I don't know if it's me or I actually have a health problem...
 

This is my first post--I'm a lurker :) Anyway, I have gained 65 pounds in about 21 months! My doctors are concerned about my weight gain and I'm even going to a weight DR and I'm not losing! I've had my thyroid checked (just blookwork) and they said everything was fine. Let me give you a little of my history. I've been "chubby" my whole life (I'm 24 now). Was always the "fat kid" at school. I'm 5'3 and my highest weight I ever go up to (until now) was at age 17 at 192 lbs and I was mortified. I went strictly low carb and joined a gym and I got down to 145. Flash forward to January of '05 and I weighed 155-160 and started dating my now husband. This is when the weight started piling on. I admit that I quit going to the gym and I haven't exactly been watching what I've been eating but 65 pounds!?! By the time we got married in January of '06 I was 185 (25 pound weight gain in a year!) and now it's nine months later (and no I'm not pregnant!) and I've gained an additional 40! Is this normal? I had to see my family doctor about two months ago and he scolded me for gaining all the weight but didn't think I had a problem except maybe my BC pills were causing the swelling. SO, I went to my OBGYN and she was shocked at my weight gain but insisted it wasn't my BC making my feet and ankles swell. She was the one who wanted my blood drawn to test my thyroid. That came out ok. I then went to a weight doctor who has put me on phentermine. I've been on it for three months and I've lost 2 pounds! He has now put me on a thyroid pill (low dose) but has not tested me for a thyroid problem. I just don't understand what is happening--I'm gaining weight so fast! I'm not eating that much more than I did when I was 160! I'm sorry I'm rambling it's just that I get so depressed about my weight gain and I'm a newlywed and I just feel so blah! My husband has been very understanding but I know he'd like to see me get down to my "dating weight". I don't like to see friends and family that I haven't seen in awhile because I don't want them to see me. I'm at 225 and it's taking it's toll on me. I'm wearing a size 22 in clothing which is really hard for me to swallow. I'm going to start doing Walk Away the Pounds videos. They are pretty low impact which I need because I can't do too much on my feet anymore without them starting to hurt. I never thought I'd become this person! I always wanted to be healthy and "slim" and full of energy in my married years. I just can't seem to get motivated enough to actually try to make a difference. Please help!

Mel

Melly, we have alot in common I am 5'3 and had the same issues as you. When I first got married I weighed about 140lbs and about 2 years later I was up to 191. I was also taking BC pills. I know it was that I felt comfortable with him, we moved to a new city, and my parents divorced. My doctor was not that concerned about gaining that much weight so fast because she felt it could happen. If you go eating junk and not exercising. I too had a thyroid test and it came back fine and she said BC pills make you gain a max of 10lbs. She told me that I was only going to lose it through a diet change and exercise, the old-fashioned way. I was really depressed about this at first, but then realized that I had done this to myself and I was the only one that was going to fix it. I did not have the swelling feet or ankles though so that maybe something else. I hope this helps.

I am a 57 yr old mother of 10 kids so was never on bc very long but I think some people can really gain weight on it. I gained about 15 lb from the time I started until I came home from my honeymoon. That was about 2 mo. I did manage to lose some but it seems that was the start of a life long weight problem. I was 115 in hs and now 178.

I'm like you Melly, I am 5'0" and was 105 for a long time, and no matter what I ate I didn't gain anything....then just after my 22nd birthday I gained about 20 Lb's, then the following year I gained another 30!!! I had all my thyroid looked at, and so many more tests, and it turned out that a combo of the BCpill and because I was diagnosed with IBS, put on about 4 medications, I gained all the weight. No matter what I did I couldn't lose it, I had absolutely no energy, and felt awful! I changed my bc pill, and that helped alot...then in Feb 2006 I found out that I never had IBS, but endometriosis, and all these medications that I'd been taking weren't helping me, but hindering me. I had surgery in Febuary, and have been lost 16 Lb's so far. I'm not on any medications, and I've changed what I eat and drink. I would definately be persistant with your doctor. Because that's not really normal. Are you depressed, an emotional eater, are you stressed too much, etc? There's many reasons that it could be. But do your part, eat healthy foods, drink lots of water, exercise, and possibly change the kind of BC pill you take. And see what happens!

