I was watching this series "addicted to food" and it made me realise how sometimes the reason why we gained weight is the best place to start working on if we want to get thinner.

I bet nobody simply woke up one day and said "Oh jolly, I want to gain weight. Lets eat a bit more today!" So something or someone guided us down that path, most times mischieviously hidden from our consciousness.

I'll start with myself.

I was always an active and athletic kid, not very competitive but muscular and normal weight. At 16 I had to give up all sports and fun activities to study 24/7 to enter medical school. Then two years later when I entered the Uni of my choice I had lost all muscle and gained a few pounds (10-12 pounds).

I then entered a team and was on my way to becomming athletic again. Then my world pretty much fell appart as my mother was diagnosed with malignant cancer, I broke my ankle at two points during a tournament and my elder sisters abused me.

Then I gained another 28 pounds. My depression got a hold of me and put my academic career on hold for five whole years. Last year I finally felt good enough to start living again. I abandoned all bad habbits, begun studying again and a month ago I started a diet to return to my pre 16 weight and athletic body type.

I never told my parents about my suicidal tendencies and deep depression. They only believe I was rebellious and lazy. So I'm pretty much fighting this alone with my lovely fiance and future husband.

Life was a struggle from meal to meal the last five years and now I live again in between.

This is what made me gain weight. What about you?

I was very active in high school, but always weighed more than everyone else and would always gain weight rapidly but then stabilize. After graduation I started packing on the pounds. I gained 10 during freshman yr of college, another 15 during the summer after and first semester of sophomore year, lost that 15 during the second semester, gained the 15+ an extra 10 back while I studied abroad, and then steadily gained from there until last may, when I got up to 235. During the period of gaining steadily, I went through a bad relationship, horrible break up, and felt generally isolated and depressed. I would sit in my dorm room for days, leaving only for class and food (of course). There would be days where I wouldnt speak to another person, besides on the phone, because I was so unhappy and shut myself off from my friends.

Surprisingly, going to law school last yr made me a lot happier than it makes most people. In college I felt like my friends were never really 100% for me...if that makes sense? I felt like I was too shy (never been the new girl) to befriend people who were my "type," and when I came to law school I made a conscious effort to get to know everyone and then settle down with the people who I clicked with the most, not just the people who were too shy to makes friends too. And when I was happier, it was finally time for me to want to lose weight.

I was always a lanky teenager (ie 90lbs at 5'5) without any thought or care about food, it was my natural figure (albiet very weak), my parents never had money but my mom worked at a grocery store and always brought home free veggies/meats so we never had junk food or takeout (couldn't afford it). Then I got to college, had a boyfriend, and ate restaurant food every day, 3x a day, quickly went from 90ishlbs to 150lbs without realizing!!!

A combination od anti depressants, low activity level, and too much takeout when extra scholarship money to blow. : \

well with me its definately depression!

i just lost 1 pound since last week(YEAH)!and i have 83 to go.
i started 2 eat 4 comfort in 1997 and at that time i was 165,sad thing is,i thought i was an obese whale at 165,and 2 think that 155 is my goal now

but good 4 you Chubbykins 4 getting back on track

These are the reasons why I think I gained and took so long to lose weight for real.

Avoiding the scale/not owning one
Having no idea about calories in vs calories out
Thinking I should be able to eat as much as my bf who is 8 inches taller
Being told I was meant to be big
Changing activity levels and still eating as much

Basically denial, lack of education about nutrition and exercise and impatience and a very unhealthy idea of how fast large amounts of weight could and should be lost.

Birth control, stress, and waiting to eat until I was starving and feeling weak at which point I would grab a soda to get my blood sugar up and then scarf on anything I could find (this was due to the stress)

Combination of life events for me. In reality, I wasn't heavy until I became an adult and started dieting. Before that, I was just made to feel larger than normal.

1. Controlling relationships - mother, ex-husband, church
2. Depression - antidepressant and antianxiety meds
3. Chronic bronchitis - steroidal inhaler and asthma meds
4. Undiagnosed sleep apnea - I ate a lot to stay awake
5. Soy allergy - serious inflammation

Once I got it all figured out, I stopped gaining weight and then started losing. Feeling free now! And I'll eventually settle into my natural weight again.

I was always overweight. Not fat, but chunky. I remember binge eating a time or two just before college. In college, I was a normal weight--I drank too much and didn't eat healthily, but I stayed at a decent weight. I went on the pill and gained 80 lbs--my endocrinologist was able to explain why over a decade later. I went off the pill and lost most of it. I was on the top of the world, was raped, and I fell into a hole and simply wanted to hide from the world. I stopped caring about the width of my ***. I quit going to the gym. I wanted disgusting food and ate it...in mass quantities.

...and here I am now. I'm at 283 instead of 334. I'm back in the saddle and trying to lose what I regained over the holidays and while laid off. Life is good again.

Lets see--
moving in with my S/O. I started eating and drinking his food and drink. He drinks beer, and loooves sausages and fatty meats, and carbs.

I thought, "Oh, I'm such a twig--it won't hurt"--and now it isn't coming off--it was hard enough to put on the breaks of weight gain--and its been years now--years of trying to lose it.

Also, birth control probably--I switched from IUD to hormonal. And, of course, getting older.

But, I've heard from other sources that you have to watch out how others effect your eating. When you get used to eating with a S/O you might start eating faster--I remember my S/O used to remark on how slow I ate in the beginning, now my mother is remarking on how fast I wolf things down (like my S/O). And really, couldn't I have known that I don't eat the same portion size as a man who does three times as much exercise than me and has three times as much muscle? That would have helped to meditate on.

well for as long as i remember myself i am "big". From 10-11 till 26yo.
I never ate junk food, maybe once a month or so. I come from a traditional greek family, and oh boy, the amount of food consumed was scary. Healthy food for sure, but in gigantic amounts.
Half of it was emotional eating - with the mindset that i was already too huge for my age, so getting even larger didnt matter at all.
Later in my teens i was diagnosed with chronic depression,and a lot of my eating habbits were starting to make more sence.
As i am against any kind of pills, i decided that i needed to make drastic changes in my lifestyle in order to at least start being fuctional again.

When I got to my highest weight it was because I was depressed, isolated myself from others, and ate a lot.

I have been overweight for about a decade now. Hard to admit that. Anyway, it's because I have not watched my portion sizes on the amazing different foods I've indulged in- lots of eating out. Add lots of food on top of not being active, and you have a recipe for fat.

For me it was just eating too damn much. I can't really blame it on some change of lifestyle or spending time with some different person or baby weight or medication. I suffer from depression but that's not the cause of my weight gain.

No, none of that is what got me fat. What got me fat is that without consequences, I'd rather sit still than exercise, and I'd rather eat than not eat. I enjoy eating and just find it very easy to eat for pleasure without pondering consequences. I am the sort of person who can share a baguette and a block of fine cheese with my partner over martinis, and then sit down to a full, rich dinner.

That's the sort of behavior that got me fat, and that I had to make conscious efforts to change in order to lose the weight I've lost.

Ignorance. I didn't know any better. I have always been an emotional eater and I lived for that feeling of being stuffed/full. I didn't have anyone tell me it was too much until the habits were formed.

Plus, I just really like cheese, potatoes, pasta and milk. :P