Why are you / Why were you fat?

curvatrino

4 Mars bars for £1, most days when I was a student got me all the way up to 224lbs at age 21. 6 long years later I'm 161lbs.

Lots of stuff happened in between. but that's the long and short of it.

Damn Mars Bars. I can't even look at them now. I still miss them!

montana_girl

I think for me it started with lack of parental supervision with my meals (both of parents worked and meals cooked and eaten as a family were few and far between), but that turned into bad habits, which caused me to gain. Once I was "fatter" than my peers, I was teased and ridiculed, which lead to low self esteem and emotional eating. That's something that has taken me a long, long time to overcome and is reason it took me 6 years to 100 pounds. I kept having to battle those feelings and bad habits.

I do better now, but I still have my days of making bad choices and eating because of emotions and not hunger. I suspect it's something I will deal with for the rest of my life...

slnewberry

I think a lot of my problems did start with my father who constantly harassed me about my weight as a teen. I was maybe 15 lbs heavier than the others and he was very insulting about it. I lost the weight after I left home and entered the Army but when I had my children, I had medical problems and ended up on bed rest. Upset and bored, I turned to food and put on more weigh than I should have. Over the years,m I have tried diets but none have been too successful. 10 years ago, I destroyed my knee and have battled through multiple surgeries and trying to control my weight but it has steadily increased. I dropped 75 lbs prior to my last surgery but after 6 weeks immobilized and then very limited movement for the next 5 months, I put half of it back on.

I realize that I have food issues and I don't want my children to look like I do now when they get older so both my husband and I have both began a lifestyle change. We eat less, but more often. We exercise more and spend more time with our kids, encouraging them to lose weight and be healthy too.

MdmAcolyte

Beer, fried chicken, coke, and being a general slackass... That's why I am obese. But I am learning moderation.

NTBlade

!! ALL OF THE ABOVE !!

Nah, beer, too much food - not all bad but more portion control.
The great thing about this thread is that eveyone who's here is actually doing something about it. I really enjoy some sporting events (mainly running and cycling) , especially as part of a team but as soon as they're finished I fall back into my old beer sodden ways.

I think for me I have to have realistic targets in terms of weight loss and some sort of physical goal to work to. I'm aiming for 13kg loss and a marathon (Edinburgh) at the end of May.

This might sound a bit of a tall order but I know I'll do it as I have the support of my family and friends. Until recently I was really frustrated at my weight not coming off until I actually started logging what I'm eating. It's amazing how just a little thing can make the difference between losing weight and all the day's hard work counting for nothing!

I'd say that as soon as you feel able, try to get just a little exercise in a few times a week. Even if it's just a walk to the shops the long way. The more you do, the more you'll be able to do and the better you'll feel. It's a double whammy and it's addictive!

Get stuk in folks!

NTB
8o)

BeautyFromPain

I started working in fast food when I turned 14 - so pretty much a given. BUT as someone who was 90 pounds, anorexic, and ate hardly one or two pieces of fruit a day (that was ALL i would eat) to eating fast food 2-3 times per day just screwed me over. That is like an upgrade of 2000-3000 calories of what I would eat at the time and my metabolism was shot as it was. Also emotionally eating my feelings. Depressions, stress, grief. All of it.

tinamatteson

I don't have any good excuses... I had three babies, and didn't really work to lose the baby weight in between, and I just enjoyed eating so much! And I'm truly a couch potato at heart. I just ate (all the wrong things, and too much of them) and didn't exercise at all and the pounds piled on. And for a time, I felt like it was ok. I could always buy bigger clothes. (I know, DUMB!)

This new lifestyle journey I am now is showing me that in order to change you have to be ready for it. You have to want it for yourself. No one can do it for you. I wasn't ready to make these changes before, but I am now. And seeing the results happen slowly but surely is SO encouraging and motivating!

Cindym82

I actually have no idea how I got fat, I was always skinny, never weighted more than 100lbs, ate pretty good meals and next thing I knew I had gained 68lbs (I dont eat fast food either). I've lost 38lbs total but still would like to lose about another 15. Don't want to be 100lbs again but would like to look better in a bathing suit. And now even the doctors can't figure out how it happened and are testing me for thyroid dysfunction.

