I was [overweight] because...

supertracylynn

1. I was not taught differently when I was young.
My mom is/was a single mom. Starchy carbs were a staple, so was pan-frying, since both are quick and easy.
(as an adult, I now know that my body doesn't handle pasta and bread very well)

2. Low/no-fat are Gross!
"They taste different." "You can't bake with them." "It changes the consistency of whatever you're making it with." So don't bother.
(After gradually easing from full to low to no fat, I don't notice the difference. Be warned of the consequences if I prepare something, and someone complains that it tastes weird AFTER they find out I used a substitute! NO REPEAT INVITE!!!! )

3. It was cheap.
We were on a really right budget for a long time. So we'd grab a pb&J and have some ramen. Cereal for the majority of my meals. Eat whatever was leftover from dinner, add in some pasta.
(Now I know that eating from the perimeter of the grocery is cheaper)

4. Eating was how stress was relieved, and love was shown.
Comfort food... chocolate, cereal, ice cream, French toast, etc. Celebrating was cake or elaborate dinners, or eating out.
(There is no greater love you can show than providing a custom, HEALTHY meal for your person/family)

5. Lack of planning.
Scrounging last minute for a meal, it's far easier to order out, or go to a restaurant. That is also a lot more caloric. And more pricey.
(Assigning/agreeing to specific clean up jobs eases the workload. Resolving to spend no more than 30 minutes in each store, and no more than 2 stores a day helps keep it interesting, quick, and easy. Forget something at one store? It's cool, we're going again tomorrow any way.)

6. Exercise? No thanks.
Growing up, the mentality was, "I'm allergic to exercise, it makes me break out in a sweat." Let's not forget the typical driving around for 15 minutes (wasting gas) to get the closest parking spot possible.
(When I started actually trying to lose weight, it literally started with one 10 minute walk a day, which turned into a 30 minute walk, into an hour walk, which turned into a 10 minute jog plus 30 minutes walking, etc... and I felt GOOD!)

These are my reasons. What were yours?

billsica

1) carbs are good. If your going to eat some ham, you better have two slices of bread. Pasta yum! pasta!

2) My parents never let me go hungry. We always had food available, snacks, cookies cakes, doughnuts, pancakes on weekends.
Cookies were a way to have everyone together.

3) Parents tried to work with me to loose weight and diet. It was a diet though, that denied me what I wanted, so I rebelled.

4) lack of portion control. None, zilch. tons of food with plenty of left overs. All you could possibly eat.

5) school sports, but nothing else after.. so I was pretty lazy in the summer

In general my parents loved me to death and gave me what I wanted. They didn't know everything about portion control. restraint, or making me understand WHY I was fat.

supertracylynn

They didn't know everything about portion control. restraint, or making me understand WHY I was fat.

This is a big reason for me, too.

When people hear my lean, fit kids talk about protein and calories, they look at me like I'm breeding ED's in my kids. Then I say that I used to be 218#, and they were with me on my journey to a healthy weight, suddenly it's okay.

Literally, I am arming my kids to never be in the situation I was in before.

On the flip side, I don't deny my kids things. When their sitters ask if they have food restrictions, I say no. And it's true. Even when I was Pescatarian, my kids ate chicken, pork, etc.

arw4

1) My dad was a vegetarian. For many years all we ate was pasta, pasta, and more pasta.

2) I had no sense of control over my eating. I have a huge sweet tooth, and sweets are always in my house. I never had portion control restrictions set by myself or my parents. I could eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

3) I didn't exercise much. My dad has always encouraged me to exercise but I didn't really get into it until a few years ago. And even then, I thought exercising more meant I could eat more sweets.

4) I've always been slightly overweight, so I never knew any different. Doctors never said anything to me because I always followed the same trend that was normal for me.

