What made you fat?
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Obvously eating too much and not moving enough. I was already overweight and was going to have back fusions and needed to quit smoking so the bone would grow, it's less likely to do so as a smoker. I quit with the patch but had to stop that too so I quit it days before the first surgery. The hardware was too big for my body and spasms were bad enough I was coming off the table. I had to wait a year for the bone to grow to get the rods removed and spent most of that year in bed, didn't eat horrible foods but too much, I gained 50lbs. I've lost 100 and maintaining now.4
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Mindless eating and a desk job. So I started paying attention to what I ate and riding my bike again. Problem solved.1
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brenn24179 wrote: »I swear I dont think I have a full button. When I plan my food I do fine. Otherwise, I just dont think of the consequences. I have a very dysfunctional family also and got to the point who cares and overate but finally started caring about myself.
I also don't have a "full" switch normally. It's amazing how much I can eat... normally. But I found something interesting recently. I ate keto for a little more than a year and found that I did better that way, but still had to make an effort and stay hungry to lose weight.
But then, I switched to keto carnivore. After eating a carnivore diet for a few years, I've recently been trying to switch to the lion diet (just beef). I was close until a couple weeks ago... almost entirely beef, water, coffee. But then I wasn't able to buy beef anymore because of hoarding. So I've been eating some pork, turkey, cheese, eggs (still staying carnivore, but not lion diet) recently. Over the past 3 years that I've been carnivore, I've tracked food and just eaten to satiety. That has allowed me to maintain my weight through running a whole lot (18 marathons and a 50K in the past 12 months, plus some shorter races and lots of non-race running) and eating a whole lot as well. Mind you, I still have 20 lbs. of fat that I would like to lose at some point.
With all of my races getting cancelled, I decided to spend some time not running and healing some injuries that have been nagging me since Nov. I thought I would start gaining weight fast because I'm used to eating a lot for a lot of running, but that hasn't happened. Interestingly enough, my appetite has decreased along with less activity. So I'm still maintaining weight - even if I have 20 lbs. more than I want - with that decreased activity and I'm still not feeling like I'm starving as I would be if I was still eating plants. It sounds odd, but carnivore has worked really well for me.0 -
SSRIs. They made me hungry which increased calories in and sluggish which decreased calories out. When I finally got off of them 10 lb melted off without effort. I'm working on the last 10 now.0
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Lack of movement. Too much food and booze. Fixed the first two and cut out the third completely. Oh what a difference...!0
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My mom’s dad abandoned the family when she was a young teen in the 50’s, leaving grandma with four young kids, no income, and often no food. When I was a child, she had a closet stuffed with snacks and junk food and we could eat as much as we wanted. She would never say “no” if we complained we were hungry. I get that.
Somehow or other, I managed to remain underweight and weight gain didn’t affect me til after my first child was born.
Not having an “off switch” developed early for me. By the time I found it, at 55, I was off the chain. I’ve calculated on other posts on MFP that it was easily in excess of 10,000 calories a day
While I get her response to food, what I don’t get is, when I started having a weight problem, if she noticed I was losing weight, she would bring in (family business) sacks and sacks of junk food-cookies, candy, pastries. She was deliberately manipulating me to stay fat like her. When I finally realized it was intentional, she just laughed at me and told me I’d always be like her.
I can only truly blame my own lack of willpower and general ignorance about food, but.....
Being on MFP has been akin to a college level education in nutrition, goals, and self motivation.
I am NOT like her. She has been bedridden and making folks miserable for years. I woke up one day and told myself that is not your fate, you have the means to change yourself, YOU are the only one who can, and you deserve to breath happy air.
It absolutely frosts her goat that I am thin and active. Her complaint is “I should have done what you did”. She never tells me how awesome I am, what a great daughter I was, how I propped them up financially for years. Only how ugly I am as a thin person, how fat I was for years, and how worthless I was for walking out on the family business.
I now choose to surround myself with people who love me. Don’t need the family toxicity, which has poisoned three generations.
Wow, that was a lot of baggage to unload, simply to say life is GREAT now. 😇15 -
@springlering62, that was insightful and inspiring and I want to virtual-hug you, but MFP only gives me one click-reaction. So much good insight and (implied) counsel in one post - thank you!3
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My weight gain was ultimately caused by making more poor choices than proper choices. Poor choices that were made because I wasn't paying attention, didn't understand a few things, denial, and willful indulgence. Not all at the same time but I am sure there were crossovers. I was not perfectly bad though. I made a lot of good decisions while I was gaining too. Just not enough.
My weight loss is being caused by making more good choices than bad ones. I pay attention now and I have learned a lot. I still willfully indulge at times but just like my gaining period was not all bad choices my losing period doesn't have to be all good ones.
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My ex. He was a Scorpio.1
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I have a condition called PCOS which is a women's hormone imbalance thing... It makes me insulin resistant and harder to loose weight... Things like carbs and dairy aren't good for me0
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runnermom419 wrote: »I ate like a pig and didn't exercise at all.