Amazon_Who

It was a cascade effect for me.
Tuned 30
Divorce
Desk job
Remarried (a foodie )
3 kids close together
diagnosed low thyroid

and the main reason... Too much mindless and/or emotional eating

gregavila

10 years ago I had eaten my way up to 142 pounds and decided enough was enough. I joined WW and lost 42 pounds and started bicycling nearly 2,000 miles a year. I got complacent, and stopped cycling and started eating and the weight slowly came back on. First to about 220-225 which seemed ok but then over the last few years it grew to 251.

The last set of weight gain was caused by two things... Eating like crap, and getting ZERO exercise. My guess is that I would likely average about 3000 calories a day (fast food, pizza, eating out, portions too big). And I just quit exercise - no gym, not walking the dogs, nothing.

So.. That's about it.

kelsgrenier

Medication

christibam

Because I gave up on myself.

anarose13

i have come to terms with the fact that i am emotional eater. It means i have alot more work ahead of me then i would like but sense i dont want to be anorexic again i am just working one day at a time.

robbiejay1971

I quit smoking, then was promoted from a heavily manual job into a management role. 5 years and 50lbs later I decided to do something about it!

blv0267

I think because I like food, really, really like food. I enjoy cooking and especially like baking cookies for my family - which all have required taste testing on my part. I'm also a big fan of wine (which I haven't been able to give up). And I have been inactive for pretty much my entire life.

Combine that with an attitude of not wanting to deprive or deny myself anything I wanted (which I still kind of have), aging and being extremely content in my new relationship and *poof* an extra 15 pounds has seemed to appear on my body.

Jenncoc86

bad diet habits, i was raised on bar food, no joke, habits start young I've had to learn to eat better

UpEarly

For me, it was large portions and too much snacking.

I've always been an exerciser. I've never been a binge eater or had an unhealthy emotional relationship with food. So, it was simply too many calories.

Once I got portions and total calories in check (around 2000 a day) my weight issues worked themselves out pretty easily.

jeyko

I'm an emotional eater. Eat when I'm happy, sad, bored.

penroseg

A part of it was from eating habits as a child. My older brother and younger sister were very picky. I wasn't. My parents praised me in regards to the variety foods that I ate, and that I would clean my plate at every meal. At mealtime, I was the "good kid". So it went from there....

I also love food! I love the taste of it, I love to eat it until I'm very full. I love the feeling of being really full. I also love beer, lots of beer. Yes, I do some emotional eating, but the rest of the time, I just eat a lot because I love food. My portion control is non-existant and I like to have seconds and thirds. Working on self-control now..... :drinker:

ezramedic

Because I like junk food and sitting on my *kitten*.

PositivelyFlawed

In childhood I place some blame on my Mom. She didn't encourage me to take part in activities or force me to be more active. At the same time, although she always was a great cook, it wasn't always the healthiest food and always in large portions. I definitely feel that set a precedent for me as I started gaining weight around age 4 or 5 and never looked back. By the time you get to school and into grades 1+, kids start to be cruel and this leads to self esteem issues. I feel my mom and dad had an opportunity to try to get me active, teach me healthier eating, and didn't.

Now I take full responsibility for my weight from about 12 years old and up. That is about the time I had freedom, pocket money and the ability to make my own choices about what I did. I wasn't active, ate fast food all the time with friends and bought candy and chips with babysitting money.

I was ALWAYS teased about my weight and around 13 is when I feel I developed emotional eating and compulsive eating habits. I would eat to celebrate, when I was sad, mad etc. I would also hide food in my room. From this point it became a cycle of obesity. Feel bad/get teased about my weight, go home and gorge on food, feel bad about my weight, eat more. This cycle continued to some extent until I moved out on my own. Then only the hiding food stopped, but not the emotional eating.

Emotional eating is probably at the heart of my obesity and it is something I battle every single day. I am thankful that except for my early teens when I ate a lot of fast food, I got heavy eating large portions of home cooking and lots of carbs. This allows me the opportunity to be "healthy obese" - no high chol. no high BP, no diabetes. I've taken that as a blessing and am determined to get the weight off. That is what keeps me from reaching for the bread when I have a bad day or making a pit stop for chips on the way home from work, knowing t hat I have a very real chance of undoing the unhealthiness I have lived with for 25 years.

kyle4jem

I ate too much and didn't exercise at all.

Simples!

