What caused you to get fat?

wewon
wewon Posts: 838 Member
edited September 25 in Motivation and Support
Not a very motivating title LOL!

Yesterday I was talking to my wife and the subject of going out this weekend came up, which turned to eating, which turned to this site. One thing that I noticed was that I knew the amount of calories in some of the things that I enjoyed and was making decisions based on that, thanks to this site.

It then dawned on me that tons of calories were sneaking into my diet that I was not accounting for in the past; and they added up quickly. I never thought about movie popcorn, soda, adding sour cream to a soup, cheese on a sandwhich all add up. These are things that I did without really considering the consequences. Since I've been mindful of this and planning accordingly I've lost a pants size.

I always knew that foods were my reason (I've always exercised in some form or fashion) but I never truly took the time to consider the details.

What are the things that you've changed/noticed since you've been scrutinizing your habits?
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Replies

  • JanerZzz
    JanerZzz Posts: 276
    I had to have surgery on my foot and become immobile and inactive for about 4 months. Gained weight and was at my heaviest ever, 142. I am working to get back to being me or even better! This site is great and helps me stay accountable!!!!
  • lisanxd
    lisanxd Posts: 93
    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.
  • amelie21
    amelie21 Posts: 16 Member
    I used to have a really active job so I never had to watch what I ate as I always burned it off. But then I got a desk job, I used to eat the same amount of calories but with no physical activity and the pounds piled on!

    I agree the nutrition info on this site is a real eye-opener as I would have never even thought about how mach fat and calories is in cheese and sauce and the little extras!

    Best of luck on your journey :)
  • jessimacar
    jessimacar Posts: 291
    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.
  • breakingthecycle
    breakingthecycle Posts: 225 Member
    I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, Degenerative Disc Disease and Degenerative Joint Disease about 8 years ago. For me to walk would put me down for days at a time. I started to make excuses and use my kids food choices to make bad dietary decisions.

    From around 00-08 I became an online junkie. I didnt move. I was online as long as I was awake.

    I became a couch potato, literally. If my kids didnt have an activity in the evening, I would drive straight home from work, shower, eat, and go straight to the couch.

    On weekends, I would wake up, run errands, and remain on the couch until Monday morning. I even slept there Friday through Sunday nights. When people would ask me what I was doing for the weekend I would jokingly say, "stay on my couch". This went on for a few years.

    About a year ago, I started baking. I loved it! I baked something whether it were banana bread, chocolate chip cookies or a pound cake. All from scratch. I also ate everything I baked, in excess. :sick:

    About a month ago, one of my friends asked me what I had planned for the weekend. I was just about to say "stay on my couch" when she completed the sentence for me. It was a wake up call. :embarassed:

    I have been here ever since. :happy:
  • jokhazen
    jokhazen Posts: 10 Member
    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
  • pftjill
    pftjill Posts: 488
    It every thing I was eating all together. Five years ago I had my first child at 30 years old. As if that wasn't enough at 3 weeks she was hospitalized and 2 days later they found a HUGE abscess in her head and had to be operated on and had a 9 week stay after that. Laying around doing nothing, but feeling sad and depressed I ate and ate and ate and laid around. I got out of that hospital at 250 lbs. Each pregnancy-I just had my 3rd 7 months ago-I gained so much. I don't blame this on the babies as most do-it was all me baby and the eating for 2 mentality. Baby's don't ruin your body-you ruin your body. I am now down to my pre-pregnancy weight and am still going. I think I will reach my goal of being where I was 2 years ago, but even more muscle definition-haha!!! Love being fit.
  • Noz7
    Noz7 Posts: 59 Member
    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.
  • porcelain_doll
    porcelain_doll Posts: 1,005 Member
    Eating for comfort and recreation.

    I still do it to some degree; hence the reason I've hardly lost anything since joining this site.
  • LFern
    LFern Posts: 141
    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! :wink:
  • Blondie1984
    Blondie1984 Posts: 75 Member
    Being plain old lazy made me gain my weight! not caring about what I ate, and fast food!
  • luvlifejen
    luvlifejen Posts: 7 Member
    i got depression when i moved out of home and binged on chocolate :( xx
  • FearAnLoathing
    FearAnLoathing Posts: 4,852 Member
    :laugh: Goblins snuck into my house at night with guns a forced me to eat twinkies
  • ravenclawseekergirl
    ravenclawseekergirl Posts: 342 Member
    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.
  • mrmarius
    mrmarius Posts: 1,802 Member
    the personal computer... lol eating and chatting was a big problem its so easy to eat a whole bag of chips when youre not paying attention, add sugary drinks and lots of candy to the mix... for years i'd workout and workout and only lose a couple of lbs and it was because i never got the eating part right. then getting in a relationship with someone who didnt understand proper eating didnt help either so we both sat and got fat lol.. but thats all changing now
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    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.
  • RosieB405
    RosieB405 Posts: 150 Member
    I was taught to clean my plate and I just got used to eating all of what was on my plate plus I am an emotional eater
  • Juniper3411
    Juniper3411 Posts: 167 Member
    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.
  • realme56
    realme56 Posts: 1,093 Member
    I came from a family where my mother believed feeding your kids whatever they wanted was good. As an adult I have been up and down for years. It is hard to stay out of those bad habits and an emotional battle as many of us know.
    One year when my daughter would go from here in California to my parents house in Vermont for a few weeks, I was physically affected by the shock of seeing my daughter get off the plane 12# heavier than when I sent her. She was 10 years old at the time and had been there for 6weeks. My mother had to buy her new clothes as nothing she had would fit her. I asked my daughter if she had eaten ice cream and potato chips every night..."mom, how did you know?"
    I know what healthy eating is but I do lack motivation at times, I have to plan and work at it. Thankfully this site is helpful for motivation, planning and information.
  • Luelf
    Luelf Posts: 7
    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!
  • LaurieEReid
    LaurieEReid Posts: 273
    Sitting on the couch too much.
    Portion sizes.
    Loving sweet and/or fatty things (chocolate, cheesecake, icecream, cake.....)
    Stealth calories (that pumpkin scone I'd get when I skipped breakfast has 500 cal?)

