What caused you to get fat?

I know the start to my gaining weight was making the transition from being a college student (I had about 3 hours of dance classes M-F my last year in college) to working a desk job full-time. Also my commute at that time was about 2 hours each way... so I would get home and it would pretty much be time to go to bed! I developed a horrible habit of getting Taco Bell for dinner each night. With my lack of time, I was NEVER exercising. As the weight piled on I became more depressed and had little motivation to get it off, thinking it wouldn't be possible.

I'm sure there are other things.. but looking back these are the main reasons for me.

It was laziness for me. While I like to cook, I didn't want to put in the effort most days. Being a student I was constantly stressed and busy, so it was easier to grab some fast food instead of cooking when I could use that time for studying, or facebook. Lol.

I was just lazy, there's no other excuse here.

I was busy one summer cleaning up and reorganizing the art room with a friend who encouraged me to go to fast food restaurants on our 10 minutes lunch breaks that we had and we'd bulk up on burgers....30 pounds in just a few months! Blahh! Fast food everyday was NOT a good thing

This is really very interesting!
I think I've been eating a lot more than I should have for a while now and not put on as much weight as others would have.
So in this sense, I feel very lucky. I grew up doing a lot of exercise, mum fed us ridiculously healthy food including lentils and too much cabbage! I'm now 85 kilos with a height of 167cm or so. I notice you've just started too.

But anyway, I'll make a little list, which is definitely informed by what I'm not doing now!
- iced coffee drinks 1/2 L with lots of sugar (terrible), varying frequency but often when I woke up late and was on my way to work with no breakfast.
- unhealthy snacks including too much bread, bakery stuff - variable frequency
- buying junk food and soft drinks that come with it, eg. Macdonalds 'do you want fries with that' ... not really but you eat them anyway.
- driving more than catching public transport like I used to.
- desk job (used to be more active, day to day)
- having the same size servings as my husband who would have a very high metabolic rate in comparison to me, and who rides 40km most work-days.
- not sleeping enough and needing to have a snack when I stay up late, or snacking to make myself feel better when I'm tired.

I feel that when I did bother to prepare meals myself that I probably got it right. I haven't changed the way I cook much at all.
But the junk food lifestyle is bad news, as is not sleeping enough and using food as a crutch to make yourself feel slightly better in the short term.

I had 3 kids 2 years apart in the early years. That accounted for most of it. I was too busy changing diapers to worry about exercise or anything like that. Never lost the baby weight from 1 before getting pg with the next.

Pretty much just continued to eat what I wanted WHEN I wanted like I did when I was a teenager. . . guess what-and adult body can't handle that!

Then instead of focusing on getting healthy - I lost 20 lbs and got pg at the age of 29. Apparently my subconscious thought that would keep me from turning 30? YEESH! Talk about TIRED! Teenagers reeking havoc, raising a baby AND we took in a teenage niece!

What? I'm s'pose to watch what I eat? Being raised as a country gal - you don't waste food - so what the kids didn't eat - I did.

Yeah I watched myself hit 200 lbs. Then 210. Then 220. . . at 254 I decided the kids are grown - NO MORE EXCUSES. It's time for ME. It's coming off very slowly because I now in that fabulous time of life called mentalpause :laugh: BUT it IS coming off!

i got depression when i moved out of home and binged on chocolate xx

I had a lot of reasons. I'm a comfort eater and secondary school was horrible. Frim thhe moment i walked through the doors as a naive eleven year old till i left at sixteen i was bullied. People used to call me Hagrid and try to pull my trousers down.. stuff like that. When i was fourteen my Nanna died of renal cancer it was a big shock becuse we were very close and i had never lost anyone before. Then i started college and the friends that i'd had for four years ditched me and i became very socially isolated. Food filled the whole that other teenagers fill with a social life and my eating got out of control.

Eating whatever I wanted to and not really caring about the consequences. Not being aware of reasonable portion sizes didn't help much either.

Now I'm slowly learning how to make more healthy choices and be more aware of what being satisfied with a small portion means. Tracking is a huge part of my success too. Seeing it all there in black and white and knowing I'll have to write it all down in my food diary really makes me more accountable.

Haha on the goblins comment!!

This time around it was pregnancy that did it...of course like one of the PP's said, I don't blame it on the baby! I definitely took advantage of eating. Of course I had been healthy and watching my weight for 3+ years before I got pregnant so I kind of let myself indulge!! Of course I knew that if I did that I would have to work harder afterwards to lose it, but I guess I think it was worth it

Previous to losing the weight the first time it was just plain laziness and lack of exercise. I was a competitive figure skater through my whole life so when I quit and went to college you can just imagine what happened! I lost some of the weight in time for my wedding, but got pregnant with my first shortly thereafter and got up to 208 (my last pregnant weigh in, of course I lost 12 pounds immedietly because of the size of the baby, fluids, afterbirth etc.) I stayed like that for a while. I started skating again and lost another 10 to 15 pounds just from exercise but I wasn't dieting. Then I started the South Beach diet (which I am embarking on again the second time) and dropped it all (and then some) fairly quickly. I was actually waaaay below my pre pregnancy weight and probably the skinniest I had ever been. I managed to maintain it, except for gaining losing the same 5 to 8 pounds over and over again, which is normal when you maintain.

Now I'm at it again. At least this time I know I can do it, and roughly how long it will take since I have the exact same amount to lose right now.

Honestly I gained weight after I got married! I just got so comfortable being around him that I ate everything I guess. I never really noticed it until my mom told me that I was getting big. I weighed about 125 before I got married and then after I weighed a good 140. It made me really sad to hear my mom tell me I was fat but it was very true.

I decided that I was not going to put up with it and did p90x last spring and starting the second month I did it twice a day. I completely took red meat, pizza ( which was hard for me) and junk in general out of my diet. I also joined a womens soccer team and played and still play every Monday. When I finished p90x I weighed about 130 and still do, I have hit a plateau but I was soooo much thinner than I was. I could fit back into my siz 2 jeans.

I did p90x again but only did about 1 month of it because starting in July of 2010 I started taking combat fitness classes at a wrestling gym that my friend owns. THey also do kickboxing, and mma along with general fitness classes. So now...since we recently bought an elliptical I do 45 min of elliptical training in the morning if i can, take a fitness class (sometimes both) and kickboxing on Mon, Wed, and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I do my best to get on the elliptical and take a wrestling class for an hour and a half. Saturdays I do mma with the boys at the gym for about 2 hours.

I have gained muscle and am a lot more tone than when I did p90x. Now my friend and I have a fight in June that we are training for! I am so excited! I plan on fighiting at 125 so I have a couple of lbs to go!

As long as you are committed you can do it! It just kinda sucks because food is so wonderful! This site is great to keep track of calories and such. I love it! If I can do it so can you, I promise! Keep it up!