how did you get fat?

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  • sfischer1979
    sfischer1979 Posts: 5 Member
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    I've been overweight pretty much my whole life.

    most everyone in my family is big, we have a large bone structure, and usually a big belly that goes with it.

    I had pretty awful eating habits my whole life.....

    not anymore. :)

    Unlike the rest of the stories, this seems to be a lot closer to my tale. I wasn't very active in school and I didn't play sports. Instead, I worked at McDonalds, and typically sat around playing video games and eating. I don't question how I got fat, I know exactly how it happened, too much delicious, tasty food. I have taste buds that prefer deep fried and sweet foods. The only question that I have had, is how to change that. How do I make veggies taste good, how do I get a good crunch on foods without a deep fryer (I am a texture person, foods need texture, not just flavor). I think once I can answer those questions, I will be in a better spot.

    Until then though, workout, workout, workout :)
  • Papaya81
    Papaya81 Posts: 90 Member
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    I blame my mom!
    But not in the way you'd think. ;) She was always cooking healthy, low fat meals with small portion sizes for our family, encouraged us to exercise, etc. So when I finally moved out I though - "I'm free!" I had the stupidest mini-rebellion in history. I ate all the things that were banned in our household - and for a while, it was great! Everything tasted so wonderful. But then my portions got bigger and bigger, and it got harder and harder to feel satisfied till I was eating as much or more than my husband - and I'm small framed and only 5'3". That's why for me. :)

    I had the SAME exact problem! I love my mother, but she was ALWAYS health conscious and had great self-restraint. But being forced to grow up eating healthy made me very envious of my friends whose mothers would pack them fruit snacks and other delicious (sweet) treats. So part of that led to me having a crazy sweet tooth because I felt so deprived. Instead of having one treat, I would buy like two or three candies and justify eating it all bc I wasn't allowed to. However, despite my raging sweet tooth, I actually enjoy healthy food, but I had a problem controlling the portions. I simply ate for the taste.

    I worked out or was active my entire life but when I turned 14 the weight started to creep. I also injured my knee which led to me finding it as an easy excuse to dismiss myself from working out. I really like MFP because when I am determined its a great way to stay focused and maintain some sort of control over my portions and excerise habits!
  • msamcoates
    msamcoates Posts: 261 Member
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    Well lets see, I wouldn't consider myself fat but in high school I played basketball and ate whatever I wanted. College came around and I was still active and ate whatever I wanted. Then I had a baby and didn't really gain that much but AFTER the baby is when I started putting on the extra weight. I found myself tired all the time and didn't workout of do anything. Plus my motivation is like a yo-yo. When I don't see change quickly, I give up and go back to the same routine. This time I'm trying to stick it out.
  • briar_rose
    briar_rose Posts: 149 Member
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    -snacking (in front of the TV)
    -eating lots of fast food
    -eating to deal with the sudden loss of my father
    -baby weight
  • msamcoates
    msamcoates Posts: 261 Member
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    I had a baby at age 44 and I struggled to lose the 25 pounds of "baby" fat since then (4 years until I started MFP). Old bodies don't bounce back very easily :tongue: I severely under ate, interspersed with binges due to starving myself. I slowly put on the pounds...about 5 pounds a year. For the last year and a half, I've been working on resetting my metabolism and getting adequate nutrition on a regular basis. I lift weights 3x a week and am seeing great gains.

    You had a child at 44!!! ... Congrats .... I pray I'm done by then ... hell I pray I'm done now and I only have 1 very active son!
  • jmcniel
    jmcniel Posts: 65
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    I am not going to lie, I love eating dead animals and ice cream and not exercising. Of course that is changing now, but that is how I plumped into my current status.

    I think when it first really started was around 2005 when i was working nights. I usually woke up in enough time to take a shower and head to work. When I had my lunch break, usually around 7 or 8 depending on how our afternoon went I would just grab something fast food. I did that for about a year and a half and gained about 35 lbs.

