Why did you gain weight?

AnnaBeach7

Always during emotional events. 5 pregnancies, divorce, job change, financial trauma. Food has always been my drug of choice. Gained and lost 30-50 pounds 6 times since age 18. (never ever reached "goal" ...always a bit of self-sabotage i think...)Here we go again.....Spent too much time over-analyzing why I was self-medicating with food and too little putting action into place this last time...results are due to action, not analyzing..!

You are not alone. Most of us who are over weight have a story. Hang in there. Best of luck.

WelcomeToWonderland

Meds =]

WifeNMama

Eating whatever I wanted but walking everywhere kept me skinny fat for a while, then I stopped walking everywhere and still ate whatever I wanted... that was college. (at 125)

Then I met my husband, started on birth control before the wedding to get my body used to it, gained ten pounds in three months. (at 135)

Then the First Year of Marriage happened, where we drank wine with a lot of dinners, snacked a lot, and I ate close to the same amount of food as my husband who is a foot taller and was 90 pounds heavier than me. Combined with a job where the bosses would buy us starbucks frapps just about every day, ate out a lot for lunch... Another ten pounds. (at 145)

Went off birth control to get pregnant, hormones went crazy, another 8. (at 153- this 8 went mostly to my chest so I wasn't really complaining...)

Pregnancy #1 - gained 40, lost 33. (at 160)

Pregnancy #2 - gained 30, lost 22 (at 168)

Started MFP - lost 20lb. so far.

So now I've lost all the weight I can blame on the kids, and have to lose the weight that was all my doing. :laugh:

TheVimFuego

Beer, sugar (in all forms) compounded by repeated Low Fat Dieting.

Cue metabolic disaster area.

abbyph311

I have 2 kids but can't blame them as I was under 130 when I left the hospital both times. The little ones actually helped me stay in shape. I was always on the go and forgot to eat most times LOL. Once they grew a bit older I slowed down, that plus age and the weight snuck up on me. I was around 160, just started eating healthier and exercising then I was in a car accident that broke my leg. 8 months on crutches and I was up to 177. Now starting all over again to become a more healthy me

sigma54

A combination of factors:
-Was never thin even as a child (slow metabolism, preferred watching others rather than being active)
-Sleeping too much
-Chronic depression
-Medication for anxiety/depression
-Probably the thing that was responsible the most for my initial weight gain was anxiety and panic attacks especially in class at university... I found that apple juice helped calm me down... but then I drank lots and lots of apple juice!

Main issue now is difficulty in keeping up an exercise regimen through the winter. During the summer, I'm quite good but as the fall and winter comes along, hibernation mode kicks (it's cold here in Canada ;-) in and I just want to eat more and sleep more! I need to find some way to keep on track all year long!

Mhaney

I was always about ten pounds over, but I had 3 kids and after the last one I just stopped caring for a bit. When I hit 200, however. I was like OH EFF THIS and started working on it.

I hate getting old! The baby weight with the first two just fell off.

EvilMomma

I gained weight when I moved to Los Angeles from Montana. I was used to walking everywhere (I lived a 30 minute walk from the university and walked to and from school daily, sometimes 2x's a day; walked to the store, walked to friends' houses, etc). When I got to the big city I was overwhelmed by it all, everything was too far away to walk (I worked an hour's drive from home) and found comfort in food. I still live in LA (25 years later). I've finally figured out that 25 years is too long to react to a situation; now I'm fat because I'm (or was) lazy, indulgent, and willing to make excuses.

KLovesTy

I had my second child and was on bed rest off/on a lot. when I am not pregnant my weight only fluctuates by 5-10 lbs as I am a generally healthy/active person.

meliad

Pregnancy!! It was as if I could not stop eating.

Lisa_Rhodes

To tell you the truth, I've always been big. I don't think genetics played a huge role as much as the food that surrounded me. My mom always cooked homemade food, once in a while took us to fast food places or hamburger helper dinners, etc. But even the homemade foods were big comfort foods.. being from the south, that's what you ate. Tried so many diets from the time I was in middle school to before I came here. But this is what works for me. The classic diet and exercise

JennsRAQ

Pregnancies...
I started out around 130 with my first child, delivered at 180...

