Why You Became so BIG?

apple2107

Hmm ... I'm used to be a little overweight, but during 2006 summer, I was able to lose those extra weights, 11 lbs if I remember correctly. I was good until summer 2009, when we were preparing to take college entrance exam. Some in America wouldn't know about this, but in our country, students only have one chance per year to take a nation-wide exam to study in the college we chose, failing this would be waiting a whole another year for another chance to get to college, and quite frankly, not getting into college in Viet Nam meaning you are an utter failure

I gained quite a lot of weight during those summers preparing the exam, anyway. I attempted plenty of times afterward to lose weights, but then I just gave up and my weight keeps increasing, until last November when I finally decide to lose weight once and for all

Kenzietea2

a combination of depression, injury, and surgery.

I've never been skinny, but I *loved* my body in high school. Curvy and Athletic.
I was in a special program for USMA, but then injured myself. I was medically DQ'd, went through a tumultuous breakup, became depressed, and then basically lived a sedentary lifestyle after my surgery (but never changed my eating habits). So I gained weight without even realizing it until I saw some pictures and got my butt in gear.

leaso75581

very inspirational. i believe we all have some sort of emotional attachment to food, one way or another. i am now starting to realize that i do as well...it's nice to know that i'm not alone, and that you are overcoming your obstacles one day at a time. i will keep your family in prayer.

Skeebee

When I was young, I was very skinny. I began to hang out with a friend (which ended up being an 11 year friendship) whose family believed that having "3 hotdogs for dinner was ok..." and had junk food/snacks/candy....every bad but oh-so-yummy food in exceess. The entire family was overweight. Their 3 year old son gained 40lbs in a year.....NOT normal. He went from cute/skinny to an obese child....it was quite bad.

But, being spoiled I was always over there eating thinking nothing of it. When my dad was laid off, it was even moreso a good thing because I was costing less food for my family. If i did eat at home, it was mac n cheese or spagetti sauce....sometimes, we would buy the 10 cent burgers from mcdonalds and freeze them so that was often dinner. This went on through high school up until my graduation.

By then, I was considered morbidly obese. I managed to lose 20lbs my senior year. My friendship had ended with the family and I went my separate ways. A bad relationship for 3 1/2 years ended up packing on more weight for me. After we broke up, I realized I needed to take care of myself and deserved better. Lost 40lbs....a few years later with school...gained back 50. :-(

Well, years have passed and hormones have changed. the same things I did before don't get the weight off, I have severe allergies now, and have gone for metabolic testing. I'm down almost 20lbs now and working to get that 50lbs back off. Right now, I'm about 80lbs overweight. So, if I lose all my weight, it will be 100lbs lost!!! Working on the mini goals. :-)

rudzud

Was always in decent enough shape throughout college, but upon graduation I worked for a year as head chef at a rather nice italian restaurant. The very long hours combined with the fact that I don't smoke led me to eat alot throughout the day. Then when I left that job and got a gig with the state I stared to make good money. With that came the luxory of eatting or drinking basically whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. I ate really good for almost 3 years and got even more into craft beer. Combine the good food with a quest to review as many different beers I could led to the weight gain. The constantly fluxuating work schedule and 60+ hour work weeks didnt help much either.

Now its time to get back into the shape I was in my college days while still doing what I enjoy.

BSummers321

Depression, I was quite thin as a child and wasn't really a foodie, but I started getting bullied and got depressed and well...ate and ate till I felt better. I feel like a doubled in size in the space of a few years, the worst I felt the more I ate and boy did it help. Chocolate was my poison, I remember on bad days I would buy multi-packs of crisps/chips take them to by room and just chomp down. I didn't really care about myself at that point, let alone my health, that was quite a few years ago! Now before I started MFP, I thought I was eating healthy (because eating less somehow = eating unhealthy in my mind) and found that I was eating far below 1200 (700 calories most nights) and have been doing that for a long time. It's strange though, now if I'm having a "bad day" I lose my appetite all together and have to force myself to eat. I'm glad MFP is here to encourage me, I've been doing well so far, I haven't missed a day so far

GinaJDarling

It took me a long time to figure out why I got so big... I had the perfect high school expirence. Thank god nothing tragic has happened to me. I had everything but a scale in my life. I never knew how big I was. Now that I have a scale in my life the last couple a months. I'm in check!