amivox

1. Grandpa had a philosophy that if it was on your plate, you could not waste it.
2. Mom and Dad didn't cook, and rarely were around. We were latch-key kids and we ate whatever looked good, which for most kids is crappy high fat oversugared garbage. when we did eat as a family, it was usually in front of the t.v. and it was fast food or hotdogs with mac n cheese
3. Grandma LOVED to cook carb heavy meals, and we were over there quite a bit.
4. My best friend and I grew up (and out) together. We both had parents that weren't really invested in us, so when we were at each others houses, we ate equally awful food. Most of the times we would hang out, it would be an unhealthy food fest. We weren't popular, and we both had a lot of issues going on at home. I think we started eating our feelings and finding comfort in it since we were doing it together.
5. Exercise? I tried when I was younger to be active. I rode bikes, roller skated, climbed trees, ran, jumped ramps... I was really in good shape until I was about 8. I had a really bad injury that year that required surgery. I used it as an excuse to be inactive for the most part. My grandpa also died that year and we had been close. I ate that pain, too. I did try once as a child to become active again by joining tae kwon do, but I broke my wrist doing that and my mom made me quit.
6. in junior high, my weight was high, but I was still able to shop in the juniors section and wear cute stuff, that changed when I went to high school. All my friends went to the school across town, and I was left alone to fend for myself at a new, bigger school. I freaked myself out and stressed so much about it that I gained about 50 lbs in the course of that 3 month summer break.
7. Inactivity piled on inactivity, piled on a newfound appreciation of alcohol at 15... so not only did I eat a whole lot and not work out, but I would also consume all sorts of liquid calories... oy vey!
8. Started smoking pot at 16, decided that even if I didn't really have the munchies, I could still use it as an excuse to eat more.

Then between sophomore and junior year I lost a LOT of weight in a completely unhealthy way... so:
9. When I tried to eat normal again, I gained weight crazy fast because I had been unkind to my metabolism.
10. Met my ex who had a drinking problem... which compounded my drinking/drug problem. I would wake up at 5pm on weekends, go out to eat a huge nasty meat lovers pizza from pizza hut with him, and then drink multiple handled bottles of liquor until the wee hours of the morning.
11. Fast food, Fast food, Fast food... every meal of every day.

And thats why I was fat.

Tashmayes

1. I was also never taught to eat properly. Everything was packaged, processed, high in sodium, sugar, and fat. It wasn't until I met a dietician i realized how wrong i was eating.

2. I ate when i was stressed.

3. I had a traumatic incident that caused me to turn away from people and move towards food.

4. I played sports but never exercised consistently.

mscrumbyy

1. Student living is ridiculous. My friends and I are all about 17p noodles/cheese on toast/pizza and the only exercise we ever got was tottering on our heels down to the pub.
2. I got super lazy in my last relationship. We were as bad as each other for not really ever doing much and eating super huge amounts of crap.
3. I stress eat. During uni for the last few months I've lived off snacky foods that I can pick at when revising. I never thought I ate much because I was never hungry but it turns out I was just permanently grazing.
4. I never exercised. Ever. Aside from walking to the bus stop. I was "too tired" after a long day of lectures and I almost always found something better to do (like going to that house party or movie night or girls night out).

So glad it's summer and I have time to reassess things.

historygirldd

1. my parents did everything they could to give us a wonderful life, but so ground beef, fish sticks and canned pork and beans were cheap. I kept it off as a child, but it took me a while to learn to cook and eat well. I don't blame them, I just wasn't taught about balanced meals.

2. I let the mean girls in high school steal my self-esteem. No longer, I was beautiful in high school and college (I now realize that - and you know what I am beautiful now. I'm not being cocky, just accepting of myself.)

3. I was lazy

4. I was lazy

5. I was lazy

breckrose

I was hungry, I wasn't hungry, I was bored, it was a party, I was depressed, I was happy, because it was there!

loribenfield

OMG! Do we have the same mom? My reasons are all the same. And my whole family is over weight so it continues until some one breaks the chain.

jbiancad

I decided right after I gave birth to my daughter that I had an undying love for oreo cakesters. It caught up to me pretty quick

Smilez22

1. I was molested by my god father and cousin at 6/7 until 9
2. Comfort/Depressed - Only way I think I could deal with it/Only way I think my mother felt she could comfort me.
3. It became a habit by a point and just how I was after so long

Starla_

I was lazy

I was an adult when I got fat, no one else's fault for why and the reasons behind it other than my own laziness.

ediesmommy

We were poor. When we did get food, I would horde it, for fear of not having it. I still do that (it is a cycle I am working very hard to break, and am doing VERY well...)

shellebelle87

1. I'm an emotional eater. Sad, depressed, happy, didnt matter. I would eat the pain away.

2. I just didnt care about what I ate. Takeaway was the easiest option, and so were snacks like chips and lollies.

3. I didnt care enough to change my habits, even though I was unhappy about my appearance. It seemed like too much hard work when I knew I wouldn't be able to lose those pesky 15kg in a week, I would actually have to work at it. And why exercise when you can sit on the couch and watch movies and eat crappy food?

I've lost 13kg now and still struggle with the motivation to do anything about my weight. I still have another ten to go and sometimes it just seems too hard, even though I really really want to lose it.

