What age did you start struggling with weight?
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I was always overweight as a child. My parents didn't let me overeat and I exercised 6 nights a week, either gymnastics, football, rugby, hockey, netball. I loved sports but was always overweight.
When I hit puberty it started to come off. I've been a pear shape since about 13 so I always looked a bit heavy compared to the lean girls in school but my weight was healthy. Then life took a massive turn and as some stupid coping mechanism I ended up with bulimia. I ended up struggling the other way then because my weight was low but I still didn't look "skinny" so getting help was difficult.
Just to clarify, I did not develop an eating disorder due to weight issues or self esteem. It was a response to stress. Years later when I did get help, i did a complete 180 resulting in binge eating disorder. That is how I got to my heaviest weight.
Now, I'm free of any kind of eating disorder. I'm at a weight which is still heavier than I want to be, but it doesn't concern me as I'm losing it healthily. It's strange how someone who has never been overly concerned about their weight can end up being consumed by issues relating to it.0 -
I was 32 when I started having weight issues. I was trying to get pregnant and had to take a lot of fertility medication. The medication messed with my hormones and did a number on me. I had gained 60 lbs. and it has been a struggle to get the weight off. 5 years later I am still working at it. It has brought on a lot of depression and self struggle. I have never been this overweight. I am over 200 lbs now and I just want to drop the weight. I want to be comfortable again. I can't even bring myself to wear a bathing suit to enjoy time with my daughter in our pool. I feel like breaking down every time I look in the mirror.
I know the feeling about wearing a swimsuit. Try to overcome it because kids grow up so fast. When I was 295 I still took my boys to the water park and have great memories of that time. Plus the extra activity is good for you!2 -
I think I was about 9 when I realize I was bigger than the other kids. Not by much, as I got older though it was more noticable. My mom has never liked cooking so we ate out a lot. She grew up in a household where you didn't waste food because you didn't know how long it would be before the next meal. As a result of this when she got on her own and didn't have to worry about not having enough food she over ate.
The lowest weight I've ever been was 167 after giving birth to my son almost 5 years ago but I was still overweight.0 -
Literally when I turned 30. I was about 108 in high school, then 120's in my twenties. I got up to 175 three years ago, down to 142 by doing all the wrong things, then gained 60 pounds, getting me up to 200 pounds. Hence, MFP in April of this year. I feel lucky I haven't struggled my entire life but at the same time a bit unlucky as its hard to teach an old dog new tricks and I am now, at the age of 39 learning how to eat healthier and exercise healthier. It's a life changing process! Interesting, frustrating and rewarding!
This is a great thread. So many folks on here are so brave!0 -
I had surgery on my legs at age 12 and became immobile for about 12 weeks. That plus puberty made for a high-fat body composition, although not necessarily overweight. So stupid adolescent me went on a starvation diet to get it off. BAD decision. I think I missed out on 2 or 3 inches of height growth as a result.
Anyway, I was on the slim side in high school and normal in college. Then the weight crept up until and through my pregnancies. Went up with baby #1, then down, then up with baby #2, now on my way down again. I have been losing really slowly, which on the one hand I'm ok with, on the other hand I want to be back in a normal weight already. I hope to be normal weight in about 13 weeks.0 -
I started right after first grade back in primary school... Now I wish I had known so much more about how easy it is to maintain your weight, how every aspect of your body is in your hands, but of course as a young child I couldn't have known all that. My family and relatives have always had weird beliefs regarding weight and getting fat, so I just lived with those beliefs and thought I couldn't be anything but an overweight child and then adult.0
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Late teens my weight started slowly creeping up. I was very thin in high school and had an awful diet. But back then I could eat anything and I was still very thin. My 2nd year of college I started slowing down my activity a bit from about 15-20 hours a week of dance/track/basketball to just a few hours a week of organized physical activity. But the more noticeable weight gains were after starting my first real job (at a desk in an office) and then again with kids. It slowly crept up so I didn't even realize I was 42 pounds over my wedding day weight. Now, at 41 years old, I am eating healthier and staying more active. I have lost 15 pounds but even better than that... I feel so much better.0
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I got "chubby" after an unremarkable first 7 years of life in the third grade. I remember being called chubby by family and having a protruding/rounded abdomen as well as chubby arms/legs. By fourth grade, I grew out of it thanks to a growth spurt. Never had a weight problem as an older child or teenager (or even young adult) beyond that. From the 7th or 8th grade through undergrad, my weight was set and flexed ~5 lbs around a rather skinny for me 123 pounds "set point" @ 5'7" tall.
