Were you "THE FAT KID"?

Heya I hear you. I have always been on the heavy side even with exercising regularly and once in a while losing a bunch of weight.

Be patient and be ready to ditch habits you did not even know you had. You don't have to do crazy drastic exercise. You can do it!

I was the bony kid till I hit puberty. Started fluffing out at 12 and reached 150 lbs by 14. I was the fat teen. Stuck around 150-160. Of course, I wonder how much of that was muscle. I grew up on a farm carrying bags of grain, bails of hay, and buckets of water. Rode horses, chased down goats, dug pits, explored an entire hill (over 100 acres).. planted, harvested, went rock climbing.. I was fatter and heavier than my siblings and was always made fun of by students AND teachers. But I could run and run and not get tired. My siblings ran out of breath after a football field length run.

Yes and no - I was a little chubby when I was really young, just because I was born on the borderline of premature, so when I was a baby my parents were extra cautious about making sure I ate enough to develop properly; I was a pretty "soft" kid but didn't get actually fat until my age got into the double digits. At first I stayed in good shape by doing a lot of sports after school and helping my dad run a small business (which involved a lot of physical acrivity on my part - despite the fact that I was eating more or less, well, like my dad, who subsists on a steady diet of pretty much nothing but red meat, ice cream, candy, and chips.

But then I had a few nasty bullying incidents that almost got me killed, so I ended up being homeschooled...and stopped most of my sports...and most of my other physical activity...without changing my diet (and I was about 9; I had no control over this). You can kinda figure out what happened from there.

Fast forward a little under 20 years, now I'm trying to undo all that damage.

My mom wrote, "Too pudgy" in my baby book when I was 3 - so yeah, my weight has been a life-long battle (I'll be 49 on Saturday).

I was the huge adult-sized kid. There were kids who were "fatter" as in, short & normal sized for their age with bigger belly, double chin, or whatever. But I was 5'4" and 130-140 lb by the age of ten...so I was the size of my third grade teacher and bigger than my 4th-5th grade teachers. With bigger chest by 5th grade. I honestly wore it like a badge of pride or something...what would be the alternative, I guess, was my thinking. My clothes were from the misses department and I wore full makeup daily starting at 8 and 9 years old. My mom & I shared clothes. So strange to think of that now!

In high school of over a thousand students, I was one of maybe two dozen plus-sized girls, and there were a few more bigger guys. The vast majority of my peers were thin & average weight. I feel like mine was the last generation where that was "normal", to be honest, after volunteering in high schools and seeing that a bit chubby or plus sized has become the new normal. Anyway, I was for sure one of the biggest girls, I was over 200 lb by age 17.

I stayed over 200 and hit 300 twice, over the years. I have been on MFP for about 4 years now and have kept off my total loss of 130 lb from heaviest to current weight. It took me six years to lose 130 lb, which includes the 90 I lost using MFP. I am at around 170 now, with 166 being my all-time low. At 5'8" with wide bust and hips, I'm happy with that. BUT I haven't really lost weight in over a year, and while I am okay with maintaining, it is a little frustrating because I log meticulously and don't eat back all of my exercise calories. It takes a lot for me to see the 160s again and I just bounce around 170-176 endlessly.

Overall though, doing this (calorie-tracking & such) has worked well with very careful logging of everything I consume, planning meals, and balancing in lots of treats so I stay on track without getting too frustrated.

bweath2 wrote: »

@seltzermint555 That's great you've lost so much and kept it off!
I think we were the same size in 3rd grade. I remember going to a "weight doctor" when I was 9 and weighed 130 lbs (not sure of my height, but I was the tallest in my class). The doctor literally told me to "just stay at the same weight til you're 13". Yeah, thanks for the help, doc.

Thank you bweath2!

I had to go to a specialist also. They basically said my pediatrician was overreacting (he was a real jerk and always acted like I was going to die of being too chubby within the month). At the time, my dad was a little over 6'4" and a fit-looking 250 lb so they basically said, well, just expect your daughter to be a giantess. My mom's 5'7" so not short, either. I stopped growing at 5'8" which surprised my former teachers...even now at 40 I'll run into a few of them and they're like "oh you're not as tall as I expected/remembered!"

edited to add: My poor husband, he was the same way. He reached his full height of 6'2" in sixth grade with a full beard and moustache...he had to shave every day by 13!

For as long as I can remember I was always the fat kid at school and all my young adult life (being close to or over the 100kgs mark). You never forget being called things like "beach whale" or people quoting "i feel the earth move ♩