nothing and cared nothing for nutrition. You ate second and even third helpings if you wanted to until you were stuffed full. While my siblings have amazing metabolisms where you could eat whatever you wanted to and stay super thin, I did not get that gene. I also was involved in music and drama instead of sports in High School. By the time I went to college, I was already overweight. I gained the freshman 10-15, and then started to dance in college. I lost that weight, but wasn't able to lose the weight I'd gained slowly over the years growing up. I then went to live in Europe for several years and gained even more from what the people would feed us. I worked 3 jobs when I returned back to the U.S. and barely managed to make time to eat, so it was always fast food. Before I realized it, I weighed 235 lbs and was a size 22. Since then, I've lost 40 lbs and am now 195, but no where near where I want to be. I wish that I had known "then" what I had known now. I have so many bad eating habits that have been very hard to break and learning about health and nutrition has been a slow battle. However, I'm very confident that I can continue the downsizing trend

MeghanAM

I have pretty much always been fat, and I'm not 100% sure why. When I was a kid, I know that I didn't eat an unusual amount of calories, and my mom just thought I would grow out of being overweight as I got older.

I have PCOS and have since I was 12 or 13 years old, which has made it hard to lose weight and easy to gain it.

When I was in middle and high school, I was desperate to be thin and developed anorexia. I got down to 82 pounds, which is obviously unhealthy even at only 5' tall. I started eating again after a trip to the hospital and some scary "you're going to die" talks, and immediately shot back up in weight. I did some serious damage to my metabolism and also my ability to sense that I am hungry or full.

I hope that at some point (hopefully soon but honestly just "in my lifetime" would be good) I can manage to be healthy about food and weight.

Dara80

I loved this post! I like the idea of really looking at what got us here...So here's mine:

I have had 3 children. 2000, 2003, and 2009. I lost all but 20 pounds of my preggo weight from the first baby, didn't gain any with #2, and walked out of the hospital with my youngest having given birth to a 9.9 pound baby yet only losing 7 pounds! =-) In between there I ended up with Prince Charming, a career, a chore heavy home, and a full time college schedule. My major weight gain was actually in between baby #2 and baby #3. I made the mistake of using Depo Provera and the weight gain was unreal. I went from 180 lbs to 230 lbs within a few months. I literally would get on the scale every day and see that I had gained more weight. Even dieting didn't stop it. Finally ditched that in time to get preggo with my youngest son which resulted in blowing back up to 260 pounds and not losing it until after he was a year old.

I am now 217 pounds and aiming to get back to my athletic weight that I was before I had the children which is between 150 and 160. My downfall wasn't the amount of food I was eatting...it was what I was eatting. I have started avoiding all the calorie traps and now I'm moving forward with what I should be eatting. My wake up call was realizing that if I don't get myself together, my babies are only going to have a small amount of time with me on this earth. That bag of chips isn't worth it...at all.

Moonbyebye

binge eating. I was diagnosed with an eating disorder. I put on like 20 pounds during my binges. Thank you therapy and MFP

samanthasky

Parents got divorced, mom stopped cooking dinner, got stuck binge eating on snacks and pop tarts..

Salexan13

I was overweight growing up because I ate what was given to me. To this very day I can't go to my mothers house without eating junk because that's all that is in the house. I don't blame her or anyone because when you become an adult it is up to you to change or stay the same. I think my highest weight was over 180 but I Iost the weight a year ago. I'm 20 now and I weigh 143. I knew that if I didn't lose it now it would progressively get worse.

zlem

got pregnant and went from working a labour intensive job to doing office work during my pregnancy and using my pregnancy as an excuse to pig out on anything and everything. After having my baby I was in the "obese" category and had loads of stretchmarks and just felt disgusting and hopeless, no way I could get my body back to the way it was before so I just gave up. And ate even more getting fatter and fatter believing there is no way back.

Too much bread, cheese, booze, fruit juice, fizzy drinks and too much time sitting on my *kitten*!

joann

I love to eat..

