I have always been the big girl. wait... I think in kindergarden i was not too bad and maybe 1st grade but ive always felt big. the more people talked about my weight the more i ate.

My friend in highschool was talking and said " you know when you have a group of friends you always have that one big friend you bring along so all the attention goes to you and you dont have to fight over guys." I looked at her. "Oh i dont mean you" she said... But I knew better. I was the FAT friend.

I didn't feel bad about that, I believe in Karma. and now we are out of high school for a while, and she is someone else's FAT friend.

I've never been thin. I grew pretty quickly, I was 5 ft tall in kindergarden, and chubby. The first actual weight I remember was when I was 12 I weighed 178. I was in dance for 7 years, and swimming most of my life by then, but around that time was when I became extremely self-conscious. I quit both of those things at 13. It always bothered me before that, I was always called fat by other kids before then, but it was just something about that age, getting into boys and such that made me all too self aware. I really felt that I'd grow out of it by then, but I hadn't.

Most of my life, I stayed within the 175-185 range. At one point when I was 17/18, I got down to 153. That is the smallest I have ever been, although I still thought I was huge. Funny thing was, when I got down to that weight, people started speculating that I was on something, saying I was too thin. How is 153 too thin? That bothered me. My boyfriend at the time felt the same and kept pressing me to gain some weight. Well, I did. A LOT of weight. By the time I was 19 and off at college, I had packed the weight back on, plus some. By the time I was 21, I weighed my highest weight, 218. Now, I'm just struggling to get back to my "average" weight.

Looking back, although I was always chunky, I was never the massive girl that I thought myself to be. I carry most of my weight in my butt and thighs, and even at 153, the smallest pants I could fit into were 11/12. Now I'm a 14 or 16 (mostly 16, depending on the designer), and oh what I'd give to be back at a 12! I never had a bikini body, and I never will. Difference now is, I'm fine with that.

Good luck to each and every one of you.

I was considered "skinny" in high school, but then when I got out to college I suddenly gained over 80 pounds. I like to blame it on my boyfriend (he left me eventually), but of course there must be something I must have been doing wrong. I partied like a fiend, and it was probably all of the alcohol and junk food. But I really want to get back to the stage where I was in my senior year of high school. I am getting there!

I was certainly never thin! I think I was "normal" until maybe third grade, but I don't really recall my weight back then. By 4th grade, however, I was definitely chubby, and that's about when my fellow students began picking on me! The earliest weight I can recall is weighing 230 pounds in 6th grade. I achieved the height I am now (5'8") when I was 12 and I probably weighed the same. I think I was a size 22. Since then, I have never weighed less than 200. I made that landmark when I was 17 after I started taking karate and practicing at home. I was a size 16 then and I thought I was such a cow! Now I'm a 24 and I can't believe that I ever was a 16.

I only stayed there for about 2 years. A lazy college life and working in fast food completely ruined me and I kept putting on weight until I reached 280 and held steady until about a month ago when I decided to start doing something about it. So now I'm on the road to recovery as they say. I would love to be a single digit size, but I've been overweight for so long that I don't even know if my poor body can ever be that small! But hey, there's no harm in dreaming.

lovethesara & magdalena - man, those stories sure sound familiar.

I did tap, ballet & jazz from ages 3-10 and I loved it.. we moved when I was 10 and I quit all 3 because there weren't any local places that offered lessons - the town was full of hardcore dance academies that required formal pink/black outfits and the whole nine yards. Sometimes I wish I'd quit but I know girls who danced for over 10 years.. they're all so short!

I don't know that my friends ever saw me as the fat one, but I definitely believe they never felt like I was any sort of competition. I could tell one of them that I thought a guy was cute and that I liked him but the cardinal rule of "don't steal your girlfriend's crush" never seemed to apply to me.

But you're right, Karma has its way. I'd never wish any of them ill health or having to suffer through some of the things I did, but most of them packed on the pounds during college.

i remember ALWAYS being a chunk. i blew up during puberty.. somewhere around 200lbs, which is somewhere near my weight today. the smallest ive ever been in my 'adult life' is 206...i was extremely active in sports and marching band in high school. i thought i was huge. i looked at pictures not too long ago, and i looked great.

ive always been tall, though. i was at least 6in taller than everyone in my class up until 7th grade or so. my weight stayed the same overall, i just literally grew into my weight. and now im 5'11. lol

Wow! Many of these stories sound so familiar! I was ALWAYS bigger than everyone else...not alot bigger......but just...bigger. Then when i hit puberty....i just kinna blew up LOL. Im so ready to be a HEALTHY weight. I'm super-excited!

