What was your “reason” for gaining the weight?

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.

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.

Mix of things - I gained weight in highschool when I got more depressed and socially isolated. My parents both have issues with their weight and went through a lot of self-loathing and various fad diets attempts, but also maintained a big culture of lots of food, lots of eating in the house (although usually fairly healthy - no fast food or soda, plenty of salads and protein, but large portions and no common sense about calories.) Which they'd sometimes avoid themselves while putting it on for me and my sister, but also making comments about our weight and out eating.

As an adult I've gained and lost, and its been exacerbated by my own issues, but the roots are at home, I think. This is the first time I've lived in a different city, (even when I was living on my own, I'd be home a few evening a week at least) and its really making a difference for my relationship with food (though its still like the only thing my mom asks about when we talk.) My parents are smart people, but come from a *kitten* up food culture, both in each of their families and more widely, I think - they're kids of the 50's and 60's in the Ukraine, so they grew up with food shortages and restrictions (which got even worse in the 80s, if I recall correctly) and memories of starvation in my grandparents generation, but also both of them with weight issues and stuff that sounds like borderline eating disorders at various points in their lives.

I mean, I definitely have bad food habits, and use food as a comfort and eat for boredom and stress binge, etc - that's on me and I'm working on changing it, but there's not a particular inflection point, just something I grew up with.

I gained a little bit when I quit my retail job and got stuck at a desk doing a PhD. What really screwed me tho was the stress, I have anxiety issues at the best of times and with not liking the project, feeling constantly out of my depth, not getting on with my supervisors, getting further and further behind, I started drinking too much and eating too much. Then I quit (before I was made to) and was unemployed and basically drunk all the time for over a year. I only left the house for booze and cigarettes and food. I was depressed as hell. Ballooned. I still can't rewatch Greys Anatomy because it just reminds me of feeling like a total waste of space watching 14 hours of TV a day.

I also have ceoliac so I was basically constantly malnourished as a child before I was diagnosed which has also given me some lifelong anxiety since I was always hungry. I need to know where my next meal is coming from, I need to eat enough now so that I can last until my next meal, I need to feel full. It's normally manageable but when other things make me anxious it all just piles on top of eachother.

I had a stroke at 30 years old and didn't know yet it was due to an autoimmune disorder. I was on the couch for weeks nearly monthly with infections and pain. My electrolytes also kept randomly dropping dangerously low. Still does sometimes. Now I'm on a blood thinner and feeling better than I did although I still have my bad months. I gained almost 30lbs in 1 1/2 years 😣. No more excuses for me.