I started gaining weight when I started sitting in a classroom and/or lab for 8-16 hours a day plus had a desk bound work study job. By August 1998 I was up to 136 pounds from that 123 I'd been since I'd started paying attention to what my weight was. 136 pounds was fine, no problem. July 2000 I was clocking in at 150. Okay, I was feeling a tad overweight. By June 2002 I was 160. Still alright, but not really happy as now mostly a size 12 versus 10-12. By December 2003 I was 168. Ugh. Lost down to 138 on the first diet written by someone (Atkins NDR) I ever tried that winter. Was 142 in July 2006 when I quit tobacco. By February 2007 I was 186 thanks to quitting tobacco, mostly.
I've been as low as 165 in 2009 and again in 2012 and as high as 238 in July 2015 thanks to riding the low carb yo-yo for eight years while trying to get back to 142. I started watching portion sizes last July at 238. I started counting calories last November at 212. Was down to 195 when I fell off the counting and logging truck in April and regained almost everything I'd lost since I'd started counting in half the time it took to lose it. Restarted at the end of June at almost 211 pounds.0 -
200
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Age 12.
Puberty plus moving to the US and having to eat the oh so healthy cafeteria food (if food it could be called). I about doubled my weight. Managed to lose parts of it when I changed school and had the possibility of taking my own lunch with me and had to go to school under my own power (bike/foot/roller blades). Gained some of it back when I moved back to Switzerland and got seriously depressed. Lost again when I started university and joined the fencing team. Gained again (up to my highest of 110kg) when an injury made all physical activity grind to halt from one day to the next (from 12-16 hours fencing + figure skating practice a week to 0). Kept on eating as if I were still practicing sports. Got depressed. Ate even more because I was depressed and fat. Got even fatter. Ate even more.
Happily losing now but it's going to take another 1-2 years to no longer be overweight. I'll get there eventually.
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30. It was like someone just pulled the "high metabolism plug". I know now that it was because I was being lazy and eating tons, but that's what it felt like. I'm still struggling to keep my weight stable (as soon as I relax it comes back on), but it's a lifetime process.1
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age 14. my Grandfather was in hospital a lot and died that summer. Me, tagging along, hung out in lounge and snacked on the "nutritious" but super high calorie snacks available. Plus a lack of enough exercise. And a family that thought my weight was "OK." I'm 6'3 after all. I was in the overweight BMI, but made excuses for myself.
Went to college at 218 lb. dropped a good 10 lb over the first year. Who would have guessed...walking everywhere, making smart choices at the mess hall. studying instead of going to drunken parties. {sigh, could have had more fun}
Been around 205-208 the past 15 years now. I'm really good at maintaining that. But just sick of being 20 lb overweight. No, its not "muscle." After almost 2 months, I'm at 194.5 this morning. Going to start strength training once the pool closes end of this month.
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Around age 30. I've been pretty slender my whole life but around 29-30, I started getting into the 130s and starting getting a small tummy. I also got married around that time and put on "comfort weight". At 35, I had a baby and got to my highest weight of 140 after the fact.1
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Christine_72 wrote: »Asher_Ethan wrote: »When i was 10. Looking back at pictures, I was never over weight, I wasnt skinny though. My mom made sure I knew I wasn't skinny because everyone else in our family was skinny. That started my life long battle relationship with food and my distorted body image.