CharlieBarleyMom

I got the big girl genes from my Dutch grandmother and Hungarian grandfather. My father preferred the petite type of woman and expected that ALL women should be petite. So, as the years went on and my weight wasn't "model thin", the more he put me on diets. The more he put me on diets the more I snuck food, ate behind closed doors, felt compelled to eat everything, couldn't make up my mind as to what I wanted to eat so I ate it all, and then, when I was in front of the rest of the family I would eat "diet" everything... which, we've all found that those fake sugars and lo-fat items of our past just perpetuated the situation.

I truly believe that if my father hadn't had me in some horrible diet place as a 12 year old that I may have grown up to be a large framed, beautiful, 5'11" woman who weighed somewhere around 180 pounds.

Now, I've finally stopped blaming myself for the other abuse that he put me through, and I'm trying to learn to stop blaming him (not working so well), but at least to get over it (working better) and recognize that I am the one that can fix it. So I'm working on it.

Alisha_countrymama

Carbs where a staple of meals. Gulash, Hamburger helper, Speghetti, all served with fried potatoes and bread and butter. We were poor.

Cake mixes where cheap. Mom always had a cake for dessert.

Never exercised. EVER!

No one ever told me I was fat. "Big Boned" was often said.

Goal_Seeker_1988

For me I grew up around junk food. My mother would allow me to eat a tub of ice cream @ the age of 4. There would always be chips, cakes, cookies, soda, ice cream, pies, candy, etc... in the house. Portion sizes were huge. I didn't live near a park so play or anything like that. And my mom was like a watch dog so I wasn't allowed to even walk along the road. We lived in a wooded area right outside of town away from other kids but we still had neighbors most of which were elderly. So, growing up I spent most of my free time watching tv which was perfectly fine by my parents until reached around 15 or 16 then I was always getting put down by my dad for being a fat *kitten*. Telling me I was lazy. Needless to say, once I moved out @ age 19 I lost 85lbs and have kept it off. I still dread my past memories and I refuse to eat the way I was brought up to eat!

DivaJadelyn

This is harder to define for me, but I'll start at the most recent burst of weight gain that tipped me well over 200.

1. Bed rest through pregnancy.

2. A 3 month NICU stay for my youngest daughter. I was so concerned about Ileanna that I just put anything in my mouth. And during the really tough times I ate for comfort.

3. Depression. Depression. Depression. I had many many many triggers to my depression. One being finding out my S/O(at the time) was cheating on me. My weight in and of itself depressed me. My daughter being in the NICU and struggling to live... so many triggers.

4. Moved from Maryland to my home state of North Carolina and binged on foods I hadn't had since I was young.

5. Difficulty finding the time and inclination to exercise. I missed ballet from my youth but couldn't afford classes and didn't have a space conducive.

6. Living with an anorexic woman who tended to look down her nose at overweight people... only triggered me to eat more for comfort.

portalm

i was a discusting pig... the end

poedunk65

because i like food and beer.............it's all your own fault, not anyone or anything else! It's nice to put the blame on things, but ultimatley only you control what goes in you rmouth.

thebaconbeast

I ate more than my body needed.

dreamsofsomeday

1. My mother doesn't know how to eat well, so I never ate well when I was a child.

2. I kept using my asthma as an excuse to be lazy.

3. I didn't pay attention as much when I was little to how much I ate.

4. I was once satisfied at going from 180 lbs to 160.

5. I started eating tons of junk food last year due to feeling depressed over a very stupid reason.

6. Myself, because I had control, even from a younger age, even though this contradicts all the reasons I just listed. But it's the true reason.

kellimr

Wow ~ I feel like I have lived the same life as all of you!! I think a big reason I began overeating as a child was believe it or not....anxiety. There was a lot of yelling in my household and when I isolated myself from that i found comfort in food. I had alot of friends and was quite active but I never really "excelled" in any organized sports I took part in. Was the tallest girl in class and developed early (I was almost as tall as the teacher in Grade 5).
Unwanted 'male' attention at a young age caused me to "hate" my curves and puberty etc. Then an abusive relationship as a teen and college came along. Then several horrible starvation diets where I would lose a bunch in 3 months, then gain it all back plus some in 2 months. Any stressful life event has caused me to overeat so while food is my greatest "comfort" it has also caused me the greatest DISCOMFORT in all my life because I absolutely HATE how being fat feels.
Thank you all for your posts....I didn't realize how many of us lived such parallel lives....

