Why did you get fat and what triggered the change?

I more or less battled with my weight my whole life. When I was little I was fat then skinny then got fat again. When I was about 11 I was bit by a dog in my face and I couldn't open my mouth to put much food in so I dropped some weight then I went a little further. The summer before high school I was determined to get "skinny" so I did...I entered high school all nice and trim and mostly kept it off until I broke my foot in my 20s then gained a few pounds but lost that pretty quick. Once I had my second child I turned to food for a lot of reasons and kept doing so because that was one area in my life that I had control (unfortunately, it was the wrong control). I lost 40+ pounds once since then but ballooned back up.

NOW..it's really all about me. We have to find it in ourselves to do it! You can watch everyone else around you, watch BL, get advise, etc., etc., but unless YOU'RE ready it's not gonna happen! I finally am ready again, except this is it...my life..my change. I don't plan on dropping another 40+ pounds then going back up from there..ONLY DOWN!

I've been overweight my whole life (even as a 5 year old), and it was all because of my diet. I actually played sports year-round as a kid (volleyball, soccer, and softball) and all the way up until high school. I also have PCOS, which could be another issue, especially since I gained a TON of weight the moment I hit puberty. But I try not to blame my problems on things other than myself. As a kid, my mom had no limits on food, and every night we had a home-cooked meal... but not a healthy one. It usually consisted of some kind of red meat, with some kind of pasta or bread, and with little to no veggies. Dinner was followed by dessert of some sort, usually a huge bowl of ice cream with cookies on the side.

I first started losing weight in the 10th grade. I ran a mile in 10:15, which was unbelievable for me (it was basically because it was really cold outside, and I run best in cold weather). But my mile time was always 13:00 or above, and since I was in the athletic PE class for kids playing a high school sport, I was always last to finish, and usually by at least 4 or 5 minute.
Everything changed the day I ran that 10 minute mile. My PE teacher gave me a high five and said "I knew you could do it" and other kids in my class gave me a high five (probably because they were just happy to not have to stay any longer and painfully watch me from the sidelines).

I came from a family that did not support me in any way. My mom had gastric bypass surgery, and didn't understand the whole "healthy eating because I need to, not healthy eating because my new stapled stomach would throw it up if I ate junk food". My mom and I fought frequently over my weight, and then one day she told me, "You wouldn't be able to lose weight. You'll just have surgery, too!" That, coupled with the previous incident of my mile time, made me fight back and start losing weight. I started cutting out junk food, and tried to eat healthy. I pushed myself a little bit harder in PE to burn a few extra calories. I tried to change my relationship with food. I failed in that aspect, and that's why I'm now on MFP.

Whoosh, that was long! Sorry.

I've been overweight since I was 6 or so - I think I gained weight around puberty purely because I was told it was just 'puppy fat' that I would let go of fine, so I felt it was alright to eat more. Reason for change was to stop feeling like crap and to stop people making nasty comments at school.

Hmm well, I was in junior school when I realised I was fat, so about 10 years old. I put myself on a diet and ate salad every day for lunch. At the same time, my mum noticed I was fat and bought me a dog, which i walked twice a day every day. So I lost a lot of weight, then got a really intensive paper round aged 13-16, and stayed at a normal weight (still a bit chubby but there you are). Then aged 16-17 i walked EVERYWHERE, was never home and had no one to drive me places. But at 18, I got a car, and a 6 foot 3 skinny boyfriend, plus i went to Uni. I tried to keep up with him food wise and he did all the cooking, so even though I did regular exercise, I gained weight. Last year I tried to go on a bit of a diet, but couldn't keep it up. then this year, I realised I would never get better at the sport I love if I didn't get fit, and my boobs hit size F, so I bought a pair of scales to see how much I weight and I was nearly 160 pounds! There were other hints like the fact that my jeans kept ripping around my thighs and my t-shirts didn't fit properly any more, so I took a long look at myself in the mirror and realised I'd let myself get fat again. Plus, I had no idea how much I was eating.

Now, my aim is to be toned, fit and weigh less than I've weighed sine I was 11. But I'm planning to stop losing when I'm happy with how I look. All I want is a flat stomach and some core muscle strength. Fitting into a UK size 10 would be great!

For me it was two pregnancies and then being lazy. I made a ton of excuses, had poor eating habits and didn't exercise. My tigger came when size sixteens didn't fit me anymore and I was tired all the time. I had no self confidence and no self esteem.

I can happily say now, almost 30 pounds lighter, that I am much more confident, I dress better and I have better energy. Logging my food here has helped and so has getting into a an exercise routine.

I was told I was overweight, and that I could be so pretty if I lost the weight. I was encouraged to diet. I crashed dieted from a very early age. After awhile I found that since I was always very big busted in middle and high school being overweight took the attention off of my chest.

I made the change because my karate instructor told me I had to so that I could test for my brown belt. He pointed me in the right, healthy direction for me.

I started puggy as a child and by high school was wearing size 16. Then married, had two kids and wound up ballooning to size 28. That is 350 # at 5'3. Became diabetic and fear got me down to 300 in 2002. Then my baby sister died of basically problems caused by morbid obesity and I decided I although I had the same problems she did I was not going to die of morbid obesity! Joined the Dr Phil Ultimate Weight loss program and lost 125 lbs and kept that off for the last 8 years. Health issues and being on steriods caused me to gain and now I have decided to join MFP determined to live to be a very skinny old lady. I just turned 68 on Halloween. The plus side to all this is that my precious 33 year old daughter has also lost 125 lbs on WW. As a mother I blame myself for her having a weight problem. As the genealogist of our family I have photo's of a lot of our morbidly obese relatives. Sad and can be changed and she and I are doing it. And I figure if this old lady can do it with her bradycardia, diabetis, hypertension and Copd/emphasema then anybody can do it!!!

