What was your “reason” for gaining the weight?
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I have been overweight since I was a child.
I would say bad nutritional & weight-loss education/depression/anxiety covers most of it.
I have yoyo-ed a lot over the years, but a few big things-
When I was 17 I lost about 60 lbs, but all I knew was "eat at least 1200 calories and exercise a lot" so I lost stupid fast and didn't understand how to maintain after. Then upset about gaining weight lead me to eating more and gaining more. I ended up almost 80 lbs heavier than I started.
I got into powerlifting eventually and slowly lost about 40 lbs, but have been struggling with a back injury the past year and regained 60. The injury was definitely a factor this time, but depression sent me into a spiral. I'm now 25, at my heaviest, and am finally seeking help for depression.13 -
Some food tastes good and I ate to much of it. No reason!6
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Wow awesome stories ! As for my self I was like some one from a previous post pretty chubby only 5’2 and around 180 lbs got
Pregnant with my son went up to 200. Had him went back to 180-90 . Then I got pregnant with my daughter and ballooned up to 230. I had her and was miserable miserable ☹️. I started having a hard time walking, my hands and fingers started tingling. I would snore really loud. Finally started taking baby steps in order to lose weight. Cut out a lot of fried foods no more cokes or sweets dropped down to 160. Then I started working out a lot and kind of starving my self not going to lie 🙄(I don’t recommend that) I went down to 143 but got pregnant and had another baby girl. I’m at 166. Im nursing so I have to eat but slow and steady wins the race 😬😬8 -
I lost my sons. They died a day apart from each other. I dealt with my grief through food and drugs. I'm currently 4, almost 5 years clean of heroin, but my weight kept going up and up as I wasn't dealing with their deaths properly.45
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Medication3
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Alcohol. Food isn't a big thing for me, I was borderline underweight until my mid-20s until I started drinking after a divorce and other problems. Still trying to conquer the war, but each day is a new battle and chance.11
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I grew up skinny but how i got fat was the meds i was on. I could never feel full. So i kept eating. After trying other meds and not caring about myself ballooned and came down with type 2 diabetes9
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I don’t have self discipline like I did when I was younger1
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Just developed some bad habits and there you go, extra weight!2
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quiksylver296 wrote: »Good luck!
I was just lazy and liked to eat.
Yup. Me too. No bad relationship with food. I just like a lot of it.2 -
I have poor physical appetite cues, strong mental appetite cues, eating is a pleasurable activity, and I’m easily bored.
What this means is that if any part of my mind is free to think about food, and if food is available, I will become ravenously ‘hungry’ and eat it.
I don’t get actually hungry. If I’m completely absorbed in something I won’t get any indications that my body needs fuel until I get shaky and cold. But if I’m not absorbed in something I will probably get unignorable cravings.
The best solution to this is to be thoroughly engrossed in something at all times - except that this isn’t actually physically or mentally possible or healthy. I’m still working on a better plan7 -
I was a child. My parents didn't really monitor what I was eating. I would go to food as a comfort and wasn't really aware of the amount I was eating, or what it would do to my body. I was obese for most of my childhood. I had reached 316 lbs by the time I was 15, which is what scared me into losing weight. The shock of seeing the 300s on the scale sparked an eating disorder, and for over 6 months I was eating less than 400 cals a day and burning off everything I ate through extra exercise. I still wasn't educated at that point.
Now, 3 years later, I'm more nutritionally informed, have lost over 100 lbs, and am steadily losing 1-2 lbs a week.11 -
Lifelong neglect. I gained about 90 pounds over 40 years. Not a perfectly straight line but close. If I'm calculating right, that's only about 2.25 pounds a year.4
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I was always fat. Food was good, plentiful, I loved TV, reading, video games, crafts and hated sports or exercise. I even found ways around taking the required gym classes in school. I did get bullied but it was never a "problem" so I never tried to fix it. Gained more in college, gained more after college. Last 2 years I gained 30 more pounds switching back to omnivore diet from being a vegetarian for 14 years, a desk job, and a back injury, and suddenly I was over 300 pounds.
