Please don't be offended...

that's more of a psychology and sociology question. probably for a host of reasons, but question why / how people become so addicted to gambling that they lose all their money, or addicted to meth, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. people tend to do that. it happens.

You will learn in school about why. Eating becomes an addiction. Yep, psych.

Read responses later.

i really like what ready2bhealthy said. i agree with all over those reasons. i think just how you are brought up, things that have happened to you in your life, whether they be traumatic or not- those things ALONE are such a huge part of it.

i am almost 300 pounds. the reasons i am fat is because when i was growing up, my family was really poor. my mother made us eat everything off our plates, she did not want us to waste food. she also hid food and didn't let us have junk, making me sneaky about it. those reasons alone have so much to do with how i am today. i am the same way and do not like to waste food, always clean my plate, and still do this days feel "guilty" when having junk food.

being over-weight and obese or whatever has so much more than simply having no control. its literally an addiction for some, and food is the only way they can cope with things.

i hope this helps you understand a little better and have compassion !

For me, a couple reasons.

#1, I was fairly content in my life. So I ate what I wanted, and didn't give a *insert random obscenity here* about my weight. I've always been chubby to husky my entire life. After 21, it was all downhill from there. I hit 320 and finally said "oh hell. I should probably do something about this." There wasn't anything that was specific, like high blood pressure, etc. I just kinda stopped and realized that maybe this wasn't the best.

I've always figured 100% of life ends in death - might as well enjoy it how I want to. Now rather than wanting to eat whatever I want, I want to ride roller coasters. So that's my next journey. Right now I can fit into all Disney rides, so my next step is Universal Studios rides, and i'll work my way down til I can fit into Six Flags and Cedar Point rides

I'll never be a toned, fit, exercise-religiously kinda guy. That's not fun to me, and I don't want to live like that. But I think being healthier isn't a bad thing at all.

For me it was a combination of things:

1) My mother prepared very unhealthy foods that would feed about 20 people... and there were 4 of us. So we would eat and eat and eat. Lots of calories and growing up in dawn of the video game age with limited activity packed on weight pretty well as a kid.

2) As I got older I got very active in football (coaches love to put a stocky and strong fat kid on the line) so I was able to maintain my weight for years but granted I had to eat more to do so due to the increase in activity. After my playing days were done, the activity level decreased again but the caloric intake didn't. I blew up to my highest weight which I estimate to be around 485 pounds.

I made somewhat healthier changes and got down to my playing weight (around 330) which is what I maintained and carried around for years because it just felt normal to me. I've yo-yo'ed a couple of times in the last couple of years, but overall I'm down around 50 pounds from what I walked around at and 30 pounds since the end of June.

I carry my weight well, but it's because I was heavy all my life and my body just adapted to that.

I hope you're able to help people reach their goals... good luck!

People often find comfort in food when they are profoundly depressed.

As a nurse, I think it'd be GREAT for you to understand that for MANY people (not all!) ... it's an addiction. Like alcoholics, smokers, drug abusers, shopaholics ....

For many people, like me, depression can lead to eating disorders like binge eating, bulimia, and anorexia. And just because there isn't a specific official name for every 'eating disorder,' doesn't mean some are not as serious or dangerous as others.

As I said, this is NOT the reason for everyone, but I think it is for many.

Lots of people loathe the way they look, feel, etc about being so overweight, but it's a vicious cycle when you are depressed and have an ED. You hate the way you feel and look which leads you to eat more, and thus gain more, and thus hate how you look and feel even more.

Quitting is nearly impossible... just as with drugs / alcohol, the first step is to 'admit you have a problem'

It's VERY hard.

Here is the how obesity is a illness just like alcoholism! It is not a new topic at all the bible talks about it as a deadly sin, gluttony! But see our world ignores the issues of this and it has been accepted! So if you or anyone suffers from being a sinner should understand! We all have our problems see gluttony is one that is worn on the outside!

For me it is the sedatary lifestyle (when involved in a project I can sit in front of a compter sceen for hours without getting up) and what is now called 'carb sensativity'. My body treats carbs as jewels to be put away for when the famine comes, that the famine does not come just means more gets put into storage.
My beloved wife who passed away in March 2012 was a tiny thing weighing barely 100 pounds @5'2". But if we went to a all-u-can-eat place she would outeat me by three or four platefuls, especially desserts. And she would sit at her sewing machine for hours then get up and go to a meeting where she would sit for several more hours.
Long winded answer that boils down to it is a combination of nature & nuture, and how the two intertwine. IMHO
Cliff {:{)

I agree with all of the above PLUS:

Too many pair of elastic waisted, stretchy pants and skirts.
A house with no full-length mirrors.
Moved to a house with no room for a scale in the bathroom.

It isn't hard to put on a half-pound a week -- suddenly two years has flown past, and you're 50 pounds overweight! It happens fast, and yes, it is comfort eating due to a full-out food addiction.

But everyone's reasons are different, I suppose. I've been a yo-yo all my life.

Best of luck!
Blue

As a lot of people mentioned, for myself is started in childhood. And this is an excuse that I'm not happy to admit to, but depending on your levels of self-confidence, but self anxiety in social situations due to being overweight, and (or combined with) the tendency of the many *kitten* of the world to make fun of overweight people when they are exercising or out in public in general, can tend to drive a person back home to the couch. And again, as others have mentioned, the various levels of depression that can go along with these things can often lead to binge / comfort eating. There is not a person alive without some vice or another.

i've been wondering the same.

Quite simple for me, I was depressed and wanted to kill myself. didn't want to do suicide so being over weight was a good way to shorten my life

I used to be 250+lbs, and if I'm completely honest with you, I have no idea how.

Laziness and a lack of physical activity, I suppose. The bigger I became, the more withdrawn and self-conscious I became, and it perpetuated the problem. I didn't want to go out looking like a whale or having people stare at me trying to run (a problem I've only recently overcome, minus over 100lbs later) or be at the gym and wonder if people were wondering why someone like me was even there.

The foods I ate growing up weren't spectacular, and they got worse as I got older. I barely knew how to cook until I moved out, and I disliked most vegetables in their more natural flavours. Dinner was often something from a takeaway or a pizza, or something else that had no remnants of anything healthy left on it.

I don't think I ever emotionally ate, at least I can't recall doing so, and I don't think I've ever been depressed (just awkward about my size).
School and mandatory P.E classes didn't help, they just made me feel worse about my inability to be as physically active as I wanted to be.
None of my family were physically active, and nobody I was friends with ever shared my interests, so my sports fascination was only useful in front of a screen, or sat in a seat somewhere.

For all intents and purposes I should've been fit as a fiddle, given my propensity to care too much about other people's opinions and my love of sports. I never should've gotten as big as I did, and ruined my body as I did, but I did... and I'm guessing my story isn't that different to most others.