How did you gain the weight?

I ate too much, and didn't have to the will power or want to lose weight.

My parents raised me without a second thought to nutrition. We drank soda and regularly, sometimes more than two cans per day, diet or full sugar. We never had water, a healthy alternative was sweetened juice or tea. I was not a competitive child, and I was allowed to drop out of all sports, choosing to join band and choir. I was in advanced classes and spent a lot of my time working on assignments and reports, finishing too late at night to go play outside. Food was used as a reward for many things, good grades, good behavior, celebrating just about anything. Meals were always plentiful, with abundant desserts! Most of our meals were low-fat/high-carb. We loved eating fresh fruits and veggies from our backyard garden, but usually finished off a salad or stir fry with a huge chunk of brownies or pie with ice cream. Cooking (and eating) was a family bonding ritual. That was actually a good thing, because now as a young adult, I know my way around a kitchen better than most of my peers. Eating together every day also fostered good behavior when I was young, and a good relationship with my family. Wasn't good for my weight though!

I always thought I was heavy because I was lazy, didn't play sports, or genetics. It took me a while after moving away to college before I realized that it was because I was eating far too much, and too many desserts. I was eating a salad or plain noodles with vegetables for every meal, but always had a huge serving of sugary dessert afterwards, even for breakfast! (Because no fat = won't get fat, right?) Unfortunately my parents still live the same old lifestyle, though now older and more weight conscious. Instead of turning to a balanced diet and exercise, prefer to experiment with fad diets.

Because going out to eat is delicious. And my not having to cook was like an added bonus.

beer....and tasty ones at that.

Same! I fell in love and we ate out all the time. That turned into self contentiousness in different aspects of our relationship which meant I packed on 100 pounds!

I played soccer all my life, then at 21 I injured my knee and never stepped back on the field (I plan to again one day). I stopped exercising and drinking A LOT of beer.

Got a job at a bar in college and drank A LOT more beer and ate like ****.

Then graduated and got a desk job where chocolate and snacks are always in my desk drawers...

Also I LOVE beer!

Got lazy & didn't pay attention to how much I was eating or drinking.

I had been overweight the majority of my life. I was always the bigger friend, I could never get the nice little close like my other friends. I loved juice and I hated water. I'm a cultured mix so both sides of my family were good cooks and meat was the food of choice. My brothers could eat anything and not gain weight so my mom would get groceries like poptarts, chips a hoy, oreos, etc. So I would devour those things! It really escalated when my parents had divorced and my mom had to work two jobs so she would just leave my brother 20 bucks for dinner and we would get either Burger King, McDonalds, Wendys, or chinese food every night. Like every singly night. The chinise food was amazing, so then we would just order that every single night, and I could finish a 2 liter like a 16 oz. On weekends I would use lunch money I kept for the great occasion and walk to CVS and get Twizzlers, Reese's, cookies, and the big ol' Arizona Iced Tea. All I would do is sit with my junk food and play video games. I even did that an entire Summer, I became a hermit and played video games and ate junk food. I would sleep from 6 AM to like 4 PM and hop right back onto my XBOX360.

Then when I graduated my mom sent me off with my cousin to lose weight. I lost 30 lbs or so, maybe 40 lbs, but put it back on. Then about a year later of kind of dieting and seldomly going to the gym (pissing off my cousin as well) I got into contact with someone I used to talk to and we became a long-distance relationsip. He didn't know I was way overweight, and I didn't know he was. So he told me ok we'll meet in 8 months and made some excuse as to why we could not meet so he could have time to lose weight too!

I went from 235 lbs to 164 I remember was the lowest when I stepped on a scale when I got to my mom's the weekend he and I met. Then I moved with him half way across the country! He went from 265 to 175 which was awesome too.

Then we just went out like crazy and ate dinner here and there. We had days where we would buy up the grocery store junk food aisle and play video games. While it was all wonderful in fun, the fun is over and here I am.

Not taking care of myself. I have been through several ups and downs the past 19 years and so has my weight.

my horrible superstressful job, for the first 4/5 years I was in the office 6 or 7 days a week, sometimes from 9am until 3/4am

in the following 5 years until now, I bounce around between different cities in Europe and Middle East at least 2/3 times a week with limited time home in London

Hell