What Got You Here?

lukeout007
lukeout007 Posts: 1,237 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Not sure if this topic has been done before...but what got everyone here? Meaning what made you fat? Family? Friends? Your own lack of control? Medical problem? Etc....Obviously I don't think many people will have one short answer...but I'm thinking that if we all take a look at our lives and see what may have started (or is making it worse) then it might help to avoid those things in the future...I'll start.

*I'm not asking anyone to post excuses. Unless you have a medical condition there's really no excuse and we're all here because of that. This is simply an idea for learning from our mistakes*

I think what it mainly comes down to for me is self control. I used to be an emotional eater...whether I was depressed or celebrating there was always food involved...and for many years my emotions were pretty out of control. Thankfully I wouldn't consider myself an emotional eater anymore...but I've become a foodie with aspirations of being a chef one day and its resulted in wanting to eat EVERYTHING. lol.

My family and friends tend to have a bit of an affect as well. My grandparents were always big on junk food and made sure when we'd go over there that I'd fill up on it and then take some home as well. My mom was quite a bit less into junk food and would cook dinner for us almost every day of the week...I'd say around 50% of the time it would be considered healthy...the other 50% just quick or easy. But overall not bad. The problem was the amount I was eating.

Lastly...I've almost always been sedentary. Definitely in high school. A few years after high school I was pretty active (and skinny) but that didn't last forever and I eventually went back to sitting around doing nothing.

For me it's going to come down to portion control, telling my family or friends "no" if I don't have calories available to eat cookies or candy or fast food, and being active whether that means exercising or just getting off the couch and out of the house.

Replies

  • swimmchick87
    swimmchick87 Posts: 458 Member
    Emotional eating is probably the biggest reason I've kept weight on. I don't want to post an "excuse"- but college lifestyle was also a big factor in gaining weight in the first place (but I've been out of college for 2 years and just now starting to lose it- so obviously that wasn't the only reason!) In high school I'd become a gym rat. I worked at a gym part time, got a free membership...and of course if you're already there to work it's incredibly lazy to go home without working out too! When I started college I gained a little weight from eating more but was exercising so much I mostly kept it at bay (about 2 hours of intense exercise a day). My sophomore year I got some unexplained illness (to this day, no dr. has figured it out) where I was extremely achy/tired all the time and got sick very easily. I went from working out 2 hours a day to being on the elliptical for 2 minutes and thinking I was going to die- drenched in sweat, barely able to breathe or move, etc. in a matter of weeks. I had to stop working out all together for about 8 months. I finally felt well again (the only explanation I got was that it must have been a virus working it's way out of my body), but by that time I was so out of shape and frustrated that I couldn't do as much as I used to at the gym. I got depressed and was an emotional eater big time. I'd try to start a diet, but then my friends would want to order pizza or go out to eat or something (typical if you live on a college campus) and I wouldn't want to be anti social and not go, so I'd end up right back off the diet. I built up some bad emotional eating habits that I kept with me even after college. That's one of the biggest things I'm working on right now- I do not "deserve" something sugary/fattening because I've had a bad/hard day, I don't need to "celebrate" everything with junk food, etc.
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,889 Member
    Eating the wrong foods. I didn't eat a lot in terms of quantity, but the foods I did eat where largely unhealthy. The majority of my weigh gain came from a period around the age of 15 when my mother decided microwave dinners were the future - they had nearly no nutritious value so I felt constantly hungry and would snack on other junk after dinner in an attempt to quell my hunger. I had no money either, so I couldn't do anything about it - and god forbid I suggest she bring some fruit into the house, because that's full of sugar and will make me fat.
  • swilk627
    swilk627 Posts: 245 Member
    Pregnancy + post-partum hypothyroidism + weaning from breastfeeding + a love for baking.
  • dirtbikegirl5
    dirtbikegirl5 Posts: 391 Member
    I grew up around eating disordered people, so naturally I developed an eating disorder. I struggled with this my whole life. I was in and out of hospitals. I was told, in order to get better and live, I had to eat. Unfortunately, no one told me how to do this.
    I was never FAT, but I never ate correctly either so I was not winning any awards for being thin. I lost 30 pounds several years ago and I have kept 20 of it off. Being on MFP for me keeps me accountable, teaches me all sorts of things that I never knew about food, energy, calorie count, exercise, nutrition, etc.
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