Why did you get FAT & why did you decide to turn it around?
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I got comfortable and lazy. My health needs to be improved.
This...
The turning point is when I weighed in at 212 lbs and only 5 ft 2 in tall, then my doc told me I was bordering on diabetic. That happened in October 2010; January 2011 I started working out regularly and started using MFP in August of 2011. I guess you can say I'm one of the few who set a New Year's resolution for 2011 & still sticking to it.
Despite genetic issues which requires me to me on steroids at times; not be able to workout at times I never let that become an excuse to quit all together. I just pick up where I had to stop & get back into it. My longest period was 4 months due to a medical boot on my foot (my bones fused on their own..genetics). During that time I tracked my food with a vengeance, and used hand weights since I couldn't do the intense cardio I was use to. Once I was cleared by the doc I slowly worked my way back to my HiiT style of workouts.
My hubby & both my boys see me sticking to it and has since joined in the effort towards better health. I'm the only one that use MFP but I'm a believer in doing what works for you. Now I weigh in at 170 lbs, still got a ways to go to reach my goal of 140 lbs but I won't quit. I"m doing this for me... I love me some me
and want me to be around for a long time. 
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Since 2004 I have had 4 babies and nursed them all. My last was born in February 2013 and I was sick of carrying all of the extra weight I had picked up with each pregnancy (but never lost).0
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I have always been fat, or so I thought, until I actually was fat. I grew up with a tall, gorgeous, ex-fat girl as a mom in the 80's, so that means I grew up dieting.... in the 80's. (when I think of 80's dieting, I think of diet pills, grapefruit diets and lots of other stupid things, all of which my mom tried and encouraged my sister and I to try as pre teens) When I look back at pictures I am pissed at myself, because I wasn't really fat (but I also wasn't healthy).
What I never did, though, was think about what I was consuming. If it tasted good, it was for me... and lots of it! (especially soda and fast food) So, of course, eventually I really was fat. I gained weight steadily every year until a decade or so ago when I got into jetskiing. At that point, I stopped gaining weight and sat at just under 200 for quite a while. I was happy to not be moving up the scale, but was not happy with myself, ever.
In April, my hubby and I split up and so I stopped jetskiing (he was also my skiing partner) and by September I had easily gained another 10 pounds (not really sure - never owned a scale). In September I got a nasty cold which resulted in what I thought was pink eye, so I went to the doctor. My blood pressure was really high and he didn't want to talk about my eye -- he wanted to talk about my heart.
That scared the *kitten* out of me. He sent me home with a prescription for blood pressure meds, which I immediately decided I was not going to take. I decided that I would stop being an idiot and do the right thing for myself for once. I knew I ate my way into this situation and I was going to eat my way out.
I stopped (that day) eating fast food, because that was a no-brainer, and ate nothing but salad for the next two weeks, because that was the only food I was sure was healthy (lol). I didn't put anything in my mouth unless I googled it first to see what the sodium content was. As I read more, I learned that potassium was a good thing for lowering blood pressure so I began trying to find foods high in potassium. This was while I was weaning myself from many to 2 to 1 to 0 sodas a day. My boss and I were chatting about this and he mentioned the MFP app. I was resistant to it because, to me, "calorie counting" was a dirty dieting thing from my past. But I decided, what the heck (it's free) might as well try it. Glad I did because I found I was eating way too few calories. I also found that it tracked more than calories, so I've been logging daily ever since.
I also bought myself a kayak and I actually use it! (that's key!) And I looked up a few Jillian Michaels' workout vids on youtube and actually made it through them and continued to go back to them a couple times a week.
After I went down one clothing size I bought a scale and I've lost 14 pounds since then, so I think I've lost about 20 pounds. The doctor said I should lose 10 pounds and that was my original weight goal, but it turns out that eating in a way that's healthy for your body results in weight loss, so now I have a new weight goal.
I knew this would be a book. :ohwell: If you read the whole thing :flowerforyou:0 -
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.