j2tyco

1- in denial about how big I was getting--having not one single mirror in the house that showed anything lower then my neck helped with that

2- the internet--seriously I found the net shortly after my 1st was born over 12 years ago and spent hours a day surfing message boards and websites about baby stuff etc---as the web grew my interest in all thigns 2.0 grew...more message boards, BLOGS and OMG facebook- are you kidding me with how addicted I am to this stuff???? Pinterest in the last year alone is like a golden icing to the sit on my *kitten* all day and do nothing cake....half a day or more would be sucked up before I came out of the fog and realized...crap I have to do some laundry or go grocery shopping and cook dinner for the family when they get home from school/work---no time now? ok PIzza it is...etc

Simone_King

First reason I am sure. It might be wrong.

1. I had to quit the one thing I loved the most: Riding.

Really, my childhood was a horse barn where I would go every afternoon and have lessons. (Or about every afternoon.) I had to clean stalls. Take care of a horse..Walk out to paster to GET the said horse. Once I quit (we moved away) That life style went out of the window.

Edit: Weekends was getting up, crack of dawn, and going out to feed the horses before the move. Just needed to add that.

2. I was diginosed with Tourette's then put on medication. Let's just say...It didn't work out too well. That with a new life of..not much excerise, starting High school in a pulbic school (was home schooled), and my mom deadly sick..I turned to the only friend I had at the time: Food.

I put on weight and couldn't understand why. Then through the years more weight came on until I was in the upper 230's and couldn't ignore it.

inbetween all of that, I went in and out of depressions where I just...ATE!

So..really lame reasons.

muscravageur

1. I was fed since I was an infant foods that I was not supposed to eat until later. I had a sneaky grandma.

2. My own mother served huge portions every day.

3. Everything we ate had a side dish that consisted of a giant pile of white rice. Now I can't imagine eating white rice every day.

4. I was bought candy and chips at least 5 days of the week.

5. My grandfather had a grocery store and he regaled me by letting me take all the candy I wanted in a bag,

6. I was not interested in sports when I was young and my family was not proactive in getting me involved in any physical activity.

7. My parents worked and I had to spend the days among elderly people who babysat me and who were not very active physically.

8. As a result of spending so much time around adults, I actually found kids boring and therefore hardly played with them.

9. I took medications for asthma.

10. I was put in a weight loss program at 14 with no tools to internalize the changes I had to adjust to and I had a father who would get mad if I only lost a pound. Girls in school would still bully me because I would never look thin enough with my large frame. I was also called a lesbian, junkie Satanist and had stuff thrown at me.

11. Mother gave up trying to get me to lose weight because I had a meltdown and just decided me to eat whatever i wanted.

12. Then I took medications for depression, etc. for no good reason other than I lived in a small, religious town where nothing fun happened and I was stuck co-existing with 2 co-dependent, melodramatic parents and a family that I was not attached to in any way but made me feel like an alien visitor. I took those medications for 8 years and I became a Leviathan.

13. Parents separated while I was away in college, they would not send me money and I survived on food stamps and this girl named Tina who was pregnant and would drag me with her to eat pizza with her boyfriend. Or my best friend's late-night lo-mein noodles from a bag with a glass of pepsi and other kinds of cheap and starchy foods. Sometimes we wouldn't have a source of water in the dorm to cook so we had to eat out. My nutrition was not the best at this period, either.

That pretty much sums up my first 23 years.

muscravageur

1. I was fed since I was an infant foods that I was not supposed to eat until later. I had a sneaky grandma.

2. My own mother served huge portions every day.

3. Everything we ate had a side dish that consisted of a giant pile of white rice. Now I can't imagine eating white rice every day.

4. I was bought candy and chips at least 5 days of the week.

5. My grandfather had a grocery store and he regaled me by letting me take all the candy I wanted in a bag,

6. I was not interested in sports when I was young and my family was not proactive in getting me involved in any physical activity.

7. My parents worked and I had to spend the days among elderly people who babysat me and who were not very active physically.

8. As a result of spending so much time around adults, I actually found kids boring and therefore hardly played with them.

9. I took medications for asthma.

10. I was put in a weight loss program at 14 with no tools to internalize the changes I had to adjust to and I had a father who would get mad if I only lost a pound. Girls in school would still bully me because I would never look thin enough with my large frame. I was also called a lesbian, junkie Satanist and had stuff thrown at me.

11. Mother gave up trying to get me to lose weight because I had a meltdown and just decided me to eat whatever i wanted.

