Why/how did you become overweight?

Gannet72

Basically the exact same story for me. Went through a depression and gained about 30 lbs. but was always a skinny minnie before that. Almost back to my skinniest weight now! :bigsmile:

(Also do NOT believe in "excuses".) :noway:

trudijoy

i gained weight due to an undiagnosed thyroid condition. When it was diagnosed, I developed an eating disorder and screwed up my metabolism further. I slogged it out hard in the gym and ate well for 18 months and lost the weight, but then moved city. In the new city I suffered from injury, depression, my fathers diagnosis of terminal cancer and stress, and I gave up. This year is my year and I'm getting myself back. My tale is evidence that anyone can do this, I believe.

pseudomuffin

Just went down the line

Were you always overweight? Except for about two years of my adolescence in which I had an eating disorder, yes.

Or were you once a healthy weight? Technically I was the "right" weight at one time but the means by which I achieved it were not healthy and left me with a stunted metabolism.

Did you "let yourself go"? In a sense, yes.. I was in an emotionally manipulative/abusive relationship for almost 8 years and the stress took its toll on me... My highest weight was 239 in 2010, I lost about 35, kept off some, and here I am now I also got out of that bad situation and I'm a lot happier now so that's a plus!

Or perhaps it was due to a traumatic event, injury or medication? If you wanted to get all analytical, I had some really traumatic experiences when I was a child and a pretty bad back injury on top of the psychological stuff so that compounded with an unhappy childhood in general may have caused me to be an overweight kid. Or I just liked chocolate pudding too much, who knows.

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? Combination, I love to cook and I ate a lot of junk.

tachyon_master

Once upon a time I was a seriously competitive athlete. I ate however much I wanted and it didn't matter, because I was training a lot and competing a lot.

Then work got in the way and I stopped competing and training. But kept eating the way I'd always eaten. I put on about 15kg in 18 months. It was never a problem with *what* I ate so much as an issue with how much I ate. I think this is something that a large percentage of sports people go through when they dial back the training from what I've seen.

It took me 12 months to get back to where I was. Just a matter of exercising more and keeping more of an eye on my food intake.

fatjavotte

I was a healthy, slim child but I have inherited a big frame from my father's side. This didn't go well with my petite mother who happens to have anorexic tendencies. So from the age of 8, I was called fat, fat, fat (but I was also offered food as a reward).
I turned to comfort eating during my teenage years and got very overweight by the time I was 20. I went abroad for a year, away from my family, lost all the weight, and as soon as I came back home binge eating destroyed me.
I have managed to lose weight many times since then, but binge eating has always won so far.

lives21

I was a normal weight until my parents divorced when I was 10. I used food to bridge the gap in my family by often eating twice, once with each parent. One ate healthy and one didn't, so I definitely know which eating habits I adopted as I got older.

I got teased a lot in middle school, but kept gaining weight steadily from 5th grade- junior year of college. I got fairly depressed in high school, often didn't eat when I was depressed, got hungry and then ate a huge meal. I've never been a binge eater, I just like food. I would overeat at practically every meal, and most of my family are foodies and have or still do work in the food industry (including me, restaurants and worse a bakery my brother owned). Once I had a job my senior year of HS I ate most of my meals from drive thrus, especially being on the go and busy.

My junior year of college I lost about 50 pounds in an unhealthy way (HCG) after seeing my Aunt being extremely successful on it, although she has yoyo'd ever since. That same year I read my county's medical report and after reading all of the fatality causes with heart disease the biggest killer. A few years later I got a call back from my bloodwork (had never happened before) with slightly elevated triglycerides. That definitely scared me since it looks like a slippery slope to heart disease and eventual failure. Did I let myself go? I definitely didn't care, and wasn't aware that I should even be trying or holding on to something. I didn't care that I was gaining weight, so yup I guess so.

I definitely became overweight while staying an active kid. During middle school, I gained a lot of weight and did very little activity/sports, only doing school P.E. and doing it poorly haha. All throughout high school I did intensive competitive marching band with 15 to 25+ hours of heavy activity. I gained an estimated 35 pounds while I was that active. I ate a lot of junk/fast food as well as big homemade meals. I was also a very picky kid, not liking fruits/veggies very much for the majority of my life.

