Why did you gain weight?

I was in a mentally abusive relationship and I bartended so all we did in our free time was get wasted. Depression and alcohol were a horrible mix. I went from around 160 to 255 in a year. I didn't eat too horrifically different but when I did eat it was tons and I drank ALL MY CALORIES just to make myself feel better.

Totally consumed with work, children, husband, and house. Lack of knowledge in the way food effects our bodies (balancing carbs, fat, and protein) and no excercise. All this adds up to bad health.

Myfitnesspal should get a nobel peace prize in their contribution to fight obesity. This website is designed is so well if you use it everyday faithfully, you are guarenteed to understand food and the importance of everyday excercise and lose weight. I will be using it for maintence as long as I can. You also get great support from other members.

I've always been a little on the chubby side -- but I still felt attractive, and being a little soft (still within military standards) was a perfectly acceptable trade off for me to be able to eat anything I wanted and not have to work out much (just the mandatory running a few times a week for PT). The last 25 lbs are courtesy of PTSD (which i'm still working on figuring out, but I've got some help now) -- I can't even blame pregnancy, as I was overweight before I got pregnant, and left the hospital 10 lbs heavier than I was when I got pregnant.
Calories in - calories out is truth, but if we don't figure out WHY we have such an imbalance between the two, it's pretty hard to overcome.

Ive been overweight since i was young.. but strangely i was extremely thin from birth to around 6-7. my parents would be extremely worried about my weight and (being in an asian family what im about to say is kinda normal!) my dad burnt my fingertips with a lighter and told me to EAT! and as far as I can remember that was it, in all my pictures from that point im a tubby kid! i dont ever remember over eating or any of that, but i do remember bits and bobs from the age of around 13+ where i used to get teasted at school, but i would always be eating crap!

I honestly dont know if this is the reason i went from skinny to fat.. but its the only thing i can probably pin it down to!

Um - well I guess in my mind I was ALWAYS like this. Fat, I mean. Even when I was 7 I remember believing myself to be fat. And I was fatter than some kids my age, but skinnier than many. I danced and did gymnastics, was strong and could walk miles. Come cross-country though I was ALWAYS at the end, never a good runner, and I guess I kinda decided at that point that I was no good at sports. No one ever managed to convince me otherwise and so I guess what I believed became a reality, although looking at photos, it seems it was much later that I actually became overweight... I think it must have been about year 10 - when I was 14.

Since then I've been overweight, obese or morbidly obese at various stages, but mostly the larger end of that scale. Never a healthy weight.

What all of that means now is that this journey has a mystery destination! I have no idea what my ideal weight is. No idea what I look like as a fit person. All of this is waiting for me at the other end of my journey to GAIN health. Once I'm there, of course, the journey to MAINTAIN health begins in earnest, and I will have to learn to keep what I have truly earned.

I broke both arms in a rollerblading accident 12 years ago....one was so bad that I had to have 7 pins placed in there with 4 screws and marrow from my hip to glue it all together. The other arms elbow was broken...which I did not have fixed. (the thought of no arms to use was just too much!). The pain meds they prescribed were not working on me....but they didn't know that at the time! All I did was cry...the pain was unbearable, so they put me on Prozac....and I gained 40 lbs, which I have yet to lose....but I dumped the Prozac! As you get older you realize that "if you have your health, it's worth more than gold". Time to get "rich"!

I had 2 kids....never really was overweight before them.

Paxil & Fast Food!

Ugh, so many reasons. Top 5 tho would be....

1) I am an emotional eater, and I think I was on the cusp of being a binge/closet/hidden eater too. I know I have had times where I found myself binging on McDonald's in my car in the parking lot where no one I know can see me as I work my way through the 2 large fries, large shake, 20 piece nuggets, and 2 small burgers as I read my book. This didn't happen often tho, just maybe 2 times a month or so, so not sure if I qualified as a binger or not.

2)I have always had a rather low self esteem <thru years of teasing from classmates etc calling me Land Whale or Blubberella, or Shaiasaurus>, and it really killed me. Looking back I was never really fat as a child, just slightly overweight and out of shape but it affected me majorly. It sort of sent me into a never-ending spiral where I didn't care about how I looked or cared what I ate etc when I was an adult. Sad thing is I still hear echoes sometimes, but they are less than they were. I think its cos I am with someone who loves me for me and not what I look like.

3) I have always been overweight slightly, <140ish at 18> , but I ballooned up when I was on Depo for a year. I never realized how much I put on until I went for my 4th shot and they said "You have gained 60 pounds." I didn't get the shot. I knew there was a chance of weight gain but I never actually noticed it on me if that makes sense? I was in kind of a denial.

4) Food is my comfort. I love to cook and bake. I have a terrible sweet tooth. Soda and sweets and breads are my downfall. Nuff said there.

5) I am lazy. I HATE exercise. Seriously. I do not like to sweat etc. I am happiest on the couch with a good book and my cat with my music playing or a TV show on in the background. OR on the computer playing a video game for hours.

So there we go...my top 5 reasons.

I was studying for the GRE over the holiday season -- BAD combination!

food is friggin tasty
i'm lazy

Well 3 kids a husband and a job...didnt make working out or eating right a priorioty...and my kids got into sports and running them around 50 differant places ate out way too much!

I had been very fit - kickboxing, played football (soccer) and mountain biking a few years ago, did amateur MTB competitions and adventure racing. Then I injured my knee and stopped doing anything. That started the weight gain.

Next, a couple of courses of steroids for a health problem - that put on a few lbs.
Next 6 months of hell with a Mirena IUD which made me retain water like nobody's business
I drank too much alcohol because of stress in my life, then became very ill with stomach problems and found out I had coeliac disease and that explained why I was gaining weight and couldn't lose any - although I was overweight I was malnourished and had anemia (why I was tired all the time) and low B12.

Now I'm on my way back to not just losing the weight but being fitter, stronger and much healthier.

I was studying for the GRE over the holiday season -- BAD combination!

:laugh: I love holiday food! Stress or no stress... Just be careful when you plan to do your thesis or dissertation!!

it started after i tore my acl 10 years ago. it was gradual though because i've always gone the gym. i would tell myself i'm fine i work out but really looking back i was doing the same thing over and over and over again. i'd read my book while i was on the eliptical i'd do some sit ups and a few weights but that was it. i ate as if i was burning 1000 calories at the gym but wasn't so i packed on the pounds. 4 years ago we moved from massachusetts to virginia and that's when i decided it was time for me to stop slacking and do something about my weight. i did loose 20 or so pounds but feel like i need the help to get the rest off so here i am.