Why did you let yourself go?...

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Replies

  • ZozoMonster
    ZozoMonster Posts: 270 Member
    Being in a crappy relationship which made me depressed, so I ate...
  • MG_Fit
    MG_Fit Posts: 1,143 Member
    I'm lazy
  • AliciaC81
    AliciaC81 Posts: 72 Member
    There's so many things that contributed to it for me.

    1. As a kid/teen I had a great metabolism and could eat whatever I wanted and never gained weight. I was thin but I ate horribly and never worked out. I got used to the idea of doing nothing to maintain a weight.

    2. I had children and used each pregnancy as an excuse to eat what I wanted and not work out. That added about 20 lbs of overall weight after each child was born and I had shed the "baby weight".

    3. There is so many horrible horrible foods and gigantic portion sizes available EVERYWHERE. You go out to eat and a "meal" is enough to fulfill someone's entire calorie goals. Before I watched my calories I thought "oh it's a meal...it's normal". Hah was I ever wrong.

    4. It happened bit by bit. Eating poorly and not being active enough led to me gaining weight bit by bit. I never noticed the weight going on because it happened slowly. This I am sure includes some denial in there. I mean you're not supposed to outgrow your clothes once you're an adult...so I mean I SHOULD have seen that 20 extra lbs creep on..
  • oregonzoo
    oregonzoo Posts: 4,251 Member
    I'd always been really slender. High metabolism. Then I turned 25 and started to gain weight. But didn't worry, I was still a really healthy weight.
    NEVER worked out. Too lazy. Didn't have time.
    THEN I got pregnant and gained 2x the weight I should have.

    I learned a lot. And for that I'm thankful. I won't ever take my body or health for granted again.
  • oldmanrivererik
    oldmanrivererik Posts: 28 Member
    I was trying to kill myself after what seems like a life of failure after failure. I was going to eat myself to death for the simple reason that when I am eating I was happy. Everything else about my life might be miserable but at least for the 5-10 minutes I was scarfing down food, I was happy. In the matter of about 2 years I gained over 100 pounds. I was looking forward to being dead, not having to worry about anything anymore. Then I shot myself and I realized that I dont want to be dead. Now Im trying to lose all the weight I stupidly gained.
  • _DaniD_
    _DaniD_ Posts: 2,186 Member
    I just didn't notice I was getting fat.
  • placeboaddiction
    placeboaddiction Posts: 451 Member
    3 kids. Worked full time. did school full time. Also transitioned from warehouse work to office work in that time.
  • mspris2u
    mspris2u Posts: 161 Member
    Years, YEARS of low self esteem and food made me feel better. Add general laziness and desk jobs to the mix and I've spent a good of my life over 200 lbs. I lost 60lbs 4 years ago and gained 40 of it back. I've lost 25lbs this time around and plan to keep it off this time!
  • louiselebeau
    louiselebeau Posts: 220 Member
    Because I got into another (bad) relationship. So I gave up dating.
  • optionalsourcewins
    optionalsourcewins Posts: 457 Member
    I started dating and got comfortable. My fiance, now husband wasn't and still isn't active so it was easy for me to follow him plus I found eating as much as he does. I love food but I can't eat like a man. After marriage, I became pregnant after trying for 18 months and I gained 30 more lbs. I have since lost the pregnancy weight and now I'm working on the weight I gained during courting and early marriage. I exercise now even though my husband still does not and I don't follow his eating patterns. I'm doing me so that I can be a better Mom for our son. I think my husband will start to follow me very soon as he's noticing the pounds I've lost and increased energy.
  • chunkydunk714
    chunkydunk714 Posts: 784 Member
    Prozac - as soon as I started taking the stuff the weight piled on, Same thing happened to a couple of the other girls in my counselling group. Tried to get my GP to change my drugs, he insisted 'people use Prozac to lose weight' and I was just comfort eating (I wasn't). My metabolism has been knackered ever since.

    ^^ This. I was already a bit chubby (around 150ish for my 5"3 frame) but after being diagnosed with clinical depression and generalized anxiety disorder, the dr. put me on prozac...i gained 40 pounds. As of today, im quitting the drug as it only made my depression worse :(
  • chunkydunk714
    chunkydunk714 Posts: 784 Member
    Being in a crappy relationship which made me depressed, so I ate...

    this too...
  • br2012
    br2012 Posts: 52 Member
    goldfish crackers and grilled cheese. haha. actually breastfeeding and then feeling like mother earth life-giver deserved her processed carbs. then my youngest turned seven. lol.

    We had a woman quit our bootcamp recently because she said she felt it was selfish that she was taking her time away from the kids. total copout. been there done that.
  • AngryDiet
    AngryDiet Posts: 1,349 Member
    To see if I'd come back.
  • I have always been chubby, but lost quite a bit in my late teens. Then gained it plus interest within a decade as my clinical depression emerged and gradually got deeper and deeper. When I was a student and in the beginning of my present job, I ate to suppress the anxiety inside. The same time my activity level plummited after I got my own car.
  • Ben_1960
    Ben_1960 Posts: 97 Member
    Sheer gluttony! I overate and drank far too much wine because i enjoyed eating and drinking to excess.

    No one to blame but myself, I put the stuff in my mouth nobody else!
  • quirkytizzy
    quirkytizzy Posts: 4,052 Member
    Depression. Plain and simple.
  • Timshel_
    Timshel_ Posts: 22,834 Member
    So I ask you now why did you let yourself go?

