Note : I got fat, because I didn't pay attention. These are just the things that actually caused the weight gain...in the end, it's still my fault.

* Anorexic through high school. Stopped it when I got preggers @ 16, but my metabolism was shot.
* Preeclampsia caused about 60 of the 100 pounds I gained while I was pregnant.
* Severe depression accounted for the other 40.
* Lost 40 between pregnancy 1 and pregnancy 2.
* Gained 25 back after pregnancy 2 due to liver failure.
* Lost 20 with pregnancy 3.
* Gained it all back due to another bought of severe depression and anemia.

I guess those things, at the time, made me think I should just eat whatever made me feel better. With the liver failure, that was kind of a given, though, with 'feeling better' being a lack of severe pain in my abdomen...That's the only one I give myself a real pass on.

The rest, I just didn't pay attention to what was going on and kept telling myself 'once this is over, I'll fix it' Well...here I am, 5 years later, down a whopping 20 pounds from what I was when I finished my first pregnancy. 4 pounds a year...go me...

Ive been fat all my life, ever since i can remember! Only in the Summer of last year did i finally say to myself: "I really have to get this off now and waste no more of my life". Ever since that point i have been on-off dieting. 2st lighter now and i never realised how overweight i was in the first place...

a lack of self control + vending machines everywhere= wreaking havoc

I don't like to blame it on anything or anyone other than myself but rather things contributed to it...guess it's not the same.

* 1st DH was always trying to feed me, lol. We would make runs to Jack in the Box at 3 am. Of course I wasn't hungry but he would get mad if I didn't eat so to please him I ate. Glad that didn't last long, lol.

*After each pregnancy (3) I lost all the weight gained but it was like my body was comfortable at the pregnancy weght and it came back on real quick...wasn't eating any different.

I stayed that weight for years but then we ate out A LOT so I slowly gained some. I reached a certain weight and stayed there for years. Then he was killed and I lost almost 40 pounds fast, not intentional.

Fast forward 8 years and I met DH#2 to be. Just got comfortable and started eating out again and gained a little of the 40 pounds back. Then got pregnant with #4 and lost the baby and it went downhill from there. Turned to food and gained about 20 pounds and I have been struggling since to get it off. So while there were struggles along the way I don't really blame anyone or anything other than myself.

Born : 6lbs
Skinny kid - people were always trying to make me eat!
Lost weight with both pregnancies
Started to put on weight in my late thirties
Went on a diet - lost 20 lbs - I innocently thought that since I wasn't naturally fat, that the weight would just stay off.
Lost 30 lbs
Lost 40 lbs
Now looking at a goal of loosing 50 lbs.

I think as I aged, my metabolism has slowed down. I don't get any exercise. I indulge in much more mindless eating - when my kids were little it seemed like I didn't have time to eat. I went on a bread making spree last year and ate lots of warm bread with real butter. That kind of thing.

I am good at loosing weight. What I need to "get" is maintenance. I have been studying Thin for Life. I think now, at least, I "get" the facts. Now all I have to do is "get" the rest of it. The hard part.

No excuses. I ate too much. Period.

i was always a chubby kid once puberty started.
then i lost a lot of weight at 12 years old - walking, eating, etc...
at 13 years old one of my moms friends told me "you dont need to lose anymore weight and if you keep working out like you are, you're going to get really muscular. it doesnt look good on women."
and i stopped everything. i made a conscious decision to stop.
and it spiraled from there. at 13 years old, i didnt understand maintaining and other peoples opinions of what i should do held a lot of weight...

heh, now i hold all my own weight.

I started getting pudgy around 1st grade. I don't remember my diet back then, but I doubt it was restricted. I was around 120 pounds going into 4th grade and I gained about 40 pounds each of the next 3 years. So going into junior high, I was already well into the 200's. I gained more weight over the next 2 years and sort of leveled off in time for high school, where I was probably around 275 the entire time. When I got out of school, I got down to around 250 but then gained the little I had lot back with even more. Somewhere in the 290's is my highest weight.

