Why/how did you become overweight?

leomom72

i think i was healthy weight until i got pregnant..then i got pregnant again almost right away, because i couldnt affort birth control anymore..then we moved cross country, then 6 months later my husband went into the military, and i was raising 2 young kids alone, so i stressed/bored ate..i wish i had been told back then that i was fat, but i never saw it until i started losing weight. i knew i was fat, but not THAT much

DRJ311

I was not always overweight, always pretty normal through out high school,(I'm 5'1, weighed around 128 then.) I didn't start gaining weight until I hit my mid twenties. I was in a bad relationship and I think I was stress eating. (My normal weight ballooned to 175). I was actually working out ALOT then, trying to lose the lbs, but I think just the bad ora of the relationship had an effect on my success. Even then I wasn't as big as I am now. I would take that 175 back in a heartbeat!! The thing that really did it for me now was having two children in the last two years, back to back. I was not at my ideal weight before I had my first child, then immediately got pregnant with my second before I could shed all the weight from the first pregnancy.Using MFP and planning out small, realistic goals. The problem with me is that I am very impatient and I am a chronic scale-goer. I literally weight myself every 4 hours, like the scale is going to drop 5 lbs in 5 hours...I just have to stay realistic. I still have bad days, but I see it as one pound at a time.

newdaydawning79

I honestly cannot remember a time when I wasn't overweight. I was a bookworm, didn't go outside much at all because I'd rather read and play with the imaginary people in my head...I actually got grounded from books as a child so I'd go outside! And it just went from there. I got bullied about it through elementary school and junior high...and I ate to console myself. It just snowballed from there, food was my answer to a day gone bad. A couple stressful jobs later and I tipped the scales at 288.6, my highest weight ever. My sister had a heartattack at 38 and I decided there was no way I was taking the same path (I'm 33 now). So here I am, trying to get off somewhere between 100-120 pounds depending on how I feel and how my BF% goes.

oh_em_gee

I was a thin kid, but I became less active as an adult and ate tons of junk at college. That combination made me fat. I had never learned to restrict food because I never had to before. My weight steadily crept up and I always said, "ok, I'll weigh xx amount, but not higher". Then it would get higher and I'd still say the same thing

celb500

Were you always overweight?

No, the exact opposite, I was underweight and would fast for up to a week allowing myself an apple a day or a sandwich if id been to the gym more than once from the age of 13-19. I was deeply unhappy afte rmy dad died when I was 9 and I used food as a form of control. I didn't like eating - I did it to keep alive and even then I wasn't interested in that. Then I met my boyfriend and he pushed me to eat and recover but I lost control and ate everything in my last two years of university and used excessive food consumption as comfort through the tough times. So I finished uni being seriously overweight.

It was all through eating crappy foods but it was also the amount i ate which was more. I ate constantly and large portions too!

I'm a much happier person now and my relationship with food is much better. I am actually thinner now than I was when i first met my boyfriend because I used to drink a lot and I dont really drink now which has made a difference. I sound like such a basket case but I am happy, healthy and am a really strong person. I think teenage hormones and angst had a lot to do with it!!!! I'm very lucky for my life

GemskiB

I think I was normal ish til around 7years old? That's when my parents marriage went down the tubes. Then I was living with my mum and stepdad and I look back and wonder how I never got bigger with what we were eating. I had good influences from my dad, and developed a love of cooking. I moved 500 miles away from home for uni at 18, and partied too hard/had a couple of destructive relationships. Looking back at pictures I could guess that my highest weight was 230-235, although my start weight was just over 220. I think I fluctuated over the uni years and when I worked offshore on the oil rigs. Then I moved jobs after 4 years offshore and I was really unsure of myself and overeating. I decided last summer I had to do something and over about 7 months I've lost nearly 35lbs. Also, 6 weeks ago I badly broke my ankle and have kept up with the weight loss/logging/calorie counting. I don't want to be that fat girl anymore, I finally have the confidence to be who I want to be :-)

martintanz

Have always been somewhate overweight, from grade school on. I can still remember kids teasing me about it in 3rd grade, and again in middle school especially. Even though I started doing sports in 5th, I managed to eat enough that I was still chubby.

I finally managed to get control of my weight in high school, going from 190 down to 155 the summer I turned 15, so figured out that I was not one of those "glandular cases." Back then, it was just a matter of cutting back on sweets and junk food, riding my bike everywhere, and practicing martial arts 4 nights a week. Managed to stay in control of my weight, more or less through high school.

Put on 25 or 30 lbs when I went off to college. 3 years later, took off 50 lbs through diet and exercise and managed to graduate college 10 lbs lighter than I was when I graduated high school. Unfortunately, could not keep it off, and over the next 2 years, gradually gained the weight back. Then managed to stay around the same weight (225 more or less) for the next 5 years with regular exercise (weights and cardio 3 to 5 times/week).