My weight and eating habits were pretty good until l I got to college, but I didn't gain a whole lot of weight, even though my diet kinda suffered (I lived in DC and walked everywhere I couldn't ride the Metro to). I started gaining more when I went for my master's and really started eating out a lot more; however, most of the weight gain occurred when I was unemployed for a year and really depressed. That's about the time that I hit the 200lb mark. Soon after that I got a job in an office with a whole lot of really small people who were bitter at life and felt the need to take it out on everybody else, which just increased the emotional eating (or not eating, depending on how badly things were going that week).

Finally, I got the work situation cleared up somewhat (now IDGAF what happens at the office, and it's AWESOME!) and decided to work on me. I managed to fall off the wagon a few times, but the crappy end to a relationship gave me the fortitude to finally stick with it - spite is a powerful motivator, I'm ashamed to admit. I haven't lost a whole lot, but I'm feeling better, which is helping me stick with exercising.

I went to high school overseas and dropped any teenage pudge I had on me, then I moved back to Chicago. I traded in bottled water for Fruitopia and vending machine snacks, then I started a job in Downtown Chicago back in 2002. I was in the routine of eating a McGriddle sandwich and hash brown every day from McDonald's. When I first noticed a stretch mark on my belly, I brushed it off and kept up with my high fat diet, and absolutely no exercise. By the following year, I plummeted up to 195 pounds, and just kept buying clothes a size bigger and bigger. After that were a series of stressful relationships and plenty of excuses why I couldn't work out, which made me obese and well over 200 pounds. Now at 28, I took a real good look at the reality of my life and promised myself that this was it, I was going to go into my 30's healthy, muscular, and looking way better than I have at any point in my 20's. I am currently down 14 pounds, which may not seem like a ton of weight, but that was the start I needed to get me on the right path. It's all uphill from here.

I got fat by eating a whole cake (two 8 inch rounds slathered in icing) in less than 2 days. Eating a whole gallon of ice cream in less than a week. Eating a whole bag of cheeto puffs in one sitting. I'd drink sodas, eat crap and fry everything.
I want to get healthy so I can have the best pregnancy I can. I'm also sick of not being able to shop in the same stores as my little sister (she's not that much younger than I am so it's not like I'm wanting to shop in the kids department!!)

I got fat, strangely, a couple of years after I had kids when I was in my 20s. I was constantly unhappy and selling myself short in every possible way (didn't finish college, stayed in a relationship for 7 years out of "comfort", was even planning/trying to have a child with him, but my weight had caused fertility problems for me). My 30th birthday was approaching, and I felt so disappointed in myself. I didn't want to live the next 30 years of my life feeling poorly about myself.

Sadly, what triggered the change for me was a miscarriage. This was the final straw of bad things that had happened. It caught my attention and made me want to take my health more seriously. Instead of having another child, I thought I should strengthen the bond I had with the 2 children I already had. That's when it dawned on me that I lived 1 mile from my children's school, and I was still driving them. So I started to walk them and began to feel more energetic. I wasn't losing weight and then read about creating a calorie deficit. That did the trick, and the rest is history. I left my fiance. I went back to school and got my degree in English. I started to live as freely as I could. I've had the most awesome 3 years of my life since that day. Looking forward to more.

I've always been somewhat overweight. I gained way more after getting married because I was comfortable and we both ate out alllllllll the time. I realized that I was getting out of control and after a year and a half of falling off the exercise wagon, I got back on. I chose to lose thIs weight because our relationship is no longer and I have no real excuse for being fat, other than eating bad! I have nO kids and I want to find prince charming one day! Sooooo I gotta look my best! I've lost about 30 lbs and want to lose another 55

I started getting really big around middle school. I for some reason developed a big appetite and would just devour whatever. I had crappy eating habits and didn't exercise much. There were a couple instances where I lost weight by accident but it wasn't a permanent life-style change. I still ate junk, which I why I ended up gaining it all back.

What triggered the change I guess, is me finally finding the drive to want to get fit and eat healthier. I had bad self-esteem and had hardly any energy or confidence so I needed to do something about it. Then I found MFP which is a great tool that helped guide me in the right direction and keeping in check by showing me whether I did good that day, or badly etc.

Chubby girl, overweight teenager turned into morbidly obese teenager when I was 16. I was incredibly depressed through high school (bullied a fair bit, problems at home) and turned to food for comfort. By the time I was 18, I weighed about 140kg and my biggest was 160kg. I used to do things like eat an entire pizza, a 1.25L coke and garlic bread (for a late night snack).. I just didn't care if I lived or died, and figured I would be dead soon and that was my life now.

I don't know what turned it all around but my Mum encouraged me to get the lapband. We got one together, and after that things just sort of changed. I started eating less and losing weight, my self esteem improved, I found some friends who accepted me and I got a full time job that I liked. There was no 1 particular trigger (other than having my Mum encourage me to do this to save my own life) but I think it was just a combination of all these things that made me stick at it.

I gained a bit of weight again when I was pregnant which I've almost all lost (yay) and now trying to get down to a healthy weight.

I gained about 50lbs. With both of my pregnancies, and kept bout 30lbs of each one. Just never lost it. And nothing will motivate a person to lose weight like the 20 year class reunion!