Who made you become overweight?

Me, myself, and I! ;-0

No one to blame but yourself...Me.

I think there's possibly a more interesting conversation to be had about how cultural changes in relationship to food have influenced the decisions that people make. It doesn't really have anything to do with blame as such.

For example, my parents were the children of farmers who went through the Great Depression. They learned that you did not waste food, and they ate a lot because they burned a lot of calories. In their lives as adults they both settled into desk jobs, while a culture of convenience and technology grew up around them. Their eating habits did not change, though.

I don't think it even occurred to them that there was something incompatible between their energy needs and the amounts they were consuming until they were significantly over weight. And they weren't that overweight until after I was in my teens. By then, I had already picked up their eating habits, and didn't think anything of it. I wasn't particularly overweight until my 20s.

If a decent curriculum could be established (big "if" there), I wouldn't be opposed to nutrition section as part of a science class in high school--bio chem perhaps; my high school may have been unique in having a bio-chem class, though. If nothing else, a "Hey fellas, you're not going to have the metabolism of a 17 year old forever" speech couldn't hurt.

So yes, I make the decisions about what I put in my mouth, but teaching kids how it all works and how bodies change over time might be nice. Of course, we'd have to decide on how it all works first.

Personally I blame age. I was just fine until my thirties. Could eat anything and didn't put on weight.

Okay... so maybe failure to adapt to my body's changing requirements?

Fine... It's MY fault!

Nope, have to say myself! My mom didn't force me to eat everything off my plate but I knew I was going too! Even if my mom fixed my portions a bit smaller, I'd always be the one to go back and fix it even bigger. At the time, I didn't think I was eating too much at the time but then again, didn't have as much knowledge about how much I was putting in my body and so on. My parents would try and tell me I'm overeating but I didn't care. Now, I'm still learning, still listening and moving forward! Super glad for it!

I think my problem was looking at food as a luxury. Growing up we were very poor. We got a lot of food from charity and were on government assistance. There wasn't a lot of eating out and the food we did have wasn't much. So when I got older and had my own money, I saw eating out as some what of a special thing that I could do as much as I wanted. That coupled with knowing nothing about nutrition is how I got fat. Being on steroids for arthritis didn't help either but it was mainly eating all the junk I never had while growing up.

my, myself & I. It was my choice to eat too much & my choice to be a lazy sloth. My family is thin & healthy, it's all on me.

Please continue to blame your problems on every other factor in your life besides yourself... then report back in a year on your progress, k? :flowerforyou:

Like a lot of people have said... it was me.

But... my bad eating habits started as child, so some of that (a lot) could be blamed on my parents. My brother and I spent a lot of time unsupervised because both of my parents worked, and worked hours that most of my childhood only one parent was home at a time (mom worked days, dad work nights and had Sunday/Monday off). So there was a lot of convenience food dinners and meals.

However, once I got to be of an age that I could drive, had a job, and could buy my own food, then it was all me. I knew that veggies were healthier than potato chips and pop, and I knew that a home cooked meal was healthier than a Big Mac Meal. I just made bad choices.

Friends and sorts (especially the Debbie downers who have to opin on everything),

Like be real here. Yes, the bottom line comes to me being responsible to me.

However, unless you are psychology major, you cannot ascertain the impact of the bricks that make up the wall in your life.

If you had an abusive past, parents that did not care what crap went in their mouths or their kids, or a traumatic experience that led to unhealthy habits; it is a part of who you are.

Not everyone can just jump up in the morning and say "ok, this is it - I am going to eat right and not be unhealthy anymore". This is just not logical.

Yes, there are many of us that come go through a storm and come to the realization of what caused the storm. Then we can get past it and go on with a healthy life style.

Still, there are as many of us who require additional assistance; whether that be counseling, surgery or whatever.

Not everyone is genetically and mentally engineered the same. Some can self motivate while others need to go through serious counseling to help them conquer the demons before they can move forward with their lives.

I hate to do this long spill but it burns me when people are so opinionated that they think life is based on the way they did it vice realizing that we are not all the same and we overcome things differently.

Just saying. (This is not and will not be proof read so hammer the grammar or whatever mistakes I made as you will)

No one helped make me fat any more than they helped me get to my ideal weight. People are responsible for what they eat. Period.

I made myself overweight. I have no time or inclination to make excuses for myself.

I obviously know that ultimately I put the food in my mouth. So obviously me

But do you think that your childhood homelife and parents contribute to you being overweight as you get older? Like when you see a fat child ? Or parents who aren't educated in what and how to cook?

