I didn't, but when I finally did, I recognized all the signs from previously months.

I notice it first when the pants start getting tight.

Didn't notice at all. Or maybe I kinda did but it didn't register? All I know is that my"fat pants" were a 12 in hs/ early college and then by graduation my "fat pants" were a 14 and not fitting well at all. I remember getting dressed to go to a concert and not having any jeans that fit so I squeezed into the 14s and had a miserable time because all I could think about were how my jeans were digging into me and uncomfortable. One would think I would've decided to lose weight then but no. For a year after that I just lived in sweats. Looking back I can't believe I let myself gain so much weight.

I did notice that I was gaining weight but I didn't reliease how bad it was until I started to look at pictures of myself over a 5 year span.

No I did not notice when I got to 180 at all, :/ when I lost 20lbs I did and since then I've noticed my weight fluctuations but when I got that big I certainly did not. I had staid between 150-155 but I'm December I got to 160 in over a year and I certainly noticed when my work clothes were snugger than they used to be, I've almost lost 10lbs and I can notice it a bit but I can't wait to get to your weight

Consciously I knew I was gaining, because I would go to the doctors through college, about once a year. I don't remember the specific weights, but I do remember it was about ten pounds heavier each year. And I was never skinny to begin with. I never did anything about it though, because like some of you I was able to see myself as the same size as I had been at highschool graduation (probably about 180-185). I'm fairly tall, and my sizes didn't fluctuate too much, but I do remember thinking that Old navy must have made it's sizes smaller, because there is no way that I didn't fit into 16s anymore. I fit into my old 16s still! (Of course I had been wearing them for 2 years and had stopped putting them in the dryer!)

After I had my son about 9 months ago I weighed 200lbs I knew I would gain a little bit because I wouldnt be able to workout and lose it right away because I had a c-section... but I did drop down to 196 on my own... after that the next time I weighed myself I was 210lbs and Im not even sure how i gained it all back... after that i didnt weigh myself again because I dont have a scale it was always at someone elses house... but I didnt notice anything until one pair of my joggers started getting tight around the waist... when I weighed myself again i was 224... thats when I was like wtf?? I gained like 15lbs in less then 2 months... so i jumped back on the diet they had me on while pregnant. (diabetic diet) and started walking and exercising more and drinking more water.... i lost 6lbs right away... now that im down to 218 im hitting a plateau again... I was briefly (like 2 days) at 216 but TOM caused bloating and i never got back down... now today im back up to 221 because of TOM (was 218 yesterday) and by the end of the week im sure itll take me everything possible just to get back down to 218

I noticed it, but didn't really think much about it - not great to admit I know. I didn't like growing out of my size 9's, but didn't care enough to change what I ate, but when my size 11's got tight and I couldn't fit into my extra pair of them, I knew I had a problem because there was no way I was buying a size 13!

My tops were harder to notice in some ways because they are mostly the stretchy kind. Saying that, I've had to buy a ton of new tops because I most of my current ones were too stretched out and baggy on me, so obviously it was just me being blind to how big I was getting.

I hear you with the 11/13 bit. I was an 11 for 3 years, and then one day I was putting a pair on and went 'Holy crap, these dont fit... I swear they fit yesterday!". It was odd how it was just like BAM all of a sudden they didnt fit. I must have had ignored muffin top from ****. I "went on a diet" to get out of the 13s, but never actually did anything. Finally I just got annoyed since the 13s were even getting tight so I ACTUALLY started trying and am back down to an 11 now. Working my way to an 8 (I have not been an 8 since like 9th grade)

That was pretty much me exactly! I know I was ignoring a muffin top, but I didn't realise it was that bad until I tried on my other pair of 11's (slightly different style) and realised they didn't fit and weren't going on for love nor money!

I think I'm somewhat of a minority as I knew exactly how much weight I've been putting on.
I started going to the gym when I was 15 because my mom went and I've always been kind of a chubby kid. I bought a grad dress for grade 12 a year early because I loved it so much, so all of grade 12 year I worked my butt off trying to stay the same size (knowing I was going to grow as well) for this dress. After grad and eating good for a year, I went on a binge eating everything I thought I had missed. Then I'd realize I gained 15 lbs and go back to eating clean and to the gym. That cycle continued for a while. Then for 2 years I long distanced dated and would work hard for the 2-3 months we didn't see each other, just to put it back on when we did (plus trying to get back on the wagon took some time after getting home/he went home). Before college I got in shape again, then used stress and studying to eat crap so I gained again.
So I've been losing the same 15-20 lbs for quite a few years.

I haven't noticed the times I've gained weight until I've gotten to the 'oh &@$$' stage. I would attribute my clothes being tighter to them shrinking in the wash, tighter newer clothes to them being cut 'for teenagers'. What denial. It wasn't until I got on the scale that I would realize what I had done. I think that's why I feel better with daily weigh-ins.

I gained the bulk of my weight while pregnant and just assumed that the weight gain was pregnancy related instead of what it was - fat! I must have known subconsciously because I never gained that much with previous pregnancies, but I cut myself some slack. After I had the baby and only lost about 10lbs, I again told myself it was due to nursing and hormones. I was at least 60 lbs overweight. After I stopped nursing and still didn't lose anything, I think I just ignored it until my fat clothes didn't fit me anymore. When I could no longer fit into size 16s, I finally weighed myself to find that I was over 200lbs! I had gained even more weight by ignoring the problem. After that I went through a long period of self loathing. I wanted to lose weight, but wasn't willing to alter my diet (food addiction/bad habits). After trying exercise alone and finally resorting to extreme dieting - none of which worked - I just stopped everything. I wore the same stretchy clothes in my closet and I didn't even go into clothing stores. I pretended I wasn't fat. I never took a good look at myself in the mirror - I got dressed and brushed my teeth and hair each day with my eyes averted from the mirror.

Finally, last April 2011, I had a major family event to host and I went into a favorite department store for a new outfit. I couldn't even get a size 16 to fit over me, much less zip it up. I was crushed and mortified. There wasn't even anything larger than a size 16 in the store. I ordered a horrible 16W outfit online and prayed it would fit. It did. I looked like a house. I was so embarrassed to face lots of people who I hadn't seen since I was thin. For the first time I "saw" the fat me through their eyes. The rose colored glasses were off. I promised myself that I would make a change. I couldn't live one more day in my body the way it was. I started with the approach of modifying one thing at a time in my diet and just kept going very slowly.

Like most of you, mine was gradual over 7 years. I did realize that I kept going up in size, but I didn't really know how to combat it, and just resorted to getting bigger clothes. No more of that!

Yes, there was a time several years ago when I went to the Dr''s office and found that I weighed 15 lbs more than I thought I did. I should have known because I had to buy new clothes.