Share the REAL reasons why you're fat (or too thin)

rachal1984

I had always been thin my whole life, I enjoyed a fabulous metabolism and got to eat anything I wanted and stay stick thin. I worked at an amusement park for a summer in college, due to the extra walking every day and the constant heat and humidity every day, I never felt like eating much. I ended up losing 20 pounds on my already thin body. This really messed up my metabolism and I ended up getting a thyroid problem as well. I returned to school and gained 50 pounds within 6 months, I went to the doctor but he pretty much laughed at me and said "you must be eating too much" after that I was too embarrased to seek help. It wasn't until several years later that my thyroid problem was discovered.
3 years later (still carrying the extra 50 pounds). I got married and had two miscarraiges within a year. My first miscarraige I was over 3 1/2 months along, I also found out that I have PCOD, scar tissue, and other fertility issues that would make it difficult for me to ever have a baby. This sent me into a deep depression that lasted for over a year. During that time I gained another 30 pounds.
On the bright side, I have a fabulous husband who is very supportive of everything I do, and we adopted my beautiful daughter who brightens my day. So I am now on my weight loss journey again. My life is looking up and I feel motivated to really succeed this time. I havn't felt like myself in 8 years, carrying all this extra weight and when I look in the mirror I don't see the image of myself. I was always thin and that is how I see the real me. I am 40 days into my latest attempt and so far I have lost 16 pounds. This time it's for good.

djm81sp

Eating redic amounts of food when I don't need to, especially late at night. Not caring what I ate or when. Using negative experiences or reasons to eat. Binge eating fast food. Being lazy. Not sticking to a plan. ICE CREAM! lol. Allowing others to influence what I eat (and not in a positive way). Not standing up for myself and taking control of MY life.

TeaTreeCat

I wish I knew why I'm chubby. I guess i's just a lack of motivation for me.

roblewis72

There's just too many calories in eating the labia minora

a778c466

I love to eat calorie dense food and I love to sit on my *kitten*. All of the excuses get old after a while. Oh, and everytime I was pregnant (3 times) I ate like Jessica Simpson and never exercised during or after.

THEMBE93

Hmmmm..........the real reason. well I'm on this journey alone and still living with my parents. This makes it hard to control what gets into the house( just watched them eat a whole cake and all I could do is turn a blind eye). I'm in my last year at university so I've been stress eating a lot more. So lack of self control WHEN stressed.

dstevens19

In other words, I always had an excuse to eat, an excuse to gain, but never had the tools or motivation to do the hard work that it takes to get the weight off and keep it off. I hope that through MFP I've found the tools. The motivation comes and goes in sync with my energy.

This could have been my response, too. Well put!

cosmic0074

A few days before my 12th birthday, a close friend of mine passed away; then my great-gram whom I was the closest to- passed away 6 weeks later. I became miserable and gave up softball and dancing, to wallow in my misery and found comfort in junk food, then became a lazy sack of ****.

boomerz12

When I was younger and actually skinny, I saw myself as fat. My parents were always overweight and everyone in my family so I figured it was in my genes and there was nothing I could do to stop it. So I didn't even try to stay healthy. Plus a lot of bullying growing up being told I was ugly and fat made it worse.

metacognition

I always binged on chocolate chip cookies. I was depressed with no friends or love life, so I found comfort in being a recluse and playing online multiplayer video games. I always kept some chocolate treat on the side and munched constantly. I've also been the chubby kid from about the age of eight, so that stigma was a part of my identity for a long time. I have always been the "fat girl." Until now!

tabathar

I have never been skinny but I wasn't fat till after I had my son. For me I just always felt ran down so I wasn't exercising and we ate junk from the restaurant I worked at because we were able to bring home food cheap and easy. 11 years later I am finally at a place where I am really committed to losing this weight the healthy way ( I have tried other ways before including going to a gym but never while really watching my food intake) Something is clicking this time and I have never felt that before.

TonyasLosinglt

I got fat because some moron I worked with couldn't listen to simple directions. His mistake led to me getting severely burned by chemicals. When the skin wouldn't heal properly, I was put on a treatment plan involving oral and topical steroids. I gained over 100 pounds in just six months. It has been a constant struggle in the ten years since then to take it back off. It seems like the more I do right, the fatter I get. So frustrating, but I won't let the fat win!

WingerE

I was an athlete in HS and never had to exercise on my own. I had ball practice! I ate tons of carbs and never quit eating like that when I graduated.

I also come from a foodie family that loves to cook and loves to bake. I stress bake! Then I had to find someone to eat it... I was the first person I saw.

I was at 175 when I was 24 and that was too big but I got motivated for my wedding and lost 15. It was way hard too hard for all the work I put in!

I never had regular periods and din't question is until I started trying to get pregnant and couldn't. I gained 30lb in 2 years when I moved and went to grad school. You can blame it on being a full time student plus a sedentary job, but really it wasn't that. I went to the gym for six months and still couldn't lose. I finally went to the Dr and found out I have PCOS....

The Dr has helped me balance my hormones and watches my insulin and the pounds have fallen off. Having a medical condition has made me do a lot of research on insulin and high-glycemic and how the body works and it has totally changed the way I eat.