Moved across the country and changed careers and gained a quick 15 lbs, later gained another 10 or 15, so my new set point was closer to 250, though it would drop down to 240 or so from time to time when I did stuff like biking regualarly.

A few years later, went back to school and gained another 15 lbs, so now my set point was closer to 265. Eventually, went on a serious weight loss program and went all the way down to 210. managed to stay between 210 and 220 for about 3 years before slowly gaining back some weight. I had a few nagging injuries over the course of a year that limited the quality and quantity of exercise I could do. should have eaten less, but didn't. The slow gain increased after the death of my father (and the death of my wife's sister) a couple of years ago. Finally got on the scale last summer and to my dismay realized my weight was 287. So now I am logging my food and down below 250.

See a pattern?

Sweets1954

I was a normal weight growing up and through high school but I remember my mother poking me in the stomach and telling me I was fat. I was always one of the tallest kids in the class, until high school usually taller than most of the boys, and very self conscious of the fact I was "bigger" than everyone. I use to get teased a lot by the other kids. My dad would make comments about my "big feet"-we should just get boxes instead of shoes. I suppose he thought he was being funny but it hurt-a lot. In high school my girl friends and I would "diet", even though none of us were overweight, it seemed that was the thing to do. I lived over seas and didn't get my drivers license until I was 18 so I walked everywhere. After graduating high school I became less active and the weight began to creep up, especially after I started seeing someone. We would meet after work and he would always have a dinner prepared, even though I often got off work around 10 at night. That's when I started drinking as well. As time when on I would diet, lose a few pounds, stop dieting and gain back what I had lost plus a little more. I married and my husband was great at either sabotaging my diet efforts or belittling them. He became the "food police" and I would rebel. With each child (I have two) I ended the pregnancy with a net lose but the weight soon came back on. Again I was on the diet roller coaster. When I was a stay at home mom I joined the Y and was attending water exercise classes as well as Mommy and Me swimming classes with my children. My weight stabilized at that time. My husband lost his job and I returned to work and no longer had the time to attend the exercise classes and the weight crept up again. I am now 59, divorced from my first husband, and diagnosed with diabetes which has progressed to the point where I am now on insulin. I remarried almost 3 years ago, have a darling granddaughter, two step grandsons, and another step granddaughter on the way in a few months. My goal is to lose enough weight I can get off the diabetes meds, as well as those for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. I want to be around to see my grandchildren grow up. I want to be able to spend as much time with my husband as I possibly can and be healthy enough to do the traveling we want to do. I had lost between 30 and 35 pounds before starting with MFP but it has been extremely slow--over about 5 years. I began with MFP in January and have lost a few more pounds and am keeping them off. I believe I will be successful this time because I have a whole new mindset now.

Lisa_Rhodes

I was always big. Ate good ol' southern food growing up and some processed foods... not very active either. But I've been yo-yo deting since I was in middle school and at one point I just gave up... but I want kids w/ my hubby and don't want to be like this... have to be healthier and happier :-D

Maris_Swan

I let myself go and stopped caring. Food became comfort and before I knew it I was 374lbs and miserable and had to make a change! My story is as simple as that.

MrsRogers2010

Were you always overweight? Not overweight, but a little bigger than the rest of my friends (but I am much taller than them also)

Or were you once a healthy weight? Before I got pregnant I was pretty darn hotttt! lol, and during my pregnancy I didn't gain an insanely amount of weight probaly 25 lbs ( had morning sickness that lasted the whole 9 months)

Did you "let yourself go"? Yes, I moved right after having my son, over 150 miles away from home. I had no friends, and my husband worked long hours. I often told my husband "if we would have never moved I wouldn't be so big now, I had friends and places to go and could have stayed busy and lost this weight by now". I was also unemployed which was something new to me. I had always worked since I was 16, we lived in a SMALL town where there were no jobs, I didn't have a vehicle of my own at the time and I didn't have anyone to watch my son while I worked had I had a job. It was just me and the baby most of the time. I was bored, lonely, and depressed, and I turned to food. Then I found out I had a hypothyroidism, but I didn't stay on my meds like I should have, for various reasons. Then, as time went on, I continued to blame it on those factors. 7 years later here I am, weighing 30 lbs more than I did at 9 months pregnant! I only have myself to blame, and only I can change it.

conniemaxwell5

I have always been overweight by at least 25-30 pounds. At my heaviest I was 80 pounds overweight. I'm currently 40 pounds overweight and am hoping to get to what is normal for my body sometime this year. I grew up on a farm and we ate whole foods raised right there. My mom always made desserts though so I became addicted to sweets / sugar at an early age. I was bullied at school for my weight as well as my intelligence and I would come home and eat a cookie (or a few) while pouring my heart out to my mom. I think at some point I linked the sweets to the comfort she gave me. I still want to turn to them when I am stressed or overwhelmed. When I give up sweets, I lose weight so I know being overweight isn't just something I have to live with. I changed my lifestyle about 10 years ago and lost 45 pounds. I backslid and gained 30 of it back about 3 years ago. I turned 50 last year and decided it was time to get healthy. I joined a gym and started eating right and I've lost 35 pounds and am feeling great.

darrensurrey

Were you always overweight?
No. Was underweight!