12. Then I took medications for depression, etc. for no good reason other than I lived in a small, religious town where nothing fun happened and I was stuck co-existing with 2 co-dependent, melodramatic parents and a family that I was not attached to in any way but made me feel like an alien visitor. I took those medications for 8 years and I became a Leviathan.

13. Parents separated while I was away in college, they would not send me money and I survived on food stamps and this girl named Tina who was pregnant and would drag me with her to eat pizza with her boyfriend. Or my best friend's late-night lo-mein noodles from a bag with a glass of pepsi and other kinds of cheap and starchy foods. Sometimes we wouldn't have a source of water in the dorm to cook so we had to eat out. My nutrition was not the best at this period, either.

That pretty much sums up my first 23 years.

when I say my dad got upset at me during the weight-loss programs was if I didn't lose more than a pound PER WEEK

Kitzey

I got lazy and stopped taking care of myself.

I had plenty of reasons why I couldn't exercise.

There many excuses: I'm big boned, it's hereditary nobody in the family is thin, I don't have time, there's no reason to my husband loves me the way I am etc.

Take out is just to easy and preparing a meal takes to much time.

All the excuses and laziness ... living but not living!

After awhile I was so embarrassed and depressed I shut myself off from the world!

muscravageur

1. I was fed since I was an infant foods that I was not supposed to eat until later. I had a sneaky grandma.

2. My own mother served huge portions every day.

3. Everything we ate had a side dish that consisted of a giant pile of white rice. Now I can't imagine eating white rice every day.

4. I was bought candy and chips at least 5 days of the week.

5. My grandfather had a grocery store and he regaled me by letting me take all the candy I wanted in a bag,

6. I was not interested in sports when I was young and my family was not proactive in getting me involved in any physical activity.

7. My parents worked and I had to spend the days among elderly people who babysat me and who were not very active physically.

8. As a result of spending so much time around adults, I actually found kids boring and therefore hardly played with them.

9. I took medications for asthma.

10. I was put in a weight loss program at 14 with no tools to internalize the changes I had to adjust to and I had a father who would get mad if I only lost a pound. Girls in school would still bully me because I would never look thin enough with my large frame. I was also called a lesbian, junkie Satanist and had stuff thrown at me.

11. Mother gave up trying to get me to lose weight because I had a meltdown and just decided me to eat whatever i wanted.

12. Then I took medications for depression, etc. for no good reason other than I lived in a small, religious town where nothing fun happened and I was stuck co-existing with 2 co-dependent, melodramatic parents and a family that I was not attached to in any way but made me feel like an alien visitor. I took those medications for 8 years and I became a Leviathan.

13. Parents separated while I was away in college, they would not send me money and I survived on food stamps and this girl named Tina who was pregnant and would drag me with her to eat pizza with her boyfriend. Or my best friend's late-night lo-mein noodles from a bag with a glass of pepsi and other kinds of cheap and starchy foods. Sometimes we wouldn't have a source of water in the dorm to cook so we had to eat out. My nutrition was not the best at this period, either.

That pretty much sums up my first 23 years.

when I say my dad got upset at me during the weight-loss programs was if I didn't lose more than a pound PER WEEK

And I'm STILL overweight but nothing so major as before, thank God

annanoel21

WOW! I could say yes to what everyone has said! Were we all in the same family just haven't met, lol?

I say my main reasons are:
1. Never taught portion control.
2. Everything was always fried or had tons of butter (growing up in the south a must).
3. I was never really told no after the age of 8.
4. I was never told I was fat always "Big Boned".
5. I'm not sure my parent even know how to cook properly... they always cook for an army when there are only 3 of us, 4 including my fiance.
6. It's always what is the fastest. Fast food, junk food, always junk around the house.
7. No exercise!!! I did everything I could to get out of PE. I had no PE from 5th grade on.
If I could I would go back and make sure I had every PE class they had just so I wouldn't be fat!

It is really hard on me. I'm 22, still living at home, trying to learn how to cook and eat healthy. I have NO clue how to do it alone... but I am doing the best I can!

My fiance bought me a foreman grill for my bday and I love it! As well as my steamer. Those have been getting used so much lately!

My biggest weight was close to 300 lbs around 14-15. Smallest was 190 at 17. Maintained 210 from 18-20, then ballooned up to 225 then 235. I swore I would never get back that big. Now I'm working on getting back down.

I say when we get out on our own losing weight won't be as hard. Just like if/when we have kids, they WILL NOT be obese and live the torture in school like we did! Mainly Everything will be healthy food.