Why oh why do parents do this to their children!!??
Good question! I remember my mom's boyfriend calling me Miss Piggy at dinners, and I wasn't even fat then. It doesn't help build a healthy food relationship!0 -
Third grade. We moved to a new neighborhood and there weren't many kids. In my old neighborhood we played outside from the time we got home from school until dark. But at the new house I just sat in my mom's room and watched tv all night. I would say my eating habits were somewhat normal, it was the lack of activity that I've always struggled with. But then i was bored/depressed so food became a comfort/fun activity. Then I lost the weight probably from 17-18. Got pregnant at 19 and have been fat ever since.0
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I was skin and bones before I hit puberty then I got heavier than most girls in school. I don't remember a particular weight but I was heavy and everyone saw it with some even commenting on it. When I got pregnant with my first son I ironically slimmed down (probably due to 9 months of tossing my cookies) and could fit in my smallest shorts when I left the hospital after having him. I had two more boys and stayed within a normal bmi during and after pregnancy. Then I had baby #3 my daughter. I was like a ballon that kept filling and never burst. I remember the doctor telling me to watch my food choices. I developed cravings for things I never liked (ice cream, fries and chocolate). I still like those things now. I continued to gain weight after having her and then when I went back for another degree in college and ate my way through. Now I'm losing and happy to say I've gotten back into a normal BMI. Loads to go until I'm happy with he mirror but I'm now conscious that I have to work for it.0
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About 9-10 years old, when I just stopped being active because sports was wearing me out and I couldn't focus at school. The school meals were unhealthy back then, when there wasn't free and reduced lunch meals. I started worrying about in 8th grade and ever since I have lost 100 lbs combined. Now I am on the the way to a six-pack.0
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Around 20 I noticed that my body felt different in the shower, when I mentioned it to my gf she said "yeah, you are getting fluffy!" It didn't stop but that was when I first noticed it.0
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Probably 2-3rd grade. I remember looking at what my friends put as their weight on our softball trading cards and adding a few lbs, bc no way was I telling my real weight. Mom put me and my brother on a kids weight loss program in 6th grade, but it wasn't really till senior year of HS that I dropped my weight with diet and running.
In college I reinvented myself as a sporty girl and other than a 3 yr period in graduate school of stress induced bum-sitting and crummy eating I've stayed the same 135-7, excepting 4 pregnancies where I gained 50-60 lbs (and lost it within a year post partum). Now I'm actually lighter than college me!0 -
5. I look fine in photos at ages up to 3, but at 5, I was a chubby chipmunk. I was also aware that I was larger than the other kids at that age and had picked up on snippets of adult conversation about my weight becoming an issue. I went on my first self-monitored, calorie-counting diet at 10 or 11. I started that on my own; no one put me up to it. I was reading food labels and writing down the calories in a little notebook.0
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23 is when I started gaining weight, about 15 lbs, probably got up to around 140. I got engaged and moved with him to a new state where I didn't know anyone. We bought tollhouse cookies and baked a dozen every night and sat in front of the tv eating them with milk, for like 3 straight months. I hadn't been to a gym since moving here so I signed up and started watching what I was eating and started losing weight. Then I got pregnant, gained about 32 lbs, lost 16 right after birth. When I went back to the gym around 9 months post partum I got back down to 132ish, and I've now been holding steady at 137/138 ever since (7 years). I don't think I'll ever get back to my pre engagement/pregnancy weight of under 130 but I'm pretty content with where I'm at (pretty much anything under 140). No one I tell can even believe I weight that much, I carry it well expect I can bloat quite a bit in my belly to where I've actually had people ask if I'm pregnant
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Oh...I'd say since elementary school. About 3rd grade. I'm now 21. Starting my weight loss journey.0
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About 22. My older sister had a bridesmaid dress made in a size too small and in a shape I said wouldn't flatter me (as a pear-shape, I needed an A-line dress, not a straight up and down). I had a fitting a few days before the wedding and got teased for having gone up in weight from 126lbs to 130lbs and I felt huge and disgusting. WOW - I wish I could go back and tell myself to LOVE being 130lbs! Good lesson in how tiny negative comments can be hugely damaging (whimpers and lies back on the therapist's couch).1
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fireytiger wrote: »What has been the norm for me for 16 years has been to eat what I want, feel terrible about myself, try to diet, succeed for 2 weeks to 2 months, then fall off and gain it all back plus some.
