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Old 04-14-2013, 06:54 PM   #16  
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Originally Posted by kaplods View Post
To this day, I wonder if my life would have been very different without the early dieting. Today pediatritians usually recommend that overweight children be allowed to "grow into" a healthy weight, focusing on weight maintenance rather than weight loss. I think that would have been more successful, because I find it more so now.
This is one of the reasons I was curious about this question. I've been reading a few studies that show dieting/food restriction in childhood causes higher weight in adulthood.
http://www.health.umn.edu/media/rele...o-weight-gain/

I don't have any children yet, but I certainly don't want them to have the weight issues that I have had to experience. I also don't want them to have an unhealthy relationship with food.
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Old 04-14-2013, 07:03 PM   #17  
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i distinctly remember feeling 'fat" as a young child, probably under age 8, and thinking to myself that i couldnt wait to grow boobs so my tummy wouldnt look so fat lol....i look back at pictures and i was NOT very fat either...i remember doing exercises from a book that my mom had, probably around age 10...

my first real attempt to diet was in high school, where i skipped lunch and instead gave my lunch to a boy in my school who was extremely poor and never had any food with him....i would eat a chicken patty for breakfast and then nothing else all day until i got home from school....i never had a scale so i have no idea if that idea ever worked LOL ...i remember being RAVENOUS every day by the time i got home from school...and again, i wasn't even THAT fat to start with

i never really dieted after that until i was about 25 and preparing to move away from where i had been living/working and follow now-DH to a new city...i started walking at night and then, as i cleaned out my house, having hardly any food left and deciding not to buy any more because 1) i needed to lose weight and 2) i was moving anyhow...i remembering eating coffee for breakfast, a big dill pickle for lunch, and mac n cheese for dinner...i have no idea if i lost weight or not

then we moved and i didn't diet for awhile with any real motivation...i had attempts at "watching what i ate" and i even tried jogging at night but the fear of bears made me too jumpy and i quit....i went to a gym briefly and that helped me get down to 198, my lowest EVER at that time....then my gym membership ended and i wasnt really trying anymore

then about 2 years ago i really started making a whole "lifestyle change" to help my blood sugar and i really lost weight and started to make a difference...then i joined a gym again and right now i'm sitting around 180 which is the lowest EVER in my adult life right now...and i still have a ways to go
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Old 04-14-2013, 07:04 PM   #18  
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I was in 5th grade the first time I remember trying to lose weight, so 10 years old. It was on my own, nothing to do with my parents. I believe it was brought on by some classmates telling me I should diet. I was chubby, but nowhere near the largest in my grade. I'm sad for that little girl looking back! I don't think I was ever self conscious about my body until people started pointing out that I should be. Life long battle ever since. Man, that sucks. I kinda hate thinking about that. I think that's where my binge eating started. Over-restricting followed by bingeing. Man!

These days, I only look at eating in a deficit as a "diet". Everything else involved is just the way I live now.
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Old 04-14-2013, 07:30 PM   #19  
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My first diet was Weight Watchers, as an adult in my early twenties, after I gained weight from living on my own. I was super unhappy and WW came to work one day and everyone was signing up for it (except the thin women!) so I decided to join to see if it would work for me.

It was the start of the Points system back then -- with little booklets and everything.

Anyway, it didn't work because I would eat crappy food, run out of points, and then I would proceed to eat more anyway. Not to mention that I had no way of calculating home made food, which is what I generally have always preferred. It was super convenient because WW would come into the office to have the meetings, but I just never got into it. I don't think I lost any weight at all. And it didn't educate me about food, so I couldn't break out of my habits.
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Old 04-14-2013, 08:22 PM   #20  
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Growing up, I was not fat, but my mom & dad were. My Mom has been on some half-crazed fad diet most of my life. She is still fat. While she did do Weight Watchers (with my Dad who went to the meeting & said that he had lost over 1000 pounds in his life. He knew HOW to lose weight, he did not know how to keep it off and was hoping they could teach him that) and Atkins, she did not do them for long. I started doing fad diets with her in middle school. In sixth grade, I ate only celery all during Spring Break. I came back 10 pounds thinner.

