Why are you fat???

1) Drinking 1300 calories a day in milk to combat arthritis medication which bothered my stomach.
2) Not exercising because life was "too busy" with kids, work and a house to look after.
3) Not being willing to push myself with painful joints to exercise.
4) Eating only one large meal a day (dinner).
5) Not caring that I was slowly putting on weight (approx 7 lbs a year for about 15 years). I mean what's 7lbs since I'm tall it wasn't even noticeable and going up a size every few years didn't worry me.

Now it's so obvious but at the time I was rather oblivious!!

this is not a "success story."

i'm' just sayin'.

My parents fed us well, and I was healthy through childhood, but they turned fast food into the taboo forbidden fruit.

We could never have it, and on the super rare occasions we did, it was tightly controlled: Taco Bell was a choice between hard/soft taco or a bean burrito. I never had the freedom to order what I really wanted. :ohwell:

Well after I turned 18 and went off to college, I started making up for lost time. Fast food every day? SURE! No parent to tell me no anymore. So my weight started creeping up.

I never learned that working out was something a regular person should do or needs to do. Gyms were for beefcakes, and so I never expected to go to one, or saw any need for one.

Lycra clothing made it soooooooo easy to creep up and up and not notice.

Once I realized I was getting fat, I tried to do something about it. I used chemicals. A bunch of them. And I did lose a bunch of the weight, but I learned nothing. So I cycled through that a couple times, bouncing up and down on the scale. Yuck.

When I saw a scale that said I weighed 237 lbs, I knew I had to change, because I had come to hate my body and what I done to myself.

I found MFP, and it has truly changed my life and my health. I will be forever grateful to Mike and everyone else that gave this to us.

I finally learned the answer to this question over the past couple of weeks. I was always thin, especially as a teenager. I'm 49 now, and have been overweight for a looooooong time. But I have two grown kids, boy 23 and girl 26, and a hubby 56. None of them are fat. Not one of them. Not even a little. So why am I fat? I cook dinner every day. I eat fast food very rarely, don't drink sodas, don't eat ice cream; cakes and pies were rare, usually on birthdays. I cook healthy meals.

So what do I do differently than my family? What do I do often? I eat cookies. I love cookies. I love homemade cookies and I made them often. And then I ate them. I had no problem grabbing 3-4 cookies several times a day.

Fast forward to this year: every year my mom, sisters, and our daughters get together for our annual christmas baking day, and we make......yep, cookies! Except this year, I forced myself to log my calories here. So I entered a few of the recipes I love best. And holy cow was I shocked when I saw what ONE cookie cost in calories! Most of them are 100-110 calories a piece. Multiply that by 3 or 4, and then again by 3 or 4 times per day.....and that equals fat.

I've lost 13 pounds since October and it has been easy. Honestly. I have not had to change my eating habits much at all. Of course, I've cut down on total calories to create a deficit, but 'what' I am eating has not changed. Except cookies. Had to give them up One day....hopefully...I can add a cookie back into my day!

im 5ft 8inch and have always been in my bmi range but i gave up smoking in oct 2005 and have put on 4stone 7ibs to date

I posted in Success Stories first and thought I guess this wouldn't really be a "Success Stories" kind of post. Sorry you guys. It's my first post...

I love this topic. I think it helps people understand how to achieve their success stories so in essence it can belong here. Don't let people talk down to you. To those 3 people who posted to be little smart-alecks there were several others who posted to gain an understanding of why they put on the weight. Great Job :-)

I became lazy and found more comfort in eating and drinking alcohol! Two kids later, a failed marriage and the stress of raising 2 kids without support coupled with low self esteem = obese! I'm learning how to change that now though!

I have been overweight as long as I can remember. I think I used food as a coping mechanism. We moved a lot when I was growing up (I went to six different elementary schools) and it was hard making long lasting friends. Food was my best friend. I have continued to keep people at arms length and used food as my primary coping mechanism. I am trying to change those bad behaviors but it is hard.

I was fat, because I was a food glutton and lazy, undisciplined person.

Same as most.

I'm too lazy and I eat too much.