I gained almost all of my weight in about 2 years - there were no medical problems, and I couldn't blame it on bc because I'd already been on it for 3 years before I started gaining, and it caused me to gain about 5 pounds, max. I was completely astounded at how much I'd gained, and couldn't figure out how it had happened, because I always felt I ate really healthy foods and I exercised. Once I started actually tracking what I ate I realized how much I was consuming, and it was amazing I wasn't even heavier. It may be a medical problem, but until the doctors have tested everything, maybe you should approach it as a regular weight-loss thing: no pills or anything, just start writing down what you eat every day, so you have a good idea of your habits, and then start decreasing your calories. And try to get regular exercise - I know you need low impact, so you could always try water-aerobics or swimming. Good luck!

I've only been on BC since April of last year but I'm not putting 100% of the weight gain onto that but I do believe it has helped me in some way to gain. I take full responsibility for the gain--I haven't been a saint. I know that my big mistake was finding less and less time to go to the gym and instead spend it with my husband to be. I don't know, I guess a part of me is in denial but 40 pounds would be more understandable than 65 in my mind. I know the next step for me to test to see if I have a health problem would be to exercising regularly and going on an low calorie diet and see what happens. My husband has picked up about 30 and eats more than me but he is 5'10 with a football build am I'm pretty petite so that would explain why I've gained double. It's just really frustrating. I know I'm my worst critic but I just feel like such a failure for letting myself get this big. Why didn't I do something when I gained 20 pounds or even 40? I appreciate all of your responses so far...

I know exactly how you feel Melly-
Life isn't fair! The problem is, us short girls get the shaft!
At 5'3" myself, I'm 28 years old, and I've come to realize that the metabolism of a short person just doesn't allow us to eat like everyone else does normally and not gain weight. And we can put it on faster because of that, too. My weight gains have always been from pregnancy (I've gained 80 pounds 3 times!), but birth control CAN add to the problem also. The pill doesn't actually MAKE you gain weight, but it can make you want to eat more, which leads to that. It's the hormones-they can give cravings kindof like pregnancy does. Try going on one of the lower dose kinds, but your doctor may not prescribe them until you lose some of the weight. The heavier you are, the less effective, if that makes sense.
My last child was born a year ago. I didn't lose any weight by the time he was 6 months old, which was unusual for me, so I went and had all the same metabolic and thyroid tests, and all came back fine. It would be so much easier to find some kind of illness or disorder to blame this on, but the fact is that most of us "fat chicks" are here by our own demise. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things healthwise that could be out of whack that can cause people to gain weight, but that's not the case for the majority of us. Trust me from experience-if you've been given a clean bill of health, the sooner you realize that you're on your own and only you can fix it, the sooner you can begin the hellish journey of starting to lose it! And you don't HAVE to be away hitting the gym like a madwoman to get started. While lifting weights has helped me ALOT lately, I also just got a pilates video to do at home, and it is a great workout. Go for a walk after dinner with your hubby. Anything that gets you moving will help.
Phentermine doesn't work for everyone, just like lots of meds. Phentermine is designed to help with actual hunger, but the fact is that most of us that are overweight didn't get there by only eating when we are hungry. The "head hunger" that makes us eat because we are bored, depressed, etc can't be controlled by any pill I've ever tried. That is strictly willpower. Speaking of head hunger, statistically, most people gain weight after they get married, and even after graduating high school. Ever heard about "the freshman 15" in college students? It's all mental. When I moved out of my parents house, I gained 20 pounds just because I was like "it's midnight, taco bell is open, and I can go!". Try not to beat yourself up. You're not alone!
In the end, it is calories in, calories out. Use one of the online BMR calculators, put in the weight you WANT to be at, and you'll be shocked by how few calories it takes to maintain a normal weight for our height. It sucks, but in the end it's worth it. I don't remember whose it is, but someone here's siggy quotes "nothing tastes as good as thin feels", and that's the truth!

Thank you everyone for the advice and the support--I really appreciate it. I've set myself a first mini-goal to get down to 200. I'm setting myself with a 2,200 calorie a day eating plan and I'm going to start exercising a half hour every other day and I'll gradually increase that weekly. I know that part of me wants to have something wrong with me because that way I have an excuse to tell people verses "I just got lazy and let myself get this way". But I know I have to start somewhere. I've lost/gained well over a hundred pounds in my young life so far so losing 85 won't be impossible just very difficult!

melly-
I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't want to see you set yourself up for failure because you sound like you want this as badly as I do...
I just wanted to let you know that I entered in your info on a bmr calculator, and if you do a 2200 calorie per day diet, you will gain weight, not lose!
At 222 lbs, 24 yrs old, and 63 inches tall, you need 1804 calories a day to MAINTAIN your weight. If you want to lose 1 pound per week, you would need to drop down to about 1300 calories per day. This is why it is SO easy for us to gain!
3500 calories=1 pound
If you eat 3500 more than you burn, you will gain 1 pound
If you eat/burn off 3500 less than you burn, you will lose one pound

That is what I meant by "us short girls get the shaft". Being short and having less body mass than a tall person, we need less fuel to run on and have a slower metabolism. Any excess turns to fat. Men also burn about 300-400 calories more per day at the same age/height than we do.