    During this time is when I met Ashley, and her mom would fry everything and I mean everything, so that helped add on even more. Despite her mom making the claim that she doesn't fry anything that she bakes(Which she has made this claim since Ashley doesn't fry anything and only bakes). People that don't fry stuff do not have nasty baking grease laying around for the hell of it.
  • danyellehughson
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    Being poor and in College takes it toll on your diet needless to say. I was about 127 in highschool, then in college due to eating out and poorly since it was cheap to grab 2 dollar menue iteams from mc'ds--- I went up to about 145-- now I work at a call center sitting on butt all day and with no exercise and too much soda and bad dieting habits I, with out even realizing it, shot up to 180.... I'm lucky it hasnt been more, but I really want to be healther, and now with a gym at my job I have no exscuse. :D
  • chrissym78
    chrissym78 Posts: 628 Member
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    3 babies in 10 years and I LOVE to cook! Nuff said :)

    I have 10 pounds to be back where i was in high school.
  • Sharont213
    Sharont213 Posts: 323 Member
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    combination of things.. I was always slender, right up until my late 30's.. moved to the US from Canada and I really do believe some of the weight started because of food practice differences (added hormones, etc) - I lived alone for 15 years and cooked for myselft but once I started cooking for a family, I think my portions sizes started to distort. Then within a couple of years I quit smoking, developed RA and Panic Disorder for which I am on meds and finally menopause. Over the course of 15 years, I have put on over 50lbs. Last year, I hit my highest weight and finally committed to doing something that I could stick to instead of just dieting.. I won't get where I was (I really was too thin) but I am getting closer to something I can live with..
  • brookalina
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    Mine started at an early age. I was abused when I was a child up until the age of 10 when I got a voice and said something. I gained 100 pounds in a year from eating my emotions. Self expression was not something that was encouraged in my home. Then I ballooned from there. Between rebelling against my mother who never said anything positive to me and always criticized my weight, (and she was obese to top it off) to being on Depo birth control, to being in abusive relationships, I gained and gained and gained. In 2004 I started Weight Watchers and lost 120 lbs. 2006 I got married, gained 20 lbs. 2007 had my son 3.5 months premature. He was 2lbs when he was born and stayed the first 6 months of his life in the NICU. Gained 20 lbs while pregnant, lost it when I pumped breast milk ( he couldn't have my milk yet so I had to freeze it), he got sick and couldn't eat any of my breat milk so I quit pumping, gained the 20 lbs back. After he came home on a feeding tube, and over the course of the next couple of years, I gained some more weight back. In Oct 2009 I quit smoking, gained. 2010, my dad died and my son had to stay in the hospital for a week because he had pnemonia, gained, fighting a custody battle with my husband for his daughters from a previous marriage..gained...So here I am today. back at the weight I was at when I started weight watchers. I have read books and talked to God and talked to my friends and got advice and all kinds of other things to learn how to deal with emotions instead of eating them. This is truely the most difficult thing I have had to deal with for almost 20 years now!! I am seriously tired of being on this road!
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    I never reached the point of "fat" but I was softer around the mid section than I wanted to be. Plus I figured if I was going to want to run half marathons and marathons, there was no reason to carry around anymore weight that absolutely needed.
  • gdunn55
    gdunn55 Posts: 363
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    Well I've always been big. In HS I had it under control because I played sports, but after HS, that was it. I still ate like I was playing ball, but with no activity. But the things I ate were not healthy things. It was mainly junk food.. Scratch that, it was junk food. While in college I not only smashed the Freshmen Fifteen, but hit the Sophmore Sixteen, the Junior Jiggles, and the Senior Seventeen. Three years after college I weighed in at a whopping 310 lbs at 26 years old. So I changed my diet and started walking. Then playing pick up games of basketball, and by November 2008 I was down 50 lbs. I gained 20 lbs gradually back from April 2009 until October 2009. In July 2010, I was back to the 260. Happy too, because that meant I had 10 lbs to reclaim my Senior year weight and another 10 to hit my goal weight to decide if I was to maintain or if I was going to lose more. Sad to say that I got transferred to another project across the country and ended up living out of a hotel for a month. When I finally got settled I found it hard to make time again. After Christmas I weighed in and had gained 22 lbs back. Right now I've lost 7, so I'm 15 away from being where I was a few months ago.
  • AngieRevised
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    Ummmmm......by eating and ignoring that I was getting fat?
    Ask me later in the year how I got skinny, Okay? lol
  • jesshamonko
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    Mine started when I got pregnant, I thought the weight would magically come off after I had him and I'd be back to my skinny days in no time. Almost 5 years later and I still have about 25 more lbs to get back to that, it's hard!!
  • 9virgo11
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    Living in wak *kitten* Alabama for the past 3-1/2 years!!!!! This is the most depressing place I have ever live. I had to really take control of my current situation and get my body right. I was tipping 200lbs and that in it self became depressing. I'm on my way to a slimmer healthier me!!! Woooohoooo......
  • Ahzuri
    Ahzuri Posts: 272 Member
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    I honestly think that undiagnosed depression may have had a part in the weight gain and my lack of activity but I won't know until I finally go see a doctor about it next month. I remember telling my mom back in high school that I thought I had depression but she told me "Your in high school, a kid, you aren't depressed" of course she always made the comment that I "Used to be such a happy child" too.My diet as a kid was never great either but I was always really thin because I ran around a lot (and we were broke but you don't really noticed that as a kid). When I got into middle school there was this whole drama with my friends where someone had convinced a lot of them to not hang out with me anymore (yeah I know not really great friends) so I started going out less and staying on the computer more. My eating habits were catching up with me and by the time I was in high school I weighed 180lbs (I'm 5'3), things continued on that way. I actually tried to lose weight while in high school and it was going well until I moved for college in 2005.