Wow. I can SO relate. Even our numbers are similar.0 -
I was always overweight even as a child. I now look at my daughter who's in 6th grade who ears a size1 and I think back an in 6th grade I was already a size 12! But it never really bothered me at that young an age, I have to say my I packed on most of my weight in my pregnancys and never lost it. That combined with unhealthy eating and a not so active life style. My 'defining' I need to lose weight moment came about 4 months ago seeing a picture of me with my kids. I saw just how overweight and unhealthy I had become and realized I needed to fix this!0
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I was always big as a kid (big family, so more relatives feeding me as a baby then I needed!) - and i never got out of those habits. I always had an obese BMI because of eating more than I needed, despite being quite a sporty kid!
That all changed when I went to uni and I kept the bad eating habits, but didn't do any sport. It meant that I tipped into the morbidly obese range.
By the time I left uni I had a BMI of 45. I started grad school in October and moved to a new place on my own. With that change I'm adopting another change - I *will* undo the damage I've done to my body! If you're in a similar boat, I hope you do the same
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I got fat cause I was always having large portions cooked for me at dinner, offered various treats throughout the day and became addicted and just didnt understand what I was doing at a young age and the impacts it would have. Long story short, my mother never taught me portion control or anything, shes one of the moms who likes to make sure youre SUPER FULL but I dont blame her, I cant, even now she thinks Im starving myself on a diet but anyway the fridge was always full of goodies, I was always offered fast food when it was there, mcdonalds when we went to the city centre, maybe 200grams of pasta in one sitting etc, you can see how many calories I consumed.
Thankfully, I was active at school and in the gym once a week but it still gave me a chubby belly. At that time when I was 15 in school, I didnt care at all whcih contributed to me getting fat too, its not like I was super fat, nobody noticed until I had my shirt off, most people said I was quite muscular around my arms so I was worried in that area. I was also teased by my brother about a fat belly, he was joking but it used to get to me a bit.
The day I decided to change was when I started hitting the gym more seriously and just resented my bodyweight in the mirror. At 186 pounds, I started my weight loss with insanity, losing over 20 pounds, big mistake! I did it all wrong, I was a newbie and wasnt feeding myself properly, I was on maybe over a 500 calorie deficit plus insanity, so I lost muscle, I could tell, even my friends said I lost some and my lifts at the gym werent as strong as before.
After Insanity, I was done losing weight, was still a little chubby but better than before and maintained but now Im working towards building that muscle back and losing even more belly fat.0 -
When we moved from Brooklyn to NC..in Brooklyn I walked every where..here you take the car even to drop and pick up kids. Also I was homesick for my family and friends. I don't like living here but we are stuck here. My turning point was when my son told me I was making funny sounds when I was sleeping and I had what I **thought** was a heart attack turned out to be acid reflux in a bad way. It had all the symptoms of a heart attack jaw pain neck pain left arm felt tingly and cold..this scared me enough that I didn't want to ever (hopefully) have a heart attack. I have lost 43 pounds in total. Considering I am 5ft tall that is a lot of weight. I have 25 more to go all in the belly right now.
I still hate it here...I still miss having friends but I am NOT willing to let my health suffer for it. Plus I find working out helps me get rid of some of the day to day stress I have.0 -
I was always overweight but it got out of control when I had my first baby. I was close to the 300's and that scared me and I knew that I had to do something. I didnt want to live like that anymore and more importantly I had to set an good example for my son, so i got up and lost the weight! And I am gonna keep doing it!0
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I was always big but I lifted weights almost daily throughout my teens and played various sports so I was pretty fit and, due to being young this all mitigated to some extent what was a horrible diet. I moved out when I was 16 and stopped doing much exercise but carried on drinking fairly heavily and eating horribly so gained a little weight. Then I had a personal tragedy, became depressed and gained around 100 pounds (and ultimately around 150), drank very heavily and did no exercise.
I tried to break the cycle several times in the intervening years between then and now and have always failed but now, about to start a new job and having been witness to my situation ruining almost every aspect of my life, I finally feel like enough is enough. I can't spend my whole life feeling sorry for myself. I cannot reclaim everything I have lost but hopefully I can reclaim something of who I was.
It is going to be a long battle.0 -
Sedentary live style (I sit behind a desk all day) and mindless stress eating - sitting in my chair at night, still working but eating junk. Quitting smoking probably contributed but that is too bad - I am very proud to be almost 8 years smoke free and I am NEVER going back. Might as well toss in prednisone (for lung problems after quitting) but I have managed to not need those for over a year.