If you want to lose faster than 1 pound per week, exercise is the only answer, because going to less than about 800-1000 calories a day for an extended period will likely put your body in starvation mode, where it slows your metabolism to a bare minimum as a defense to keep you healthy.

Once you get to your goal weight of 140, you will only be able to eat about 1450 calories a day to maintain it. Only burning calories with exercise will let you be able to add in more calories and not gain-for example-an hour on the treadmill can burn between 250-500 calories on average depending on the speed/incline.
I hope I'm not butting in too much here-just trying to give some useful info:)

I gained 100lbs in a little less than 2 years. There are no medical problems or anything that would cause this. This was me. All my doing. I am an emotional eater and use food for as a substitute for love and comfort. My relationship with my husband is very, um, different than probably most people. For reasons that I am not comfortable disclosing at this point, my husband has difficulty with emotion and anger control. I was emotionally neglected and emotionally abused. I never had a clue why things were the way they were - instead of figuring it out, I ate - ALOT. From April of 2003, when I weighed around 255 to November of 2005 I gained up to 352lbs. I know now why I was in self-destruct mode. My husband is a wonderful man, and he didn't fully understand his actions either. We both go to counseling and things are better. I have had to make emotional boundaries and some difficult choices too. For instance, even though I very passionately love my husband, if things go back to how they were and he quits counseling, I will have to leave him.
So, I guess my point is that if you have emotional issues with food like I do, then you need to get help to figure it out.
You should seriously figure out your normal caloric intake and output. Most likely you gained the weight because you ate too much and not because of something medical.

on edit: btw: my avatar was taken in April 2003 (before I started gaining), 5 months before we got married. That September, I was already up at least 30lbs.

Just an FYI, you might want to get a test for Diabetes. I gained about 40 pounds in 8 months and went to the Doc a few months later, and was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes at age 19 with no family history of the disease. At least then you would know if it's the way your body reacts to refined carbs or not. Now I just have to make sure I eat lots of non-processed foods, and much fewer things with white flour in them.
Anyway, not to scare anyone out there, but they call it a silent killer for a reason, because you would never know you have it until you get tested.

Ok, so after all my big spew I had a few weeks ago, I am yet to do anything about watching what I or exercising. I just have no motivation. I know that I disgusts myself when I look in the mirror when I get out of the shower; I know that I am experiancing high blood pressure; I know that I have no energy because of my weight; I know that I've lost all desire to make myself look halfway attractive because I don't feel there is any point because I don't feel attractive. This stuff SHOULD matter to me but it just doesn't. I feel like I'm in such a slump. It seems like I go through a breakdown once a month about my weight but I never do anything about it. I'm even in a wedding next week and I have a dress fitting tonight and I'm 99% sure that the dress isn't going to zip up and I still don't have any motivation to hop on a treadmill. I don't want it to get to the point where God has to wake me up one morning with chest pains to make me really realize that I have got to do something! I worked so hard to get down to 145 2.5 years ago and I'm just feel so disgusted with myself--I'm 225 pounds! I was watching my carbs and going to the gym 4 days a week to get to that. Now I'm married working a 48 hour work week and I just can't find the time. The last thing I want to do on my weekends is hit the gym or exercise plus I've got to run errands and straighten up the house. I'm just stressed! I feel like crap--I'm not happy with myself. I feel like I have an emotional problem with the eating. I get very upset sometimes when I talk about my weight history and how being overweight as a child and teenager has made me feel. I know I wouldn't ever become bulimic or anorexic or suicidal. I just can't get motivated... HELP!

And until you really want to lose weight and are ready to start a weight loss plan, you won't be able to do it successfully.

I feel your pain, and I understand completely. But only you can make yourself get over this. Once you've motivated yourself, we will give you the added support to help you reach your goals. Best of luck to you.

Melly,

This is something that you are going to have to do for yourself. Food is an addiction and it compensates for something you are missing in your life. Until you decide that it is your time, you are not really going to commit. In the mean time why don't you try just keeping a diary. Write down your feelings and emotions. Write why you chose to eat something and why do don't want to exercise. You might be able to pick up on some patterns and come to understand what it holding you back. I wish you the best!