Started my next pregnancy around 134, delivered at 176...

Started my next pregnancy at 127 (I had used SparkPeople to lose weight this time and quickly lost almost 30lb in 3 months and then found out I was pregnant!), delivered at 174...Started on MFP and lost some weight right before I became pregnant again..

Started this last one at 142, delivered somewhere around 189.2 (that was what I weighed on my due date, but I went 3 more days before delivery).. I was 173 when I got home from the hospital and that's where my ticker began that I use right now. I'm ALLLLLMOST down to the 140s now and hope I can at least make it to 140 in the next month or two. I'm pretty tired of being this size, although I'm no stranger to it! My friends have already started to tell me that I don't look like someone that's just had a baby, so that's good at least! My littlest is 10 weeks old now and this is the earliest I've ever actually TRIED to lose weight. Normally I wait til the little one is around a year or older. :-P

Josette89

Okay, so here is my story. I have always been a big girl. I weighed about 175 in high school, I was very active and was involved in all kinds of sports. I thought I was fat, I was happy with myself, but I still saw myself as fat. In High school I got in a car accident, me and my boyfriend at the time. The accident was on October 15th, 2006. I had major injuries and I died twice. I was in the hospital all the way through December 22nd, 2006. It took some time for me to get used to living my life again. I lost some weight while in the hospital. But being back home got me very depressed, life was not the same. I graduated high school through online classes and my friends had there own lives forming so very rarely did I see them. I was at home not working, not schooling, nothing except thinking about how my life could be. A few more doctors visits went by and I was told that I can now walk without causing any damage to my fractured pelvis. As soon as I could I started working. I didn't have a car so I took the bus and walked everywhere. I lost a lot of weight that way (still not where I was before the accident). When I finally saved up money to get a car I started driving everywhere and I got a very stressful job. The more money I had, the more food I bought. I was on the go all the time so it was usually fast foods. I gained over twenty pounds on top of the weight I gained while being at home. I had been struggling ever since to get rid of the weight. I found MFP and I started at 224 pounds, I am now at 211 and still going. my ultimate goal is 145-160. But my first goal is to be around 185-190 by August 3rd. This day is so specific because this is the day of my surgery. During that tragic incident in my life I had plenty of abdominal surgeries that left my stomach full of ugly scars. I recently decided to fix that with surgery in order to help my confidence. If I could just get that fixed, I think I could reach my weight loss goals much faster. Maybe I can keep it up until I weigh 120 or 130 I've had so much inspiration from people on MFP, I know I can do it too!

NativeAustinite

This is basically my story: complacent happy over-indulgence! I even ate a lot of healthy foods, but enough of the other stuff to tip the scales. Also, I have an active lifestyle in general, but have been bad about exercising in general. Plus, that age factors in at some point, when the extra sticks instead of sliding right off like when you are younger...it all just caught up to me.

13inchestogo

Tunnel vision. Feeling stagnant. Feeling lonely. Not dealing with my energy and emotions properly is what ultimately lead to my rollercoaster relationship with food. ITS FUEL NOT COMFORT!!! <

---

what I needed to tell myself earlier....

TheVimFuego

And grains, can't forget them ... way too many grains.

Hey, it's wholegrain, it must be good ... Ah, nah ...

heykaraoke

Low self-esteem, college cafeteria food, too much partying, depression, pregnancy, more depression. Eating was my coping mechanism for stressful situations, drinking too much, and generally feeling awful about myself.

Pimpmonkey

I was involved in mutliple traumas and my weight was my "shield". Sadly it didn't work that way but it made me feel "unreachable" and helped me get past some rough times. Now after years of being past all the trauma and drama, I suddenly realized one day that as comfortable as I was with who I was, I was just shy of 300lbs. It kind of blew my mind. I had spent so much time hiding behind my weight that I had stopped paying attention to it.

