When I was in about 3rd grade (8 yrs old), my Grandpa came to visit. My Grandpa was a real old school kind of man, a disciplinarian who expected perfection. I jumped up on his lap, he gave a little sniff, said,

"You're getting fat!"

And pushed me off.

From that moment on, I considered myself fat, even though I was a ballet dancer until 9th grade, dancing 5 times a week. When I look at pictures of myself now, especially from before I hit puberty (and actually got chubby), I become so depressed at how bad I felt about my perfectly normal body. What kind of messages are being sent to young women? Anybody else have this kind of experience?

How old were you when you first thought of yourself as *fat*?

Luey

I was in second or third grade, and I remember being in a dance recital and being very self-concious about the costumes we were wearing because they showed off my belly button. When I look at it now, i realize i wasn't that chubby....but I felt like it, because one of my friends at the time (and several of the girls in the class) was a pencil. She also had a medical condition that made it that way, but when you're that young, you don't think about that part.

Wow. Thinking about that gave me something to chew on. I haven't been happy with myself for a long time. And I too, when I look back at pictures think, geez, I wasn't as big as I thought.

lol, this is going to sound weird, but not until just a couple of years ago.

I was never overweight as a child. I didn't start gaining until my 30's. Then when I got pregnant with my son, I REALLY packed on the pounds. As you can see by my sig, I topped off at 220. But even then, I never really viewed myself as a fat person. Call it denial or just plain oblivious ignorance, but one day I was sitting in my living room, on the edge of the couch, and caught a glimpse of myself in the glass reflection of the door of the entertainment center. And I was a blob. A big fat blob. And I said, "my God, am I really that fat? Do I really look like that?"

Shortly thereafter, I had a doc's appt. and he told me my blood pressure and cholesterol were both high and wanted to put me on cholesterol-lowering drugs. I had heard too many horror stories about those things and refused to take them, vowing to get my cholesterol down on my own. So I started cutting fat from my diet and at my next doc appt. I had lost 13 pounds and didn't even know it until they put me on the scale. That 13 pound loss was just enough motivation to make me take it all the way. I went online, played with several calorie calculators to find out how many calories I needed to consume per day in order to lose weight, and that's when it all started for me. 19 months ago.

I'm now almost the weight I was in my early 30's before I started slowly packing on the pounds

To add, my cholesterol and blood pressure are now normal.

it was third grade for me too. i had never thought about it because i was just a kid, but other kids started teasing me then so i soon began thinking of myself that way. i wasn't all that big, just chubbier than the other kids. an 8-year-old girl today that size would probably not even be considered overweight by her peers, because kids today eat more junk than they used to. by eighth grade though, i was for-real fat, and contnued to put on weight through high school and college.

When I was around 10 years old. My baby sister was always the "princess" of the family and could do no wrong. One day, my mom was sewing clothes for me and the dress she was working on didn't fit just right. She blurted out," Why can't you be like_________?" You need to stop eating."

To a child, it was like my whole world had ended. From then on, I was dubbed the "fat sibling."


emerald dragonfly

I think I had ideas I was overweight in elementary school, but I remember the day I really *thought* I was fat. It was in summer during jr. high. I was taking a kind of summer class, and was walking to class one day, wearing shorts. As I looked at the girls around me, I realized that my thighs rubbed together, and theirs didn't and I was fat. I wasn't really, but I had noticed the differences so obviously...

Ive always thought of myself as fat.

In the 10th grade it hit me hard when one of my male teachers told me that I had a beautiful face but needed to lose the fat. That hurt.

What the heck?? What a mean teacher!! That reminds me of something...my niece is 7 years old, and looks quite like a little twig. However her teacher is a personal trainer, and is always telling her class about the diet she is on - and it's new every week (hello! these are 1st graders here...they shouldn't be learning about "diets"). now my niece is saying "I'm fat" and "I'll only eat it if it's healthy for me". Yeah the healthy thing is good, but come on! She's 7 years old! She shouldn't be so self-conscious about herself at such a young age...and she certainly should NOT be saying she's fat! Ugh, this teacher just irks me.

But anyway...back on topic. I've never really been that fat, but I've always looked at myself as fat. I think it's just the way my brain is programmed or something. I see my stomach, and I think everything about me is disgusting. No one has ever told me I'm fat...in fact, quite the opposite. But I just never really believed that I looked good. I have gained weight since starting college, and I'm working on that now, as well as learning to love my body.

well when i first saw i was fat about 4 years ago,i was around 125 or 130 until around 4 years ago.

Seven years old. *sigh*

It was the summer before kindergarten, so I must've been 4, maybe? Man, that's lame!

I wanted a pink polka dot swimsuit (2 piece) but my grandmother wouldn't buy it for me. She made me get a stupid mork & mindy 1 piece swimsuit instead. She told me I was too fat to wear the 2 piece. I remember crying for what seemed like days, but what was actually not that long.

I still remember hating that mork & mindy swimsuit, though...

Probably when I was about 12 or 13. I was always fairly active at junior school, and chunky but I didn't see myself as fat. But within a year or two of changing schools at 11 I was definitely realising that I was on the fatter end of the scale.

I never ever thought of myself as obese though, even when I clearly was. In my head I was fat, but not horribly so.

When I was five *well what I can recall of five any way*. This has been a battle that is long for me. It sad to look back on those years...

I started thinking I was fat about 14 years old looking at pictures I didn't get fat for another 10 years.