EvaiTryst

I was a chunky kid but mildly active. Weigh 120 pounds when I got out of high school. When I met my husband I was up to 140... two years after high school. My husband and I drank A LOT! Ate fast food... didn't do anything else besides that. The weight packed on. When I had my son almost three years ago... I didn't gain much weight during pregnancy but toward the end... was on bed rest because my blood pressure spiked. After an emergency c-section and the doctors very nearly losing me and my son... It's unreal when I see the pictures of myself. Somewhere between prediabetes and my own personal realization it came to me... I don't want to be this way... I have a fatty liver... I topped out at 205 pounds... What was I doing?
I can't blame my parents. They're both slightly overweight but not morbidly obese... We were active as kids. I tried to blame my husband but when it came down to it... I was the one accountable. Beer and fast food... it'll kill ya.

bookdame

Lexi,

Your story is so inspiring. I didn't want to post because I am not "big" but I do have a food addiction. Food has been a comfort to me (love) and my obsession with my looks (hate) have run my life. I run away from my horrid self image by eating to take my mind off of it--- to knock myself out of my own thoughts.

I am battling this every day and although I haven't even lost 1 pound, i am inspired by your story to try to eat healthy, have a healthy relationship with food and exercise. I have also gone the opposite way: obsessing on eating very little and exercising myself down to skin and bones... that is a worse feeling than being overweight.

I am so inspired by everyone who's battled food addiction who is actively changing their lives. It gives me alot of strength to not hate what I have been unable to control for so long.

kwest_4_fitness

I was always thin as a child and by today's standards, I was a healthy teenager. However, going to high school with girls who were 5 ft tall and weight 100 lbs with rocks in their pockets was hell on a 5'7" 140 lb girl with a C-cup. Needless to say, I felt like an overweight Amazon compared to those girls. After high school, never being all that active any way, I got pregnant, got lazy, and there you have it. FAT, FAT, FAT. Now the child is grown and the nest is empty. Mama can work on herself and become better than I ever was!

helenbeee

Got messed up eating habits as a child also.
I came from a big family and had 3 brothers who were always hungry and you had to wolf down your food otherwise they would take it off your plate and eat it! Not maliciously just because they had stomachs like bottomless pits.
So I got territorial and anxious about meal times and panicky that I would miss out and got into the habit of stuffing myself beyond what I needed. In order not too miss out. It has taken along time to realise the damage one does to ones body by continual overeating its not just the outside but our organs that we force to work at maximum capacity all the time for years.
I refuse to abuse my body anymore. I love it with all its imperfections because Ive found that if i look after it it provides me with the means to live a full happy and meaningful life which is what we all want at the heart of it.

Just remember it doesnt have to chore to exercise or eat well there is wonderful tasting food out there that is nutricious and tastes divine. I hope you discover this as you reset your palette discovering the food you didnt have as a child. Get excited there is an amazing journey of discovery ahead of you.

MamaWannaRun

Mt. Dew and complete lack of willpower! that is all. no excuses here!

leaso75581

What caused me to be big...