There was no underlying reason, no depression or trauma to blame it on; I was a couch-potato with a predilection for food - good food, easy food, sweets, biscuits, cakes, savouries, you name it!

It was easier to eat and be damned than to get off my lardy *kitten* and do something about it.

Thankfully, I'm back on track now - eating well and proportionate amounts, exercising regularly and enjoying the benefits thereof! :happy:

laurastrait21

easy- COLLEGE! Stress, no time to eat properly/grocery shop, alcohol, eating at unusual times, no access to healthy foods. I am determined with my new lifestyle if I do continue on in school to make healthy eating and exercise more of a priority than it was before.

blaquesouldier

I lost the motivation i had to stay in shape. Growing up i was always in sports and outdoors active non-stop. After high school there was no real change i joined the military- reserves. That is when i think i lost my motivation, every always saying you look great what do you need to work out for. Knowing that I took in way to many calories per meal. I always ate very large portioned meals. and being in the army even meals were a competition who could eat the fastest, the most, and the most in the quickest amount of time. well when i stopped with the military everyone still said i looked fine. but the scale told me other wise i had put on around 50lbs in a short time. as i'm still young this noticable change so soon was a red flag for me. Some time later I saw a picture of my before self and after self and the way the shirt then fit well, and now the buttons were screaming ( or stretching out). Taking a good look at my self i had to admit that my face was looking rounder. and then one day my good ol' grandma, bless her truthful nature. said the words i was thinking, and i think restarted my motivation. "Brandon your looking pretty fat." with no joking manor in her voice. Since then i have decided to set up my workout and weight loss goals to really put me on track while asking/telling my wife, that for herself and I, that i need her support in this goal... No complaints yet and the change in lifestyle and eatting habits has already shown itself to be working... as well as i have surrounded myself with motivation workout quotes, pictures, and anything else that gets me up off the couch and running around the block.

robb7

Completely oblivious to nutrition / exercise / calories and the balance. Also I was working in a call center which means hours and hours of sitting my duff and eating take out twice sometimes three times daily.

aprilgicker

I got pregnant, then got orders to move, all this in a new marriage with a husband that can eat everything in site and still lose weight.

First, My hubby eats very healthy 98% of the time, he would rather eat at subway than the burger places, however he likes to eat his burgers. Lets just say we still want to go to "Heart Attack Jacks" in Minnesota.saw it on "America Eats" so it all boils down to
PORTIONS

Second, I was Pregnant with my second child. It had been 8 eight years since my first was born. I knew I would gain 40lbs that last trimester is a real b1tch in our family.
HORMONES

Finally, we were moving, he had training for several weeks so, I moved to my Parents. Then 2 months later we moved to Ohio.
FOOD CHOICES

Add all that up plus 2 more kids without significant weight loss in between and wha lah you get one, fat, Mommy

acbeck

I had always been slightly pudgy due to a binge eating problem since childhood, but I had managed to maintain at about 175-180, which was healthy for me because I'm pretty heavily muscled.

Then, my doctor put me on antidepressants, and my weight skyrocketed by 80 lbs in just over 6 months. I haven't been able to shake it since. I'll lose 20, gain it back. Trying for completion this time!

fink21061

I got fat because I have a serious addiction to sugar. Not a normal one. I used to walk past the sugar bowl and have to eat a spoon full. This is harder to kick than a darn drug habbit. But today Im down 10lbs since the first of the year. And after finding out at the age of 31 that Im at a major risk for heart failure, that was all it took to tell me to get my rear in gear.

GetThinKim

For me, I think it's a psychological thing. When I was kid my parents tried to be really really healthy ALL the time. They hardly ever let me have sweet or fatty things. But when I was older and I had my own money I could buy them all the time, so I craved what I had been deprived and ate them all the time.
But that is going to change.

Oh wow, this is the EXACT same as me!!

VanishaDawn

All my life I was a stick, but when I started driving and didn't have to walk everywhere, I started to gain weight. On top of that, I just love food, my mom is an excellent cook and she is always making new recipes! Once I got to the point of no return, I just said eff it....I'm too big to do anything....every ache and pain when I tried to exercise was an excuse to sit back down. So ever since then I've just been spreading and getting heavier and heavier and heavier. The stress, wild nights, and disregard for what I was putting into my body didn't help.