Now I'm just trying to slowly change and get happy. Things are going well.

peachynoir

I wasn't always overweight, really. Pretty skinny kid and early teen. But my weight started fluctuating between normal and slightly chubby the last couple years of high school then I ballooned up my freshmen year of college to full-blown chubby. However, I lost like 20 lbs and went back to being petite by senior year of college. Essentially, I was always a healthy, reasonable weight - just either on the lower end or higher end of it.

But when I started working and traveling a lot, the pounds packed on. I worked as a food and wine critic up until about six months ago (opting to do F&W writing freelance while going in a more press-based direction) and although I ate really healthy outside of my work obligations, my work obligations consisted of 8-12 course meals paired with wines for course, etc. I'm in high demand because where I live, there are only a handful of reputable wine writers in the entire country, so there's always wine dinners, tastings, and so on that I get invited to attend. So, I think that combined with my generally stationary position in front of my computer on my off-time writing, I just got heavier than I'd like.

I love and respect food, though. It is my life and I owe all of my world experiences to it. While I'm eating clean for the most part at home, I do indulge and luckily, I never feel guilty... I'm not having a weak moment and having Burger King, I'm having an incredible chef serve me lobster udon or crispy noodle-wrapped foie gras and a wonderful chenin blanc, so I am pretty happy about the relationship I have with food; it breaks my heart when I read some of the posts on here about someone regretting X meal or Y drink.

Superchas

Do not have an on/off switch to tell me to stop
No reason not to go out every night with different people
Could carry quite a lot of weight
Love cereal
Ignored warning signs
Felt this was my treat
Yo yo dieting

EdTheGinge

Ok in answer to your questions:

Were you always overweight? Yes, pretty much

Or were you once a healthy weight? I was a healthy weight when about 17 and then 20.

Did you "let yourself go"? Yes I got lazy

Or perhaps it was due to a traumatic event, injury or medication? I lost my job, wrote my car off which made me very low so I would just eat and laze around the house all day playing xbox games.

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 been cycling to work for over year and a half now but for the 1st year I just gained and gained as I was eating far more than burning.

saktii2323

I have had instances of being as much as 20lbs overweight when I was younger, but it didn't get worse until I got into my 30's, developed thyroid disease, and got a rich European foodie boyfriend.

bellington2194

I have never been overweight, but I can honestly say I haven't lived a healthy lifestyle my whole life. I never played sports as a kid. I was generally active, but I wish I had been more athletic as a child to develop that healthy, exercising lifestyle. I freaked out about PE in junior high, like every girl does and managed to opt out of it. My freshman year of high school, that wasn't allowed. I made it through PE just fine and dove my freshman and sophomore years of high school. Around that time, I was about 130-135 pounds. It wasn't until I stopped diving and no longer had a PE class that I realized that NOT exercising at all was simply not going to cut it. By my senior year, I was up to 155, which is not at all large or overweight, but I wanted something different for myself. I thought that I was "just growing" and the weight gain was normal, but I reached my current 5'7" by the beginning of my junior year, so this was just an excuse I was making for myself. My family has a horrible history of diabetes and heart disease, and I did not want to fall victim to that. If anything, I want to be an example for them, because some of my relatives are in fact very overweight. I got my weight down to 140 in a little over a month just by running every day (I used to LOATHE running) and just keeping track of my calories. I used to use Loseit!, but I love this app much better. Anyway, I became so proud of myself at that point that I thought my work was done. I stopped all exercise and KIND OF kept going with the calorie counting, but by summer I was almost back up to 150. I was not about to lose all my hard work, so I began swimming casually over the summer. It wasn't until I got to college in the fall that I REALLY started getting serious. I figure if I build good habits now, I will never feel the need to "lose weight". I won't have to dread "baby weight" in the future because my naturally healthy lifestyle I am developing now will take care of that. In college I either ran at least a mile every day or went to the gym for an hour. I am back down to my usual 140 and I can honestly say I like what I see in the mirror. I am a weight junkie, so the bulk of my body weight is muscle weight. I guess I would just like to be lighter and more toned; not necessarily skinnier. It is very difficult for me to pass under this 140 pound mark because I feel like all I do is build muscle. So many people have helped me along my journey to a healthy lifestyle, and I would greatly appreciate any suggestions I can receive about my current obstacle Thank you for reading, and good luck to all!

jryan83

I started gaining weight when I was about 7 or 8. Before then I was a normal or slightly underweight kid. Got hooked on sweet stuff in school ironically, since it wasn't something really kept at home. That kind of started the downward spiral.
Weight just went up from there I was a fat ballerina ages 8-13. Quit that because it was too embarassing to show up fat when everyone was so skinny. Without the dancing activity it got worse and worse. Hormones have always been a problem. Didn't have first period til 15 and from then HIGHLY irregular (literally months between cycles). Same issues in adulthood.
Diagnosed with PCOS, keeping slightly to moderately active despite the weight. Weight just doesn't come off anymore. Get about 20lbs down and it's as much as my body will let me loose.

