Why did you let yourself gain so much weight?

I love food and I love cooking. However I'm an emotional eater and I'll eat out of boredom and frustration that is a difficult mindset to get out of and then it turns into habit that can be challenging to break and change.

I was raped in college when I wasn't fat - a rape that started with the kind of street "compliments" we are told we are being overly sensitive about when we label them as aggressive. Being fat made me invisible to most of those flinging that crap. The challenge I currently have is that for 20 years I was completely unaware of why I was carrying the extra weight, so during those 20 years I developed eating habits that supported carrying about 60 lbs more than I should.

I've lost weight over the years (one of those times was the trigger for the realization of why I had been carrying the weight), but my life is unbelievably stressful - and when I am stressed, I revert to old eating habits.

And, until 2 months ago, I had no adverse health impact from being obese - so there was no particular reason to add to my stress by working on losing weight. I exercised regularly (including a 2-day 150 mile bike ride every year, swimming a mile several times a week, etc.), my blood pressure was normal, my cholesterol was normal, as was my blood sugar. Two months ago I was diagnosed with diabetes - and now I have a health motivation to lose weight (even though I know my particular flavor of diabetes is only weakly related to weight - it is inherited from my skinny-as-a-rail grandfather and every descendant of his who is older than I am has it, regardless of size and level of exercise). With diabetes, the "normal" ranges for a variety of other things get cut in half - so my previously cholesterol is no longer normal (even though it has not changed).

jgnatca wrote: »

Ten pounds a year. I am in my fifties. Do the maths. I did some calculating and I was over-eating on average a hundred calories a day. That's half a cookie. Easy to have happen.

This is so true too, at least for me.

I got to be 60 lbs overweight over 13 years since leaving school... it's only 4-5lbs/year, so it's easy to ignore! I gained weight by not looking at the scale enough, by not worrying what the scale said and by ignoring the slow creep of dress sizes from 12 up to size 20.

It was a delicious blend which started with me working for McDonald's before I went to university (free extra value meal with every shift), enjoying the usual trappings of university in the UK (cheap alcohol and chips and cheese on the way home from many, many nights out), many movie nights making my way through a pint of Ben and Jerry's in one sitting, telling myself I needed 'snacks for the journey' which meant a giant bag of chocolates or a box of Chocolate fingers for a 2 hour drive (I wince when I remember that). What's worst is I am a registered Public Health nutritionist, with a doctorate in the subject. My excuse was that I ate normal sized dinners, I ate small breakfasts and standard sandwich lunches... I just never compensated for all those occasional over-indulgences and when my activity reduced at various points in my life, I didn't reduce my intake.

It's a similar tale to so many people on here, but the good news is the weight that it took 13 years to gain was gone (and more) in less than a year. I still eat Ben & Jerry's, but the chips & cheese and 'car snacks' are a thing of the past.

Lots of factors,
love of food and lazy #1
years ago I was on a form of Birth control that added around 20 lbs - again there is the lazy factor that I never did much.
the typical, gaining a few pounds a year (or more - based on that love of food)
and for the past 10 years its been largely that I am the parent of a child with special needs. This is part of why I don't exercise as much as I should - its hard to fit it in around her schedule. Also, the emotional stresses have led to lots of poor food choices (emotional eating)

Now I've just decided the heck with going for what the doctors (or some website) says I should weigh for my height. I haven't been that weight in my teenage or adult life, its unreasonable to think I ever will. What I can do is aim for what I weighed when I got married. That will still be overweight, but MUCH better for my body.

When I moved from NSW to WA (Both Australia) 5 years ago I lost 22kg due to my new lifestyle at the time. I maintained for 3 years then we moved to the UK for two years and did a lot of travel. now after all the 'national foods' I have tasted I have gained it all back and then some

food = comfort from boredom, loneliness, anxiety, fear...

It was instilled at very young age and breaking the cycle has yet to be a successful venture for me after 40 years.

Well I don't love food. I always knew that, even as I was eating everything in site. I had no discipline and I fooled myself into thinking that my weight did not matter, that I really don't think I cared. When I did try to lose, I obviously did not know what I was doing because I would lose maybe 5 or 10 lbs and give up and gain it back.
I love my family and they love me, but I think if someone had said, damn you need to lose weight ( but not like that) I might have awakened me out of my ignorance.
Anywho, my why is some deep psychological reason, but what matters now is that I care enough about myself to watch what I eat and get up and move. That motivates me to keep going.

I have 3 kids. My four year old son started having lots of health problems when he was 6 months old. Eventually he was diagnosed with a mitochondrial disease. (It's a progressive disease with no cure and a young age death prognosis). That consumed my life both logistically and emotionally, also leading to depression and adrenal fatigue. Before "mito" I always took care of myself and could easily maintain a weight in the 120's (I'm 5'3 1/3). I've lost and gained 20 lbs here and there in the last couple years, but it's just a yoyo and last week I weighed in at my ultimate high of 180. I'm being careful this find not to try and get to complicated, hard core or perfectionistic about it this time because I know, with the way my life is caring for my son and two other kids, I can't maintain perfection and that's what had caused me to lose and gain, but ultimately just weighing more and more.

I was in denial about how much I was eating. I was never the person who would sit down and binge or eat huge meals, I just ate mindlessly, constantly. I put away an enormous amount of food and didn't realize it.