Serious question, not trying to be mean...

I got to 200lbs because I ate rubbish when I was alone , a secret eater

I was a closet eater, nothing but crap, no one ever saw me, I ballooned and now have to pay for it, but it was my fault no one else's. They might be closet eaters or maybe have a medical issue like Thyroid no one knows about also.

For me, sedentism played a large part. For large parts of my life, I've been very active. Not owned a car, walked everywhere, had jobs where I was on my feet all the time. Went back to school in my later 20s and boom! Pounds piled on. I just continued to eat as I was used to, but without the constant activity, I couldn't maintain my former weight.

i eat fairly well during the day - healthy choices, reasonable portions, little snacking - and am at least 80 pounds overweight....contributing factors in my opinion .......

1) i tend to eat late evening snacks sometimes - not tons but enough,
2) I have a weakness for sweets (with no 'stop' button) (chocolate, cookies, squares)
3) and lack of movement... sit all day and then would go home and sit.

people who know me and see how i eat ask me the same thing (nicely of course :-)) when i discuss weight...they think i should not have a weight issue when they see my meals. My caloris and eating are always good during the day ---- it's the evening's eating that is the issue

trying to change those 3 bad habits but it is tough. I also think i have messed my metabolism going from too low calories some days and then way too high on others. ...but really think the lack of movement is my biggest issue.

By eating a fast food meal before getting home from work and then cook and eat another meal with the family.

I havent been thru a drive thru in over 7 years.

Exactly what the others have said, it is usually what you don't see them eat.

Could be like me. I'm a secret snacker. I'll buy things when nobody is around and throw away the evidence. I'll get home from work, pretend I'm going upstairs to go to the bathroom, and quickly woof down half a dozen oreos that I have hidden somewhere. Sometimes I even hide the garbage in drawers so the trash isn't filled with the evidence, thus, giving away my secret.

Or, could be like my boyfriend, who doesn't eat breakfast and doesn't snack. However, he eats out at nearly every meal and drinks a ton of pop. Easily 1000 calories in pop, a lunch at chilis will set him back another 2000 and dinner the same, so while he may not physically eat a lot, he can pack away a good 4k in a day.

When I was grossly overweight, I didn't really snack and rarely ate breakfast. But...

my meals were extremely calorie dense...I could easily consume 1,000-1,500 calories for lunch and dinner; I always had the equivalent of 2-3 servings of whatever I was eating at lunch and dinner. I also drank at least 3 sodas per day...so that's like 480 calories there. My only daily snack was 1/4 Lb of cheese and washed down with about 16 Oz of whole milk when I got home from work...oh, and I also drank roughly a 6 pack + beer per night at home.

All in all, even though I wasn't snacking at work, I was consuming roughly 3,500 calories per day...often upward of 4,000.

I use to hate going out to eat with big groups, because it drove me crazy that i felt all the skinny girls had to order giant cheeseburgers and milk shakes and all the fat girls ordered small salads. We all know that isn't their eating habits at home. I've had large friends who always seemed to watch what I was eating so they could eat a little less. Like say, we order a pizza and they won't take another piece until I do. Now that I'm the large one I have caught myself playing that game.

Here are a few reasons:

being sedentary
slowed metabolism
really high calorie/high fat content in the foods they DO eat
what they eat when no one is around

At my highest weight (and lowest point emotionally) I ate alone and a LOT! When I don't overeat and make good choices, I maintain my weight, cut a few calories and I lose.
When you are large and sedentary and eat like crap, the fat just packs on...Your body can't keep up with you.

Not offended by that question at all (I used to weigh over 300lbs and ppl asked me that all the time because I almost never ate in front of people)

I work with a morbidly obese lady who eats a small dinky sandwich and banana for lunch about every day, nothing that'd make you fat. She never snacks, ever. But I hear her talking about eating a whole cake in an evening with her family of 5. Eating an entire container of cheese dip and a whole bag of chips in a sitting. I think there is a lot of that going on in her house, nothing we people at work see.

Not eating a lot at work - either too busy or don't want the embarrassment because other people know they shouldn't be eating much because they are so big. And when they get home they feel like they are starving - even if they aren't and eat a lot! Happens all the time. This is why the "snacking" lifestyle helps people lose weight.

I got to 200lbs because I ate rubbish when I was alone , a secret eater

Once I started eating healthier, I found out that my partner had no idea how often I went to McDs. He thought I always went through the drive thru and brought it home, so he thought I only ate as often as he saw it in the trash.

I would go to Chik Fil A every morning and get a number 7. . . . . . a chicken, egg, and cheese on a sunflower multigrain bagel (because multigrain is healthy, right?), an order of hashbrowns (because it would cost the same whether I got the hashbrowns or not), and a large sweet tea.. . . . . . . .a whopping 940 calories!

I wouldn't eat anything all day at work and then by the time I got off, I'd be ravenous. Sometimes I'd go through a drive-thru and get a couple of hamburgers and another sweet tea (because I hadn't had lunch and everybody knows you need to eat 3 meals a day!) for the ride home before cooking dinner and eating with the family. More often than not though, I'd pick up pizzas, or a bucket of chicken, a family feast at Captain D's or Sonny's Barbecue and that was our dinner,

I was astounded after I started MFP and took a look at how many calories I had been consuming!

I've only been through a drive thru twice now in the last 70 days and that was to pick up a salad. I get up every morning now and cook breakfast, I eat lunch plus snacks at work, and I cook dinner every night even if I'm going to be the only one at home. 20 lbs down now. It's working!

When you snack all day on healthy things, you keep your metabolism running. When you eat huge fat laden meals that are starchy you will gain weight. They may not eat so much when they are at work, but most likely they are going home to huge dinners that are not portioned correctly for their activity level.

This is how I gained weight. I didnt eat all day but used to have one big meal. My metabolism was sluggish and I was always tired.