My family is small to medium sized- and it seems as if I was always big. I'm full figured (big chest etc..). I remember being around 150 in 5th or 6th grade. Later, after a traumatic adolescence ( severe PTSD) I was put on various anti-depressants (which caused me to gain weight). In my late teens I was around 190 lbs. I had my son when I was 21, and after surviving a newborn and severe depression, I was only eating honey bunches and oats and lost 20 lbs. (not a recommended diet). Then I took a job where these women knew how to EAT and EAT and EAT. I peaked at 232 lbs. I'm not blaming the women, it was my weak willpower. Afterwards, went to college, met my current fiance and went down to 218. Had 2 more children in less than 3 years and fluctuated between 218 and 190. Finally, went to an OB-GYN appointment in January of 2010 and got on the scale-was 211 after weighing in, a year ago at 191. I was disgusted and devastated. Signed up for WW and lost roughly 30 lbs. Now my goal is to get back down to the long lost 150. I truly believe that I am my own worst enemy when it comes to this weight loss journey. It's not that I don't want it, or that I'm not motivated. I'm naturally hyper, so I exercise, just to get that "high". I eat right, and can even fight the cravings. My biggest issue is consistency. When I go off the wagon, I LEAP OFF!! That's one of the reasons why I stopped going to WW. I felt like I was wasting money, for every week I lost-I gained the next two weeks. To only lose 30 lbs in a year, is not good with the money I was kicking out, yet I don't blame the program, it's excellent. I blame myself. The only good thing I can say, is that I refuse to give up. So even though I may mess up, I always come back, but it does get frustrating. This habit of inconsistency needs to be broken.

hadlam

Isn't it funny how your story is based on your family and how they encouraged you to eat lots of food which made your story.

My family (I love) but were defineatly a helping hand in my weight problems but at the complete other end of the scale, here goes:

Growing up my parent and brother were super healthy. My parents ran marathons, ate healthy it was a HUGE treat to have take aways or even a packet of biscuits or fizzy drink in the house.

Therefore as soon as I got my hands on money (my first job at 14) I started to eat all the foods I'd never had before (or hardly ever) takeaways, big bags of chips, lollies, pies, cakes.

To make it worse I had always prided myself on being different from my family I was a social party animal who as I got older smoked, drank and did drugs (nothing hard just weed, which resulted in munchies) they were introverted happy to sit at home in their own company.

Finally it all came to a halt after my 21st and years of drinking and partying which resulted in a deep dark depression, OCD and anxiety took hold and I out of habit turned to food to make me feel better.

Luckily I found my husband who supported me with my various problems but who also had no problems with me being fat.

Finally last year (just before my 28th birthday) when the OCD got to a point where I couldnt do my job anymore and was inhibiting my everyday life I admitted to my doctor everything.

He arranged for me to have therapy, following that I learnt to love myself again (or maybe for the first time) and now today I'm happier than ive ever been. I still have my moments now and again when I just want to sit in bed and eat. But i'm getting there. I know my triggers and how to prevent it happening again.

I'm a long way from my goal weight but i'll get there. For now it feels wonderful to be truly happy.

Thank you for sharing your story so I could share mine

Helen

JenCM

Well, growing up I got told I was fat. However, looking back I see that I wasn't. I WAS bigger in height and such than other kids, and I started puberty early and developed early, but I remember being told I was "fat" when I was the height I am now (5'3) and 135 lbs, and at the time I'd played soccer and rode horses and was fairly muscular (and ya know, I guess in 7th grade when you're that tall and a C cup, you do look "fat" to all the 80 lb girls! lol). Around that time my parents marriage fell apart (I was 12-13..yes, I developed THAT early...lol) and we spent a lot of time at my mothers work for a while where we went from eating healthier meals at night, to eating out of vending machines and living on soda. I gained a some weight at that time, just from the bad eating and sudden change in activity (going from lots of activity, to nothing). Then the divorce was over, I was with my dad, my brother with my mother and things weren't great at school or anything and I started eating when I came home from school. To deal with boredom and being upset. Somehow in my mind, I was being called fat so I MUST be fat, so why not go home and eat like a fat person? That really started me being an emotional eater and it just went on and on and became a cycle for me for years afterwards. I'd lose weight, something would happen and I'd gain it all back because I'd comfort myself with food. I didn't like my Dad seeing me upset because our lives at times were hard enough...so I'd just eat by myself, hidden away. My Dad was so worried about me...I hate what I did to him with all this in those days. I finally got fed up with it and scared, frankly, when I turned 21 and was 312 lbs. I started losing weight...working out, etc. I got down around 270-ish, met my now, husband and things were good until my Dad was diagnosed out of nowhere with Cancer. Hubby and I moved our wedding up, got married...I started eating worse because I was so terrified about things with my Dad and put on probably 15-20 lbs. Then he passed away 10 months after we got married, after I'd spent over 4 months taking care of him. I really can't hardly put into words what that did to me. My Dad was my best friend and I flipped out, to put it mildly. I came home and I got beyond depressed. I thought a lot about killing myself, and just basically started doing it with food. I missed my Dad so much I felt like I was dying from the inside out, so I smothered the feelings temporarily by covering them with cookies and a large pizza I could eat by myself and anything else I could. It took me two years to get out of that place and start to try to heal. What woke me up in a way was weighing myself after I hadn't in quite some time, and seeing I was 368 lbs. And all I could think is how my dad would feel about me...he was so worried for my health when I was 70 lbs LIGHTER, I knew it would break his heart to see I'd done this to myself. All he'd asked me before he died was to promise I'd get myself healthy, and I promised I would. I'd lost 2 years of time making myself worse. So I started trying to change. I'm currently around 250 (have had a horrible several months where I've gained about 15-20 lbs) and obviously, still struggle with my issues, but I'm still trying and just want to eventually be healthier and the person my Dad knew I could be.

