For those of you who were once thin and then gained weight
Can you pinpoint any one thing that made you pack on the pounds? Maybe there were many factors? I ask because if we can isolate the thing(s) that made us gain weight to begin with, maybe we can avoid the same traps in the future. I know that pregnancies and emotional trauma/stress caused me to overeat and become unhealthy. Although my pregnant days are done, I do worry that if the emotional rug ever slips out from under me again, I will turn to food for comfort. I also somewhat enjoyed the invisibility factor/security blanket/anonymity that being overweight gave me. It was almost like wearing a costume so that my true identity remained hidden. Now that I know the dire consequences of giving in to emotional eating, hopefully I will avoid falling into that trap once more.
Lifestyle changes such as getting married, moving, etc.Now that I am at goal I will certainly watch out for similar changes in my life so I can plan accordingly.
I just had this conversation with a lady at the gym...I swear I don't remember gaining 88 pounds...O' I know I did all by myself...I was tired...I was lazy ..I love love love bad greasy food...I had kids.
I graduated HS in '92 at a curvy 132...and I thought I was fat!! omg!!
Then by time I got married in '95 I was 150...18 pounds in 3 years...freshman 15?... I guess plus some.
between June 95 to July 97...I was pregnant....2 sons in less than 2 years..I left the hospital with our youngest son in July '97...weighing in at 178 pounds.
and for the last 14 years...minus my current journey ..my lowest weight has been 170 in June of 2004 and my highest of 220 in January 2011.
I have been losing weight steady now for over a year...and as of this morning I weighed in at 164 this morning...the smallest I have been in 14 years!!
I truly believe I will make it this time..something feels different...I feel strong....I feel supported....I feel like I have time!! Maybe its having teenagers and having more time for me....but I do know I will never ever go back.
It was life changing things for me, too. I gained 10-15 pounds during college. I gained a little weight when I got married, maybe another 10 lbs there. Most was with pregnancies, though. I turned 25 right after my oldest was born and lost a good part of the weight right away...within 6 or 8 weeks. But, it was pretty quickly after that when I got pregnant the second time and I really never lost any of that weight at all. I went through a lot of thyroid and hormone issues and I actually weighed more a year after my second was born than I did at nine months pregnant with her! I think I lost a little bit of weight after my third was born. But, it wasn't enough to make much difference and I ended up gaining it back anyway.
Okay, I was never thin, but in 2001, I weighed 192 pounds. By 2007-2008, I was at damn near my high weight. That's only six years.
Some of it was college--I no longer had someone strictly controlling what I could eat on a daily basis, and, having been on a diet of some sort since I was about 5-ish, I went a little hog wild. Some of it was having a boyfriend-and-then-husband who was both a jerk and who himself was quite overweight and made horrible food choices. The only way I could get his undivided attention was going out to eat with him.
I'm sure my odd brain chemistry (read: mental illness) had something to do with it, too. So did being on Seroquel and Effexor, though that was really just the last bit.
I gained about 30 pounds my freshman year. Probably a similar amount the next year. It all adds up. I once had a really wise, really smart friend tell me that my addiction to food wasn't any different than someone else's addiction to alcohol. We all have our crutches; I just had to carry around the proof of mine every day.
I could not gain weight in college though I tried. I was playing basketball at least 4-5 times a week and that was during the off season. Graduated about at about 220 lbs.
Continued playing basketball 2-3 times a week after college but bad eating habits took me up to about 230.
When my wife had our second child I no longer had time for basketball and kept my bad eating habits which over the course of 5 years put me to about 250.
Went into sales management where I sat behind a desk all day instead of being up and about. Add in drinking almost every day and I put on about 15 lbs a year until I hit 300.
For me it was a business trip to Vancouver, where I had free rein with expenses. Vancouver is full of great crepe places and Asian restaurants (two of my favourites), so I overindulged steadily for 5 days. Upon my return I remained in self-indulgence mode and the weight piled on.
Since losing 50 pounds last year I've gone on several similar business trips and managed not to gain weight by planning ahead.
Access to gourmet/exotic food is probably my biggest trigger.
I can't say I was ever thin, basically the weight I am now in my teens and twenties. Then took a job where I was required to eat away from home (hotel breakfast, fast food lunch, restaurant dinners) and gained 100 lbs in less than 18 months. Maintained that weight for the next 20 years even after I quit that job.
I lost 53 pounds in 2009 and then I went through some major life changes. I gained it all back and am trying to lose it again (and more). I try not to beat myself up over it, but I think the real answer to your question from my perspective is the weight comes back the moment you take your foot off of the gas. The change you are making really does have to be a life style change and you can't go back to your old ways. On an intellectual level, I knew this, but I hadn't really lived it.
Lost a lot of weight about 10 years ago from running. Now I have health problems combined with mostly working from home has made me not move as much and put on weight. I have been avoiding the doctor because I am back up again.
I relate with what others have said...