Did you "let yourself go"?
Ate more than I moved as I got older/busier. Was quite active (climbed, trained) but ate a lot more carbs than I really needed to. Mmmm crisps. :bigsmile:

Or perhaps it was due to a traumatic event, injury or medication?
Fortunately, not, so very much my own fault.

And did anyone become overweight while still being an active person and (over)eating homemade, whole foods, or was it only through eating essentially crap food, processed foods, restaurant/fast food?
At too much of everything. I ate quite healthily and cooked my own food for the last 10 years but just ate too much of it. Nothing new there!

You're right about the mental component - too often overlooked.

rileamoyer

Ate too much for my level of activity. That is all.

mommy1126

Were you always overweight?
No, actually before I had kids, I had never been anywhere close to overweight. In fact, if anything I had trouble not dipping in to the underweight category.

Or were you once a healthy weight? I was a healthy weight for most of my life.

Did you "let yourself go"? In part.

Or perhaps it was due to a traumatic event, injury or medication? During my last pregnancy (my son is now almost 2) I had severe complications, and so did he. So, I was on complete bed rest for approximately 2 1/2 months. The only time I could get up was to go to the bathroom. At the same time, I had gestational diabetes, and they had me on a special high calorie diet to try and offset the fact that he was not getting enough nutrition due to complications with the cord. So, needless to say, I put on a lot of weight.

And did anyone become overweight while still being an active person and (over)eating homemade, whole foods, or was it only through eating essentially crap food, processed foods, restaurant/fast food? A combination. After my first son (12 years ago) I ate non-healthy stuff, and actually lost all but 5 lbs of my pregnancy weight. I have already mentioned the complications I had with my second son, and when I was pregnant with him, I actually ate healthily.

Debbe2

I ate too much. Pure and simple. Over consumed and under active. I've corrected that unbalance and am much happier and healthier.

SpecialSundae

Were you always overweight? Yes. I was a chubby child who loved food.
Or were you once a healthy weight? Yes, for about five minutes whilst suffering a second bout of Delhi Belly in India.
Did you "let yourself go"? No.
Or perhaps it was due to a traumatic event, injury or medication? Nope.
And did anyone become overweight while still being an active person and (over)eating homemade, whole foods, or was it only through eating essentially crap food, processed foods, restaurant/fast food? I've always (largely) eaten decent food, lots of fresh vegetables etc. I was just very inactive (or active in the wrong ways), ate portions which were too large and (at times) drank too much.

Bubsys_mom

Were you always overweight?

No. I was actually skinny/fit up until around 2001, my 8th grade year. Tagged with a bad knee and ovarian cysts, then the pressures of school I just gave up and started packing on weight.

Or were you once a healthy weight?

Once upon a time I was.

Did you "let yourself go"?

Yes.

Or perhaps it was due to a traumatic event, injury or medication?

Tendonitis in my right knee caused me to stop playing sports. I had ovarian cysts, which my doctor said could cause weight gain due to hormone imbalances. Then it just became depression and the attitude, "I don't give a f**k anymore."

And did anyone become overweight while still being an active person and (over)eating homemade, whole foods, or was it only through eating essentially crap food, processed foods, restaurant/fast food?

N/A

Liz12mae

i was actually too skinny now that i look back at it, before my daughter was born. But its just because i would dance til 6am at raves like every frid-sun... and i wouldnt do that now anyway....haha
but when i was pregnant i didnt exercise at all.... i mean at all... and i ate EVERYTHING, and a lot of it.. i gained more weight that i should during pregnancy, even my doctor kept telling me that. and then after she was born... i didnt go back to work for a year and continued to gain weight. overall in about at year or so i gained around 100 pounds. the good news is i am working my way back to where i want to be (about 20 pounds more than i was before my daughter) and i have every entention of being there by the end of the year. only 27 pounds to go!

Liz12mae

I let myself go and stopped caring. Food became comfort and before I knew it I was 374lbs and miserable and had to make a change! My story is as simple as that.

your profile picture is amazing! great job!