I feel like I'm a smart person so I have the knowledge and tools to loose, just my body won't cooperate. I get discouraged cause I'm denying myself and seeing so little to show for it, that's when I usually fall of the wagon.

Pookylou

Were you always overweight?
A little not loads, but never fit and healthy

Or were you once a healthy weight?
I think in my teens I was "normal" I never was made fun of about my weight or anything like that.

Did you "let yourself go"?
Yep, when I went to uni it started, cooking/eating on my own. Eating a lot of crap and doing little to no exercise.

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?
Eating crap, a lot of take out, I could eat a large dominos pizza and a side in one sitting...... I stopped caring about my body and abused it. I have some issues with emotional and boredom eating and have had to deal/control those which MFP has helped massively with.

libertarian4321

I always ate a lot, but when I was young, I stayed in shape with sports.

Then the military kept me in shape.

After leaving the Army, I stopped exercising, but still at the same.

Gained a ton of weight over the next 20 years.

DawnieB1977

For those of you who want to share, I am interested to hear your stories about why/how you became overweight.

Were you always overweight?

Not always. I started to put weight on as a teenager. I wasn't skinny before that, but I wasn't fat either. I was an active child, and as my mum didn't drive and my dad did shift work, we walked everywhere.

Or were you once a healthy weight?

As a child. Then again in my early 20s, my BMI was around 22. Now my BMI is 26.0, so I'm not far off a normal weight.

Did you "let yourself go"?

A little bit. I moved in with my now husband, and started eating bigger portions. I did my teacher training, and that was stressful, and hard work, and i put weight on as I didn't exercise as much. Then I lost some. Then I put some on again. Then I got engaged, lost around 40lbs for my wedding. A month later I was pregnant, and when I had my son I was bigger (probably a big US size 12). I lost the weight after him, then got pregnant with my daughter when he was 13 months. Put on loads with her. And now I've lost it all and more and am wearing clothes I kept from my mid 20s (i'm 35 now).


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

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?

Like I said, when I moved in with my now husband, we ate bigger portions, but it was healthy food. I've never been into junk food. We got the occasional take-away pizza, but with a new mortgage we didn't have money to waste! We'd make things like chilli, and have a huge bowl, and have seconds.

Thank you for sharing, I think your stories will shed some light and help us to understand our weight loss journeys, since the mental component is so important, and we have to know where we come from to move forward.

Feel free to link to other past threads or groups.

I also think one of the biggest weight loss mistakes I made in the past was to not eat enough. I used to believe that 1200 calories, or less, was fine. In my early 20s I was probably eating less, and I was at the gym 5 or 6 times a week, but just doing cardio, no weights at all. And I think that's partly why my body was so quick to put weight on, especially in pregnancy when I just ate normally.

jenilla1

I've never been overweight, but as I've gotten older and my metabolism slowed down and stress ramped up, I found myself creeping up a little into the higher end of the normal range. I don't ever want to be overweight and out of shape, and I won't use age and stress as an excuse to let myself go, so I figured it was time to start paying attention to my eating and exercise habits. I'm now back down to the weight I used to be when I was in college. To me, it's better to be proactive and prevent weight related problems than have to repair the damage after it happens. Good luck everyone! :flowerforyou:

Reema_capricorn

I was a perfectly healthy girl till I was 20. I have always been a fitness fiend and I started exercising by going for power walks at 15. I got fit and toned but I had the fear of piling on weight so I joined the gym. HUGE MISTAKE! coz I got bored of the close environment of the gym and quit at 21 and omigod I put on 23 kgs on my 5'3" frame. My weight went from 55 kgs to 78 kgs after I quit gymming. ITts been 4 years now I am trying to get back into shape. I started yoga a year and a half ago and go for walks and do JM videos from youtube I am gonna start running from 1st march 2013! Wish me luck )

vdclark11

Were you always overweight?
No, I wasn't. I was very skinny until I turned 19. I worked out at the university gym and videos at home all the time. I didn't have a whole lot of money to binge on food, so I stayed at my high-school weight for about 2 years out.