I have three inspirations - one: a friend said once "life is too short to eat crappy food" - I think of that before I put things in my mouth, savor it if it is good and stop eating it if it is not.
Two: my doctor yelled at me - I was doing okay last year but my father in law passed away, lots of stress at work and I hit a plateau so I said screw it - big mistake. After her wake up call (you have to start doing something or you are going to end up with more health problems), I promised to commit. She put me on welbutrin for stress and to help things get started. Don't care if it is placebo or not, it is helping me. She was delighted with my progress (just saw her yesterday and for the first time in two years, I did not cry in her office).
Third: My mum (don't tell her!) - she was trained as a nutritionist, has a masters and started a PhD (back in the 40's so she was a trail blazer). At 50, she was 5' 6" and I think 160 or 170 and she and my father started counting calories. Every day. Every food. She got down to 120 and maintained - anytime her weight crept up past 125, out came the bluebook and the calorie counter. Now at 89, she struggles to keep her weight at 105 but her method when she was younger was and is the way to go and calories in and calories out is what it is all about.
So, here I am, I am committed and will stick to it. I am scared about plateauing but will cross that bridge when I get to it. Life IS too short to eat crappy food but it is also too short to drag all this weight around and good food can be eaten in moderation.0 -
I was always big but I lifted weights almost daily throughout my teens and played various sports so I was pretty fit and, due to being young this all mitigated to some extent what was a horrible diet. I moved out when I was 16 and stopped doing much exercise but carried on drinking fairly heavily and eating horribly so gained a little weight. Then I had a personal tragedy, became depressed and gained around 100 pounds (and ultimately around 150), drank very heavily and did no exercise.
I tried to break the cycle several times in the intervening years between then and now and have always failed but now, about to start a new job and having been witness to my situation ruining almost every aspect of my life, I finally feel like enough is enough. I can't spend my whole life feeling sorry for myself. I cannot reclaim everything I have lost but hopefully I can reclaim something of who I was.
It is going to be a long battle.0 -
I was always a normal weight (135-140, which is right in the middle of a normal bmi for me), until I had three pregnancies, within a short period of time. With the first two I had non-stop morning sickness and actually lost weight. So I stayed thin after the deliveries. But, with the third I didn't have the sickness and gained the normal 20lbs. And then after I had my son I kept some of it on and then the pounds started creeping on. I did not change my eating habits, but I was no longer able to keep my weight steady for the first time in my life.
Over the next 4 years the pounds slowly added on, until last fall I was at my highest weight in the 170s and I had to buy my first pair of size 14 jeans. But, that wasn't the turning point for me-getting a blood test done and showing I had a glucose number in the pre-diabetic range was. My grandfather died from T2 and my only living grandparent is now losing the battle with it (a three time cancer survivor, T2 is what will kill her).
So I knew where I was headed and decided to screw that, and went in a different direction. I had never tried losing weight /dieted before and I had no idea what I was doing. But, I made the commitment to lose the weight and get my glucose number int he normal range and then I got at it.
I'm now over 50lbs lighter, am the thinnest I've ever been as an adult, have a bmi below 20, a bf% in the 18-19% range, and my last fasting glucose test number was an 89. This is my life now and I'm never going back
The same thing happened to me- I was careful during pregnancy, and only gained the recommended 25-28 pounds (3 different times with 3 pregnancies) but each time I was 5-10 lbs more than pre-pregnancy, and then by the time I had my 3rd, I was 25lbs heavier. It just kind of crept on, with sleeplessness, toddler food, eating out more (due to being to tired to cook) too tired to exercise, etc.0 -
This has really struck a chord with me especially about reclaiming stuff. You said it so clearly and I know exactly what you mean. Thankyou for those words and all the best on reaching your health goals - you can do it! Hope 2014 is kind to us :happy:0
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I went to university and my healthy lifestyle went OUT THE WINDOW. My fortnightly pub visits turned into night after night of hard drinking.
