When I was 14 I felt really bad about my body and the weight change that naturally happens during puberty; I felt fat but in reality I was a slim, healthy weight. I started restricting my food and doing extra exercise and I think this created an unhealthy relationship with food that continues to this day.

I gained weight when I started dating one particular (somewhat abusive) boyfriend and began binge eating, and found it difficult to eat in a normal way or even just not obsess about food every minute of the day. I'm slowly retraining myself.

Good post! First, if I could say one thing to anyone who has lost 1 pound or 200 pounds, BE CAREFUL! Those pounds can sneak on so easily, and before you know it, you can turn into a blimp.

I never saw it coming. I was thin until I was 35. Then, pregnancy.....I couldn't tell what was baby and what was fat. Then, going from an active job to a sedentary job. (I should have exercised to make up the difference). And last, eating out a lot with my foodie hubby.

I lost the majority of it once for a few years, and then when I wasn't paying attention it came back plus another 34 and put me at my highest ever. This time, I've learned and realize I have to be *very* aware, constantly, of every single pound. I still have 73 or so to go.

It happens so easily when you're not paying attention and staying aware of each pound.

I was under 100lbs (naturally, no thought of food, no issues/no disorder) all my life until I hit college and went up to 140lbs within a year. I know that's not 'fat' but a 40lb gain in a year is a lot.

- Food for fun and not hunger
- Fast food, fast food, fast food (and not knowing calories - thinking a Caesar salad and potato was less calories than a plain burger)
- Food for fun!
- Food for fun, out with friends!
- Complacency (I'll never gain weight?)

Eating food because I wanted to and not because I was hungry. Before, I just ate when hungry.

I lost the weight (down to 120 which is reasonable for an adult woman!) and then re-gained 45lbs when pregnant with the same habit.

I think for me it was a combination of two things. In my early years and teens I grew up in a different country, very male chauvinistic. If a man came up to you and sexually harassed you, the only thing you could do was to ignore him and hope he goes away. Also, while we weren't living in poverty, money was still very tight and we never ate out, never any fast food, ice cream was a once in two or three month thing.

When I moved to the US, two thing happened. I got my driver's license and now I could go anywhere I want, eat anything I wanted. Also, the idea of any male attention frightened me. I realized the more I gained weight, the more men will ignore me, the less unwanted male attention I'll get. And it worked.

Except now I've lost so much control that it led me to where I am now. Severely morbidly obese, unable to live my life the way I want to, very unhealthy. :/

I was a skinny child growing up and my parents would tell people I eat like a bird. When I was pregnant with my first child at 12 weeks I weighed 106 pounds. (I think I went up to 127-130 with that one) I bounced right back after he was born. After I got married and had my second child, (I think I went up to 150's when I was pregnant with her)we bought our first computer, 1993-94. (I didn't work, so sitting at computer put a few pounds on) Anyway I remember a year later we moved and I think I weighed around 130. About 4 yrs after that I went to nursing school and that's where the came on. I ended up in the 140s. Well after working, stress in marriage, work, kids etc, I went up to the 150's. In 2009 I started developing fibromyalgia and in 2010 I hit the 160's. This year it topped out at 172...that's when I said enough is enough. It's sickening to think I used to be so skinny, I never ever thought when I was young that I would be fat when I got older. I thought I would always have my cute hourglass shape. HAHA wrong!
So far I have lost about 14 pounds It's not much but I feel better, look better, and I can fit into my 150s clothes again lol. I would love to get down to 135. That's my goal anyway, but I will take less! lol. 125 sounds better, although I don't want to set my standards to high yet.
I know one thing that has helped me lose weight, cutting the sodas, all sodas. I used to love them! but they are so bad for you. Now I drink water or unsweet tea with lemons. I was also a chocoholic..lol...cutting 90-95% of that has helped too. The most important thing, I could not do this without God. I have no will power and prayed to him to help me. I need the strength from him, because if I didn't...whew I would still be eating very badly.

I don't know if there is any one thing. I was always thin until I went to college (136-148). I quickly started gaining weight after HS and got to 184. I had stopped running and exercising, started eating really bad. Parties and drinking for the first time. Living much different.

Then my husband and I married and moved away and gained more weight. When we moved back for college/graduate school, I decided to get control of my weight and I joined weight watchers and got to 158-163. I kept it off for two years and then I gained a lot back when I was pg with my oldest. Lost it (within 10 lbs) and kept it off a couple years until my job changed and I was working in a job with lots of meetings with meals and travel. I started eating junk and then eventually decided to stay home with my oldest, had two more kids, and was struggling with everything. Weight piled on.

I've lost 20 or so lbs twice and regained it since 2003 but this is the most I have lost and longest I have kept it off. I have some things going on in my life right now and as much as I want to overeat, I think it's making me not eat much at all. Which is both good and bad.

I was skinny up until my second child....I quit smoking & had a tubal ligation done...so I feel that triggered my over eating and also it is much harder now for me to lose weight...I just couldn't lose the weight from my second child and quiting smoking...(I am slowly losing it now...well, I have only lost 11 lbs, but i have been praying like crazy, exercising and eating approximately 1400 calories a day..)....