Exact same. I had to change my entire lifestyle to lose weight.2 -
I gave birth to my youngest child, went back to my normal size (uk size 6), 6 weeks after her birth I went into anaphylactic shock whilst exercising, ever since then my body has frequently gone into anaphylaxis, I have allergic reactions to anything that physically touches my skin (including sunlight and water), I’ve got chronic migraines and cluster headaches amongst other things. We’ve had to greatly suppress my immune system in order for me to be able to function at part normal level. My youngest child will be 8 next month and she’s never known me as healthy or well7
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Baseball and softball parents know this truism--- with multiple kids in multiple sports from March through August and nightly practices, weekend games, road trip tournaments where the adults drink in the Holiday Inn Express parking lot until 2 AM, baseball and softball season also known as Fast Food Season. You drive home at 8:30 after a long day of work and baseball, ain't nobody cooking broccoli when the Taco Bell is ringing right in front of you. Pretty much that's how I got fat.2
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I ate too many calories2
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I think one big picture thing that applies to many of us is that we (Americans) live in a food environment that makes it so that overeating is often the default. It's just so easy. The human capacity to eat past what's reasonable is basically gamed in our culture with the foods and eating habits that are presented to us.
At the same time, personal responsibility comes in whether or not things are our own fault. And then there's all of our own unique attributes and experiences in making us end up overweight.
Me personally, I grew up with an irresponsible (single) caregiver who often did not provide food because they had other priorities (not good ones, trust me). This I believe was the beginning of my food issues.
I was never overweight but had weird fixations and obsessions with food. Eating large quantities and very fast, but also feeling I don't deserve food. My youth and cigarette smoking and other 'lifestyle' things kept me thin. So it never seemed I had an obvious problem with food.
Age and childbearing led to my habits catching up with me. I tried a number of unsustainable things to lose weight and they worked temporarily but the weight came back and then some. At 40 I'm in the obese range which I never thought would happen. Now I'm calorie counting and trying to apply the many things I've learned the hard way to cultivate a healthy relationship with food and exercise.7 -
Eating too much over days will make you weight more
Not all of us are conscious eaters0 -
Hitting my mid-40s. It went all downhill.1
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I was active and fit in my 30s, but my first pregnancy resulted in a pre-term birth and a lot of anxiety that I didn't recognize or resolve at the time. I lost the weight easily at 31 with breastfeeding. But when I become pregnant with my 2nd child at 38, I was panic-stricken that the baby would be born early and I needed to feed it as much as possible while it was inside me. I ate really healthy but way too much, and then the previous pregnancy troubles I had started to kick in--preterm labor, retaining fluids, swelling (I gained 13 lbs in my last week--week 35--while on bedrest and barely eating), etc. I had my 2nd child and then just didn't care how much I weighed. I love junk food; I'd eat it exclusively if I could sustain weight loss on it, but I get too hungry eating my calorie budget in junk food. My ex was also very punitive toward me once I became obese, and our relationship was not good. So I ended up divorced--happily--and managing my life and kids and being pretty darn happy but still not fit and healthy. I'd probably be content to stay my current size except that I know it will affect my mobility in the long run, and I cannot imagine my life without jogging and walking. It's getting harder to do as I age, and my knees are starting to give me trouble. So, this is it. Time to make the change.3
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I think my mouth made me fat
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Always a big guy, but scholastic athletics controlled things. As an adult, I had a basically sedentary job (computer programming) counterbalanced by good cardio and energetic activity (scuba instructor) plus bicycle touring. As I raised a family, the scuba disappeared, except occasional recreation, as did the long distance cycling; a few pounds came on, plus overall fitness declined a bit ("dad body" time). For me, the critical point was being at the WTC on 9-11, followed by a lot of anxiety eating. Then, my job changed, and I was on nearly 100% travel engagements for work - the sort where I got on a plane in NJ on Monday morning, to Boise, then home Friday. The pounds came on more. Upon retirement, I've taken up cycling again, done other cardio, modified my diet, and have been able to take off about 70 lbs to date. Could easily go another 50.3
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emotional abuse as a kid - I ate to feel better and protect myself5
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Dedicated gluttony while at work for most of the day--I just ate without regard and kind of gave up in the process, assuming that I would start being healthy 'tomorrow'. I basically stopped working out and was not intentional about being healthy. Coronavirus has been a nice restart in this respect--it's been nice to have work temptations removed and an overall mindfulness about getting healthy again!2
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Lexapro2
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Wine1
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Emotional eating- Went through a really bad depression stage and food made me feel better. Working on using workouts to improve mood instead.1
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emotional eating contributed to me being fat0
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The only way I guess, I ate more than I burned. I think I had undiagnosed depression during my teen years which led me to eat excessively and move less.0
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