I got a boyfriend who...well loved cake. And we both gained a lil belly pooch together. We weren't together long, but my unhealthy habits stayed the same. A picture at my brother's graduation in July was a huge slap in the face! In August I joined MFP. Now, 14lbs down, I am 10lbs away from my goal weight!0 -
For me, I have come to realise my body always had problems. I've not been an angel all my life, being an angel with food is what go me to my worst point. One or two fortuitous conversations have got me to where I am now, down by about 1/3rd. Work in progress. I hope the medical profession will be able to help me now I know better what questions to ask or answers to give when I keep my appointment at the end of January. I will, I am beating this by dint of my own efforts. When I am 71 I will be and will have been for some time, the person I wanted to be from 21, when I had every reason for my weight not to get out of had. A family history of heart problems.
Nobody believed me I was doing it "right", the simple "calories in calories out" and exercise, I just got bigger and sicker. Strangers tried to put me down, family had several goes knowing what I was doing, better than me. I made sure knew as much as I could about, sugar, fat, protein as was possible to know in the 1970's fell fowl of a conspiracy of ignorance. I watched as the sugar is good, fat bad lobby won the day, and paid the price. I have listened to/watched science programmes, programmes on all aspects of l health, and read articles too, about health ever since. I listened to everything but no one bothered to listen to me.
Being here on MFP, about 6 months now, 30 lb, reminds me every day is a new day. Maintaining at present, need another break 40+ and more years of "trying" wares you down.0 -
Because during my second pregnancy...I thought I could eat anything and everything and gained about 50 pounds. Then after I had my son, I only lost around 10 or so and then kept the rest on. I continued to eat a lot of fast food and sweets...so I never lost the weight.
Then around Feb of this year..I knew enough was enough and decided to change. I lost 35 pounds and decided that I was comfortable where I was and took a break since about August. Now I have decided that my break is done and I want to lose 10 more pounds....:)0 -
I got fat because I wouldn't stop putting food into my mouth. I had a massive love affair with food and I didn't want it to end.
Then, a few things happened.
I turned 45 and realized my life is either half over or it's nearly over. A friend of mine and I decided that we could either survive our 50's, or we could ROCK our 50's. I want to be a hot 50, not a dead 50.
I over processed my hair and it fell out in clumps in the tub. It was horrifying on so many levels. I cried for about 10 hours straight. Then I just cut it all off. It was very empowering and gave me a lot of confidence! Highly recommend everyone do it at least once in their life.
After I cut off my hair, I went as Ripley in Alien 3 for Halloween. I looked sooooo heavy in the pictures that I felt I let a great character down.
I broke up with emotional food, started a relationship with sensible fuel, and started working out 41 days ago. I've lost nearly 12 inches and 21 pounds and I feel so much better. I don't want to stop! I want to be one of those 70 year-olds that runs a marathon or climbs a mountain.
Now, I'm a fourth of the way to my goal. No turning back.0 -
Why I got FAT: I wanted to live life to the fullest. I was a "big" party girl and loved to eat and drink!
WHY I TURNED IT AROUND: I wanted to live life to the fullest. I realized there was a lot I was giving up by not having ultimate health. I am now healthier than I've ever been with so much energy!
http://tobecrude.wordpress.com/0 -
When I graduated from college, I no longer had those phys ed classes to keep me active, got a job and put on 50 lbs in 4 months. Slowly, the weight just kept going on until I had doubled my weight. I didn't worry about it because the doctors kept saying I was so healthy. I yo-yo dieted over the years but the most I ever lost was 35 pounds and that went back on and then some. I tried eating just one meal a day, I tried WW and Atkins. Nothing I could stick with. After retiring, my knees were shot and I really wanted to get them replaced, but I was "morbidly obese" and couldn't until my BMI was a lot lower. I kept falling, had to use a cane and then a walker and my A1C was borderline. My SO was concerned about my health so I went to my doctor who suggested I look into bariatric surgery, which I am considering. In order to qualify for the surgery I needed to jump through some hoops and one was to take a class in healthy weight management. That class made me address the emotional reasons I was eating and focused me on eating healthily rather than dieting. That was the impetus I needed to work on making better choices for my life. I heard about MFP in my class and liked being accountable to track my food and activity. I lost 10 pounds slowly (on purpose) but blew it over this Christmas so I'm back on the "horse" making better choices again. I do not feel deprived but proud when I can make good choices for my health. Good luck to you on your journey. The folks here are very helpful.:ohwell:0
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