How did you gain weight?...

I've always been big (@14 I was 6'3" 268)...Maintained around there (230-270) while playing sports in high school and college...Then I stopped playing sports and ran a pizza shop for 1.5 years. Do you know what you eat when you run a pizza shop?? PIZZA! every day, all day...and then came the fast food breakfast (if I ate it), lunch AND dinner...I have probably eaten 80-90% of my meals out for the past 10 years....I am ashamed of that because I knew it wasn't good for me, just lazy. But hey, that is why I'm here!!

Thanks for the great thread!

Ahhh hostess cupcakes and chocolate cake...Ellie grins sheepishly.:blushing: :embarassed: :sad:

I was an ok size back in high school. Kind of a hodge-podge when I was a kid until I went on a vegetarian diet in my junior year of HS, Lost about 50 lbs in 3 months (which I know is excessive) but it was just falling away. I "taught" myself to stop eating all the time and watch on what I was snacking....

Then came college and the extra 70 lbs! I went from a nice 130 lbs to tipping the scales at 200! I was so embarrassed. I have to say that I just was really lazy in college (still in college, this is my 5th years), always studying and eating, but never exercising.

Add on top of that, marriage weight. I married my husband after a little more than a year of knowing him, and with him as well, packed on more weight. He was very thin when we first got together, but he LOVES to eat, like me. Also, he's from the Dominican Republic, where it's very easy to keep the weight off due to the hot weather and everyone walks everywhere down there.... Anyhow, he's probably gained about 100 pounds (a lot of it is muscle because he LOVES to workout). It's mainly around his belly that's a problem for him.

Anyhow, We decided to give it a shot to get back to nearly our "old selves". We started a couples' workout regimen about 3 weeks ago. I don't think I've lost any weight, but I can see results so far in my thighs and upper arms, the jiggly is going away slowly....

Now I just have to keep being motivated to keep moving!

The first weight gain from about 125 to 190 was because I got depressed because my bf wouldn't marry me or move in with me when I was pregnant with our oldest ds. But in 1992 he was ready to right from the get go when we found out I was pregnant. I m/c'd that one.

Then I put the weight from 190-260 something because I felt guilty and that I caused my 2nd ds's heart defect and the fact that I didn't take him in for a 2nd opinion sooner. His pediatrician said it was just a murmur and not to worry and just make an appointment with a cardiologist. Ty was born 7/28/1996 and his cardiologist appt was 8/21/1996. When the dr looked at him he had me rush him across the street to Children's Hospital of WI to have an echo done. I think everyone was amazed he was still alive with a 40% blood oxygen level and couldn't believe what they were seeing on the screen because there was probably 20-25 different people that came in at different times. It was about 6pm when I was told he needed surgery and the surgeon would meet with me the next day to go over the echo. He had his aorta and pulmonary vessels switched to each other's side of the heart. He had a small aorta which they made bigger, He will forever have a small right ventricle which they said was the best to have because the left ventricle is the one that does the most work in that it pumps the blood to the whole body. The last thing he had wrong were lots and lots of holes, which was the best thing because it caused the blood to mix keeping him alive for those 3.5 weeks,

The last was just baby weight.

I think, like a lot of people, I really gained weight after getting married. He would eat big meals and I would eat the same. I know that's fairly common and often wonder why it happens.

Anyway, the weight would go up and down however hard I tried. Between relationships, though, I became very active and fitter and the weight came off again.

I've found that the older I get the harder it is to shift it but still I try.

