Why did you get fat and what triggered the change?

i was on the higher end of my "normal weight" range before i had my son.. gained 50lbs with that & then just kept adding over the last 8yrs.

what woke me up was a childhood friend of mine was kidnapped & murdered by her ex-boyfriend last month & it really woke me up that life can be stolen from you at any time.... do i want to leave this world knowing i was never happy with myself & never even tried? not to mention not setting a healthy lifestyle example for my son. so that was a big wake up call for me. hoping i stay on track.

I have always been chubby as a child, and I have got bigger and bigger over the years basically due to not being taught about food and exercise properly I guess. The reason I want to change is because of my ex boyfriend who used to emotionally/mentally abuse me i guess, eg. one minute saying lose weight your too fat, the next minute saying i love girls with big boobs and big bootys you need to put more weight on. I broke up with him the end of last year, then put on 12kgs. Then I realised I should definitely change my bad habits, and therefore, here i am

I had an eating disorder in middle school and during recovery I began to run track. I was eating pretty much healthily at that time, around 1800 calories a day (I was running upwards of 6 miles and doing other workouts daily), but my metabolism was pretty shot (still is). After I blew my knee out, I stopped running and found comfort in food. I went from around 105 pounds (ED weight) to 128 pounds (running/muscular weight) to 147 pounds (highest weight and at 5'2", overweight). Last year my hormones got really out of whack, but before my doctor would put me on medication, she told me to try and lose 10 pounds. I lost about 12, got on the Pill and an antidepressant, and I've lost about 10 more pounds. I'd love to lose 10 more and get to 115, but if I never lose another pound, I don't care. I'm working on gaining some muscle and working on my fitness and general health

I was always a chubby kid, and it didn't help that I had friends in elementary school that were stick thin.. My father had bad eating habits which I def followed.. We always had to have Coke in the house, and he would drink at least 3+ a day. He had a permanently broken leg so he couldn't get around too much, but only made things worse by eating horribly and adding to his weight. He passed away in his 50's, and when his side of the family came to our house, they were all big and I felt like I was staring into my future. I was active in high school and kept some weight off despite bad eating, however college came and it was all downhill from there..
The things that changed it around for me were being sick and tired of hating every single photo I was in, and never wanting to be in any picture, even when we were on vacation. We had a biggest loser contest at work and that's what started the journey, along with my good friend telling me about this site. I've been in a bit of a rut this past year trying to get those last 20 pounds off, but 've never felt as good as I do now.

Middle age. It stinks. Have been the same weight for the last 11 years. Bam! Suddenly 5 extra pounds attached itself to my stomach and thighs. Ugh!

I was gaining at about 5 lbs. per year and was a bit overweight. Then I took the every-three-month birth control patch for 6 months. I gained 75 lbs. during that time. I would sit down to a full-course dinner and get up and be starving. It took me 6 months to realize the cause. By then it was too late. After that I sort of gave up on myself for a while and just continued the sweet tooth I'd always had, only on steroids because it didn't matter any more. So I went from 150 to 225 and then ballooned up to 260. I exercised once before and got down to 222, but then got plantar faciitis in both feet and had to stop until I was fully rehabbed.

My trigger to lose was my realization that I would need all my strength in what I perceive to be the coming societal collapse as well as the fact that my spouse was diagnosed with diabetes and since we ate the same food, I didn't want to share his fate. The tough part for me is that I don't cook at all. He has done all the cooking for 26 years. So I am having to learn many new things which aren't very comfortable. The great thing is that I am doing it. I'm succeeding. If I can, you can.

All my life i've been chubby... even as a kid.
As i grew up, i ate like there was no tomorrow! I simply did not understand the whole calories thing...

Then I began to notice that I didn't like my pictures, i looked really fat and i was slowly losing my confidence.
So I decided that this should change and it happened. I lost 15 kilograms. (2 years ago)
But sadly, due to some personal issues and stress... I gained 7 kilograms back throughout the year. Which is devastating.
What triggers me now is I WANT TO FEEL CONFIDENT. I'm not obese but I'm not happy with my body. I want to lose these extra 7-8 kilograms..

I had some health problems that caused me to be on long term steroids. I was able to get the health problems under control and have been slowly getting the weight off. Thankfully I'm no longer on any medication so it is just me and the weight battle.

Hey,
My weight has always fluctuated my lowest being around 130lbs and my highest being about 224 :noway: (im 5ft 5). This time the weight creaped on because i went onto in injection contraceptive and started craving weird stuff, but mostly chocolate.... I got it under control when i started taking multivitimans but the damage was already done. I have since come off the jab!

The real turning point was when two things happened, one i was in bed with my boyfriend and cuddled up too him and thought it was a bit uncomfortable and tried to move away and realised he was lying on my belly and (warning tmi!!) we was ahem having sex with me on top and i could hear a strange slapping noise lol, it was my belly. Mortified does not cover it :sad:

I was chronically underweight until age 5, at which point I had a bad reaction to some antibiotics. I've been overweight since then.