TruckerChick

I was a skinny kid with fat parents and both my grandmothers were overweight. My mom made sure that her family was fed right. We ate healthy foods. She always made sure we had breakfast ... usually oatmeal, or cheerios .... bacon and eggs were a special treat on a Sunday about once every other month. Same thing with pancakes. Oh those were especially special! Lunch was usually a sandwich with water to drink. In the summer time, she might give us a Popsicle after lunch because it was hot. A special treat for lunch might be speghetti-o's, But because she only had enough for one can, my brother and I would share it. Sometimes she might grill a cheese sandwich and make some tomato soup for us. That was a fun lunch. Dinner was always a meat (or protein), which was either steak, chicken or pork... she mixed them up nicely so we weren't always eating the same thing .... a green vegetable and a yellow vegetable or a starch, like mashed potatoes or noodles or rice. The only time we were allowed seconds were if there was enough food left over after my father was done eating. There usually wasn't. Later, when I became a teenager, and my dad was making better money, we would eat out once a week... usually a call in place that was, but wasn't, fast food. Either pizza, or hamburgers, or chinese food, or pastrami sandwiches. This was always a Friday, or payday. These became special days because my mother didn't have to cook and she loved being able to take a day off. (In case you haven't figured it out yet, my mom was a stay-at-home mom.)

I was an active kid. I rode my bike or my skates or went to the park all the time. My brother and I were not allowed to just "sit around" on the weekends and especially not during the summer. We would drive my mom crazy if we did and she would literally throw us out of the house. So we did things. When I was in 6th grade, I was weighed and deemed "overweight" and was sent to a "special" P.E. class were I was weighed and given special exercises to do, three days a week. At the end of the 6th grade, I remember my teacher, Mr. Harvey, asking me why I was still gaining weight. I told him I didn't know. Because I didn't. I wasn't allowed to eat chips and cookies and candies. These were special treats that we got for special occasions. I know I gained about 10 pounds over the whole year and I was bigger than all my classmates. When I graduated 6th grade, I weighed in at 117 pounds. I was about 5'2" and 12 years old. The summer was no different than any other. I played at the park most days. My brother and I would walk the 1/2 mile to the park and then run around the playground, playing chase or climbing up the slide or hiking the hill at the back of the park that led to the freeway and watch the cars whiz by us, or run around the river bed (where we weren't supposed to go) climbing up and down the concrete hills, chasing each other. Or we would ride out bikes to our friends' houses and play over there. Or we would skate up and own the street for a couple of hours. We did not lay around the house all summer. When I began 7th grade, because I had been in that "special" P.E. class, I was called out of my homeroom class to the nurses office where I was weighed to see if I had lost any weight over the summer. I weighed 125 pounds. I had gained 8 pounds. During that year, I gained 2" and at least another 8 to 10 pounds.