    :ohwell:
  • amarie36
    amarie36 Posts: 65 Member
    My weight gain started after the birth of my kids. I wasnt used to having to watch what I ate or workout before pregnancy...I only did it in fun when I felt like it and I played sports. My transition from school to being a wife, mom, and working full time has been rough on my weight because of mine and my husband's hectic schedules..I found myself doing what was easy and fast which meant eating out or cooking, but going to bed after dinner because I was "tired". EXCUSES and being LAZY! LOL I can admit it! Although....after the birth of my second child I got majority of the weight off. I was 15lbs away from my goal AND in school fulltime in addition to everything else. My downfall came at the death of my grandfather and then exactly 3 months later the death of my other grandfather. Having been the first time that I had to deal with the death of people close to me....I took it pretty hard, got depressed and the only exercise I did was walking back and forth to the refrigerator and opening and closing the door. LOL Needless to say I'm done with the excuses.
  • wewon
    wewon Posts: 838 Member
    Sitting on the couch too much.
    Portion sizes.
    Loving sweet and/or fatty things (chocolate, cheesecake, icecream, cake.....)
    Stealth calories (that pumpkin scone I'd get when I skipped breakfast has 500 cal?)

    :ohwell:

    Stealth calories will do it every time.

    It really was a wake up call to see what the culprits were.
  • aaddaammggoolleeaaffss
    aaddaammggoolleeaaffss Posts: 230
    Working from home for 5 years! I recently left that job and am going back to school to be a paramedic so now I have a few months to concentrate just on my health :)
  • bmmiller4
    bmmiller4 Posts: 39
    I never was one to watch what I ate. To much fast food and soda...Large McDonalds coke is still a huge weakness for me. We moved back to Indiana when I was 6 months pregnant with my second child and I became a stay at home mom. Now I could eat whenever I wanted not just on my lunch hour from work! I had a 27 month old and a colicky newborn and a husband with a sales job that was rarely home for dinner. I only cooked proper meals when he was home for dinner and then only if it had been a good day with the kids. Almost 5 years later and that is still the case. I fixed meals for the kids but didn't really make myself anything. So I would pick/graze all day long. Eat what was left on their plate and fill in the gaps with chips/snack foods. And lets not for get the soda...got to have Coke Classic and Mt. Dew! Coke Classic has now been replaced with Coke Zero (I can not stand diet soda) and the occasional Mt. Dew. I try to fix more proper meals. I could never justify cooking an entire meal for basically me (the kids didn't eat enough to make a difference) since I was never big on eating leftovers and DH was eating out because of his job. Now that the kids are older, 4 & 6, they eat more and DH has changed jobs...still only home for dinner a few nights a week, but he now takes leftovers for his lunch so it doesn't seem like so much of a waste.

    Keeping the food diary has really shown me how the grazing can add up. I still eat some of the bad stuff but I portion it out (a bowl of chips, not the bag!) and I am more cautious. I joined a gym last fall and was doing really well going consistently but still wasn't watching what I ate. I made it through the holidays without really gaining anything but then my workout buddy got busy at work (she is a tax accountant) so I lost some motivation to go. It is also hard to find the time since I still have one child at home and hubby works so many hours. But I am hoping once her busy season is over we can get back at it. I am walking on the treadmill at home and have been on MFP for a week and lost 1.5 pounds so I am excited to see where things are going!

    Plus I have my 25 year class reunion...can't show up looking like I do! That is fantastic motivation!
  • neelia
    neelia Posts: 750 Member
    Desk job. ' nuff said.
  • tami05
    tami05 Posts: 7
    I had my first child, I put on 70lb, all my fault because I was studying and just ate what I wanted, the baby came out 11lb 13oz! I then had another one and another until I now have 5 children! I stayed overweight for about ten years in all!

    Recently I have discovered that I am Intolerant to dairy products and using calories and excluding dairy I have now lost 63lb and I am slimmer than I ever was before I was pregnant to start with!

    With my own children now, I want them to learn healthy nutrition and be able to control there own diet, I was never taught this as a child and was always able to eat what ever I fancied! hence being over weight for as long as I can remember!

    EDUCATION is what is need through my whole family as all my siblings and older relatives are very weight. I am proud to say that none of my children are overweight now, (they were heading that way)!!
  • rileamoyer
    rileamoyer Posts: 2,412 Member
    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! :wink:

    Three Cheers for Mentalpause
    LoL
  • lisanxd
    lisanxd Posts: 93
    I forgot one. World of Warcraft!!
  • bmmiller4
    bmmiller4 Posts: 39
    That cleaning the plate thing will get you every time. I am constantly biting my tongue every time I start to tell my kids to clean their plates...hard to break the habits of our childhood!
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