    I started gaining weight again but avoided the scale denying that I was and when I did next weighed myself in 2007 I was 300ish pounds. I was devastated but my husband supported my endeavor to get to a healthy weight. It took me another year and us moving to Florida to actually start seriously trying to lose weight but when I did it took me about 6 or 7 months to drop 50lbs.After about a year there I lost my job and became pregnant, we moved back to Georgia. I was depressed because I had lost my job and stopped really giving a crap about my weight lost for generally the entirety of my pregnancy. I gained back all 50lbs before it was all said and done. I dropped some of the weight off right after giving birth but it took me the entire year to get back to where I was before pregnancy so hopefully now in the new year I can get truly moving on losing the rest of my weight. So far so good!
  • overit
    overit Posts: 273
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    Honestly, I get lazy and quit working out or watching what I eat. I am an emotional eater. I just let it get out of control and don't stop. In 2007 I worked hard and got down to 204 and gained it all back because I quit doing everything I did to get to the low 200s.
  • 9virgo11
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    Awesome.....
  • yanicka
    yanicka Posts: 1,004 Member
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    8 pregnancies in 12 years. Only 2 of those were M/C. But I have to say that I feel really lucky. I never had to face having to lose alot of weight.
  • JLeeAlton
    JLeeAlton Posts: 311
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    I sat and played an online video/pc game for 3 years. 6 months of those 3 years I didn't work so I sat home all day playing that game. I would sit and eat. Never went anywhere .. did anything .. no exersice.. nothing. I went from 130 to 191 in no time flat. I was never a big person or fat growing up. It is not genetics.. it was just me. I loved ordering food and playing that game. So what they say is true about MMORPG's .. you lose yourself and your life it don't watch out.

    I woke up one day.. took a shower.. shaved and noticed hmmm.. I can't reach down there. Got on a scale and said holy crap. I went to the gym that day.. quit the online game.. and now I am on my way back down to 130. I actually wasn't able to squat down to get something off a lower bookshelf and go back up. My knees where SO weak. That also got me thinking.