What caused your weight gain?

Mine all started as a kid.. I've been heavy all my life. But I lost some and got to a healthy weight when I was 15-16. However that all changed when I met my current boyfriend 4 years ago. I put on 50+ pounds and didn't even realize it. I was just so happy with my boyfriend and our relationship that I didn't care about how I looked and ate how I wanted. It didn't help that my scale broke either. Then I realized that I was really really big in our pictures and bought a scale.. I pretty much broke down when I saw how much I gained. And then I ate some more from the depression from that. It really is a viscious cycle. But anyway, after 2 years of "pitty me" crap I woke up and did something about it and I've lost almost 50 pounds since, (just got under 200 today! 199.8:bigsmile:.) So mine was partly the result of being in love, the rest out of pure laziness.

Starting to DRINK way too young...well, at all.
Living off Banquet meals and fast food.
Portion control.
A controlling ex-bf who wouldn't let me go to the gym.
Never having an interest in working out until late highschool/college.

My husband got a new job in a new city (I'd lived in the same city 27 years) so when we moved, I had no job, no friends, no family, and hated where we moved, so I got depressed. That's where it all started. I'd been 110 lbs all my adult life and could always eat anything I wanted without gaining a pound and never needed to exercise. So, 30 lbs later, I'm really trying to lose it!

I gained 50 lbs when I got pregnant. I lost about 25 after having him. Before pregnancy I could eat whatever I wanted & not worry, since I was technically underweight. That wasn't the case after pregnancy. I can't eat whatever I want & not gain a pound anymore. I think my metabolism has slowed down. I gained back the 25 pounds I had lost after pregnancy. That happened over a 2 year span. I topped out at 150 and thought how did i get here?? The answer is not hard...I LOVE FOOD. All those snacks sure do add up. It didn't help that I didnt have a scale in the house for about a year. I had no idea I had gained THAT MUCH. Now I realize i can't eat the same way I did when I was a teenager. I never thought I would be overweight. I was thin my whole life before age 20. I want my body back so I am dieting and exercising and hoping it will come back to me!!!

Nothing cause my weight gain but someone caused my weight gain and that someone was me. For me I never had a issue being the big girl (when I was single no lack of dates) after I got married I guess if the Hubby didnt complain then it was OK. If it got to tight I would buy a bigger size. Ect Ect. I really did not think I ate badly (I guess that chipsahoy does not make a good breakfast) So my weight was caused by my own ignorance. And my new healthy body is caused by being awhere. I have been using this saying for many years "Many people say that ignorance is bliss, but now that I am learning I see all that I have missed" and it is really true. I will never be ignorant about my own body again :glasses:

5 years ago, I was not the same person I am today. I partied more than a normal or sane person should. When I woke up out of my haze-- I had a lot of work to do mentally and physically.

I'm pretty similar to Blondie. I've been overweight my whole life. I started getting it under control when I was about 14, but around that time I really started struggling with anxiety/depression issues and I started gaining. I was probably about 160 then which was up to about 200 by the time I graduated high school. Then I went to college and gained 30 more. I decided to take control after my sophomore year and lost 40 pounds but pretty much gained it all back within a year and a half because I hadn't really lost weight the right way. I thought I was eating right, but I wasn't at all, and I had started walking about 5 miles 5 times a week, but I stopped doing that so the weight just piled back on immediately. During the time I was gaining that 40 pounds back, I started dating my boyfriend. I really let myself go because I was comfortable with our relationship and we started eating a lot of rich foods and for some reason I thought I should be able to eat as much as he did. Suffice it to say, 3.5 years later, I had gained 40 more pounds on top of gaining back the 40 I had lost. I literally woke up on September 8th, 2009 and thought "WTF am I doing? I'm killing myself..." I found MFP that day and I've been feeling great since.

So, yeah, awful awful viscious cycles, emotional eating along with anxiety/depression, being happy with a relationship, and never learning healthy habits to begin with = me at 270 pounds.

I have kept an eye on my weight ever since college -- I had seen the family pictures. My relatives all started out skinny, then came their 30's -- and *poof* they show up as 250+ pounds. :huh: I was determined not to go there! :grumble:
Then I started perimenapause and my metabolism slowed down, but my eating did not.. Then I was put on a couple of medications to try to prevent my migrains -- one of which cause a 15 pound gain in two months. That was a lot for me. Then there was the portion creep issue. Who knew a single serving bag was not a single portion? :noway: And I too am an emotional eater, so as business got tougher and more stressful -- I turned to food. :frown:

Last winter was the last straw. I have been joking that I should have known that something was up! I was warm in January for the first time in my life!:laugh: I wasn't really warm -- my blood pressure was out of control. Hello -- it was time to face reality. I weighed more than when I was 9 months pregnant; and the clothing I was in was too tight -- again...:grumble:

Thanks to my friend that shared MFP with me!!! :happy: :flowerforyou:

Wow, where do I start? I was very athletic as a child (figure skating, ballet, etc.) and was quite muscular. I am originally from Memphis, and back then down there, home cookin' was the only thing we ate. Full fat, calories, sweets, you name it. I was 85 lbs at 8 years old and not even 4' tall by then. (I'm only 4'11 now and I'm 30yo). I spent my tweens, teens and early 20's with eating disorders and binging on food. I became incredibly fit in college (16yo-21yo). I was on the ice hockey team, swim team, and went through the Firefighting Academy. During that time, I could eat ANYTHING I wanted and not gain a pound. I was constantly working out.

Then life happened.

I became engaged at 21 to a *kitten* of a supposed "man". He constantly told me I was fat. I was 100lbs. I have pictures of me at my 21st birthday where my arms are as big around as my ankles, my veins were popping out, and I had bones poking through my skin. My hair was falling out and thin, my skin was ghostly, and my eyes just had no life to them.

