What triggered your weight gain?

Depression and Loneliness. I started with depression as a teen, only nobody really recognized it as depression back then. Food made me feel better, gave me something to do, something to look forward too.

As an adult, I used food to fill in the places where friends, a husband and children should be. It was the only thing I had that made me feel less lonely.

I'm still lonely, but have realized the weight is keeping people away (especially men!). I now try to fill up my extra hours with time at the gym instead of food.

I blame Haagen Dazs.

I would have to blame it on the fact that I have this rare condition called to much food to mouth disease.

agreed

Many pregnancies back to back and continuing to eat like I was still pregnant :P

Lots of food, and very little movement, brought on by gluttony, and laziness.

not understanding what wss optimal for my body.

I was fit as a kid--basically the usual biking running. In my pre-teens I was driven to immerse myself in classical ballet and jazz. I danced 5+ days weekly. The kcal burn forgave my oreo binges and process food diet (including milk) that was my family's everyday cooking. From scratch was for holidays only.

In my teens I made up my own diet (no starch--well the pasta but not the cookies :embarassed: ) to go from athletic build to thin (as classical dancers were lithe & leggy and my build is longer trunk than legs). Although I achieved a tight curvy thin profile body I was never going to be lithe or leggy.

I went to college not to study dance, but I continued dancing 2x weekly. I lived 1.5 mi from campus and walked it for 2y. Then I moved into a house w friends and we decided that 4 days/wk we would could make meals a la Vegetarian Epicure (old veg cookbook--predates Moosewood). I lived 0.5 mi from campus, but my mode of transportaion everywhere was still on foot.

I never gained the "freshman 15" and I left college fit (a little fleshier than in my dancing days) at 112-115 without trying.

Then I began working & commuting nearly everywhere in my first car (a used Vega w rebuild engine). Consequently my physical activity fell and my weight began creeping up 118, 120.... I gardened and hiked on the weekend. I was still a convert to whole food eating, but I was eating much more meat and drinking wine on most weekends. It was the 1980s and the foodie thing was in overdrive.

When my weight hit 125 I felt fat and my figure was no longer tight. This is when I began chasing current health literature. The current holy grail was lots and lots of complex carbohydrates. I was already eating whole grains, so I began eating more of them. I made room in my forever diet by eliminating fruits. Although this reduced my simple carbs it also dropped fiber ( my approach was homemade whole grain bagels & pita--and not the variety of whole grains available today, such as quinoa) and important phytonutrients that were unknown at the time.

I exited the 1980s fiighting to stay below 135. Which is about the time my meat & butter foodie boyfriend and I got married. He brought meat to our table and I brought more vegetables; we were happy. We also bought ourselves 2 wedding gifts: danish bounce/rocker chairs and bikes. I got to see up front how he could get in shape in 2 wks whenever he decided he needed to, which also allowed him to splurge more often. I never could "just drop a few pounds or inches", so by the time I was pregnant with our first I was ~145 I was still part of corporate america at the time. I gained 30+ with this pregnancy, just like the doctor wanted.

155lbs seems to be my visilbly pudgey point in clothes. This is where I was at the time of 2nd pregnancy. I was working from home parttime and very active my community. I gained less than 20 lbs. For some reason having a boy, I shed my weight and then some and was back in the 140 range. But the weight crept back and I was 150-something at the time of 3rd pregnancy. I struggled to gain more than 15 lbs and after birth I lost only a handful of pounds.

About this time all these strange things began happening: hair loss, lack of sleep leading to mental dullness, mono, neck swellings, lower trunk elephant like swelling. An every year a few pounds more.

I redesign m diet, ditching most grain carbs, restricting all sugar carbs, getting more sleep, drinking more water, taking a multiple, and reducing fats (Yes it was the early 2000s and that was now THE THING TO DO,) My weight pattern changed. It stabilized, but whenever I would a few pounds I would have an RA episode and then that same weight would be back.

The next 10 years were ultimately unsuccessful attempts to make my weight move down and down again. I tried a variety of hard cardio and some circuit training I tone easily, but I was gaining weight and very little of it was muscle AND I WAS NOT eating more. I looked at my fatter face and told myself something is being triggered by hard vigourous exercise.

I stopped exercising and lost a few pounds and inches around my middrift--but I was still way to thick around the middle. We got a family dog and I began walking Copper. Although my weight did not budge I lost inches from waist to thigh, as my shorts no longer crawled up between my legs and they fit a tad looser. i learned that exercise that makes me warm works, but if it makes me pant it does not.

I was 6 months into a doctor supervised super low calories diet, when we had a house fire. A year later I got back on a scale and I somehow lost ~10lbs. There were days I just forgot to eat, until I realized it was time make a dinner for everyone.

When I joined MFP in January, those 10lbs were back, but I was energized by new information I had been reading around dietrary factors and autoimmune diseases. I was primed to tweek my forever diet again, as well as create an exercise routine, and see if it resulted in weightloss. The going is still slow, but at least it is steady.

Quit smoking and a promotion in my career.

No probs at all til I got very very sick. Last thing on my mind during years of recovery was getting on the scales! Towards the end of the recovery period I hit the menopause too, suddenly noticed my clothes were getting tighter, got on scales for 1st time in about 6 years and I'd put on 20lbs. Now i can't seem to shift it w/out making myself miserable!

Unfortunately I took a fair bit of drugs as a teenager, which left me paranoid. So I had to take a medicine (Sulpiride) that I still take today. It seemed to do two things (as well as successfully knock the paranoia on the head): firstly it made me more tired (and so I largely stopped exercise) and secondly it gave me an increased appetite. A recipe for disaster.

Twenty years later, realising I'm very unlikely to be able to come off Sulpiride, I joined MyFitnessPal. I pretty much feel hungry all the time, even though I'm eating a reasonable amount. The feelings of hunger are a side effect of Sulpiride unfortunately. But I seem to be getting used to feeling hungry and actually, rather perversely, seem to quite enjoy it!

I've lost 41 pounds so far, so hopefully this will encourage anyone on meds that have caused them to put on weight. It seems to be possible to lose the weight. So far, by God's grace, and with MyFitnessPal, so good.

- Chronic laziness
- an aptitude for divorcing myself from reality
- a lifetime on the See Food Diet.

Eating made me feel good when I was down. And, it was something to do when I was bored. And it was a good way to fill time when I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. And what if I didn't have time to eat something later? Better eat now. And it was a great way to celebrate everything.

Mindless eating

Work, stress, kids, laziness, love of food

Wine, chocolate, and late night snacking. I never had a weight issue growing up. I gained a ton during both of my pregnancies, but I can't really blame it on that, as I lost most of that weight by the time my youngest was 6 months old. But, I had a lot of stress related issues that led to a very horrible habit of drinking after I put the kids to bed. When I drank, I didn't care what I ate, so I snacked heavily and would almost always have way too much chocolate along with it. Even though I still have a ways to go, I feel sooooo much better now that I ended that destructive habit.