PunkyRachel

For me it started as a teenager. I was suicidally depressed and food was my comfort. The whole bad childhood thing applies to me, abusive parents(mostly emotional, some physical, but never sexual), bullied at school (k-12), pegged the black sheep/rebel by my extended family (mostly because I dyed my hair crazy colors all the time, smoked, and got arrested for stealing) I was always slightly heavier scale wise than others in my grade, but never fat until high school hit. I was a size 6 my freshman year, that escalated to a size 20 Junior year, and a 18 dress for senior prom.
I met my husband end of Junior year at my heaviest weight, and he said I was beautiful then, and treated me like a human, and showed me politeness, respect, was kind and caring towards me. Which was all new, because I didn't receive that from anyone else, not even my family. I got out of my depression, slowly gained self esteem up. Stopped smoking, and started losing weight. I got down to a size 16 wedding dress (married him at 19) ever since I've just fluctuated because 16-20.
Now after my dad almost died a heart attack, and I'm hearing more and more about all the health problems that run in my family, I don't want to be the next one in line. That is my motivation now, I'm down to a size 12/14 (depending on the brand) and not stopping anytime soon!

isabel88g

I really don't know why I gained all this weight, I think it might have something to do with losing my father at 11 years old, and having depressions/anxiety,etc. I am also an emotional eater which does not help when you have anxiety. Now I am trying to lose at least 80 lbs, and I keep failing because things happen in my life that make me eat crap that I should not.. I hope to be able to overcome this as soon as possible!!

BigNickCT79

I did a lot of sports in HS and college and could eat whatever I wanted. Then I stopped sports but continued to eat whatever I wanted. Over the years, it really started to add up.

chainsaw87

When I was little, I never ate. My family would threaten to take me to the doctor and give me a shot if I didn't eat. Now I'm 24, fat , and afraid of the doctor. I come from a family where wasting food was wasting money. My grandmother showed 3- 5 days a week in elementary and middle school. As I got older, I associated eating with boredom. Eating was and still is for me, a soial activity. If I'm bored, I say, "Why don't we go out to dinner?" I'm working on that though

mandypizzle

Pregnancies! The last two killed me!!

Nicolle71

I gained 47 pounds since Jan 3, 2011 after my 14 year old daughter Shelby committed suicide. I was very depressed and lost. I am trying as hard as I can to do this.

BeetleChe13

I gained all my excess body fat by eating junk food as much as I wanted (pretty much every meal) and hardly ever exercising. The times that I have exercised and scaled back the processed food, I gained muscle, but I couldn't maintain it. I think the stress and drama of my early college career somewhat aided the weight gain, but it was really laziness and not knowing any better.

Anyaaaa11

I have always been super thin. One of those girls that didn't have to worry about what I ate. Then I became pregnant (miscarriage). Started overeating. Then a break up with my first love. Then I left my patents and went out of state to work.. Was rooming with one of my best friends who happened to be a binge eater.

I was lonely, sad, depressed, mad, low self asteem and ate out of boredom. I was miserable. I didn't pay any attention to what I ate. I just took advantage of the fact that I was thin. Well, after the miscarriage and getting off birthcontrol my body completely changed and I could no longer eat "whatever" I wanted.

Anyway, to this day I struggle with binging and not being able to let go of the past... Maybe one day but for now I
Just focusing on my future and my health!

Dimpszz

My weight gain happened during my freshman year of college. New city, new habits, and absolutely no self-control took its toll on my body.

JoeMO

Combination of losing my job in November 11, when I weighed 229, my mom dying in Jan 12, no exercising for seven months, eating bags of candy (if there is such a thing as a chocoholic, I am or I'm close), my dad died June 12 after being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in May. F... me!!! I was eating myself to death playing video games, FB, and generally being a total lazy slug feeling sorry for myself while being totally unmotivated arriving Thursday at 294.2 or 65 pounds in 6 1/2 months. BUT...I'm turning the corner and I hiked five miles Thursday, couldn't walk Friday and most of Saturday. Ate great on Friday and Saturday and it's time to live life again

Hickyvikki69

number one i got married n got a car instead of walking everywhere. then got back down n weight then number 2 hit. i got pregnant and had preeclampsia with my son. water weight bam n it stayed with me. lost the weight a yr after he was born n bam pregnant again...then at that point i just didnt care anymore.

jpbeck

My reason is simple. I love food. I ate a lot and well didn't do any exercises. I am also a comfort eater but in actuality I love to eat regardless of the reason.

In a way though my simplicity is great because I know what to do to work on the solution, eat less and exercise! The great thing that it's actually working!