Then, came the alcohol. A LOT of alcohol. No food, just alcohol. This went on for 6 years. I lost all of my friends, a few jobs, a beautiful place to live by the beach (which was great for my new found love of the ocean and surfing) with a WONDERFUL boyfriend, and almost my life.

I settled down, quit the alcohol, and met my fiance. I was 165lbs then within a year have gone up to 185lbs. I was comfortable. We both LOVE food and to eat. I was comfortable with my weight. If it was too small, I'd buy a bigger size or just wear baggier clothing to cover up the bulges. I also blamed most of my weight gain of the medicines I have to take for rheumatoid arthritis and the fact that I couldn't do a lot of cardio exercise because it was too hard on my joints.

Then, the bells, buzzers, and the gong of the scale went off. I found MFP 8 days ago and have lost 3lbs. I have finally realized the cause of the problem is myself. All of the snaking, the super-sized portions, and the denial finally caught up with me. I realized that yes, I have gone through some serious emotional hell, but the only person that can help me is me!

I have discovered, just in 8 days, that this battle can be won. I CAN exercise and eat right. I HAVE the energy to do the things I want to do (with rest breaks for my joints as needed).

Sorry for the long post, but seeing things in retrospect is good.

When I was in my senior year of highschool I got out around lunch time and my mom would always pick me up and we'd go out to eat. This turned into an almost everyday thing.
Lots of drinking. Lots.
Fast food, ramen noodles, pizza, mac and cheese. HUGE portions.
Then I got pregnant.


=D

I've always been curvy, but I was always small. I started college as a size 4 and without the 2 hours of exercise/day that high school provided, I gained weight, but it wasn't very much, very fast. The last year in college was so miserable for my roommate and I, we started drinking a bottle (or 2) of wine almost every day. We drank when we were bored, anxious, getting ready to go out, or at home for more than 20 minutes at a time. Top that with eating very calorie heavy food all day, and I started putting on the lbs pretty consistently.

When I left college, I saw the weight gain, but I kept tricking myself into thinking that you couldn't notice the few extra pounds. No exercise, a serious wine habit, and homecooked meals again (thanks, mom) didn't help matters. Eventually the weight gain started making me miserable. I stopped wanting to shop or buy new clothes, go out with my girlfriends, and my self esteem plummeted. Every time I got around my friends, I couldn't do anything but focus on how skinny they were and how I felt like "that" girl when we were together.

After a few good breakdowns this year, I woke up one morning with the clarity that losing weight would be the first step to taking my life back, both physically and mentally. Good thing I'm a Taurus - determination and stubbornness have kept me on track! A couple of google searches and several hundred dollars in equipment later, I found MFP. I just made 5 weeks on Tuesday, and I believe that in the morning I will make my first big goal of getting my weight back into the 150s. :bigsmile:

I credit the fabulous people on MFP for helping me out. No one around me understands my struggle, but reading everyone's posts make me feel so much less lonely than I would. This is a *great* post BTW. I like reading about everyone's stories.

I have been big all my life, since childhood ... my parents used to tell me to exercise, but I guess I just didn't care about it. I ate watever I wanted, whenever I wanted .... I was a big dessert person ... cheesecakes, ice creams, chocolates, you name it!

In my teens, nothing changed, just eating away happily :P

When I went to Uni, I had lost some because of all the walking and lack of choices in food (in house cafetaria only has so many options).

Then I got married, pregnant, and wham, gained 90lbs!

So, let's see ... to answer this question - no portion control, eating anything I wanted, and no exercises pretty much caused the weight gain.

Always was the chubby child. Lost about 50 pounds in high school only because I had to walk to and from school with a backpack. Kept the 50 off in college. Met now husband, became very comfortable and gained 80 pounds. (he never once said I wasn't beautiful, and I thank him for that) Tried many different times to diet, only to fail.. Finally got serious and 83 pounds later wouldn't have it any other way! I can run up stairs, I can walk to places without being out of breath, its great! Of course it helps to have a husband who is 110% supportive, all the way down to telling me I dont need candy, even if i really want it.

I had anorexia as young as 5 and turned to bulimia in my later teens. When I started gaining weight I don't think I was eating that poorly and I certainly wasn't lacking exercise, but I was going through some serious stress. First I lost my job, then got scammed of the last of my savings by a bankruptcy attorney, then I lost my car, then I saved my unemployment money and tip money from delivering pizzas for my house payment and chistmas presents and someone broke into my house and took everything I had, that same day I found out my boyfriend had started seeing his ex behind my back, then I lost my best friend after she joined some cult/church and had a mental breakdown, then I lost my home to forclosure and wound up living in an 8x10 room with my daughter at my parents house...by then I had gained 50 pounds and started the closest thing to a full-time job I could find and it was the job from He!! and gained another 30 pounds. All this happened while I was eating well and exercising daily, but I do admit that having no money changes the quality of the food. I got alot of food from food banks, and it was far from nutritious.

:sad: All the "starving kids in China" my mother told me about growing up:laugh:
Burger Chef, McDonalds, the Mighty Mo, the Big Boy & Burger KIng when I became a teenager:laugh: got me addicted to fast food:grumble:
:sad: Keggers in college:drinker:
34+ years of happily married life eating my wife's awesome cookies, pies, and cakes
:grumble: Over 40 years of "desk jockey" jobs in IT :ohwell:
:frown: Too little time to ski
:flowerforyou: Being a good husband with sympathy weight gain when she was pregnant with our 2 kids:flowerforyou:

I could go on forever, but the biggest reason is the inability to say "no" to food!