How did you gain your weight?

I got here because of horrible eating habits and not being active.

I was never a skinny person, but when I was younger I was very active, played multiple sports (soccer, basketball, tennis, and swimming to name the main ones), and was very muscular. I still didn't eat well (no one in my family did) but at least I was working out and doing stuff all the time.

When I got older, I stopped the sports (partially due to a knee injury while playing soccer) but kept my normal diet. I would even say my diet got worse when I had the money and car to get whatever I wanted instead of being "stuck" with the options in the house. I would pick up a large McDonald's fry on my way home from school. I would leave my house JUST to get fast food for lunch. Stuff like that. I would also eat portions 3 or 4 times the normal size! So, even if what I had was healthy, I would still eat too much of it. I was one of those that would eat until I was stuffed... and then eat some more!

That carried on until this past December when I had a break down and had to take a look at my life. I realized just how unhappy I was and how horrible I felt. So, I decided to give this a shot. I have been here just over a month now. I credit the success so far on being more prepared to do it. Before I started I cleaned out the kitchen, I cleaned out my recipe bookmarks of anything that would be too tempting, and I found new healthy recipes.

i simply looked the other way for about 8 years. oops.

I have always had a large appetite.

After my babies:) It was entirely my fault (not blaming it on the babies)..

I lost all of my baby weight and then some when they were nursing around the clock. Eventually they slowed down, but I kept eating the same amount of calories that I did when they were exclusively breastfeeding. I knew better:)

I had a baby at age 44. My body did NOT bounce back this time. I starved myself trying to get back to my former size and messed up my metabolism.

Now, I'm doing it right. Had to reset my metabolism, teach myself how to eat the proper amounts and control binging. Doing fine. The baby is now 6 years old and the light of my life

I was a fit college student, transitioned to a sedentary desk job but still kept eating the same quantities. Slowly over the years, my weight kept creeping up. Suddenly I found myself at 34 years old and 30 pounds overweight. I have always eaten quite healthy, I rarely eat fast food, I don't binge eat, I never was big into sweets...I just stopped moving as much and ate too big of portions. Now I am just about back down to my college weight and size and I intend to stay here!

Diet/starving myself - Giving up and binge on everything I'd restricted myself from - "diet" reaching goal weight - relaxing too much- "diet" - binge.. And so it goes on, poor poor metabolism, I've just been a classical yo-yo dieter.

After i had my daughter and went back to my normal self i thought i can still eat and drink what i wanted but truth was my body changed and i did not take the time to understand it, i gained weight slowly but thought nothing of it, i can also say as i got older i changed from going to clubs dancing to hitting the bars with my friends so i think drinking beer and not dancing it off also is what caused my most weight increase from the past 4 years.. but that is all going to change now..

I got lazy!
4 ish years ago, I lost 50 lbs... well, what did i do when I reached my goal weight????... I went to Krystals and celebrated with chili cheese fries, 3 krystals and a lrg dr pepper!!! Hmmm? No wonder I gained 40 of those lbs back!
I wasn't in it for the 'healthy' back then, just for the skinny.

Cheese is good. Beer is good. Bread is good. Dr pepper is good.... Sitting on your butt is easy = me, being fat!

So, Now, here I am with 32 lbs to lose and doing my best to do it the right way.. eat less, exercise more.
I want to be at my best by summer.... 32 lbs to be gone in 20 weeks... I need to lose at least 1.6lbs a week.

While I was never skinny - I had a very low percentage of body fat until about 10 years ago when I got divorced. I'm packed on an extra 20 or so about over the course of a few years. Then 3 years ago I had a major surgery - and they cut open my belly and I found I flat couldn't do almost anything I had done before and my muscles weren't healing - probably a combination of age and lifestyle - so I packed on 50 lbs in about 1-1/2 years. I lost 20 last Jan-march but then I had a job where I was working overtime 7 days a week - didn't have time to work out - they feed us with foods that weren't healthy - and I gained it all back PLUS an additional 15 pounds....
I've got a long way to go but since just before Christmas to when I started tracking this - I had lost 10 pounds - so I have an incentive to get this all off. I weighed less than this when I was pregnant with my kid 21 years ago.

My story:

In my mid-twenties I started gaining weight. I would gain 5-10 pounds then diet it off. This was back in the 70s before fitness became an “in” thing to do. Finally in my late 30s I got the message. You need to exercise to maintain a healthy weight. I started doing aerobics every day and walking up and down a small mountain in my area several times a week. Then, while I was painting at my new condo, I took a miss-step on my ladder and fell to the floor. The fall caused my spine to slip off center. That was the beginning of a slow and steady weight gain. My back got worse and worse and I exercised less and less until 3 years later when I had to stop trying. It’s been about 11 years ago and now I am nearly 80 pounds overweight and cannot stand up for more than a few minutes at a time without severe pain. I have tried nearly every form of exercise including recumbent bicycle, physical therapy, ab crunchers and more. After a short period of time, they all caused severe nerve pain in my back and legs.

I know this sounds weird, but I finally found a way to get aerobic exercise. I have a bistro height table which I put a pillow on and lean on. Basically, I do low impact aerobics (to the tunes on my phone) with my legs while supporting some of my weight on the table. The first time I finished a 30 minute workout, I cried I was so happy. I could tell it was a good workout because of my past experience with doing aerobic exercise. I am just beginning but for the first time I feel positive about the possibility of losing weight and getting in shape and I am hopeful that after losing weight, I will be able to exercise without support.

I am so glad I found MFP. I tried WW online and it was not user friendly in my opinion. Here at MFP I have found every food I have needed to enter so far and have entered one of my personal recipes. I also enjoy reading the blogs and learning about other people's challenges and the support other MFP members offer.

I have a long way to go, but would like to encourage those who feel like it is impossible to even set a goal to keep trying. After many years I have finally found my starting point…

Hang in there!

Pregnancy and then emotions. I was 123lbs when I first got pregnant. I gained 90 lbs with my first and lost 40. Gained 50lbs with my second and lost 10lbs. I don't know what it is like to weigh 130-170.lbs, no idea what I look like at those weights. It's almost surreal when I think about it. It will be 14 years, I've been carrying this around and am excited to see what my body will be like when I get there. Crazy.

I moved in with my boyfriend, and then lost my job. I decided to learn to cook while I was out of work to help more with my portion of the household expenses. I slept in late, cooked large, several-course dinners and desserts every day. Lots of rich, fabulous foods with very little physical activity.

So, that sucks, and now I have to get back to a healthy place while loving my cooking ... but the plus side is that I've become a phenomenal cook.

I bought it with my taxes.