When I was about 14 years old, my father decided he was going to join the jogging craze that was sweeping the nation (this would be back in the early '80s) and I decided I would join him. Over the course of a year, we jogged three or four times a week, in the evening. When we began, I could barely walk/jog around the track twice before it was time to go home. By the time we quit running, he and I were running 3 to 4 miles a day, 3 or 4 days a week. Then he was in an accident that took out his knee and his running days were over. I ran to spend time with my dad. Since he couldn't anymore, I quit too. But when we began running, I weighed about 130 pounds. When we finished running, I weighed about 160 pounds. How does a person gain weight when they are physically active and eating properly?? We hadn't begun eating out on Friday nights yet. Needless to say, when we did begin eating out every Friday night, I was not as active as I had been. I was now a teenager who had a lot of homework and read a lot books. I was overweight, so I didn't go out for any sports teams. The only exercise I got every day was at P.E., and walking 1 mile to and from school 5 days a week (for a total of 2 miles each day). Back then, we had P.E. every single day for nearly an hour. And for the entire school year! By the time I graduated high school, I weighed 175 pounds, was 5'7" and was fairly active. Not yet sedentary.

Then I moved with my parents out of the city. We moved, literally, to the middle of nowhere. There was nothing to do, nowhere to go, no friends to visit. I sat at home, eating and watching TV. For the first time in my life, I watched TV all day! I had never been allowed to that before! I went from 175 to 250 pounds in less than 6 months. I've been there ever since.

Now, can anyone reading this explain to me how a person stays active and continues to gain weight so much so that she is overweight and called fat her whole life???

I finally decided that I was meant to be fat. God made me this way for a reason, and I relished my fat for a long time. But I have always been what you call a "healthy" fat. I've always stayed mostly active, often with short periods of laziness. Yes, when I left my parent's home and was no longer told what I could and could not eat, I went overboard. I would eat whole bags of chips or whole quarts of ice cream all by myself because there was no one to tell me I couldn't. But I've always walked and played sports and danced and other active things. I am 45 years old, still under 300 pounds (tho not by much, granted), with normal blood pressure and normal blood sugars... and believe me, those two things are watched closely because of my obese family. Every adult on both sides of the family have been obese for as long as I can remember, with few exceptions. My mother's father and his relatives were all thin. I have 1 cousin who is not overweight, but I'm told she doesn't eat because she doesn't want to look like her parents, both of whom are obese. I would say obesity runs in my family... but no one runs in my family... we all waddle!! LOL

mes1119

Thank you so much for your story!

People like you are the reason why I want to make my career out of helping overweight children and educated parents. I believe that the majority of overweight/obese adults stems from habits that were learned in childhood. If parents were fully educated on healthy meals and put their children into athletic sports and activities we would have less overweight/obese children in this world, and in turn, less overweight/obese adults in this world.

Children cannot help that they were not taught the correct way to eat and it is up to society to help these helpless individuals!

Soapstone

Warning...this is going to be long :blushing:

This is a HARD question to answer for me (this is my 2nd post here--I just started), because I have two reasons. My first reason is perfectly acceptable, understandable, reasonable and what I clung on to until last month (when I got a "wake-up" call by seeing the word OBESE on my doctors report). My reason...I felt perfectly justified in being "so big" because I was a SAHM , with a bunch of kids and my husband would never complain about my weight and I just had told myself I'm so busy, I don't have time to cook and chose good foods, because I'm taking care of all these little children all day long and had excuses that I don't like to cook, so let's just eat out or eat prepackaged foods for convenience sake...because I'm so busy being a homemaker and mom.

I felt so sorry for myself that I was missing out on so many things in life by being a SAHM, that I would "treat" myself "good" and eat any and everything I want (sweets, goodies, junk) and since my husband doesn't complain, it must be okay.

I'd zone out on the computer and any and everything to keep me busy on the off-times from my "thankless never ending job' of being a sahm. I grew from a size 4 to a size 20 in about 15 years. Then i REALLY started feeling sorry for myself and just became a couch potato and just grew and grew.

