so how did we get fat?
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And BTW, I have said this before....I LOVE THIS GROUP! People are so supportive and not negative or mean!
Yup, because we're not hungry!! LOL!
HAHA! Exactly!0 -
I gained weight mostly due to the changes in my diet when I went away to college but even more so when I quit college track and stopped regularly working out. Working out became a thing a completely dreaded after being a serious runner for 6+ years.
Then after college I moved to Europe for one year and despite thinking that I would be healthier and maybe get in better shape while gone, I ended up gaining even more weight and was the most out of shape I've ever been. The family I lived with ate portion sizes twice the size that I was used to and over time I adjusted to their way of eating. They ate bigger portions and had seconds! Also, they ate dessert every night which I almost always turned down. Even riding my bike everywhere for a year didn't counteract it all. Potatoes every night for dinner too played a role.
When I moved home I lost probably ~15 pounds without much effort just because I was eating the foods and the way that I ate before I left. I've since lost maybe another 5 pounds and I'm much happier.0 -
I wonder about this from time to time, especially now that I am eating around 1900 - 2000 calories a day.
I gained the weight over a 3 year period or so and kept it that way so I guess I was eating at maintenance for that weight then!.
My weight gain came with joining the working force. Lots of social events, happy hours, dinners, you name it. I don't think I had an idea of how many calories there were in meals, drinks, etc. I only starting looking at labels and content about 2 years ago. So I think I had lots of empty calories and meals I thought looked small but were loaded.
I am glad I now watch what I put in my boddy. I am still a bit concern about eating these many calories (I just upped about a week and half ago) as I don't want to gain weight back but I needed to stop loosing weight. So many of you are successful with this that I have to follow the advice of those that lead by example.0 -
I know exactly how I got here... 9 months of pregnancy - 1 chocolate and a tub of icecream a day... EVERY day. You know how people say - you didn't get all this weight in a month, you shouldn't expect to lose it in a month either... Well for me, I gained it in 6 months (started reallz gaining in beginning of second trimester). There was month in there I gained 18lb... Yes, 18lb in 30 days. And no it was not the baby, it was all me an dthe chocolate, and the muffins, and the cheesecake and the icecream... When I started MFP this year I stopped eating all the sugary stuff (I never garvitated to fast food, but sugar is my downfall!) I struggled to even reach my calorie goal of 1400 calories. Yeah, that from just cutting the sugar out :ohwell:0
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And BTW, I have said this before....I LOVE THIS GROUP! People are so supportive and not negative or mean!
Yup, because we're not hungry!! LOL!
I love this! LOL0 -
And BTW, I have said this before....I LOVE THIS GROUP! People are so supportive and not negative or mean!
Yup, because we're not hungry!! LOL!
:laugh: BAHAHA! So true!
I can't even imagine going back to the crap I used to eat. The little bit I allow myself to enjoy tends to make my stomach uneasy now so it's just not as enjoyable.0 -
I love all these responses. They feel important because one could come here, and perhaps make the assumption that EM2WL means returning to a prior unhealthy way of overeating.
And it doesn't!
All the stories here had me nodding my head and remembering anew the poor choices I made in the past.
You inspired me to write this blog entry about decision making, and wanting the 'fast losses' and how we deal with all that:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/elly1979/view/little-victories-263552
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I was eating a 1,600-calorie dessert at Longhorn after eating an appetizer and full entree. That's one way I gained the weight. I was already 20 lbs overweight when I got pregnant and then gained 40 more lbs. And I honestly gave up. I was able to lose about 40 lbs and then stressful jobs helped me gain that back.0
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Yep. So an extra 500 calories/day over TDEE is enough to put on 52 lbs per year. That's a latte and a chocolate bar... or a muffin and a small soda. Easy.0
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1 - 2 bottles of wine a night for a couple of years + eating pizza once a week and jack in the box after binge drinking at the bar....I know exactly how I got here.
No I only drink once a week in moderation, eat 3200 healthy calories a day and exercise for at least 30 minutes a day.0 -
I've been kind of wondering about this myself. Ok like today, I ate 2 slices of pizza because we had it and I cant seem to turn down pizza. But I also stayed under my calorie goal of 2000(I get an extra 200 for nursing a toddler). So whats the difference from how I used to eat to now if im still ok to eat pizza every now and then and still stay within my calories. Is it all about the tyoe of foods you eat?0
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For the most part I was like the example in the eating 700 cals and not losing sticky. For a long time I would drink cokes most of the day and not eat until supper time. Then on weekends or when my husband was off it would be non stop fast food, restaurants, or bbq's. When the kids got older and I had snack stuff around, I did a lot of mindless eating. It all adds up when you're not paying attention to portions.0
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Despite having under active thyroid from birth, during my teens and twenties I was only around 9st to 9st7 mark when I was active. I didn't really exercise as such like going to gym but we always had dogs to had dog to walk 3 times a day, college, work, uni etc I didn't drive so lots of walking about and catching buses/trains.