I don't have anything to blame it on except eating too much and not being active enough. My mom is an amazing cook, it just isn't healthy food. Lots of meats, fried foods, sweets... My parents were both heavy when I was growing up and I seemed to have no control over my weight gain as a kid. I was an active kid, but I gave up most exercise around junior high.
My dad was an alcoholic and I did a lot of emotional eating when I was young. I was really depressed and started really binge eating my freshman year of high school. In therapy, I was also diagnosed with a thyroid problem, but I haven't had it checked out since then. So it was pretty easy to maintain the weight and even add more pounds eating all the bad food I did... And I don't really think genetics has ever been on my side, either.

Originally Posted by stranger n my mirror:
No excuses. I ate too much. Period.

Ditto.

I was not a fat child but I was not as thin as my sister (very small and petite) and my cousin. My mom and Grandmother pointed this out rather regularly. My mom was consistently bombarding me with "diets" and then telling me that I looked fine. Messes with the head! This has been the core and the hardest thing to overcome, still working on it after 41 years.

I left HS weighing 127# Felt great. looked great. College put 10# on. Married at age 18. (ex) husband ate a lot and I fell right in.

got pg weighing 130#. had preclampsia gained 30#.

5 months later weighting 160# I was pg again. Gained 52#.
Went on Nurta system lost all my weight. 125#. Over the next 10 years I gain every ounce back and found myself at 212 again.

Found Eat Right For your Blood Type and lost 52# in 4 months. Stayed there for around 4 yrs and then got pg again. gained 20#. Lost it right after the birth.

Hubby likes to feed me and some other stress factors, also going onto Thyroid meds and becoming very depressed and animic and the fact that I stopped moving, I found 40# in 6 months. I stayed there until this last Christmas when I said ENOUGH and bought myself a treadmill.

Happiness
 

In January of 1999, I found a man that I thought I would love. I knew he would never date a smoker, so I quit. I figured if it did not work out (and it did :) ) I would start again. We have been married seven years and have two kids.

Like many couples, the beginning was filled with lots of sex. We celebrated our sex with ice cream. Have a good romp? Then run to the freezer for ice cream to nibble while we stayed up all night talking.

Also, I started grad school the same month. No real meals from work to school. I was either up late studying or up late doing more fun things. To that point, I had been walking for 30 minutes every morning. No more. I was too tired, and it was too much fun to stay in bed and snuggle with Mr. Right.

I am only person I know who can gain 30 pounds while training to walk a mini-marathon.

This is my fourth attempt at writing this lol: the first attempt was far too long, the second and third too short.

I was short stocky child and relatively strong for my age throughout elementary school. I felt fat compared to my lanky blond cousin, but I was only 65 pounds in the fourth grade.

I hit puberty at 13 and was chastised by my pediatrician for gaining weight and getting “plump” at 103 pounds. I started skipping lunch at school and dropped 10 pounds. I weighed 93 but I still felt fat because I wanted to weigh 85.

Then I went a boarding school with a cheap food budget, all starch and grease. Healthy foods like lean protein and vegetables were unavailable (too expensive) so the only way I could diet while I was there was by starving myself. I couldn't keep that up for long and I alternated the deprivation with binging on English muffins and peanut butter. By the time I graduated at 17 I was 40 pounds heavier and seriously depressed.

The doctor put me on Elavil and I gained 25 pounds in less than a month.

I quit the Elavil, starved myself for the next two years, and dropped 30 pounds. My system was so screwed up by this point I actually gained weight when I went to Weight Watchers, even though I followed their diet ( at that time an exchange program) strictly. At 135 pounds and just over five feet tall I still felt enormously fat.

I cut my calories to less than 500 a day ( one hard boiled egg in the morning, a green salad with vinegar for lunch and a slice of diet bread topped with 1 ounce of cheese for supper. If I went over my limit I took mega doses of strong laxatives, most which are no longer on the market.