I'm still a foodie, but with a twist! I love the challenge of making healthy foods, and I spend an extra amount of time when I go out to eat to critique the menu and find the perfect thing. I'm not afraid to ask them to personalize my dish. After all I'm worth it!

abbby27

u look awesome in your profile pic! congratz

MsTae84

Growing up I was always told that I was fat and even though I wasn't I believed it. I learned to live with the comments and thought nothing about my weight until I was 20. At 20 me and my boyfriend at the time use to go out to eat all the time and he worked at a fast food place which I ate from daily and then I woke up one day couldn't fit my favorite jeans. The next year I had a baby and my weight just escalated from there. With all the health problems in my family I am finally ready to rid this weight before I end up with health problems.

LaurieAnnAlex

I COULD say I blame my Mom - she always said that I had to be careful because obesity ran in the family. When I look at my grad pics from High School, I think, man there is nothing wrong with me. She always told reminded me of being overweight...I heard it all the time. I know she loves me and i could do the blame game, but now I am 43 years old and am Ultimately in Charge of me. It took me a long time to realize that. I do love food - I think for the longest time I equated it with LOVE - emotional issues, holding in what I need to say, for fear of others judging me for what i think. So it is the bigger picture, MIND BODY and SOUL that I need to conquer this. A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE my dear hypnotherapist told me today, do not look at this a DIET, but A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE. But now I am vowing to take a better charge of my life, LOVE and ACCEPT me for who I am. So, it is a variety of reasons why I am this size, but I am changing this for the better

Jerrypeoples

id love to blame my parents, my brother or something else

truth is i made horrible choices growing up that continued into adult hood. i never really cared and then the light switch went off. better late than never i guess

Tysonlovesweights

i used to work out a ton, and I have an active job (construction) that kept me pretty lean and muscular for a long time. after i got married I bought a house far from the gym and new priorities like walking the dog i never had before, and watching tv on the big screen i never had before seemed so important. I eventually stopped going to the gym altogether, but was still eating the way i used to, probably north of 4000 calories every day. when i moved up in my job, and the demands became less physical more mental, that aspect of fitness diminished too, so here i am, 50 pounds heavier than i can carry comfortably, and trying to get back down to my fighting weight.

ladydi850

I haven't really struggled with my weight until I reached age 41. The last four months I picked up 20 extra pounds and I know it is stress related. In the last four months I have been helping my father who had a bypass, a child who had knee surgery and is going three times a week to physical therapy, currently in the last stretch of my master's program, work in the child welfare field and doing internship.......all of this has taken a toll on my body. Weight gain happened and my blood pressure went up and I ended up in the hospital. Needless to say, I went back to my regular workout routine and try to de-stress as much as possible. The weight is coming off but it is not easy but I did notice my bloodpressure is trying to return to normal. I need to lose at least 25 pounds to be at a healthy weight. Hope this website will offer advice and support.

whitelaurel

That's an interesting question...

Since this is all just therapeutic, I'm going to try and work through from the beginning!

I think part of it is genetics, honest to God. I was born at over 10 pounds, and even though my mother's brothers and sisters (seven) started out thin from childhood--most of them look like models until their mid-twenties, and one was literally offered a modeling contract with some big magazine back in the day--all of them ended up very overweight or obese. (One actually lost all the weight through the Atkins diet, and another one has had success with Weight Watchers, and a few others are slowly but steadily losing weight, too!) Anyway, I was a little bit less lucky, and I simply never lost my baby fat. (Also, I am big boned. It makes me laugh when people say that "genetics" or "big bones" are just excuses, because I live them! The size of my cranium has always been bigger than the average girl's. My skeleton is large. When I reach my goal weight, I will still be big boned.

I started journaling about how unhappy I was about my weight in elementary school, because the other children would tease me. Even though my mom cooked at every meal, I think I always had trouble with portion control. And, you know, lasagna and tuna casserole and chicken casserole and any pasta dish you can think of and beef strogonoff and beef stew and big hamburgers and chicken pot pie and all manner of extravagant foods can be nutritious and fit into a diet -- but I always ate in excess. Also, at some point, me and my brother took a particular liking to Top Ramen, and we learned that we could sneak more ice cream past our parents by mashing it down in the bowl.

I think eating too much just became my vice in life. Moderation is hard for me--But I've found that using smaller utensils and smaller dishes really helps.

Also, through high school, I went through a few different periods of eating disorder behavior... The first time I went on a diet, I didn't consult anybody about it, and I figured I would see results if I just limited myself to 500-800 calories a day. Thankfully, I don't think this lasted long. But as a junior in high school, I got into an abuse relationship and accidentally stumbled into bulimia. As a result, I think I think about food way too much. "Am I hungry? Am I really? Should I eat--should I wait--What's too much? Is it too late? Did I mis-measure?" These thoughts aren't at the forefront of my mind, but eating is definitely an Event for me, not just something I do to sustain my body. And that's a problem, probably.

I also simply just take a lot of joy in eating. I must have an emotional attachment to it. I look forward to mealtime!

Wow! Sorry for this long post. I feel better now though!