I lost a lot of weight for my wedding in Sept. 2010, after we went to Paris/France for our honeymoon and though I ate whatever/drank a lot of wine, I didn't gain weight b/c we were walking several miles per day and weren't snacking b/w meals.

When we got home, I cut out the walking/exercising but kept up the eating/drinking. Wine each night, big pasta dinners etc. The weight started to creep back on and I told myself tomorrow, Monday, etc. to re-start and kept losing motivation until my friends wedding 10 months later - I had ballooned up almost 4 sizes. I was larger than I had been when I started working out for my own wedding...that was when I finally decided to make some life changes...

This cycle has happened to me so much in my life. I lose weight, start looking/feeling good, then start telling myself I can slack a little on eating/working out b/c I look good...and then I don't look good anymore LOL. I think I've finally managed to stop the cycle. This June will be 1 year into my journey...longer than I've ever managed before.

I was a skinny child, then I was a curvy but healthy teen and young woman. I understand now that even then my eating was very disordered.

Then I went through h*ll, and came out much heavier. I lost it. Then I got pregnant. I'm not sorry for the weight I gained while pregnant, but she's 7 months old now, so it's time to peel it off, with self-love and lots of yoga and protein.

Edited because it censored me! Haha.

for me... it was EatingEatingEating... and not exercising enough. Junk food, healthy food... too much of all of it. Being sick for awhile & bed-confined thru a few surgeries, consoling myself with "extra ice cream" etc... and then ... the whole "being a woman" thing, with the crazy lopsided PMS, and now Menopause... ODG, the hits just keep on coming!

But I'm exercising my "watch out!" muscle now. Noticing when I've had enough. Measuring, weighing, counting calories. It's a real PITA, but then again, so is being fat. And we know the mantra "Choose your hard"

I'm petite, so...
I was a chubby child and lost a size a year in high school to graduate at a size 3.
I started weight training and running in college and dropped to a children's size 12.
As an adult, I kind of stayed around a women's size 2 until I got pregnant and put on 80lbs! I lost it in about one year, but I still fluctuate between the same 10lbs, hoping I can get down 15lbs.

So, in short, pregnancy made me fat!

For me, it was being inactive. I ate a lot of sweets and high calorie meals but I never gained weight because I exercised 5 days a week. Then I got really depressed, quit the dance team at school, but my diet was the same. I gained about 30 pounds over the summer. So, I was a size 4/6, 140 lbs at 15, now I'm 24 and I'm at 200. For a while, I was at 180, but when I went on antidepressants I gained 20 lbs.

I was a skinny kid and a pretty skinny teenager. I stayed like that in college, though my shape changed a bit because I was drinking and eating crap, but I was exercising loads. I gradually started to gain weight when I got married and then moved overseas. It was easy because I didn't really feel like I had to make too much of an effort at attracting anyone and there were loads of yummy new foods to try. So I gained about 5 pounds a year, so it was noticeable but not that noticeable for a while because I gradually went up.

I was a really skinny child to the point where people thought my parents were starving me because I would eat so much when out to eat with other people or at school and such. My sister was also really skinny but not nearly as bony as me growing up she was also an incredibly picky eater where as I would eat anything and a lot of it. I loved food and I think when my metabolism changed my mindset around food did not.

When I was 13 I hit puberty and got a little round in the face and a bit of a belly but my sister stayed slim making me very self conscience since I didn't understand why there was such a huge difference between us. She managed to learn to eat till full and then stop where as I had learned a love of food and how to gorge myself.

When I was 16 I managed to lose the chubby roundness by doing a lot of walking to and from school, dance classes and just being generally a busy teenager. I reached my lowest weight of 118lbs when I was 16 and stayed there until I went to university. My first year in university I gained 10lbs which really upset me and I gained an additional 10lbs my second year. I managed to lose 10lbs the following summer and maintained a weight of 135-140lbs for the rest of university.

When I moved home with my parent old habits crept in and I gained weight up to 147lbs which at that point was my highest ever weight. The following year my boyfriend and I moved to Toronto and over the course of a year I put on another 10lbs bringing me to 157. This past year I have managed to gain another 10lbs bringing me up to 167lbs and over the last 2 months I have gained 3-5lbs making me about 170lbs. I am now considered overweight and would really like to lose it.

I have found the biggest factors in my weight gain are hectic schedules and a lack of energy. These past 2 years my job and stress level are probably the key to my weight gain and if I could find the time and energy to commit to my health the weight would just melt off. I can't believe I have let myself get to this weight I remember when 147lbs was embarrassing. I also remember when I was a teenager doing a project on eating disorders for health class and having the woman at the walk-in-clinic try to get me to sign up for the group meetings when I was doing research. (I didn't have an ED but apparently looked quite thin). I still thought I was fat at 118lbs and 5'7. I think I have warped my body image and relationship with food and just need to get my head screwed on straight and make this journey to a healthy weight a priority.