My first *diet* on my own was anorexia. (I come from a religious family & *fasting* was an approved religious activity so they let me be for the most part) I just did not eat. 23 days without food is my own personal *best*. Break down & eat something? Start over immediately on total starvation. I was not fat going in to this, I was afraid of *becoming fat*. I was afraid of becoming my mother.

I realized sometime after high school that this obsession with my weight was nuts. I fell in love, I threw my scale away and literally gained well over a hundred pounds in the next 4 years. I was happy and in love and never really noticed that I was fat until I was pregnant & at my first prenatal appointment the scale read 265!

First grown up diet? Slim fast. I lost 5 pounds a week on slim fast (walking 6 miles a day- 2 slim fast shakes & one diet meal a day). I lost a hundred pounds this way. Got pregnant and got fat. Went back on slim fast/starvation (300 calories a day) and lost another 100 pounds. Rinse, repeat.

I also had a vegetarian diet that got me an intervention from my family & friends. It really was unhealthy but I did not know any better. I just ate vegetables. I lost weight crazy fast and I bruised so bad that my first husband would not let me leave the house without pants and long sleeves. He insisted that if anyone saw my body that he was going to prison because they would never believe he was not beating me (he wasn't). I saw my doctor & he said that I was not getting enough protein & said that a vegetarian diet is very healthy but that I needed 45-60 grams of protein a day. I am still careful of eating enough protein because of this.

I find it soooo easy to diet if I can summon forth some self-hatred. (Sorry but it's true) I don't have any self-hatred any more. I'm freaking awesome. Even though I am bigger, I love my body for the most part. My body is AMAZING. I made and nursed 4 babies with this body. It is a working body, no regrets. I count calories now. I try to stay on track. I am of the "eat, drink & be merry" type.

I have always said if I'm happy, I'm fat. When the world is falling apart, I get skinny. I LOVE to diet when I'm unhappy. I love the control it brings into a chaotic world.

Sometimes I wish I could channel some of that self-hatred I used to have to make this easier, but I just don't have it in me at all anymore. I just do the best I can & go forward. I am losing weight but much slower than I like. It is so slow that it seems to have stopped at times, but I just keep pushing forward.
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Old 04-14-2013, 11:25 PM   #21  
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Originally Posted by IAmTheGlue View Post
[snip]
I find it soooo easy to diet if I can summon forth some self-hatred. (Sorry but it's true) I don't have any self-hatred any more. I'm freaking awesome. Even though I am bigger, I love my body for the most part. My body is AMAZING. I made and nursed 4 babies with this body. It is a working body, no regrets. I count calories now. I try to stay on track. I am of the "eat, drink & be merry" type.

I have always said if I'm happy, I'm fat. When the world is falling apart, I get skinny. I LOVE to diet when I'm unhappy. I love the control it brings into a chaotic world.