    Kids...work...lots of internal issues about myself that I never really addressed in life...probably nothing different than most. For me it has all come down to keeping myself centered while all this whirls around me instead of being swept away in it. I always did "decent" and was never too far off track health wise, but as I got older and older I started caring less and less. I knew that had to stop.
  • When I got out into the working world after college, I started making money, and there was nobody around (parents, girlfriend, coaches) to encourage me to make responsible lifestyle decisions. I was determined to spend my time and money on things that I enjoyed. That included food I enjoyed eating and going out in the city (I lived in New York at the time) rather than working out. I justified my choices with the "I don't have time to work out" excuse. I thought I was having too much fun doing other things.

    On top of that, the foods that I enjoy are just not that good for me (pizza, cheese, Goldfish, buttered rolls, ice cream, Lucky Charms, hamburgers, french fries, mashed potatoes, and so on), and I ate a lot of them because I like them ... a lot. As I got heavier, the little exercise I was doing became more of a hassle until I stopped altogether.

    And that's pretty much the recipe for becoming morbidly obese without initially being depressed. Eventually, of course, the whole situation does become depressing, so then I'm eating to take my mind off how crappy I made my life and compounding the problem.
  • I discovered comfort eating...
  • Haiir0
    Haiir0 Posts: 21 Member
    I always liked to eat and hated to exercise. I'd rather stay inside and stuff my face while reading a book than eat in moderation and go outside and play as a kid. As a result, I've always been fat. Simple as that.
  • wanttolose40lbs
    wanttolose40lbs Posts: 239 Member
    Because food tastes good
  • Well, because I greatly enjoy

    Soda
    Fast Food
    Pizza
    Candy
    Salty Snacks
    Fried Chicken
    etc
  • JennKie1
    JennKie1 Posts: 200 Member
    Complacency and denial.

    ^This exactly.
  • salgalbp
    salgalbp Posts: 218 Member
    Feelings of unworthiness, unable to express my feelings so ate them instead, depression.

    JEEZUS BALLS THANK GOD THAT IS OVER! PHEW!
  • viciouslitany
    viciouslitany Posts: 187 Member
    there's no such thing as letting it go when you never had it to begin with.

    I've been gigantic since I was a 'little' kid - never had any friends or anything because of it. it led me to the weird kids, so it worked out. sucked for the self esteem.

    especially after eighth grade. I spent a year in a wheelchair to fix my legs from going to **** because I was fat, and then I just kept on being fat. and now I'm 21 taking high blood pressure meds.

    so.

    there's that.
  • icimani
    icimani Posts: 1,454 Member
    okay here goes - **deep breath**

    I was sexually abused by brother from ages 6-5. People talk about emotional eating - I think I ate so I wouldn't feel anything, and I got very good at not feeling anything. Comfort food was my friend, especially growing up in a family where meat & potatoes ruled. Even so, I was a jock in high school and college so even though I was overweight all the activity kept it in check. After college I stopped being a jock but never changed my eating habits. Later, even though it was subconscious, I'm pretty sure I gained weight as a protection - against any kind of emotional attachement to people... against life.

    Fast forward to post-college and grad school - the memories started coming back, depression and PTSD set in, and comfort food was...well.... a comfort. And the depression made it all but impossible to get moving and get some exercise, and I was on a cocktail of 5 different psych meds, some of which caused some weight gain. I was also drinking a lot of alcohol to forget and probably came closer to being an alcoholic than I'd like to think about.

    Fast forward again to now:
    - years of therapy later, no more psych meds
    - joined a gym and work out 5-6 times a week
    - the gym has a pool and I swim 3-4 times a week
    - I see a nutritionist who believes in real food and no diets
    - I've dropped from a 4x-shoulda-been-a-5x to 1x, size 28 to 22
    - I've lost just under 100 pounds and I'm about halfway to my current weight goal.
  • mlogantra76
    mlogantra76 Posts: 334 Member
    Well, I lost 120lbs ten years ago and then let 20-30lbs creep back on only recently(within the last 18 months). As to why I was morbidly obese 10 years ago? I love to eat. It was one of my hobbies. I also ate all the time.. What I was happy, angry, sad, stressed, anything. I also didn't realize I could lose the weight until I found weight watchers. Fast forward to 18 months ago, it all started with a splurge meal, then a splurge day, as well as having to give up running due to bad knees. The last 6 months, I've been in denial and very unhappy. I still maintained a few healthy habits which explains why I didn't gain more than I did. I have been using mfp to track calories and exercise since January 2nd and I feel great:) I'm down a pants size and am not getting on the scale till I'm down an additional one.. I'm still down 6 pants sizes from my highest but need to do go down 2 pants size to return to my goal.
  • I too have dated men that were embarrassed by me. I consider myself a pretty strong person, mainly due to my dysfunctional childhood, but deep down these men have chipped away at my self esteem. My husband, who I love dearly, happens to be what they call a gym rat. We've been married 8 years now and have three beautiful, healthy babies. Sadly, my husband has been the person who has hurt me the most in regards to my weight. He is attracted to thin women, no matter what they look like, as long as they're thin. He's flat out told me he's not attracted to me and that my weight is a big issue for him. At times I feel his disgust when he looks at me and I have felt his embarrassment when we're at social gatherings. I try to understand him since I know he has his own issues about being to thin (can you believe that). However, I can't deny the fact that this has absolutely crumbled my self esteem. It's hard for me to acknowledge this, but I don't think I can move forward if I don't. I'm determined to get healthy and lose weight. Not for the sake of what my husband might think of me then, because let's be honest I might never be good enough for him, but for the sake of my own sanity and my children. Thank you for hearing me out..
  • I just didn't care enough about myself


    says it all