ME0 -
Grade school. I always dreaded the weight and height screenings. I was always at least 20lbs more than all of the other children.0
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AngInCanada wrote: »I'm curious how old everyone else was when they started struggling with their weight?
I remember getting weighed and measured for skiing on grade 7 I was 107 lbs at 5'7. Grade 9 I was 183 lbs. I've gained and lost weight a couple times over the years but have been 190+ lbs for the past 22 years. Scary to think about actually.
As a child I was at the higher end of healthy weight. My weight gain started around my first period (about 13yo), made a couple of jumps over my adult years (18, 22, 24) and then starting around 26 I bounced back and forth in a 20 lbs range for four years before finally giving myself a kick in the *kitten* this past spring. I now weigh less than I have in about 8 years.0 -
in high school, I was 100% a healthy weight, and strong and active.
I was also 6 inches taller than most of my friends, and so I weighed more and wore larger sizes than them.
Pretty much everyone called me "fat." because I weighed a whole 145 pounds (at 5'10") and wore a size 13.
(Do the BMI math. I was literally perfect).
Friends who were 5'0" and weighed 140 pounds would compare themselves to me and say "we" were fat together. They'd say "at least I don't weigh what YOU weigh."
So I learned I was just enormous and awful. Pretty much just from being myself, because I was tall, and tall meant big, and big was bad.
My weight problem started, pretty much, as OTHER people's weight problems.
It's why I get so ticked off when women toss around flat numbers without context as "okay" or "normal" for other women, like "Lets face it, size 10 is ENORMOUS," or "Stop deluding yourself, 150 pounds is just too much for a woman." Or "Women should eat 1200 calories." Its ridiculous - as though the taller you are, the less space you're supposed to actually take up.0 -
Mid-thirties. We moved out to the country and suddenly there was no more convenience food. I had to cook everything from scratch. Unfortunately for my figure, I turned out to be a really good cook!1
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in high school, I was 100% a healthy weight, and strong and active.
I was also 6 inches taller than most of my friends, and so I weighed more and wore larger sizes than them.
Pretty much everyone called me "fat." because I weighed a whole 145 pounds (at 5'10") and wore a size 13.
(Do the BMI math. I was literally perfect).
Friends who were 5'0" and weighed 140 pounds would compare themselves to me and say "we" were fat together. They'd say "at least I don't weigh what YOU weigh."
So I learned I was just enormous and awful. Pretty much just from being myself, because I was tall, and tall meant big, and big was bad.
My weight problem started, pretty much, as OTHER people's weight problems.
It's why I get so ticked off when women toss around flat numbers without context as "okay" or "normal" for other women, like "Lets face it, size 10 is ENORMOUS," or "Stop deluding yourself, 150 pounds is just too much for a woman." Or "Women should eat 1200 calories." Its ridiculous - as though the taller you are, the less space you're supposed to actually take up.
I'm also a firm believer in the context. Even the success stories here. I believe folks should list their height, weight, gender and age before tossing around weight stats.
I have a niece who tells anyone who'll listen that she lost "a bunch of weight" and is now "the same size" I am. I'm 5'6". She's 5.0". But yes. We both weigh 135.0 -
Always. I hit 240 in the 9th grade. I remember my mom telling me I was going to be fat as a house in middle school. Even then I remember being furious because she was the one buying all of the crap I kept eating. I lived in a house where vegetables were optional and if necessary corn was most likely or creamed corn.
Flash forward I'm 30 in two weeks and I finally feel like I'm in control of my eating. But still so far to go.0
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