Sometimes I wish I could channel some of that self-hatred I used to have to make this easier, but I just don't have it in me at all anymore. I just do the best I can & go forward. I am losing weight but much slower than I like. It is so slow that it seems to have stopped at times, but I just keep pushing forward.
I can relate to this so much! I am in a very unhappy marriage right now, and recently found out that our finances are in shambles. My first reaction was to go back to work full time, and my second was to diet. I have been at this 50 days and I am still loving dieting. But you put your finger on it - it's the control that it brings to my life that I love so much.
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Old 04-14-2013, 11:46 PM   #22  
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I was about 17 when I went on my first diet. I did Atkins with my mom, which lasted about a week and a half. I lost 5 lbs and gained them all back within a week. I tried again around age 22 and lost about 12 lbs, but simply cutting out the bedside snacking, I don't remember how long it took.
Soon after that I met my fiancé who loves steaks and shows his love and concern by feeding me. He would and still does spoil me with trips to the best steakhouses in town.
In this relationship to date I have been on WW twice losing 20lbs the first time, 42lbs the second time, and gaining it all back. I also tried the Bouari clinic, and lost about 14lbs in 14 days, and gained it all back about 14 days later,lol (btw, that was an expensive failure). I can't realistically blame it all or even half of it on him. But when he is eating good I want to eat good also. So here I am again trying to change my eating habits and lose weight by counting calories, and its working! Hopefully for good this time.
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Old 04-15-2013, 12:22 AM   #23  
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My mom is obese too, so she never put me on a diet, but I wanted to be normal so I did one on my own. My first diet was when I was 10. I went from 200 pounds to 170 in 4 months just by cutting everything I was eating in half (once piece of pizza instead of 2, one small plate for dinner instead of my usual 2, etc...). I had a lot of compliments when I went back to school that year, which is nice when you consider how honest kids that age are. Even though I wasn't 'skinny', I was now "just chubby", and looked a bit more normal.

After going off this diet, I gained 60 pounds in under a year, going from 170 to 230, which is just insane, and I definitely blame some of that weight gain on the diet. Even though I cut everything in half, there were times when I took it too far, and I think doing that to my metabolism was what set me up for the rapid weight gain as my metabolism was probably in the mode of burning less. I remember bawling my eyes out because we were on the way to the swimming pool and stopped for a vanilla ice cream cone. I wanted to eat it, but didn't want to ruin my diet. It melted all over my hands because I refused to eat it, even though I hadn't eaten anything at all that day.

After that, I spent my teen years yo-yo- dieting, losing 10 pounds, then gaining all of that back plus 5-10 pounds, bringing me to my highest weight of 301. This is my first time since that diet when I was 10 actually losing over 10 pounds and keeping it off for more than a month or two.
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Old 04-15-2013, 03:44 AM   #24  
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I started my first diet when I was 14, right before starting my freshman year of high school. I weighed around 155 lbs which, at my height, was not unhealthy. But for some reason, my mom thought I needed to lose "just 10 lbs". She blamed it on me needing to be lighter for playing soccer but I knew she just wanted me to look like all the other tiny, size 0 girls at school. I did Atkins with my mom for a few weeks. I lost 5-10 lbs initially, especially with playing high school soccer. It obviously didn't work, as I went through high school consistently gaining 10-15 lbs a year. I tried WW my junior year and lost about 15 lbs, but just gained it all back when I stopped going to meetings.

I definitely don't enjoy dieting, although I really do feel like I may be lost when I get to my goal weight. I know I'll still have to watch my calories and eat healthy, but there is an odd sense of comfort in figuring out the numbers each day and how much weight I can lose this month, etc. It's just such a huge thing that's always on my mind...it'll be weird not to have that to constantly think about.
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Old 04-15-2013, 08:17 AM   #25  
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I've never really been on a "diet" per say. I usually just went online and found "healthy choices" for breakfast/lunch/dinner. I started around 18, since that's when I started gaining weight a lot. I still don't have an actual diet I follow, I just truly watch what I eat and still go online (now on Pinterest mostly) and find crazy healthy dinners that help me get on the right track. I do miss some of the amazing foods my mom and dad still eat but I would rather get to my goal weight and maintain it and cheat every now and then, then cheat now and get discouraged.
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Old 04-15-2013, 03:17 PM   #26  
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I found out I was fat when I was 7 (I was not). My best friend and I were showing each other how far we could push out our bellies. When I pushed mine out it moved about a half inch. When she pushed hers out it was smaller than mine normally. I didn't know about body frames or height or anything. All I knew is that I was significantly bigger than my best friend. Looking back on it, she was a very tiny girl.

My mother would make remarks to me that made me feel fat. In reality some of the remarks were about how I was getting bigger.. not BIGGER. She would always tell me to suck in my gut. She would also say stuff like "I can hear the pounds plopping on!" when I ordered or ate something she considered to be bad (That comment was brought on by whole milk). She was also a very thin woman until I was about 15. At around 11ish I realized I couldn't wear her shirts anymore, did not take into account that by that time my boobs were already bigger than hers. I was also at or close to my adult height and I've been broad shouldered my whole life. My mother is not.