When I am not vigilant, I gain weight. Also my brother relocated to where I live and we eat out a lot for entertainment.
I started antidepressants at about 90lbs and quickly went up to 135lbs. Later I went on anti psychotics and went from 135lbs to 161lbs within two months. So yes, I can think of one thing that helped me (I am responsible of course) pack on pounds.
Eating for entertainment was another thing but we don't do that anymore. I put a stop to it. With my dietary issues it's just about impossible anyway. I need to eat at home where I control everything and know what in my food.
Last edited by LandonsBaby; 04-22-2012 at 10:33 PM.
I got a little chunky in high school and hated it so all through college I was overly diligent about my food and exercise. I had lost instead of gained the freshman 15 and pretty much stayed at that weight until I was pregnant with my first child at age 23. During that pregnancy I gained 36 pounds by stopping at McDonalds every chance I had basically and never really lost that weight other than the 10 or so I lost in the hospital from having him. My weight just slowly and steadily continued to climb as I had 2 more babies in the next 3 years and continued the bad eating habits. Then when the kids were 3, 5, and 7 my husband was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. I did lose a bit during the next 2 years mainly due to stress. But once he passed away I ate my way through my grief to my highest weight. I just felt too tired, lazy, unmotivated to exercise or feed myself properly.
I think time to heal from that and also like jajomo I think my kids being teenagers gave me more time to be able to focus on myself and finally see it was time for me to live again.
I gained 25 in the past 9 months in response to a failed relationship. It wasn't even a seriously relationship; I just really wanted things to work out with the guy. I get so weak when I'm heartbroken. I have a friend who will work harder at all aspects (school, diet, work) in response to rejection or heartbreak just to get a sense of revenge. That's a trait I'd kill for! Anyways, I've overcome the heartbreak, but my eating habits have stuck with me. After being introduced to the joys of eating large and fattening meals, it's just SO hard to go back.
for me, I think it was depression and lonliness that caused the weight gain,. I just turned to food for comfort and somehow managed to gain 40 lbs very quickly in a measure of 1 1/2 year. I never saw it coming even though I ate the worst foods, I never drank water, always had 2-3 of coke a day, had fast food at least 4 days a week, sometimes 2 times in 1 day, ate the heaviest calorie and sugar foods for breakast, donughts, and pastries, had deserts every night. And I guess just stopped caring. But all of this gave me comfort and satisfaction while eating. But I had on blinders that I gained the weight I did, until I was horrified when I saw how large I was at my sister's graduation. I had always been 125-130 then shot up to 170, now thankfully after cutting all of those bad food eating habbits and eating only healthy foods I'm back to weighing 125-130, I hope to never go back to the state that I was in before.
Never really was thin, unless you count childhood. Started gaining pretty bad when I hit puberty, and was somewhere between 250-275 throughout high school, where I've stayed a good chunk of my life.
Started to gain more with my first boyfriend (I was a late bloomer, in my early 20's). He was overweight too and we went out to eat a lot. When he got a job in another state, I moved in with him, where things between us went all to h3ll. It was a combination of many things; eating a lot of fast food and processed goodies from the store, eating as an escape, eating because I was severely depressed, having out of control arguments when I actually tried to eat healthier (I defintely knew how to eat healthier as I'd lost weight before, but he'd lash out at me if I didn't indulge with him). Talk about gaining weight fast, I put on 100 pounds in about a year, on top of already being 100 pounds too heavy! I think part of the reason he'd throw tantrums was that he didn't have to feel guilty about what he was eating if I had the same thing with him, and of course there's the old standby that he was afraid I'd get confident enough to leave him if I was more attractive. And of course at the same time he'd attack me for gaining weight. H3ll, when I lost the first 40 pounds and started dressing nicely and wearing makeup again, he attacked me for "letting myself go" and tried to convince me that I was too fat and ugly for him to be attracted to me anymore. Ugh.
Anyway, the point was that I was in an emotionally (and sometimes physically) abusive relationship, was constantly arguing, was extremely stressed, knew my father was dying, and I was eating nothing but crap and apparently a lot of it. That part of my life is mostly just a huge blur now, and I was admittedly drunk throughout a portion of it. I'm in a much better place now, no longer drink or smoke, have lost that 100 pounds I'd gained while with him (but still need to lose that other 100!), and hope my life will never get so messed up again that it will return to that blind, out of control blur.
Last edited by Elladorine; 04-23-2012 at 01:34 AM.
For those of you who were once thin and then gained weight
I think part of the reason he'd throw tantrums was that he didn't have to feel guilty about what he was eating if I had the same thing with him, and of course there's the old standby that he was afraid I'd get confident enough to leave him if I was more attractive. And of course at the same time he'd attack me for gaining weight. H3ll, when I lost the first 40 pounds and started dressing nicely and wearing makeup again, he attacked me for "letting myself go" and tried to convince me that I was too fat and ugly for him to be attracted to me anymore. Ugh.
