Curious - what made you overweight in the first place?

I was a newly wed so I didn't really cook much...my hubby and I went out to eat a lot...I would eat bad foods and not workout...the I got pregnant twice!!...so two kids later I'm trying to lose this weight for good for the first time!!

Moved to a new city, had to travel more for work, and simply got out of my workout routine and started eating foods knew were bad. It took me recommitting myself and tracking the foods I eat and just working out most every day (whether I feel like it or not).

I'm not going to blame anything but vodka and fried chicken. There is a place that is here in the DR, best fried chicken in the whole world. I don't even have to walk there. The watchy man goes and gets it for me. They go get the vodka too. Wait a second, it's my watchy man's fault. I put on 25 lbs this past winter on vodka and fried chicken in the land of healthy veggies.

BTW, watchy man is the guy my condo corp pays to take care of the building, and to fetch things for lazy Canadians....we need to fire this man...he's technically a guard, pool boy and concierge...and the reason I got chubby!

Just lack of knowledge. Now I know. I can eat healthy but without the tracking I can always eat way too much.

Working 2 full time jobs for 8 months to a year, barely slept didnt have time to cook so i always ordered out and drank soda and coffee to keep me awake!!! injuries didnt help either but its getting better!!! i will never work 2 full time jobs again!!

Double cheeseburgers eating what I want and no portion control. I used to eat a full footling subway sub with the chips and two or three glasses of coke and then have a cookie or two. Now I struggle to finish a six inch sunrise subway melt in flatbread no soda and just a handful of chips

A cortisone IV when I was 10-11 years old. I ballooned in a matter of days, a lot of water at first, but the appetite increase stayed. Managed to lose some to be 5'8" and 140-ish when I was 14, but then was severely restricted in my movements and encouraged to overeat... all downhill from there.

Recovering meth addict... Didn't eat for years. 7 years of being clean and food tasting amazing adds on a few pounds.

Learning that I have control over this too and making sure I didn't trade one addiction for another.

Both my parents, although athletic, were susceptible to being overweight, so when I was really young and life was "normal," there was tons of focus on eating decent and exercising. I remember the nightly battle of how many bites of vegetables my sister and I had to eat and my dad saying "That didn't count. You need to take bigger bites." Man, he was tough.

But then my dad was diagnosed with cancer when I was 6/7, and life changed. Being sedentary to be with a loved one as much as possible in there last days became the norm. I'll admit, our diet changed quite a bit to accommodate my dad and his slow inability to digest food, and through that process I learned a lot (it was huge eye opener when we had to buy baby food for him).

Unfortunately my dad didn't make it, and we grew accustomed to the sedentary life and comforted our loss through food. I refused to see a therapist. — I don't know why, but I just couldn't stand the thought of it. To add to the trauma of watching a parent die, every year after my dad's death, somebody else in my family would die. It became the sick joke that funerals were our family reunions.

So most my childhood and all of my teen years that encroached into my early twenties, my therapist was food. I still have yet to see a therapist, and one day I might (actually, one day I should). Maybe one day I'll get back into my childhood love of swimming, but for now, I'm learning how to deal with my emotions without food. It's a constant battle of portion control and receiving this feeling of fullness.

In the end, it was my fault that I got this big, and I accept full responsibility for that.

Growing up in a house where it was acceptable to be overweight and to eat junk food on a daily basis, but the minute you started getting thinner, you were handed more food to "stop being so skinny".

College, binge drinking, late night fast food, having kids, work potlucks, and just plain overeating!!

I have always been round and slightly overweight but I got in a car accident and became unadmittingly depressed because the injuries forced me to stop dancing. I went from a 10/12 to almost a 16 in a semester because I was eating more and moving less. I also was working for a very emotionally abusive boss who would comment on my appearance every day. Eventually I just stopped caring because no one seemed to care for me. Once I realized I was showing signs of depression I sought some help, quite the job for a new one, and began moving again. I still can't dance like I did and probably never will again, but I found ways and other active hobbies I really enjoy.

First and foremost, my lack of an active lifestyle. I've always been a home kind of person, ever since I was a kid, besides recess at school you'd never see me do any outdoors activities, I'd always be home. As time passed, I grew up to be used to that lifestyle of never being into sports or any physical activity. Combine to that the fact I've always been a loner, I was often bored and somewhat depressed so I'd eat when I had nothing to do and both my parents always loved sweet foods like cakes, cookies, pastries so there was never a lack of it around and eventually I suppose that all of that put together led me to where I am (or was, since I've already lost some!)

But I totally understand you because as someone who lost weight before, and nearly got to my current goal before gaining it all back, I'm also afraid of what will happen once I reach my goal. You can't say I eat better, I just eat less and control my portions but I still eat just about anything.

Not seeing exercise as necessary, thinking that you can eat unlimited amounts of "healthy foods" like hummus avocados nuts, binging at night, quitting alcohol and replacing with food, metabolism slowing down.

I used to look at crazy binges like eating a box of pizza as solitary events that you could correct by eating normal the next day but Nuh Uh you've got to take back out those calories you put in your piggy bank

I've never actually been overweight, but I felt chunky. I'm still in high school, but over summer break of 2010 LOL I basically sat on my computer ate ramen noodles and drank soda the whole summer- I know gross!! Prior to this summer break, I had an appointment with my doctor and I was underweight. My school would always pester me about being underweight and so would my doctor. I honestly wont lie, I saw my pictures and I looked like a skeleton, but I WAS healthy. I always played sports and love the great outdoors. -_- Yet, everyone would call me a twig and a stick, so I decided it was time to gain weight. Than get this, I go to the doctor, he tells me "Your weight is normal, but you gained TOO much TOO fast." (which he was right.) After this my brother would always call me fat and tell me to lose weight. I felt horrible and FAT. So, here I am now reached my goal weight, thin, but now I want to become fit and not thin. NEVER AIM FOR BEING THIN, its really an unhealthy train of thought. -It ruined my life.
Fun fact- When we sleep for every muscle we lose 50 calories, while for fat we only lose 9 calories.
~Good Luck everyone