Why are you fat???

I'm fat more because of mental health reasons than anything, I guess. I used to be anorexic as a young teenager. I gained weight, and was at a normal weight by the time I was 18, and then I was hospitalised for other mental health issues in my first year of university, and I just... lost it. I spent six months in a psychiatric facility, with literally nothing to do but sit on the couch and eat junk food. I ate so much junk food, it isn't funny. That was in 2008. I had a BMI of about 32.
And then I got into a residential treatment center, and comfort-eating remained a habit of mine, interspersed with periods of bingeing and purging, and relapses back into anorexia, and my weight kind of stayed the same.
And then in 2010 I was taken off some of the medications I was on, and the weight started falling off. This motivated me to exercise and eat better, and I lost 25kg in less than five months... and now I've been at a plateau for a year. I'm still about five pounds overweight, but I can't seem to lose the excess weight.
However I've joined a gym for the first time in my life, and am eating healthily, so I'm hoping this will make a difference.

SO basically from depressive overeating, lack of motivation/exercise, and continuing to turn to food for comfort. Stupid emotional eating.

I started two businesses while taking on a new, highly challenging career and caring for a chronically ill wife. There was simply no time or mental space to pay attention to my eating habits or exercise.

I'm back, yo.

too much wine and cheese (they go so well together) combined with not enough activity ! but now I have changed that, hardly ever drink, cheese is a rare treat and I exercise most days and after taking up running in October will be running my first half marathon in March big changes but i can see the results so its made it all worth while, just got to keep at it now and not slip back !

I spent almost twenty years married to a man who wanted nothing more than to sit on the couch and watch television 24/7. His idea of breakfast was a Nehi grape soda and a massive gob of peanut butter on a wooden spoon. At first, I tried getting him outside and doing more active things, but his inertia was contagious. I grew more and more depressed and miserable, and my butt got wider and wider, and my blood pressure got higher and higher.

Going to law school and getting my J.D. restored my self-confidence and reminded me that I didn't have to live my life on "pause." I gave him his pink slip in 2006, and I've never looked back. Slowly, but surely, I'm getting healthier and stronger. It doesn't hurt that I'm now married to an active duty U.S. soldier who was an athlete in high school and runs every morning. Amazing what a difference it makes when you're surrouded by folks who actually give a damn, eh?

I just didn't care what I ate. I never cared about calories and the more deep fried, the better. I was in the mind set of "I'm going to die anyways, might as well die happy". Well, being that overweight I realized I wasn't happy at all.

I have no excuse really, laziness and I just loved eat crap all the time. I just lived on fast food and junk food without caring what it was doing to me.

Im fat because:

I was physically and mentally abused from a very early age by my alcoholic mother and her many boyfriends. My parent's nick name for me was Lard Azz from as early as I can remember. Even before I became over weight, they always called me that. Finally at age 16 (about 175lbs) I married to get away from my mom. Then was with my husband for 15 years and he physically and mentally abused me 100 times worse than my parents ever did. I would have never left him either but when he started hurting our son, I developed a strength Ive never known and was out of there, but no before gaining 125lbs over that 15 years.

Now Im happily remarried and suffer from PTSD. So my entire life I have self medicated with food. Yea it wasnt alcohol or drugs like the rest of my family... Its worse, because at least with alcohol and drugs I wouldn't still have to have it daily to survive while trying to overcome the addiction.

I am fat cause I love food. A little too much.

I love cheese, gravy, pasta, breads, butter, sauces, and creamy things. I have a terrible sweet tooth.

I eat when I am depressed, feeling down, or bored.

So as you can see...It is all my fault baby. I am learning how to enjoy food without shoving it down my gaping maw 24/7. I am learning how to cut back on sweets and live with only so much butter and cheese.

I am fat for a lot of reasons. I have a hormonal imbalance with an insulin resistance, so I get hungry faster after eating, I crave carbohydrates and the weight all centers in my center. I also eat too much. I love food. I love pretty much all food. I have not come across any food that I do not like. Works in my favor with veggies, not so much with pastas and cakes. I am also kinda lazy. I do housework, work work, and mommy work, but dont take the time for work out work.

WOW...You just described me to a "T"!

I wish I had an obvious answer. I've been overweight since I can remember. 140lbs in the third grade (but still the fastest and strongest girl in school-go figure...). I'd like to blame genetics, but my five older brothers had no weight issues. Even as a competitive athlete as a teen I still was never below 180. And as a teen I spent a couple of summers at weight loss camps, so I know the ins and outs of nutrition, "starvation mode", "good fat v. bad fat" etc. etc. Now in my 40's it 's been a life long yo-yo. I've had my slimmer moments, (through determination) but they have been fleeting. My thyroid's been checked, it's fine. All I can say is that calories love me...I HAVE to count calories and exercise... I wish I could be one of those who eats what they want when they want, but that's just not my lot...

Alot of honest, candid posts.

I was always thin as a child, teenager and in my 20's. I grew up in Florida, surfing everyday, biking to/from the beach, ran cross-country. In college I was in AROTC, so we had to do PT 3x a week, plus my metabolism was just naturally fast. I could eat 2 large Domino pepperoni pizzas or 12 Taco Bell Supreme Taco's ("extra sour cream please") by myself and not gain an ounce. In retrospect the bad habits were starting to develop but the repercussions were still years away. I never ate breakfast, ate fast food for dinner, lunch was typical college fraternity house food - ramen noodles, hot dogs, left over pizza, etc whatever was cheap. Had to save my money for beer every night out at the college bars.