I also exercised for up to six hours a day.

At 23 I weighed less than 100 pounds and wore a little girl's size 12 jeans. I was also constantly tired and sick to my stomach most of the time. I thought I might be anorexic, except that I still had fat legs and I still got my period.

Extreme stress ( I was the sole caretaker for my elderly parents who both needed round the clock care and should have been in nursing homes, except that none of the local nursing homes would take them) led to both binge eating and heavy drinking.
For the next six years I averaged three hours sleep a day, caught in fifteen minute snatches here and there.


I gained thirty five pounds.

After my parents died I struggled out of my depression, quit drinking and got a job on the night shift at an electronics plant, where I met my husband. He taught me how to cook using fresh healthy ingredients . For the next seven years we both maintained healthy weights ( he 165 pounds, me 115 pounds) even though we ate at odd hours ( a tiny dinner type meal at 8 A.M. , another larger meal of the same type at 9 P.M., nothing during the day and sweet tea throughout the work shift.)

A car accident screwed up DH's back in' 94 ( He has nine slipped discs in various areas of his spine, plus nerve damage [ and incidentally, he had a heart attack at 42 from the pain and stress]) all doctors he's consulted concluded surgery would make things worse, so he's been in constant agonizing pain and unable to work or do much around the house for the last 13 years.

Currently I work a physical job and also do most of the housework, plus extras like shopping. Over the last ten years I've bounced up and down twenty pounds ( up to 160, down to 120) depending on whether or not I'm working ( I tend to gain when I'm out of work) how depressed I am and how much I drink. I currently work days (I don't find it easy) which makes mealtimes hard since DH still follows a night shift eating schedule and after all this time he probably won't change.

Lately it seems like my metabolism has slowed and losing weight has gotten especially hard.

I still drink too much when I'm stressed and I constantly fight the lure of the vending machines at work even though, as Glory87 put it, “They contain nothing but crap and poison”.

So that's my story. I've been overweight a good part of my life, have sometimes been obese and occasionally have been too thin.

Right now I'm trying to find the balance.

It started when I was 11 and spent a few weeks with my grandma and aunt, who were both obese. I learned all about hot dog sandwiches on white bread, popcorn mixed with milk duds, ice cream sundaes, and on and on. I remember when I came home the first words my dad said were, "You've gotten fat!"

The weight progressed from there. I was fairly normal in my late teens but thought I was huge, which didn't help me. I got married at 19 and was miserable, so I gained 70 lbs in a year.

Second marriage at 24 and a baby a year later. Then the next 14 years stuck in my house and miserable. Add a drug addiction, a Pepsi addiction, and NO support whatsoever and there you have it.

I'm now in a brand new life with the most loving, supportive man imaginable. I'm going to college at 41 and am happier than I ever dreamed I could be. I just have to get this weight off to feel that I have truly overcome my past and can embrace my future. With God's help and the support of my Sweetie and this wonderful board, I know I will do it!! :)

I'm not really sure. Along the way, I've had some AHA! moments when I thought I was on to something but ... I dunno
Some combination of ....
raised in a clean your plate home
being of sturdy Flemish stock
a terrible cardiovascular family history anyway
some childhood abuse issues
being in charge of my own groceries and eating what I wanted
three pregnancies
three c sections
loving food and lots of it
thinking being slightly overweight was appropriate at my age
already being slimmer than a number of my associates
depression
antidepressants
denial
don't caredness
laziness
poverty
... I'm not sure.

Stress, and an income allowing Hubby and me to eat out all the time. It was novel to both of us to be able to go out whenever we wanted. Who wants to put a lot of effort into something boring, when we can sit down at a table,, talk to each other, and have good food appear? Short story: I'm lazy! :p

Now, I'm saving my pennies and eating what we have in the house.

Ack. Major problems: eating too much/not exercising enough.

Was a (cute) chubby kid.

Way-too-Skinny teenager.

Battled anorexia after hi-school/before college.