My thyroid started producing reverse T3 in my early 30's we think due to stress as my dad had had cancer that summer and passed away and my symptoms started shortly after. (vision going in and out of focus) by the time they found it I was having mobility problems could barely move lower back and legs were extremely stiff (its was freezing through too Feb 2003). I was constantly exhausted and went up to 16st.
I was in wheelchair full time by 2005. it took a long time to get down to 11st 7 (till about 2010) then put a stone back on.. and was 12st 7 by June 2011. It's taken me a year to lose just 3 stone and now back to 9st 7.. aiming for 9st 3 so can finish Wii Fit as I've been playing the damn game for years and just want to get to my target weight it set me... lol! :ohwell:
Hoping to be able to keep the weight off through the menopause as I'm 43 this year so no doubt it's on its way!!0 -
I've been kind of wondering about this myself. Ok like today, I ate 2 slices of pizza because we had it and I cant seem to turn down pizza. But I also stayed under my calorie goal of 2000(I get an extra 200 for nursing a toddler). So whats the difference from how I used to eat to now if im still ok to eat pizza every now and then and still stay within my calories. Is it all about the tyoe of foods you eat?
No it's not all about the foods you eat (well to a certain degree it is).
If you were gaining weight it's because you were eating over your TDEE. 500 calories or even 250 calories over a day all adds up.
You can gain weight eating all healthy foods and you can lose weight eating all junk as well.
You will be a much healthier person though if you eat a proper amount of healthy food that stays at your TDEE or under by a small deficit.0 -
The idea of "getting fat" is difficult for me to wrap my head around because I don't think that I was ever at a normal weight. I was a chubby, sedentary child with a very unhealthy relationship with food. We always had junk food in the house, and it was very much my source of comfort growing up. I had several years as a teenager when I got to experience being thin, but looking back, I'm pretty sure that I had an ED. When I was 16, I started dating the guy who is now my husband, went on birth control a year later, became depressed when the boyfriend went away to college, started working at a grocery store where junk food was at my fingertips, and I started to gain weight. It's hard to say what exactly was to blame. It was probably a combination of all of those things: eating junk food, being more sedentary because of depression, hormonal changes from BC, and the metabolic backlash from my previous habits. I was at my heaviest in college, which is totally understandable given my lifestyle at the time. Candy, pizza, alcohol, chips, and a boyfriend in another state (more depression). After college, I lost some weight just from the lifestyle changes that occurred naturally. About 4 years ago, I lost weight on WW and gained it all back. I feel like I've been working my *kitten* off for the past 3.5 years with very little progress. So...I'm not really at a point yet where I can say "when I was fat," because I'm not really that much lighter now, even though my lifestyle is drastically different. It definitely is frustrating that I was maintaining my weight with a very unhealthy lifestyle, and now that I have a healthy lifestyle, I'm still not losing. I do agree that it's more of a challenge to lose weight when you already have a fairly healthy lifestyle than it is if you need to make drastic changes. Those of us in this category are always making minor tweaks to diet and exercise, hoping to stumble upon the magic formula that will finally make us successful. I will admit that I am often jealous of those people who say, "I lost 20 lbs by giving up my daily fast food run and walking for 20 minutes a day." I fully recognize that we all have different stories, but I just get tired of working so hard sometimes.
I am about 3 weeks into EMWL. I am being patient, and trying to focus solely on my behaviors, rather than getting caught up in the results. I trust that results will come with consistent positive behavior. But...I am really hoping that this is what works for me.0 -
I was always pretty athletic, and roughly at the same healthy weight from the time I was 16 (when I reached my current height) until I graduated college. I have always had a healthy appetite, but I used to walk everywhere, I played intramural sports, and it was easy to fit in regular workouts.
Then I moved to a different city, where I have to drive everywhere because I don't live in the safest of neighborhoods. I still went to the gym 3 times a week, but I was on zombie mode and just kept the intensity and the time the same every time I went. Couple that with a cookie here and there, the emotional eating because of the stress of grad school, and I packed 65 lbs in 4 years. It was actually pretty gradual- about 10-20 gained a year, so it was easy to pretend that I had just packed on a few holiday pounds, until I had to buy jeans that were 8 sizes larger than my college size.
I love statistics, so I actually did the math. If I combine the calories burned by 30-60 minutes of walking that I used to do every day with my post-college starbucks latte habit, I can explain my weight gain.0 -
It was pretty simple for me, I was just stuck in a "YES" Diet for too long.
- Would you like a cupcake? YES. Two? YES.
- Do you want to drink some beer tonight? YES.
- How about a 3500 calorie meal tonight at a restaurant? YES please.
- Would you like a non-diet Mountain Dew? YES.
- Do you want to eat several spoonfuls of brownie batter before even thinking about baking them? oh YES, YES YES!
You get the idea. Once I learned that I can actually survive while saying NO more often than YES, than the pounds started coming off again. It really wasn't as drastic as I imagined it was going to be, and now it's on to maintainance mode.0