I got sick and tired of being, well, sick and tired. Plus, I wanted to see if I really could get to a "normal" weight. I can't really knock it until I've tried it, after all.

I've always been an emotional eater but I was never overweight until around 2010 (I hit 178lbs).

I had some emotional difficulties anyway (I was dealing with losing my Mum and other such things).

THEN I went to University, and I lived in a Take-Away Dream Land. There were no regular shops just all fast food places. To make matters worse, my housemates were so messy I refused to eat food that was prepared in 'that' kitchen, it was so disgusting and there was never any space to prepare anything anyway! I did by best to keep it tidy but 1 against 3 it was a losing battle. So I turned to the fast food places as an alternative.

Sometimes I would talk the the staff working in the fast food places and make up an elaborate second person who I was also picking up food for. When in actual fact the double portion size was for me... i'm not proud of those times :-(

I remember I once heard 'I hope you and your family enjoy your food' from a delivery person because I had ordered so much :-(

So I guess I became overweight from a mix of emotional eating and convenience.

I have tried to lose the weight many times and failed but this time i'm tackling the reasons I comfort eat in the first place, now when i'm stressed I turn to exercise as an outlet :-)

The other day something got me down and my first thought was GYM not PIZZA (I was like, woah, did I just think that).

I'm in a different place completely :-)

Menopause. You think it's hard when you're young. Just wait.
I was always thin. When I started with menopause I gained 30 lbs doing the same thing I always did. Now I have to watch everything! Lost it all though. :drinker:

Ditto......particularly the bit about it being harder when you're more mature.
I am just over half way and I WILL GET THERE!!!

because I grew up eating carbohydrates...I lived in a world that considered carbohydrates a staple of their diet (as do most in western society) Eating carbohydrates is the reason I am where I am but it's also lead me to this realization and learning about controlling them, as carbs becomes an addiction over time (as does sugar). I'm learing more about what certain foods do to my body - how they get processed, and what nutrients to avoid. (carbs). I'm also learning to question what the 'going rate' is on what we should be eating.
Also, with the carbs, they became my comfort food - so when I turned to emotional eating, as a lot of women do, it was carbs I turned to (muffins, etc). I am now taking control over my eating and not letting my body dictate (crave) certain thigns because i'm weaning my system off of it all - I'm learnign to eat when I'm hungry and not out of boredom (before I eat i always ask myself ' am i reallk hungry?' and most times if i'm not i can put it away and save it for when i am hungry - but sometimes i still find myself wanting to munch).
when I lived down in southern ontario, i read a book (master your matabolism) by Jilian Michaels, and it changed my life - I vowed then and there to change my body's processing system (matabolism). I bought a treadmill and ate organic. Then I read a book called "why we get fat and what to do about it" - it too changed my lfie and then I read the Dr. Atkins new diet revolution book - continued to change my life. I found a wonderful support group on facebook that I rely on every day. now I live the Atkins lifestyle while keeping in mind many key things I learned in Master your Matabolism; I also traded in my treadmill (as I didn't love it) for Zumba and I haev found an exercise I love doing!

Carbs, emotional eating (including boredom eating) is why I'm fat - but the main reason is because I haven't learned until now how to take control of it all. thanks to Dr. Atkins, now I know and I'm living a better, healthier life for it!

I've been somewhat big my whole life. But the catalyst was when my mom developed lung cancer. I was her primary care giver and took care of her till the day she died. During this time, finding something that she would even remotely care about eating was hard. So I would cook and cook and when she would only nibble, I ate. I ate out of frustration, I ate out of fear, and I ate out of loathing for her disease. During my mom's illness I packed on over 100 pounds. That's when I found out I'm an emotional eater.

Now the thing that kick started my weight loss is this past year I've had an issue with my right leg swelling 3 times what it should be and had to go to doctor's for test after test. Only to hear that each doctor thought it was my weight. So I started my diet and am happy to say the leg still swells, but not nearly as bad. And I've developed such motivation, that I want to keep going until I reach my goal.

I was thin throughout childhood. Even too skinny at certain points. I was pretty active, too.

But, then came puberty.. I became very self-conscious. I remember being 10 years old and thinking I was fat. (Looking back, I was not fat in the slightest.) I started to hide my body but I kept playing sports, so, I stayed more or less in shape.

Then, right before 6th grade, my family relocated to a new state. I refused to do any sports, too uncomfortable with my body. I was the new girl, and bullied relentlessly for various stupid reasons.

So, I became "chubby" in middle school.

In high school, my weight went up a bit higher, but was still just "overweight."

I went to college at age 16. I was mature enough to handle the classes, but not feeding myself. I ended up gaining 40 pounds in 3 months. (First time to ever hit 200 pounds).

Since then, it's been a struggle up and down. A few weeks ago I stepped on the scale and saw 230. Totally unacceptable. So I