Or maybe partners who eat badly? Or do you just think its all your fault for eating too much?

Just curious:)

I think it depends from person to person but yea I think the people around you contribute to what and how much you eat. I know my grandparents are always trying to feed me I grew up in an over weight family I also think that has something to do with how you eat, but the key is to take control of your life and who you be around.

People around me always made comments that made me insecure every time I gained as few as 3-4 pounds. I was never fat, but I am not skinny either. So everyone "made sure" I didn't get fat by pointing every single time that I didn't look "perfect". Probably the most that got to me were the comments from my ex, who apparently would not want to be with me if I didn't look like a model. This made spend years living on very restricted diets, but then binge as soon as I took a "cheat day". That's what made me gain weight, the yo-yo dieting because I just didn't know how to live healthily and happy. I thought I had to starve myself, and then I just lost control as soon as I started eating out.
I know ultimately the food was put in my mouth by me, but yes, people can definitely influence a lot over these decisions.

This is a very similar situation to me, was always made to believe I was fat, when I wasn't, so I believed I was fat, I looked in the mirror and saw a fat person and that is what I became without even realising it. Until a few years back I was going through old " fat" pictures of myself and suddenly I saw that I was not fat back then what so ever, I cried my eyes out when I in particular how cruel my own mother was me, she always made fat comments to me all my life, I think it was just I always had a big bust and was more developed than the other kids. She continued to put me down into my forties, until the last straw a few years ago, when she said that no one would want to be with me because I'm fat, I cut her out of my life and have now lost 7 stone in total and still have a way to go. So yes other people can definitely influence how you perceive yourself if it is drummed into you enough.

I don't really find blame to be all that useful, especially because it takes the power away from the individual to make positive changes going forward. However, I do find looking into contributory factors to be really helpful because it can help you make informed, purposeful decisions (just who is to "blame" for things in the past doesn't really appeal to me).

As for my story, I was always fairly thin growing up -- was quite athletic, so never had to worry about food amounts. I ate whatever I wanted until I was about 20 with no problems, likely because I was so active. I put on a good 40 lbs or so when I was 20 after a really nasty attack. Of course, I didn't realize it at the time, but looking back on it, it was pretty obvious. I felt safer being fatter -- I felt more substantial and less of a target as I garnered far less attention from men.

My Mom was/is pretty emotionally challenged. One of the ways she expressed love and affection was by cooking -- and she'd get so upset if you didn't eat what she prepared for you -- like it was a rejection of her. So, I often ate things even when I wasn't hungry to make her happy. As a kid this wasn't a problem because of my activity levels, but as an adult, it was challenging (I can remember her being in tears about declining a piece of her cheesecake). I also grew up in a family where being thin was pretty important -- both my parents were pretty good looking folks so having a fat kid (even as an adult) was not something they wanted reflected back on them. My Dad would pinch my tummy from time to time and would remind me about how important it was not to get fat throughout my childhood. To this day, the bulk of my conversation with my mother surrounds food and dieting (she's not so good relating on all other levels -- that whole emotionally challenged thing). Shoot, up until my father's death, he had divided the family into the "fat team" and the "thin team" -- and for those like me that bounced around in adulthood, it was often a topic of conversation at holidays who was on the fat team and who was on the thin team. I don't think either meant to be particularly cruel with this -- I figured it was probably just how they were raised -- but it certainly didn't make being a teenage girl very easy (even though I was thin the whole time). I also grew up in southern California where the ideals of beauty and being thin are far less forgiving than many other places. I also realized as an adult that I often ate food (especially sweets) to fill emotional voids in my life -- anxiety being the biggest for me -- as food was always consistent and available (unlike either parent).

As I result I yo-yo'd pretty often with those same 40 lbs from 20+ years old. And, finally at 35, I diagnosed with hypothyroid and insulin resistance -- and, am finally now losing those 40 lbs like a "normal" person", with hopes to keep it off permanently.

Who's to blame? Who cares. But, it has helped me to better understand these underlying factors, so I can address them with my eating habits. Learning about and accepting the emotional issues makes them less of food triggers. My parents weren't the best. They were/are flawed human beings like we all are. However, they also did some really great things too -- just not so good with the food/emotional issues.

Before understanding this, I was definitely controlled by these sleeping demons far more than I ever would have imagined and used food for plenty of not-so-good reasons. But understanding and accepting these issues, lets me move on and make more purposeful choices and frees me from those demons. Life is a journey.