Well, you're not alone, I can tell you that. I'm so glad you were able to come to all these conclusions while you're young enough to be able to lose the weight relatively easily.

I have to say it is very true..i have all the knowlege, and even proffesional training but yet..here i am.

i have tried every diet in the book, even starvation, belimia...but now finally at the age of 35, i have the will to take it off. i use to think that taking it off fast was the right way to do it..wrong..slow and stead wins the race.

honestly..i had a goal..to stay away from macdonlds..and now it grosses me out, and i have no problem being around ppl when they eat it. and tim hortons, i was blinded by thier calorie number..i thought a bagel was 100 cal..yeah try more like 300..eeks

i have decide im no longer going to be a over weight person, i am going to be smart, take it off reasonable, and exercise. and not have a date with the scale 10 times a day.

That's great that you educated yourself Kudos to you!

I think I may be a little bit of both categories. At first I really didn't know how to go about losing weight, then by researching and talking to people I realized I need to exercise AND eat right... and what do you know, I lost weight.... but then I started getting lazy, not exercising, and not eating right... and I'm the heaviest I've ever been.. and I'm so ashamed of it.. but that shame motivates me more than anything to lose weight and exercise and eat healthy foods. I totally have the will and insight to lose weight now

I do agree with those statements. I knew exactly how to get healthy but living with people at the time that didn't want to eat anything other than fried food made me give in. We know what happens when we eat bad things yet we continue to do it. Its a mean cycle. Im also with you on the calorie counting. I started actually logging them in and once i realized what i could consume I just monitored it instead of logging every little thing i ate, and grats on letting yourself have that hamburger. I learned that as well. You cant completely cut out everything you once loved or it will never work in the long run. I have my days that I will eat something not very healthy but only in moderation and you know what, I dont feel guilty for it. Its just learning how to fit it into your daily allowance. I have a very hard time with children and the way they are raised on nutrition. My little brother for example is considered "Obese" for his age of 11, yet my mother gives him 2 huge helpings of food at dinner(Which my mother gets mad when i confront her about it ), and i ask him what he has at school and he tells me they had CHEESE STICKS with marinara!!! Cheese sticks? for a lunch meal? Do people think thats healthy? It really bothers me. I try my best to include my brother in some sort of exercise but he doesnt want to listen and continues to eat whatever my mother feeds him. I live at home as well and I have to go out of my way to make myself something healthy to eat, Its not an easy task and everyone critizes me about "OMG its fried she wont eat it" and it really bothers me but you know what when im healthy and there not maybe then they will wake up. When I have kids I hope to be able to teach them about being active and healthy.

I fell under both. The reason I reached over 255lbs was because I wasn't educated about the foods I had put into my body. I ate tons of fast food, tons of pizzeria food, tons of T.V dinners [those huge hungry man ones], tons of cakes, candies, and other goodies. Tons of whatever I could.

Now I know what I should and shouldn't put in my body. The things I should eat daily, the ones in moderation. Thus why I've lost over 50lbs. I do have my slip ups. I am going through one now. It's usually because of my lack of planning and I still have a hard time overcoming my social-eating. But I am getting there. I've stopped my binges and I can maintain my weight during those slip ups.

I think I would fall into both categories.

I just always had unhealthy eating habits. My mother only ate once a day, so that was our biggest meal, even though the rest of us at lunch and breakfast, so I was a chubby child. Then in highschool. when she would comment about it, I turned borderline anorexic, and my life has just been a yo-yo since then - I was always overweight, but not obese, probably because I was very active up until college. After I wasn't able to walk everywhere, or work out for 2 hours a day, that's when I gained the weight. I could eat within calories and points, but if I'm not moving, weight won't fall off, and I think that took years for me to realize.

I think I would be a number 1.

I think they missed a category and that is "pregnancy" honestly, I was always really fit, on the heavier side, but really really fit, then I got pregnant... and well... the rest is history, soon to be "ancient" history!

I think planning is VERY important. I noticed if I don't plan or have my food stocked up, I have a bigger tendency to slip. I'll usually go out to eat and eat badly. This month I didn't get to go food shopping the way I wanted to, thus my absence of being healthy-conscience. I need to kick my butt. Hahah.

I was in the "depressed so I'm going to eat myself happy" category. I never really recognized my weight gain until one day after my ex and I split. Then I found 3FC, read up about health and nutrition, and started losing. So I guess the 2nd part would be the 2nd category you had listed.

Those categories may fit most cases, but I disagree that *all* people who end up heavy fall into one of those two categories.

I already knew a lot about nutrition, though some of my knowledge was misinformation (due to cutting my teeth during the all-fat-is-bad eighties, sorry -- I'm not a 20-something). But I certainly knew all about calories and healthy foods (good oils aside).

I gained my weight eating primarily healthy food, just too much of it. Too much brown rice, lentils, and other foods that are very healthy in moderation. I will admit that I coupled my over abundant diet with a sedentary lifestyle. But I got as heavy as I did because of denial -- I really didn't realize how heavy I'd become.