I've been overweight majority of my life. I know as a toddler, I was normal weight (I think?). For some reason, in my mind, I remember having a little pouch belly.

At age 3/4, I broke my leg and was in a body cast for a few months. Because of the body cast, my movement was very minimal. All I could move was my lower left leg (from knee down), my head, and my arms/shoulders as the cast went to my chest. After I got out of the cast, I blew up.

I won't give the broken leg all the credit for becoming overweight. I think it just made it happen sooner, as I truly feel I would have only in a matter of time (mostly given my family's eating patterns). Eventually I became COE by the time I was about 6/7 years old.

I had very little concept of weight, low-normal-high, though I always knew I was bigger than the kids in my class. I remember going for my ID when I was 9, in 3rd grade. My dad was retired from the military, and everyone in the family had military ID's. I remember seeing 90lbs on the ID, and all I can remember was extreme embarrassment.

Every day, every year, my weight just continued to climb. My current weight is about what I weighed in 8th grade. Since gaining weight, this is the 3rd time I've managed to get back to this point, but I've never been able to get below it.

Being thin sounds so exciting, yet it is absolutely frightening at the same time. I've always been treated a certain way because of my weight, and no matter how much it sucks and no matter how much I want to deny it, you get treated differently or a certain way based on weight. It's not right, but it's true.

Everything that it could possibly mean scares me. I can't imagine myself thin. I can't imagine what I will look like.

There's times I even wonder if I will be able to see the difference of a 'thin me' or the previous 255 pound me. My "official" starting weight (when I decided I was going to actually do this) is 239. I've lost just a few pounds shy of 70, and I honestly can't see much of a difference. Looking in the mirror, I don't see it. There's only 2 pictures I can see the difference in my face (a face pic at 214 and a face pic at 187). Other than that, I don't see it. And I'm terrified that I'm not going to see it when I get to where I need and want to be.

So, I wonder if I will ever see myself thin, or if I'm still going to see the morbidly obese person I've seen my whole life.

Same story here.

In first grade I was 130 pounds. No that's not a typo

In seventh grade I remember thinking "What happens when I don't fit into XL anymore?" Then I discovered plus sizes. And felt relieved. How sad is that?

Through junior/high school I weighed around 220 pounds. In my junior year I starved myself and walked hours a day and within a couple months lost 40 pounds. Then gained it all back in senior year. And got married and gained another 25.

So yea, I've never been thin. I can't even imagine what I will look like. I look at clothesand can't believe that someday I will be wearing those tiny little jeans and dresses.

I've always been a "big" kid too. I don't ever remember shopping in the children's/girls section - I remember being in the 4th grade and borrowing my mom's clothes and buying women's size 14 jeans! Luckily, I've always been extremely tall - which has helped, but I'm still overweight.

I have lost weight multiple times in the past with a combination of diet and exercise - first time in 9th grade, I went from 190 to 160 (being on the basketball team helped) - second time was in 2004, I went from 275 to 228 on weight watchers combined with gym activity, and now - I'm at 265 but I'm determined to get to 200 - I'm currently on Fat Smash.

My main focus is to be able to keep wearing the smaller clothes I bought in 2005 (replacing a wardrobe is EXPENSIVE!) and keeping my vitals healthy.

Good luck everyone!

I was a skinny string bean when I was little...my dad even used to call me "Skinny minnie." those were the days where my kneecaps were wider than my entire legs.

Then puberty hit, and I became curvy. I got wide hips and a big butt to balance myself out. Then freshman year of high school I took control of my weight.

I got to a healthy weight for me. Still not skinny according to society but close to as good as my body would let me get. I never quite got there though.

I kind of yo yo'ed throughout high school and then senior year my weight just took off which continued until now where I am trying to do something about it.

I wish I could get to be "skinny minnie" again.
It's my secret goal that my dad will call me that again.

So....I guess I'm more of a yo yo weighter.

I was a skinny kid until about age 10. I started to "thicken" as I hit puberty, and (surprise surprise) became less physically active. I was always self-conscious about my lack of coordination and dexterity. I didn't really worry about it until I was 15 ... I was 5'1 at that point and weighed 147 pounds and thought it was the end of the world. ::rolls eyes:: I was 135 and 5'4 at my HS graduation and thought I was enormous.

I got up to 165 in college, but had some health problems and ended up at 125 (I pretty much didn't eat b/c my stomach was so icky). And I still thought I was gigantic, even though my hair was falling out and I looked as yellow as a banana! I totally ballooned once I recovered, hit 210 three years later, decided that I would never weigh that again -- even while pregnant -- and here I am.

But, oh, to be 147 again ...