I never had any trouble with my health until turning 30, so now I'm trying to undo all the damage I've done. Almost completely dropped pop/soda which I used to have several a day of all my life. Counting calories, exercising 3 to 4 days a week. Finding Exercise I LOVE and I never thought that would happen. I've lost 30 pounds in 6 months. I'm at a bit of a plateau now, so trying to re-adjust my calories to see a loss again.4 -
I began to get heavy when the teen years hit. Oddly enough, my Mom did take me to a doctor to find out why I was chunky. He only shrugged and said I ate too much and cut back my portions. It never dawned on anyone that I could be showing early symptoms of thyroid issues.
Many years later the problem came to a head and it wasn't until I hit 400 lbs that a doctor decided to run tests. By this time I was taking in 900 calories a day with no success. They kept accusing me of cheating, so I decided to hell with it and DID cheat! But I also changed doctors and guess what he found? HASHIMOTOS DISEASE! I had ALL the symptoms, including the fearful goiter (beginning), falling out hair, etc. And diabetes. Bad diabetes. High blood pressure along with afib.
They treated the hashimotos, which took about a year to kick in. Then came controlling the diabetes. Afib came last. I've not had an attack in four years! (Thank you Jesus!!! Those attacks were miserable!)
Now I'm losing the residual weight and trying to get my skin to tighten. Hard to do the latter at age 63 but as I lose more weight, I hope to see this happen. I found a type of exercise I can to without stressing the joints: the rowing machine.
Anyway, I am down to 238. Fifteen of it lost since joining MFP. Like everyone else, I love to eat. But I'm learning to be proud of myself every day that I stick within the guidelines. And since I do love to cook, I've been getting creative with that as well.
I hope you all do very well in your weight loss journey!!!12 -
Basically, lower activity levels without an adjustment in food intake.
Every time I have had a reduction in my general activity level, my weight has gone up - first when I finished university and got a desk job, then when I broke my ankle, and again when I had further surgery on the ankle.
Plus my two pregnancies, of course...3 -
I was very active all through High school and the Army lifted weights and ran while in the Army never liked running only did it because I had to. My weight gain started my one day not feeling like working out and said I'll do it tomorrow only tomorrow would be the same thing next thing I know I'm up to 235lbs and size 40in waist. Now I am happy to say I am down to 126lbs and a 29in waist. I also enjoy running now something I wouldn't think of doing at 235lbs.i run 10 miles most days and as far as 14 miles on weekends.1
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Both of my parents were obese and served huge portions of food while I was growing up, but when I was young I was active enough to eat a ton and stay skinny. My mother, who has some mental issues around weight, would project her fears onto me and try to stop me from eating sweets - ten tons of pasta and salad served by her was okay, but if I wanted three Oreos instead of two I couldn't have them. So I learned to buy my own food and eat it secretly. Again, I stayed skinny, being very active, but the foundation for bad eating habits was laid.
When I was in graduate school I blew out my ACL and was laid up for months. The weight started to come on then, gradually, but enough that a few years later I realized I had gained 25 lbs over my college weight, started exercising, went on a diet, and lost it. Then I got lupus and was unable to be active again, gained back plus some. Second diet, lost 50 lbs, was hit by a lupus flare and gave up. It's hard to deny yourself food when everything hurts. I became obese.
At some point I also developed Cushing's syndrome caused by an ovarian tumor, which turned out to be benign but in the meantime played games with all my hormones, as well as crushing my other organs and making me feel terrible. For more than a year I was very ill without a diagnosis, then finally the tumor caused a torsion which - after a month spent literally bedridden and begging for pain meds - finally led to emergency surgery. At some point during that month I became a diabetic - I have my bloodwork from the time of my first visit to the ER, and it was normal, and at the end of a month, I was a full-blown diabetic, probably due to the effects of stress hormones. I also lost 25 lbs during that month due to insulin resistance.
However, my diabetes turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since I finally had a caring and intelligent doctor, and no more tumor messing about with my hormones. I set out to lose enough weight to improve my insulin resistance, and succeeded. However, I will always be a diabetic, and I live in fear of a lupus flare making me unable to be active again.8 -
Blamed it on menopause. But in reality I was just lazy. I would avoid mirrors at all costs. Finally got sick of telling myself how ugly I was and did something about it.4
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Put back on some weight because I now have a desk job. I had lost 70 pounds, but have put some back on. I am determined not to go over 200 ever again and I haven't. It has been a struggle to lose more even though I go to the gym at least twice a week and stay under 1300 calories a day.1
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