TidoWyla

Besides being lazy and not eating right, I have a desk job which is great for your *kitten*....well....making it bigger maybe! I got pregnant, ate everything in sight, gained 60lbs....had the baby, lost 30lbs, took me a good year to realize I had to do SOMETHING. I joined myfitnesspal (I have a new log-on now) lost all my baby weight, plus some....got pregnant again, only gained 30 this time. Took me awhile to get back on myfitnesspal, lost all the weight, in July my husband became sick and I completely fell off the wagon, stopped running, stopped working out, stopped eating right..... and now I'm back..... Basically being lazy and not eating right...and babies, but I can't really blame them for eating crappy and being lazy!

daiskismom

My problem is I eat the wrong things. You would have thought fast food was my best friend. I truly enjoy the convenience of it (and the taste of course). I've had this bad relationship with fast food for a long time. When people used to say, you better stop eating that crap because it's going to catch up with you, I ignored them. Well needless to say, it caught up with me. Never would I blame my husband for my weight but I have been with him since we were teenagers. He has never complained about my weight gain. I guess you can say I was comfortable. He has always expressed his attraction to me so I never felt pressured to stay in shape for him. With me being tall, I remained pretty proportionate as I picked up weight. So I would say to myself, you still look o.k.......until it was out of control and I didn't recognize my own reflection in the mirror anymore.

along21291

I just stop controlling myself when I go home. I am working to make this a lifestyle change instead of this crappy yoyo dieting

CampbellHendry

This is pretty much my entire high school life:

1) didn't eat breakfast.
2) had a large cookie every day at morning break plus soda.
3) eat noodles + a chicken mayo roll for lunch with more soda.
4) come home and have scrambled eggs/roll/crisps
5) have a huge carb/fat dinner
6) tea and toast before bed

All of that coupled with no exercise meant I put on a lot of weight in high school.

When I left school I started working, drinking 3-4 times a week and eating junk food just as much. I had an active job though so I didn't put on much. Now in an office job and it's good to finally be on the way to having abs again

BlueObsidian

I'm an emotional/stress eater. Recently, I realized just how early I learned the behavior. When I was a little kid, if I was sad, my mom would let me have some ice cream. If I was frustrated or angry, my dad might suggest having McDonald's for dinner. To this day, when I feel those emotions, those are the things I reach for. It has become a cycle: I feel bad about myself, I eat something unhealthy, I feel worse about myself, I eat more, etc.

There are a couple specific circumstances that led me to be at my highest weight ever. About 3 years ago, I moved to a new state to attend school. I didn't know anyone and am really shy at first. I was so lonely that I was constantly eating. It's a bad sign when you're on a first name basis with the pizza guy before you really make friends in a new city!

Most recently (September), I quit smoking. I'm so proud of myself, but in the process I completely replaced smoking with ice cream. I was probably eating a pint a day. Two months later I looked up and realized I was fifteen pounds heavier. I actually lost almost 35 pounds in 2011 and was heading the wrong direction. That's how I ended up here.

Kaylee_law_123

I was happy with my weight until 4 years ago where a number of things happened, I finished University, started full time work (goodbye to being able to go to the gym in the afternoons), was in a very bad relationship where I comfort ate. My partner also wouldn't allow me to join a gym due to the cost, and the fact that I had to care for his child (not my child but we had full time care of him). My life turned into being all about other people and I lost the "me time" where I would previously have spent at the gym or out walking.
Once I left him I stopped gaining weight and have maintained the same weight since leaving (about 1.5 years ago), but now it's time to lose the weight (and all the emotional baggage associated with it!).
:-)

JoanneLynn

By putting everything else first and my health last.
1. Kids
2. Job
3. School

Then if I had anytime left in the day after cooking dinner (something quick and easy, usually process food).
I worked out. (last).

mortla

It became my coping mechanism at an early age. I grew up in a semi chaotic household where I wasn't allowed to show anger and shared emotions were not appreciated. I wasn't close with either parent and didn't have many friends when I was young, so I turned to food. Damn learned behavior!

a140

lazy - then how did you lose 15 lbs!
I think you are doing just great. I wish I could get to 15 lbs soon.