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

I gained weight slowly in college because I was lazy. I went from 118-120 my freshman year to 132 the day after christmas this year. I'm 5"0 so 12 pounds is a lot on a short stump. I never worked out in college (literally maybe played tennis/worked out once a month maybe). Now I look in the mirror and its just all fat and no muscle and nothing is toned. I also like alcohol a lot. That doesn't help.

So counting calories and working out is the best thing and MFP has every food you can imagine without doing the research. It doesn't seem like work and it's kind of like a game to me. Stay under the calories. I've lost weight everyday since I started (all of three days ago)

Good question!
I was called chubby as a kid (but looking at photos now, I was Normal Kid Size - not rail thin, but not the big girl hiding in the corner). I think a lot of it was boob, honestly. I had bad eating habits (I could, and still can, eat an entire Totinos pizza in one sitting...)

I ate and ate and ate when I was pregnant (well, after 4 months of horrendous morning sickness that caused me to get to my lowest weight ever of 132 - mom thought I had an eating disorder!). After pregnancy, started Depo - increased my hunger and decreased the metabolsim. Also, high stress job, I liked to cook, ate at the hospital food court (at my job) every day (usually pizza or burgers). By 2010-2011, I was way in the 200's. I quit the Depo by now, as well as smoking, but the weight thing didn't seem to be as big of an issue. THen I decided to run a half-marathon.

I've lost 10 pounds over the last year -- not nearly as much as I wanted to, but I haven't been able to beat my ED yet - Selective Eating Disorder / Food Neophobia. I'll get there. Until then, I am eating my current crappy diet in moderation....

I ate too much!!!

Plus, I was very miserably married to an overbearing and emotionally abusive, demanding alcoholic. I was stressed all the time and stuffed my face to cope, and never had "me" time to take care of myself and exercise.

I divorced and the pounds started coming off just with exercise. After about 70 pounds within a few years, I plateaued. Then came MFP and Weight Watchers for a while, which REALLY worked, bringing the total to 110 lbs lost.. I'm about 9 pounds from a healthy weight. Back on MFP after quitting Weight Watchers when I was pregnant, but then I lost the baby and didn't want to rejoin and then have to quit yet again once I get pregnant (my new, amazing, husband and I are trying). I plan on using MFP while pregnant to keep weight gain within a healthy range once pregnant. Weight Watchers won't let you stay on their program if pregnant.

Anyway, back to your original question.....Stress contributed to overeating and not taking care of myself, and getting happy and making time to take care of myself helped turn it around!

Had my second child and like last time, I was expecting the weight to fall off by itself. I've never had to work to lose weight or maintain so I had no idea where to begin. Finally, this April, I weaned my son and I still had a lot of pregnancy weight to drop. Luckily I found MFP and here I am. In my head, I'm convinced that having a micro preemie and all the stress related to being a NICU mom is the biggest contributor to my lack of weight loss. Hope I'm back to pre baby weight by summer. It's about time, my son just turned three last week and I've run out do excuses.

I was a very chubby toddler, but by the time I was five I got taller and was very, very thin. I stayed this way for a while because I did ballet and swam competitively, though I did have a fairly large appetite. I outgrew ballet and had to stop swimming due to skin problems when I was ten. I started gaining weight due to the loss of exercise, but it wasn't that bad.
Through puberty it became evident that I had a fairly large frame, which made the weight I was slowly gaining look even worse. It only really started bothering me when I was about 13. There were some kinds of clothing I couldn't wear because I didn't think they looked good on me anymore. It still didn't bother me that much until I rapidly gained a lot of weight the summer before I turned sixteen. While my weight still fluctuates, I have probably gained between 16-20 pounds over a span of two years.
I'm not terribly unhealthy (in terms of nutrition - my household is quite obsessed with health - there isn't a microwave and even the laundry detergent is all-natural organic stuff) but I do tend to stress eat/binge and get basically no exercise.

I want to lose weight because I'm not happy with myself and I'm sick of looking at myself in the mirror or in photos and feeling inadequate compared to my friends. I want to be able to dress the way I want to and buy pretty clothes, and not worry about whether or not I'd look good in them or if the stores even carry anything in my size. Mostly I just want to have a more positive outlook on myself and life, and I think losing weight is one way to do that.

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.

Awesome post. I felt that way about my 40s. I've since been in a 5K where I see those 70 year olds running much longer distances than me and I climbed a 9,400 foot mountain this summer with a bunch of 60 and 70 year olds. It's super inspiring to see how much of aging we can control through how we treat our bodies!

I got fat cause I ate too many carbs Aka food pyramid. Then i lose weight without cravings by avoiding carbs that are bad ones.

My weakness was carbs. LOTS OF IT. I lived off rice, bread and pasta as child and during my early teens. I never cared about my figure, i knew i was getting bigger but that didnt stop me. It hit me around 16, that I needed to get fit, and i tried different ways of dieting, but I'd give up after a short while and then go back to my usual high-carb-eating self.. The past few months since starting uni and moving away from home, i realised it was a 'now or never' moment for me and that if i couldnt do it now, while living alone and cooking my own food, itd be hard to do it later on when life will just keep getting busier. its been much easier to control what I eat now, and MFP has really helped me keep track of it.

I gained 30 pounds because of anti-depressants and eating poorly. I moved out on my own and "forgot" how to eat properly/I wasn't paying any attention to what I was putting in my mouth.

I really became motivated this summer after having surgery and ballooning up during the healing process. I couldn't fit into any of my "fat" clothes and was only comfortable in dresses. My friend invited me on a beach vacation and I declined because I was so miserable with my weight and body. Yep, that was definitely the final straw for me.

Now what motivates me is how much better I feel about myself. I am trying to get to the point where I don't care how much I weigh as long as I know I am putting healthy food into my body.