Did anyone else grow up with obese parents or family members?

My mom has been overweight most of my life that I remember. She was very thin for a long time, up until she had my younger brother and sister (four kids under age seven, I cannot even imagine how little time she had for herself!). She's recently lost a bit of weight after she retired and got really into taking long walks.

My dad has always been pretty thin, despite eating pretty terribly (very few vegetables, lots of super sugary stuff and a decent amount of fast food) because he has a very physically demanding job as a mechanic.

Extended family is all across the board, but nobody is super fit.

My father is morbidly obese; he had been most of my life. Heart attacks, Type II diabetes, the whole shebang. My mother has been overweight to mildly obese at different points in my life. I have a whole host of overweight or obese uncle's, aunt's, cousins, etc.

More than genetics, I feel that my obesity stemmed from learned attitudes and behaviors. Once I conquered many of those attitudes and behaviors weight management became much easier.

My mom and sister were and are both overweight. I take after my mom and three of her sisters: short and round-ish. My sister takes after my dad's side of the family (my uncle is probably overweight, my dad is a fitness nut): tall and "big boned." She's athletic fat, if that's a term - she was and is very active and fit, but she overeats and hasn't so far figured out a way to deal with that. My dad gave her a horrible time for her weight when she was younger, and I suspect that my mom's weight was tied into their (probably emotionally abusive?) relationship as well. She and my sister were always doing stuff like Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers or diet shakes. It never took. Since getting divorced I think my mom has pretty much given up. I don't care if she loses weight or not, but I do with she'd get a little bit of exercise.

Both my parents were obese when I was growing up. My mom died at the age of 52 from a heart attack. She'd had a quadruple bypass at the age of 40. My dad is now 65 and FINALLY trying to get healthy. I don't ever want to blame my parents because my food decisions are MY decisions - not theirs, BUT I feel like I struggle more with appropriate serving sizes and avoiding desserts more than I would if I had had more appropriate examples growing up.

Yes, all four grandparents...one over 500 pounds. Neither parent was overweight...always good that way but excessive smokers-which keeps weight down. Half my siblings are very obese and the other half are very thin. The grandparent and the siblings were/are all structurally bigger boned than the thin siblings...though I am not saying that makes any of it OK.

I have always been in the middle but larger boned (like my relatives). Even my physician says I don't have the structure/genetics to be ever be "thin". The top end of my BMI is where I should be to be at my healthiest. I do work hard to stay there...the older I get, the more real the struggle.

TavistockToad wrote: »

Yep. My mum is morbidly obese - she's always been overweight but gained a lot when she stopped smoking aged 40 and never lost it.

My dad was overweight but not massively so.

My mum has a load of health problems, which is why I want to be healthy now so I don't end up like her.

Same here. Mine has disordered eating attitudes and behaviors (hiding food, eating in secret, emotional eating, crash dieting, rewarding with food, unrealistic expectations, etc.) that I learned and have taken a long time to unlearn. Everyone in her family, though --everyone on all sides as many generations back as we have photos-- was tall and lanky. Not an overweight soul in the bunch. Her weight gain was entirely behavioral, no indications of genetic predisposition at all. Her related conditions have cost Medicare a fortune. Equally costly to her quality of life.

Pretty much every adult in my family was and most still are obese. I blame this on the way we were shown to eat. We did a family dinner every Sunday. Most of the time the meals would be something like this: Spaghetti, fried potatoes, and garlic bread. Or Meat loaf, mash potatoes, rolls, and mac and cheese. I never noticed or thought anything about until my husband (then boyfriend) went to a Sunday dinner and asked my grandma if there was a salad or vegetable. Now when we go to Sunday dinner grandma makes sure there is a salad option. My step mother was overweight and pushed food on to her step kids. She always believe we weren't eating when we said we did. I think she wanted to feel good about herself and birth kids by making us gain weight. In high school I was thin, when I started working I would eat dinner at work and she would insist I was lying and make me eat again when I was home. Because I couldn't go from 11:30 to 9:30 with out eating something I started to put on weight. Getting a car and I stopped walking 4 plus miles a day didn't help.

Oh, and my husband’s side! His dad was overweight, borderline obese most of adulthood. His mom was maybe slightly overweight. They both have gotten really healthy in retirement. They eat food they like, in moderation, and are very, very active in their 70s. My husband has always been thin and seems to monitor his food intake pretty intuitively. He is also super, super active and always has been. He maybe has a little “dad bod” after breaking 3 major bones in 7 years and having the associated surgeries to repair them (slowed him down a little). His only sibling is obese. Our kids are 2 elementary schoolers (both will try any food, but care very little about food and would always rather play than eat, even treats. They are skinny, where I monitor that they aren’t skipping meals because they’re busy) and a preschooler (loves sweets but eats a good variety. On the thin side of normal. I try to watch that she develops healthy feelings about treats).

My mom thinks that I look perfect on the high end of the normal BMI range. I definitely don't agree... but again, she's always thought that her overweight weight was fine too.

No. My dad was overweight when we were growing up, but now he is in pretty great shape and has been for at least 20 years. My mom is normal weight never been overweight. My brother and I are also normal weight, never been overweight.