Why did you gain weight?

To tell you the truth, I've always been big. I don't think genetics played a huge role as much as the food that surrounded me. My mom always cooked homemade food, once in a while took us to fast food places or hamburger helper dinners, etc. But even the homemade foods were big comfort foods.. being from the south, that's what you ate. Tried so many diets from the time I was in middle school to before I came here. But this is what works for me. The classic diet and exercise

Okay, so here is my story. I have always been a big girl. I weighed about 175 in high school, I was very active and was involved in all kinds of sports. I thought I was fat, I was happy with myself, but I still saw myself as fat. In High school I got in a car accident, me and my boyfriend at the time. The accident was on October 15th, 2006. I had major injuries and I died twice. I was in the hospital all the way through December 22nd, 2006. It took some time for me to get used to living my life again. I lost some weight while in the hospital. But being back home got me very depressed, life was not the same. I graduated high school through online classes and my friends had there own lives forming so very rarely did I see them. I was at home not working, not schooling, nothing except thinking about how my life could be. A few more doctors visits went by and I was told that I can now walk without causing any damage to my fractured pelvis. As soon as I could I started working. I didn't have a car so I took the bus and walked everywhere. I lost a lot of weight that way (still not where I was before the accident). When I finally saved up money to get a car I started driving everywhere and I got a very stressful job. The more money I had, the more food I bought. I was on the go all the time so it was usually fast foods. I gained over twenty pounds on top of the weight I gained while being at home. I had been struggling ever since to get rid of the weight. I found MFP and I started at 224 pounds, I am now at 211 and still going. my ultimate goal is 145-160. But my first goal is to be around 185-190 by August 3rd. This day is so specific because this is the day of my surgery. During that tragic incident in my life I had plenty of abdominal surgeries that left my stomach full of ugly scars. I recently decided to fix that with surgery in order to help my confidence. If I could just get that fixed, I think I could reach my weight loss goals much faster. Maybe I can keep it up until I weigh 120 or 130 I've had so much inspiration from people on MFP, I know I can do it too!

Tunnel vision. Feeling stagnant. Feeling lonely. Not dealing with my energy and emotions properly is what ultimately lead to my rollercoaster relationship with food. ITS FUEL NOT COMFORT!!! <

---

what I needed to tell myself earlier....

Low self-esteem, college cafeteria food, too much partying, depression, pregnancy, more depression. Eating was my coping mechanism for stressful situations, drinking too much, and generally feeling awful about myself.

For me it started as a teenager. I was suicidally depressed and food was my comfort. The whole bad childhood thing applies to me, abusive parents(mostly emotional, some physical, but never sexual), bullied at school (k-12), pegged the black sheep/rebel by my extended family (mostly because I dyed my hair crazy colors all the time, smoked, and got arrested for stealing) I was always slightly heavier scale wise than others in my grade, but never fat until high school hit. I was a size 6 my freshman year, that escalated to a size 20 Junior year, and a 18 dress for senior prom.
I met my husband end of Junior year at my heaviest weight, and he said I was beautiful then, and treated me like a human, and showed me politeness, respect, was kind and caring towards me. Which was all new, because I didn't receive that from anyone else, not even my family. I got out of my depression, slowly gained self esteem up. Stopped smoking, and started losing weight. I got down to a size 16 wedding dress (married him at 19) ever since I've just fluctuated because 16-20.
Now after my dad almost died a heart attack, and I'm hearing more and more about all the health problems that run in my family, I don't want to be the next one in line. That is my motivation now, I'm down to a size 12/14 (depending on the brand) and not stopping anytime soon!

I did a lot of sports in HS and college and could eat whatever I wanted. Then I stopped sports but continued to eat whatever I wanted. Over the years, it really started to add up.

Pregnancies! The last two killed me!!

I gained all my excess body fat by eating junk food as much as I wanted (pretty much every meal) and hardly ever exercising. The times that I have exercised and scaled back the processed food, I gained muscle, but I couldn't maintain it. I think the stress and drama of my early college career somewhat aided the weight gain, but it was really laziness and not knowing any better.

My weight gain happened during my freshman year of college. New city, new habits, and absolutely no self-control took its toll on my body.

number one i got married n got a car instead of walking everywhere. then got back down n weight then number 2 hit. i got pregnant and had preeclampsia with my son. water weight bam n it stayed with me. lost the weight a yr after he was born n bam pregnant again...then at that point i just didnt care anymore.