My first diet I don't remember how old I was, maybe 8 or 9. I started giving my snacks away at school and misbehaving at home so I'd be sent to bed with no dinner. It didn't last long because I was too hungry.

After that I was probably about 11 when I stopped eating breakfast and lunch and skipping dinner as often as I could get away with. This also didn't last long because I was too hungry.

Then I was about 13 when I asked my mom to cook more healthy stuff. Didn't last long because of her work hours and us being poor. Pasta was our dinner most nights because that's what I could make. I tried and failed to take up running. By this time I was doing hundred of sit ups nearly every day because I could do them and watch TV at the same time.

I can't remember the ages of my next "diets" but rest assured it involved barely eating because I didn't know how else to lose weight. I even tried to purge but my gag reflex has always been amazing and I couldn't do it.

Around 17 I started on a crash diet that involved eating salad and hot dogs. Didn't own a scale so I had no idea if I lost anything. At 18 I joined Weight Watchers with my grandmother. I lost about 15lbs before we were both too lazy to go to the meetings. I remember being amazed at what healthy eating was. You'd think I would have figured it out by then, but I didn't.

Gained the WW weight back. When I was 21 my long term boyfriend and I broke up and he moved out. I lost A LOT of weight mostly because he wasn't constantly snacking next to me and wanting to go out to eat. I hadn't realized I lost any weight until my pants fell off of me, thankfully I was at home and alone lol. I was wearing a size 11. I'm guessing I was about 145-150, don't actually know. After my pants fell off I realized I lost weight and decided to run with it. Except I ran with it in an unhealthy way. I was in an intense college course that required all sorts of caffeine to meet deadlines so I very often traded all meals for Mountain Dew. I was only consuming about 350 calories a day and they were all from Mountain Dew. This lasted for months until I moved in with my long distance boyfriend.

Then I got fat and happy. Then it was fat and unhappy and I was sneaking food because I didn't know how else to deal with my feelings (He was emotionally abusive). For many years after that I tried to out exercise my eating. That didn't work. 27 I started the slow carb/Four hour body diet, lost almost 40lbs but regained all plus some because I became depressed for no apparent reason. 5 months after gaining some I tried to lose again, was still depressed couldn't hold on to it. Same for 7 months after gaining some. And 9 months. 11 months after brings us to this attempt, what is different this time is I'm on antidepressants. Been going strong since the beginning of February and I'm gunna keep at it.

I don't like dieting but I like how I feel while dieting. I feel clear headed and strong.
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Old 04-15-2013, 04:41 PM   #27  
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This is a very interesting thread and loving reading everyone's stories

When did you got on your first diet?
I was 13, just about to turn 14. I took up riding my bike around the park and i stopped eating as much pizza. That turned into anorexia, at 15-16 i had binge eating disorder 16-18 i ate 500 calories or less than a day 19 until 21 i began chew and spitting and now i just eat normally with a around 600-2000 calorie range. In the mean time my weight has fluctuated between 136lbs-155lbs. It tends to like 150lbs the most for some reason (i am 5ft 7)

Do you like dieting?
I have never felt like i was on a diet, i think that it is my lifestyle choice, but now i have been eating 1200-1400 for very long my metabolism has probably slowed down to adapt to that, how depressing!
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Old 04-16-2013, 04:56 PM   #28  
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*** DANGER: ACCIDENTALLY WROTE A CATHARTIC ESSAY ***

I was in P7, so... I was probably 11 or 12 when I went on my first diet. The depression kicked in when I was 8 and I started the emotional eating. I never got HUGE, but I was overweight. My mum had a diet video that told you to eat set meals like an orange for breakfast and a small bit of chicken with lettuce for dinner, and to hang a small pair of jeans next to your bed to motivate you. I hated it and just continued the emotional eating. My dad has always been WEIRD around food, like "ooooh, a CAKE! I have to have that!" and going into histrionics about it. It always weirded me out. I was always getting told "if you don't eat that, I will!!" It has taken me to the age of 31 to realise I can actually LEAVE food there, I don't have to eat it RIGHT NOW.