Did you "let yourself go"? Or perhaps it was due to a traumatic event, injury or medication?
Yes, I did. I hit some very bumpy years. Dropping out of college, multiple family deaths, divorce, car accidents, mental health issues, losing countless jobs...it just kept piling up. Needless to say, I gave up on my health. Ate a lot of junk, spent my evenings on the couch. Then when I started trying to take care of myself mentally, I was put on a medication that made me gain weight like crazy...I hit my highest weight with that. Another doctor put me on another one and after I went off the first one, I lost 10 pounds very quickly. Then as my mood stabilized, it was easier for me to just keep losing weight because I started caring about myself again.

Ryanmariem

I was always the skinny kid until I hit an early puberty at the age of 9/10, then even out at age 12. However I thought I was big because I was the most developed girl in the class, I looked like I was 16, it is just I grew tall and grew hips and a bust, I was no longer the skinny kid but had a womans figure.

I maintained a well balanced height and weight through-out HS, until I reached the age of 19, when I had a very bad case of ovarian cysts that sent me to the hospital and my first round of birth control pills, they did not set well for me and I went from a 5.6/7 height at 130lbs to 180lbs, I went from a size 10/12 to a size 16/18. I had a hard time loosing the weight until I went off the BC pills at 22. Which with excercise I droped back down to a size 12/14 and 145/50lbs... that lasted until I had my daughter at 24. I gained a lot of weight during pregnancy (220lbs) and after while I breast fed (260). That was my fault from just over eating too many good foods and just letting myself go as I was so super focused on my child. It was not until she turned 16months I started taking notice of how much I gained.

I went back to college and while in college took weight training and nutritional courses and began my weight loss with a focuss on being healthy not weight. From 2003 to 2006 I went from 240 to 180lbs, then in 2007 went down to 170lbs... I still wanted to loose another 20-30lbs but had reached a plateau, and it did not seem to matter how much I excercised or what I ate, it just would not move below 170lbs... but on the plus side though I would gain a little it would never go above 190lbs and I would quickly be back at 170lbs. So I maintianed a size 14, for over 5 yrs until about 2yrs ago I had some medical and traumatic events occur.

The result I went from 180lbs to 230lbs, from my 14/16 to a size 18/20, a size I had not seen since I was pregnant and breastfeeding...ugh! Well after two years of going to the doctors, I finally was properly diagnosed w/thyroid problems. It has been 1 month since I have been on medicine and I started anew to focus on my diet again Jan 1 2013. Before that I was unable to focus having Hypoglycemia, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, PCOS, Depression/Anxiety, it was like my body was working against me.... I spent a year in Counseling (& still going) and Saw a Natural Pathic Dr. & fouind a specialist for my thyroid and now I am finally feeling normal again.

It is soo good to have energy again, and put to use my knowledge of a healthy weight loss and eating, along with find new research to address my medical conditions. I do not like taking medications if not needed, I prefer to find natural alternatives first, so the only medicine I am on is my Armour Thyroid which is a natural thyroid from pigs.... and it is 15lbs and counting.

The book "Blood Sugar Solution" by, Dr. Mark Hyman, has helped a whole lot at understanding how to manage my health conditions w/my goal weight.

I can now say there are no excuses now that I have the energy and am once again motivated to get back to a healthy lifestyle. I was able to loose up to 90lbs before so I know it can be done again.

Having my thyroid diagnosed has help me to understand that is probably why I was unable to breach my plateau weight a few years back, as I had started noticing back then that something just did not seem right. It took a few traumatic events to triggure everything to a point where I could not even work for two years, by body literally shut down on me... I went from a very active person to soo lathargic and weak, that just doing basic day to day stuff was a challenge and sometimes could not even be done. Also I was in so much pain it hurt to move.... that is when I started doing a lot of research on how to find a way around the mass medications they wanted me on, the main being anti-depressents... I don't do drugs, I don't even like taking tylenol for pain.... I have chemical allergies and alot of the medicines set off allergic reactions... so do not help much. I also don't like quick fixes to treat symptoms I want to find the root cause and treat the problem.