I never had a problem with my weight. I was blessed with a great metabolism and the energy to work out every day. Until I hit my 40's. My metabolism nearly stopped. We moved and I changed jobs. No time to work out, eating lots of fast food and age contributed to me gaining about 40lbs. After seeing pictures of myself at my daughter's high school graduation, I realized I didn't even recognize myself. I joined a gym and started watching what I ate. I lost the pounds, and looked really good. I actually had people asking me what I did to stay in such great shape. Then life happened. My mom became ill and needed my care. There went my gym time. I was trying to add weight to her, and she wouldn't eat if I didn't. After she passed and my first grandchild was born prematurely and died after just 3 hours, I was too depressed to care. I got lazy. My kids all grew up, I became a grandma and life was so good that I just quit paying attention to myself. In the past 5 years I've gained back 25 of the 40lbs I lost. It came on slowly, so I didn't really notice it. Again, seeing pictures of me playing with my grandkids brought me back to reality. I'm fat!
I know it won't come off quickly, but I have rejoined my gym and I'm watching the food intake again. I want my body back, not this one that I don't recognize.

You know what they say - A single girl comes home, looks at what's in the fridge, sighs, and goes to bed. A married girl comes home, looks at what's in bed, sighs, and goes to the fridge! :laugh:

Love it.
Me, I got pregnant again, and again, and again, and again......oups missing a few again. In the last 12 years I have been preggo 9 times and gave birth to 6 babies. I feel reall lucky to only have 10 pounds to lose. I hope it's the last time I have to lose baby weight!!!

I gained all my weight after my twins were born. It was ironic. I had the twins at age 41 and I actually weighed two pounds less after the birth than before I got pregnant. People thought I was a rock star...

but then the stress of having premature twins while working full time with no help from teh hubby and living on 3 hours of sleep per night did me in.

I gained 80 pounds in just three years.

I went from a size 10 to a size 18.

It's crazy. When I walk by a mirror I am always surprised there is a fat lady looking at me. In my mind I am still an attractiive young woman but people who haven;t seen me in a few years don't even recognize me, then their mouth drops open. It's hurtful.

So my mom's club has a weight loss contest and i joined in. It's day seven for me and I've droppped eight pounds. I guess I just needed to feel not so alone doing this. All of you are a great help and so supportive. Thanks. Michele

I wasn't a really, really thin child but gained some weight when my parents split up when I was about 15 or so. Lost some weight in high school. I was never really skinny in high school 150-160 but thought I was fat (I would love to be that weight now). The very end of my high school year I met my now husband and 10 months after we met I found out I was pregnant. It's been mostly downhill weight wise since then, until now. I weigh about the same I did about 3-4 months pregnant (with my first child) about the same time I got married.

I wasn't ever "fat"; my peak was 130 on my 5'3" frame and lowest was in the early 100's. I don't know when it started but I ate the huge bag of cheese chips and ice cream every single night for 1 year and at bigger portion sizes out of the blue. until I realized it needed to go bye bye, and I'm still working on that. I've lost 10 lbs already and waiting for 10 more (:

Emotional eating.
Gained weight after I left school

July 2008 my husband died, and I saw pictures of myself on holidays not long after and I just looked so sad, fat and unhappy.
I joined a gym to get fit (after posting a terrible blood pressure reading) and very slowly lost the 20 kgs (44 pds) to be within reach of my goal weight.

Jan 2010 my 19 year old son is diagnosed with secondary cancer, and after 9 weeks of chemo and two operations I found myself with 13 kgs back on by Christmas.

Now my daughter is away at university I have much more time on my hands and am kicking and fighting to get back down to my goal.

Thanks to everyone here for being an inspiration.

GG

I gave up smoking and took up eating. Lollies, ice cream, chips. I ate and ate and ate! 15 kilo's later I decided this isn't me. I haven't had a cigarette in almost a year : )

emotional eating , stopped smoking, have 3 kids by c- section, I gave up on myself.

Came off the pill in my twenties to have a baby and gained 5 stones in under a year, turned out that the pill masked PCOS. Been a nightmare ever since as the only times I have lost weight weight was through being pregnant(after fertility treatment)

No one told me that this kind of condition makes you insulin resistant, all those low calorie/low fat diets were never right for me.

I'm now low carbing , it's working but...I have a long journey ahead .