Why did you get FAT & why did you decide to turn it around?

For a little over 20 years, I added about 5 pounds a year to my total weight. Gradually also added slightly high blood pressure and slightly higher cholesterol. Apparently also was adding cancer. Subsequent to cancer diagnosis, surgery, chemo, radiation was told the best thing I could do to attempt to prevent reoccurrence was diet and exercise. That was over six years ago -- cancer free, blood pressure and cholesterol normal, over 100 lbs lighter; more fit and flexible than when I was normal weight several decades ago. I am taking off 10 more pounds by June 2014, along with meeting four key fitness goals.

I was always a normal healthy weight through childhood and as a teen was pretty slim. College started out okay, but at 22 I was married and working full time and finishing up a post-bac degree. To say I was busy and stressed is an understatement. My job kept me pretty active, but I was eating fast food almost exclusively. And not "healthy fast food" either. I started gaining weight steadily. At the time I blamed the birth control pills I had started taking. And maybe they didn't help, but my food choices were terrible.
A few years later I had my first baby. While I didn't gain a huge amount of weight while pregnant (30 pounds, and I'm 5'11", so that was on par) I never bothered to try to lose any weight after he was born and just steadily continued to gain slowly. Add kid #2 a couple years after that… and kid #3 a few years later… Yikes.

The worst part is I was in such complete denial about my weight. I just didn't allow myself to even think about it. A few times I tried to lose weight, thinking I knew just how to do that, but I would end up eating way too little and we all know how that ends up working out.

Obviously if you joined MFP, you have the drive and motivation to lose weight and stay fit.

Why did you get fat (initially) and why did you decide to lose that weight ?

What was the turning point?

I got fat because I had an insatiable appetite for Swiss Cake Rolls. Like, I would down an entire box at least once a week (in one sitting.) I also was too lazy to work out and was in complete denial that eating healthy would not only make me lose weight but feel better, too. (I had GERD and anemia until recently...)

I have always had issues with food. I eat based on my emotions. I gained a lot of weight during pregnancy (3 kids in the last 5 years) and have kept making excuses about changing my eating/exercise habits. With my last pregnancy I weighed the most I have ever weighed and decided instead of buying new bigger clothes I am ready to get motivated lose the weight so I can reward myself with smaller/cute clothes.

I've been relatively active most of my life. I played all manner of sports when I was growing up and joined the Marine Corps out of high school where my life was pretty much training. Afterwards in college I remained relatively active though I didn't workout per sei...I was just generally active and road my bike and walked pretty much everywhere as I didn't have a car most of that time. My hobbies also tended to revolve around being active and outdoors...hiking, skiing, backpacking, etc. I put on a little weight during this time, but it was actually a good thing...I was pretty scrawny.

I graduated college when I was 30 and started my first "real" job sitting on my *kitten* in front of a computer all day. I worked a ton of hours and was often on the road for business as well so just not as much free time as I used to have. My outdoor hobbies sort of fell by the way and I didn't really exercise. I essentially went from being quite active to pretty much sedentary but I continued to eat and drink like I always had....which wasn't necessarily bad, I've always enjoyed good, healthy foods...but I could eat a lot.

From 30 - 38 I ballooned from 180 Lbs to a high of 220. Last year when I turned 38 I went in for my checkup and came back with some really bad blood results. I'm back down to my 180 and have greatly improved my blood work and am "normal" on all accounts save for my triglycerides and my LDL is only one point in the green. I do have to take BP meds and the doc just put me on a statin as well since my dad recently passed away from a massive heart attack at 61...I guess that put me into a higher risk category and the doc wants my LDL below 100.

I am disappointed somewhat that I haven't been able to correct things fully with my diet and exercise but I have a lot of heredity going against me and I've been doing all I can and will continue to do so. This was and always will be more about my health than it is about my weight or physique or fitting into some particular sized pants or whatever. Health is the most important thing and when you're striving towards better nutrition and fitness, weight and body composition are the bi-products of those endeavors.

I have always thought that I was fat... and looking back, I think I may have been suffering from a little body dysmorphia. I am 5'8, and I remember weighing 145lbs, and thinking I was fat. My BMI was 22.0, I was at an ideal weight and all I saw was fat. I still have a diary I kept at that time, and my goal was 120, which would have put me at a BMI of 18.2.

I never made that goal and it was just an endless cycle of determination, followed by failure, followed by self-loathing, followed by binge eating. And the number crept higher and higher.