After college I was an Army officer for 4 years, so more PT 5 days a week, unless we were in the field or deployed - usually for months at a time, so food consisted of MRE's, water, and maybe one hot meal a day. When we came back from the field or deployments it was beer, pizza, Whopper's, etc, but again I was still physically active so the bad habits hadn't had any effect yet. I was a lean, muscular 195 lbs with less than 10% BF.

After my military obligation was up, I was sick of being required to run and exercise so I didn't. I got a job as a consultant which required me to travel Monday thru Friday, so breakfast was coffee and what ever was free at the hotel, lunch was order in to the office, and then after a 12 hour workday sitting on my butt in meetings or in front of a computer, it was restaurant food and beer/wine. Gotta love expense accounts, steak and wine every night.

My wife and I didn't have kids yet, so weekends were for decompressing and going out to eat with my wife. Heineken's and football on TV during the days on Saturday/Sunday, more nice restaurants and beer/wine at Saturday night and maybe a home cooked meal Sunday night. That's when the lbs started showing up.

My wife and I had or first child when I was 30, so I gave up the traveling consulting job for a stressfull Fortune 500 project management job. I was still skipping breakfast, still eating out at lunch or sometimes skipping that, and coming home to a huge dinner and beer. Weekends were still beer, football, etc at home and taking care of a newborn/toddler.

After hitting 255lbs and around 32% BF, I went on Atkins, plus using some Herbalife products my sister in law was selling at the time, but I never really adopted sustainable healthy eating. I lost 50 lbs in about 3-4 months and felt good again, and slacked off the diet.

Went back to my old ways, skipping breakfast, either skipping lunch or eating restaurant lunches, and a big dinner with beer/wine. Pasta, meat and cheese became my go to food choices.

I got up to 270 this time and 35% BF and size 42 pants. Due to my 6' 1" and height and broad shoulder build, I could carry it well and hide it under business suits and Tommy Bahama shirts, but I was out of shape and my BP, liver enzymes, cholesterol were starting to head upwards. I quit going to the doctor because I didn't want to hear what I already knew.

So last February I went on a balanced diet comprised mostly of lean protein, lot's of fruit/vegetables, healthy fats, and whole grains, cut back on the alcohol significantly, watching my macro's and calories, logging everything I ate, and began exercising on my wifes elliptical. I lost 70 lbs and now wear size 32 pants, 12% BF, and eat healthy everyday. At 39, I'm stronger now (I lift weights now) than I was on the Army, weigh the same as I did when I was 26, same pant size, have ab's again. I still track all my calories and macro's on MFP sticking to my 2500 maintenance calories for that last 9 months.

My calorie intake was greater than my calorie expenditure. Really just that simple. Oh, I could try and explain and justify it, but it all would just sound like excuses to me, and besides it's in the past and I'm only interested in looking forward.

OH BOY. Well the responsibility of being fat is all on me. I made the bad choices that got me here. But there is history of why I ate the way I did or wanted to.

My Mom became Anorexic when I was 3. She used to keep certain foods out of the house so when I could get my hands on something special I felt the need to eat all of it. Watching her focus on her own weight so much made me focus on it too. I went through puberty earlier than most girls and had curves. I noticed I was bigger and thought I was giant. I quit dance, something I loved, because I was ashamed to be so "fat" next to all these girls with their ribs sticking out. So from then on I was always bigger than most girls but felt like an absolute pig.

I actually started on the road to very fat once my parents separated. My Mom, little sisters, and I all moved to an abused women's shelter. I had to leave school and move and deal with my insane father every two days and unstable mother at the shelter. In this shelter they constantly had food. They got many donations and food from the food bank. I remember they had over 100 packages of coffee Oreos in the basement. This is where my binge eating began. I would stay up later than everyone else in the house reading and once they were asleep I would eat all night long. All during this I was trying to diet, using my mom's habits of eating egg beaters and nothing else.

From there on I was a binge eater. I also started purging and restricting. So from then, around 12, to age 18 it was just a constant cycle of binge eating and gaining weight/restricting and losing weight/purging and maintaining my weight. Diagnosed with EDNOS around this time. My mom became an alcoholic and basically reverted to a 21 year old. It was very stressful. She, although unintentionally, encouraged my bad habits and gave me tips. I then met my current boyfriend and he seemed perfectly happy with my body which made me relax a little but I still binged. Gained about 40 pounds.

And then I got pregnant. During my pregnancy I gained about 30 more pounds and they never really went away. I gained another 25 or so. I got postpartum depression and became suicidal and all I did was binge. I stopped restricting/purging at all. Gained a little more weight. Then my boyfriend and I moved and we started eating out constantly with little or no real food in our house besides things for our daughter. That brought me to where I am today. I'm in a much better place because I know my old habits didn't work and will never work and I have completely let go of my old weight loss mentality.

Having three kids, no energy, got lazy, eating crap food for comfort...etc.

I worked as a phone operator on the 10th floor of a building where the elevators didn't work and the breaks were short or skipped, fridges were broken, food and bags were stolen, and the only chow available was vending machine or greasy cafeteria. After that, I got hooked on video games and lasagna. Fml.