As I was finishing Primary school, my mum went onto the raw food diet. It basically is what it sounds like. You eat raw food. I did this for a while, became emaciated, and was still miserable. That's when I got into skating. I think my parents were seeing me struggling (I'm an only child, and for some reason we lived in the middle of nowhere so I had no friends). They took me to a nearby rink, and I was hooked. I kept skating about 3-4 times a week for about 3 hours at a time. Puberty hit, my periods hit me harder and I was put on the pill. I became really quite strong, though in P.E. I couldn't run long distances to save myself, I was all muscle (pretty much). I stopped growing and settled into a happy weight of 112-120ish. I'd do bodyweight and yoga exercises I found in magazines a few times a week. I didn't hate my body but I was pretty self conscious, and still depressed. I ate "normally" and could pack away a few chocolate bars a day without putting on weight. Then I got to 17 and started my Highers. I only wanted to go to uni to get away from living in the middle of nowhere (hence why I'm a city girl and always will be!). I knew I had to get excellent grades and I stopped skating to concentrate on studying, and ballooned up to about 180lbs in 6 months. Once I'd been accepted into uni, I left school and started an office apprenticeship and WW. I was driving so could stop by the pool every day after work. I got down to about 130 just before I was 18, was itching to leave home, and life felt pretty great.

Cue uni. I can't cook to save myself. I contracted glandular fever on my second day though the doctor told me I was "just tired" and couldn't be bothered doing blood tests for 4 months, by which time my first year was ruined. I couldn't work part time because of the glandular fever, so ate into my overdraft. I was now severely depressed, eating and drinking heavily, and back up to 180lbs. I had friends for the first time in forever so didn't want to repeat a year and scraped through into second year on resits. I had to go back home for the summer break. My mum, bless her, made me healthy food every day as she wanted me to go back to uni healthy after a rough year. I got down to about 145, crept up to maybe 155-160 when back at uni, had a great set of flatmates, but had to start working 6 days a week to drag myself out of debt. I failed second year and had to repeat. By the end of second second year, I'd lost touch with all my old friends who were close to graduating, felt like **** about myself, got into more debt, my first bf who I loved to bits left for Japan, and I was raped by my best friend. So... I quit uni, got a clerical job, and went back up to 180! As you do. Then I had a sporadic week of slim fast here (losing maybe 8-10 lbs) a fortnight of Atkins there (losing about 15lbs), and short periods of calorie restriction intermittently but maintained around 175 until I was 28. Looking back on it now, I didn't really look all that bad most of the time. I'd diet randomly and hate it, then put all the weight back on.

From 28, it went: redundancy, unemployment, call centre job, nervous breakdown, unemployment, new job, being wrongly accused of defamation by a bad boss and sacked. Here I am 6 months later, and I've been doing IE for 5 months (nearly) and I love it. It's part of a general shift in attitude I've had the past few years, and I put a lot of that down to being in an excellent relationship. A lot has changed. I had to teach people not to treat me like crap, learn to understand I deserve to be happy, and stick with things that work for me. I'm down 20lbs and getting a bit nervous about being smaller, but it's working, slowly. I'm going to start my Computing degree part-time at the open uni in October and am working in a bar part-time. I'm renting out my house and lodging with friends now as freedom is more important than security. I have to point my entire life in a different direction, and IE is an integral part of that.

I HATED dieting, and I don't think I'll ever diet again! I just can't. Or won't. I love eating like a thin person, and I know that in time I'll become that person. Small and strong and healthy. No temporary measures taken out of panic and self-loathing, only slow, considered, permanent changes to the way I live my life.
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