Who made you become overweight?

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  • ptsmiles
    ptsmiles Posts: 511 Member
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    Me!
  • buzzcogs
    buzzcogs Posts: 296 Member
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    Me, myself, and I! ;-0
  • JustinAnimal
    JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
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    Like everyone's said, it's obviously me with a big BUT...

    ...I was raised to clean my plate every time. We never wasted food. It's the way my parents were raised and, growing up with parents who didn't feel "well off" meant we had to eat everything in front of us. I wish that habit hadn't been bred into me, because it's something I really struggle with. I can be full, but feel the need to clear my plate. I can have cleared my plate and my wife will have some things on her plate... and I'll feel compelled to finish it. It fees stupid to say I feel like it's an accomplishment when I LEAVE something on my plate, but it's been a very tough habit to break. Something I'm going to do differently with my children.
  • LianaG1115
    LianaG1115 Posts: 453 Member
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    No one to blame but yourself...Me.
  • Samenamenewlook
    Samenamenewlook Posts: 296 Member
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    The most correct and truthful answer is me ... obviously. But I'd much rather blame my husband since he knocked me up 3 times and that's when it started.
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
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    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.
  • eileen0515
    eileen0515 Posts: 408 Member
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    Me, myself, and I. Just like me, myself and I made myself a slender person.
  • Eoghann
    Eoghann Posts: 130 Member
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    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!
  • rexroars
    rexroars Posts: 131 Member
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    As soon as we went off to college (separate years), my brother and I both dropped 30+ pounds.

    Obviously at this point, as a 23 year old, it's 100% my decision whether I am healthy or not. But I think parenting plays a huge role - and my parents are both very overweight and have lots and lots of health problems because of it (such as needing knee surgery, ankle injuries, not being able to walk more than 10 minutes).

    They eat fast food SO regularly and are both very addicted to sugar.

    Even now, when I go to visit them, I have to plan very carefully to be able to eat healthily without offending them. They act very offended if I turn down fast food, as if by doing so I'm calling them fat. And also my mother gets very upset if I talk about losing weight or working out, etc and tells me I'll be too thin (which is getting closer to being true, but she even said that when my BMI was categorized as overweight and the doctor told me to lose weight.)

    I think that parents overfeeding their children is a huge problem in the US. My parents were fine, I was only a bit chubby, but children who are morbidly obese should not exist. I personally believe that is as much child abuse as a parent who gave their kid alcohol or cigarettes etc. It's obviously delicate territory and a line would have to be drawn somewhere. But still a problem.
  • OneStepLighter
    OneStepLighter Posts: 78 Member
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    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! :)
  • EllieB_5
    EllieB_5 Posts: 247 Member
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    I'm the one who stuffed my face with all the wrong foods.

    Having said that, my parents did instill some bad eating habits. We had to clean our plates, hungry or not, and I still battle that compulsion. Also grazing; grazing while meals were being made was always huge and is another thing I need to remind myself to not do any more. Hm, and "picking". While everyone sits around the table after a meal, talking, with all the platters of food still there, picking at the foods all night was another bad habit I really battle with. Maybe that falls under grazing :tongue:
  • runitskat
    runitskat Posts: 30
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    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.
  • Ang108
    Ang108 Posts: 1,711 Member
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    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:)

    It was all me. I grew up in postwar Germany where everyone ate what they could get their hands on. When things got better we all ate better. After that I was old enough to know what I wanted to eat, cook for myself and inform myself.
    I have stopped blaming my parents decades ago for anything in my life. I had decades to remedy things and if I didn't, that was my choice and not my family's fault. I started to gain weight about ten years ago....my mom and dad died 54 years ago....I have no one to blame but myself.....and I don't even do that. I made my choices , some, in regard to food were bad over the last ten years and now I try to remedy the situation.
    I come from a culture where people generally don't snack, don't go out to eat a lot and from a family that was slender. I never thought much about restricting food because at just under five feet I weighed usually 100-108 pounds. Only in my mid to late fifties did I start to over eat (still very healthy food ) after losing my thyroid and developing autoimmune diseases......I regret these days that I was not more on the ball.....but I guess at the time I just did not have the resources ( mostly emotionally ) to take better care of myself.....so I started to eat...a lot.
  • asp415
    asp415 Posts: 1,492 Member
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    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.
  • alisonmarytuck
    alisonmarytuck Posts: 68 Member
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    Its me ...but as a child food and rewards went together so I suppose psychologically that had an impact. But my choices now - and Ive changed them!
  • yo_andi
    yo_andi Posts: 2,178 Member
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    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:









    :angry:
  • Ang108
    Ang108 Posts: 1,711 Member
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    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:









    :angry:

    Are we reading the same thread ? I am inpressed with how people here take responsibility for themselves not blaming anyone else. Are you just naturally angry .....:o) ?
  • montana_girl
    montana_girl Posts: 1,403 Member
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    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.
  • JustinAnimal
    JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
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    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:

    :angry:

    Are we reading the same thread ? I am inpressed with how people here take responsibility for themselves not blaming anyone else. Are you just naturally angry .....:o) ?

    Yeah, pretty curious who they were responding to. Like the OP said, no one put a gun to our head and said, "eat." However, there are factors that contribute and take time to conquer before we can have healthier relationships with food. No problem in exploring your eating / exercise issues in a SUPPORTIVE environment...
  • cparter
    cparter Posts: 754 Member
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    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)

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