Now to the other "REAL" reason I became so BIG...


A lack of LOVE! Love for God, for myself, for my family for my friends...just loveless--again A CHOICE--I chose to accuse, excuse and do everything but LOVE!!!! Sounds simple doesn't it, because it is. In this short time period I hve completely given up so many things, things I chose to believe I didn't have a choice in. I've been living and believing a lie about Love and Life and the "spell" has been broken FOREVER! I know it with ALL that is in me. I'm seeing changing daily, right before my eyes and it's Awesome and Powerful and GOOD!!!

Instead of being grateful to have a wonderful husband and beautiful family--I grumbled and complained and blamed everyone but myself

Instead of taking the love and time to care for myself (and my family) I CHOSE to become sedentary (a.k.a. in my case LAZY nd just plain slothful ) .

Instead of making healthy choices of meals, I chose the so-called "easy" way of restaurants, junk foods and convenient and quick (but fattening and unhealthy) meals--not just for me, but for my family too (

Instead of surrounding myself with positive things, I Chose to listen to depressing news story, negativity in general, taking about others so as to not put the focus on myself--just plain ole laziness, foolishness, excuses, and more excuses.

Long story short, for me, my reasons for becoming so "BIG" is:

#1 being SELFISH

2.) Being Ungrateful/Unthankful for the truly blessed life I have
3.) Being slothful and lazy
4.) BEING GREEDY/gluttonous
5.) Choosing and "petting" excuses and having pity-parties instead of getting off my BIG BUTT and seeing the truth and instead of blaming my "woes" on everyone but me, choosing to do what it takes to be a good wife, good mom and good friend.

When I saw that diagnosis of OBESE from my Doctor's Report (I went to the doctor, because I started getting these hideous rashes, that looked as gross as I felt--and of course, the doctor(s) didn't have a reason--but I KNEW...it was my:

1.) Bad/poor Attitude about others even more than myself--but myself too
2.) Bad/poor Food Choices
3.) Bad/poor lifestyle choices

I started a whole NEW lifestyle last month and I've lost 12 pounds, but more important I've lost:

1.) my BAD attitude
2.) my attraction to gossip, negativity watching, listening, reading negative crap
3.) my desire to eat poor (I actually LOVE organic fruits, veggies and foods)
4.) my despising my fabulous postion of being a SAHM wife and mom
5.) my dread of exercise ( I actually LOVE exercise now)

I really have a NEW ATTITUDE about not just my life, but life in general and I'm on my way--I haven't arrived (where I'm headed) but I've permanently LEFT where I was and I AINT looking back!!

SAHM mom is indeed a fabulous position! I was a single mother for a decade, married the man of my dreams a couple of years ago, and have taken a hiatus from work; actually I start back part time tomorrow. but I had 8 glorious months at home and I was so grateful for it after so many years of never feeling like I had a moment to take a deep breath!
It's such a key thing to realize that so many things in life (including weight/health/exercise, or lack of) is all about ATTITUDE! You have figured that out-the key to success right there!

atjays

Mine is pretty simple. Eating terrible food in big portions. I worked at a movie theatre for about 7 years. my diet consisted of theatre food, which is absolutely terrible for you if you look up the nutritional specs, fast food, frozen pizza and alcoholic beverages. I figure calculating my daily calorie intake from then I was consuming well over 4000 calories a day most days. I somewhat count myself lucky that I only gained 35-40 lbs, as I had this diet for 3+ years following me moving to my own place when I was 21. I'm 25 now.

The adjustment to drop fast food and soda was huge for me, really took a long time to really kick that habit. I've now been working my butt off for almost 4 months, I've lost almost 20 lbs and last night I was able to fit into my brothers jeans and button up shirts. So I'm now down from a 36 waist in jeans to a 34 and from a large to medium in shirts. Pretty excited that summer is still another 4 months away, lots to do.

ericcumbee

i never had any concept of portion control, or awareness of how many calories are in what.

i drank coca cola like crazy, and ate tons of carbs.