Calling out to the former chubby kids

I'll start by saying I wasn't a chubby kid, but so many of these stories really resonated with me. My entire family was/is overweight or obese. Growing up, I was completely inactive and ate the same bad foods they did. I managed to stay at a healthy weight until I went to college. I felt like it was sort of my destiny to gain weight to be like the rest of the family. They teased me when I was a kid about being "skinny" although I wasn't really, and then seemed satisfied somehow that I was turning into the same as them.

Long story, but in my 30s, I finally got interested in some active hobbies and it changed my perception that I wasn't doomed. The most difficult thing for me was realizing that I could actually enjoy working out and participating in sports, even if I'm not good at them. I grew up thinking I couldn't, being told that I was too klutzy to be one of those "athletic" girls. Even today at 51, I'm sometimes surprised myself when I finish a long hike or a jog.

In my experience genetics might be part of it, but family baggage is tougher to fight against.

sijomial wrote: »

Would hate to be called skinny! That's a completely negative term to me

This resonates with me 100%. I hate that the social norm is to be overweight and anything smaller than that is seen as simply "skinny"

dewit wrote: »

I wonder about the reverse: thin kids who have put on weight during adult life and need to carefully watch their eating and activity levels, in order to avoid getting... chubby!

In my experience this segment is most apt to chalk it up to "getting older sucks, everything slows down" while failing to recognize drops in activity and/or increase in intake.

I was plump, then borderline fat as a child/Pre teen. My parents were both obese, and we did not have many active hobbies (occasional bike rides or nature walks, and I played rec softball as a kid, but that’s about it. We liked to read).

Our food situation wasn’t ideal but was in no way terrible either—we brought our lunches to school, ate home cooked (or semi home cooked meals) every night as a family. Maybe veggies were rather uninspired, but we ate actual food (I didn’t know what Velveeta was until I met my husband!), but just too much of it. Probably more snacks/junk than was good for us, but again, it wasn’t daily or constant by any means. No sugary cereal during the school year, for instance. My mom was often trying to lose weight, so we would not get “bad” junk food for a while...only to fall upon whatever candy/donut/chips came into the house like ravenous hyenas, just eating it by the handful/before someone else did.

My brother and I did not have a good gauge of portions or satiety, or the ability to eat a few cookies and put them away. Who knows if there would be any left and when we’d next access this delicious treat! Must eat them now! Also, I still remember going to a sleepover and dishing out the ice cream—everyone was taken aback by the soup bowls full I dished out....they were used to ramekins. That was the first time I realized I saw food differently than my small to normal sized peers.

When I was in 5th or 6th grade I started maxing out of the girls plus size section (16s getting too tight), and my mom brought both of us to a children’s weight loss group led by a local doctor. Somewhat like weight watchers—meetings to talk about healthy choices and ways to incorporate activity, weekly weigh ins. We had special calendar sheets to record our meals/snacks/activities, which gave me the introduction to portion control/food logging I needed. I lost enough weight to be on the slightly plumper side of normal. Maintained that through most of high school (size 8-12).

The real hange came senior year of HS when I began dating a guy my same height, who was a muscular track and field athlete & cross country runner. I started to pick up his eating habits—salads, no or little dressing, veggies, not as much bread—and I started running. The weight came off and I was a size 4 by graduation.

Going off to college I made the decision to be a new me—not the fat nerd (instead, the athletic nerd!). I joined the crew team, then the rugby team. I trained for my sports and for half marathons. I started going to a hardcore kickboxing gym 3x a week. I loved feeling like an athlete, and I ate to fuel it (we had a fantastic salad bar and healthy dining options).

Maintained that through college, with some backsliding in grad school and around my pregnancies, but I always found my way back to my 135ish size 4, using what I learned in those original weight loss classes—count calories/control portions and increase activity. I moved from paper logs to websites to MFP over those 20ish years, but principles remained the same.

After my 4th baby, I got into weight lifting and have changed my fitness routine (and dropped a bit more weight and a few sizes). It’s always moving between strict logging and relaxed logging to no logging, then butting up against the top of my happy range and tightening things up to get back down a few pounds. People who didn’t know me back then assume I’ve always been thin/athletic and maintain easily. Not so.

I’m trying to change things for my kids, who at this point seem to take after their skinny dad—they say no to extra snacks, leave candy or dessert unfinished if they don’t like it very much or are full. Snacks go stale in the pantry (crazy to me that indeed Oreos go stale!). We’re also very active—they see me working out, they run with my husband or me, we kayak and bike together , they play outside all the time (we homeschool, so they get regular activity breaks) and have almost no tv/electronic access besides family movie nights, and they all play sports almost year round. Fruit and veg available all the time as snacks and they actually choose it (again, mind blowing to me). Here’s hoping they can avoid the struggle I had.