I got up to 175 (my highest at that point), and got myself back down below 150 by essentially starving myself. I was barely eating. Obviously, not maintainable. I wouldn't say I had a full-blown eating disorder, because this only lasted about 5 months or so, but my eating was very disordered. I was so excited to be thin again, and I bought a whole new wardrobe... and within a month, I was gaining weight again.

When I started eating normally again, the weight came back on so fast that I just gave up. I literally though, "screw it, if I'm going to be fat, at least I'll enjoy it", and I started eating anything I felt like. There were weeks at a time I ate nothing but McDonalds. I got up to 210lbs....

The thing is, I didn't enjoy it. I felt like crap. That's why I decided I needed to change. Looking back, I can see all the mistakes I made. The thing I kick myself most for was thinking I was fat at 145lbs. And striving for an unhealthy goal. I didn't realize at the time that the reason I wasn't losing weight was because I was already at an ideal weight. I don't know why I couldn't see that. My body now, at 211.6lbs, looks the same to me as I remember looking at 145lbs. I can look at pictures of myself and see that I was thin, but I can't remember once ever looking at myself in the mirror and not thinking I was fat.

I guess if I had known then what body dysmorphia was, I could have gotten help and prevented this cycle... but I know now, and now I am making healthy, positive changes. And eating healthy at 211lbs, I feel much better than I did eating like crap at 150lbs.

I got fat through comfort eating, as a kid and an adult, and didn't care enough to stop until recently, when I thought to myself "What am I doing?".

Was introduced to MFP through my mum (her friend told her about it) and it made it a whole lot easier for me to lose weight, I always thought "I wish there was an online calorie tracker", and here it is

I don't consider myself as fat, none actually because it sounds so negative to me, we're just bigger, but I do have overweight. For me it started when I lost my dog 2 years ago. Not only did I stop walking now she's not around anymore, I also started to fill the gap with food instead. I gained 15 kilos (appr 33 pounds) in 2 years time and before it totally spirals out of control I joined up to get a grip on it again.

I have always had a fuller figure, but I got fat when I moved into my first apartment. I had a desk job and no yard to mow or look after. I ate and played video games and that was about it. I was also in a bad relationship and my self worth was in the dumps. I didn't value myself enough to take care of myself and I ballooned to 244 pounds. On a 4 foot 8 inch frame. Gross. I got pregnant in 2007 and in summer 2008, my son was born. About a year and a half later, after another failed relationship, I lost 35 pounds. And I felt great. I started working in fast food and my hours were so crazy that I was constantly tired. No working out and I gained the weight back (most of it anyway). Now, I am 30, the mom to a crazy hyper 5 year old and I am finally tired of being fat. I am ready to be skinny and wear cute clothes and feel attractive. I had lost 6 pounds here, but I gained them back. I'm slowly getting back on track with water intake, a proper bedtime, positive thinking, eating right and exercising.

Why did I get fat, I got the girl. Sounds shallow and pretty stupid saying it honestly. Working out and staying in shape seemed tough to fit into family life. It was no longer convenient.

Lost the girl, starting getting in shape again. I had little else to do so working out and getting fit seemed to fill the time.

Got the same girl, got fat again. This time, I tried to stay in shape but it just never caught on and I ballooned to about 260.

See a trend, yeah, I do too.

So, 43, 5'9" and 260. My hip is bad, my back hurts, I have a umbilical hernia, my elbows and my knees hurt, both of my feet suffer from plantar fasciitis. I am a freaking mess.

Here is the crazy thing, I just did not care but something started to change this year.

My hernia got worse, all my aches and pains got worse but that was not enough, technology finally caught up to my needs; MFP helps me count calories and watch my nutrition along with calculating burned calories from exercise with ease and my scale links to my iPhone.

All that stuff was enough to get me started but what will keep me going is not the hope that my wife will find me more attractive, it's not that I will get to see my kids graduate, get married or have kids, it's not about helping those around me eat more healthy, these are potential benefits, they rely on decisions made by others that may or may not meet my expectations.

What will drive me to stay in shape, then? Me, that's it. It sounds selfish and self-centered, I guess it is. But knowing that I have to meet or exceed my own expectations, that if I fail, I am failing myself, that is what will motivate me to continue. When I do fail, I may rely on the benefits that will come from the lifestyle change to prop me up but ultimately, I am doing this for me.

What I sow, I will reap, what effort I put in, I will get equal rewards.