Became an adult.

Stopped working out.

Ate too much (& too much of the "wrong foods").

Began a long 20 years of yo-yo dieting.

Depression (ate myself into a size 12 & slept my way to a size 14)

Injuries (rotator cuff... several pulled muscles.... appendectomy...and now two herniated discs in my neck)

Yup. That's bout it.

I was a normal weight child. When I stopped growing taller (7th grade), I started growing wider. My family is all overweight, with shared poor eating habits. Eating was entertainment for us. A couple hours after dinner we would often sit around each having a big bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup on it, or huge bowls of popcorn, etc. I grew up thinking that Large or Extra-large was the right size to get of anything, with absolutely no sense of appropriate portion size. I don't think we ever stopped to consider if we were actually hungry, before deciding if we wanted to eat something.

We grew up on meat and potatoes. Vegetables were yucky, over-boiled, nasty things that were only eaten upon command. Mom even put sugar on iceberg lettuce, in some sort of sad attempt to get us kids to eat "salad". She admits that her mother didn't pass down much in the way of cooking skills to her. She and my Dad had to learn as they went along. As retired adults, they're wonderful cooks. They produce tasty, light and healthy meals all the time, now.

I was a college athlete. I played tennis for Northwestern University and did fitness competitions and fitness modeling. Then, I met my ex, who cooked nothing but soul food, and had my daughter and left my ex. I was eating about 5,000+ calories a day, carb-loading, because I was lifting three times a day, running 8-12 miles a day, playing tennis about 3-4 hours a day, 5-7 days a week, and was probably burning all those calories at the gym and sports practices.

Once I got pregnant, I wasn't able to work out as vigorously, but was eating the same high calorie diet (lots of nutritious foods mainly, but LOTS of them), without burning off the calories. Then, I left my ex and was a single mom for the past few years and wasn't as physically active as I would have liked. I still walked to work (an hour each way) and was always a stairs person, but I was eating a LOT of calories, and not burning very many.

Thankfully, I have two excellent things going for me that make it really easy to lose weight:

- My mom is vegan and I was raised on REALLY healthy organic foods (mostly home-grown), so I really LIKE healthy foods and know how to cook them.
- As an ex-athlete, I still have lots of muscle, and I'm disciplined enough that I know how to get my body back in the shape I was (I really want my six-pack back, but I have to get back to 11% body fat for that)

I'm hoping I can make this a permanent lifestyle change! :D

re
 

Well mine was due to quite a few reasons

1. Moved in with boyfriend and got very comfortable(also ate like him)
2. In denial about how many calories would be in something....for example I'd get a steak hoagie from sheetz and say oh it has to only have about 450 or so and then not look it up.....it was actually around 1000 :o
3. Car wreck leaving me in a lot of pain in my back
4. Stress from being busy, I had college 18hrs of classes, marching band, and work....it was pretty much 7am-12am all day.
5. my own laziness.


Sidenote: Almostheaven I am in WV too :D

Oh, Rhighlan86, I can totally relate to the moving in with your s/o bit and then eating like they do! I blame my girlfriend for some of my weight gain... then again, the only one I can REALLY blame is myself because she didn't FORCE me to eat like her... :p

And re #2: A LOT of food that yo ucan grab on the road has WAY more calories than you'd ever imagine. That's why I do Subway. Haha.

College and Beer!!!!!!!!!!

I've always yo-yo'd all my life but never got fat until I had my babies. I gained 60 lbs. with my first (I hit 209!), worked out like mad and got back down. Got pregnant again and gained 40 lbs. Worked out....again like mad.....and got down to 140 which is my ideal weight (135 is best tho). I stopped working out and ate what I wanted over the holidays this past winter. I slowly gained 15 pounds back. I'm working.....again....on getting back to 140.

Guess the yo-yo continues. lol

I was skinny as a kid and a normal weight until my mid-twenties. These are contributing factors to my weight gain:

-history of abuse in childhood and early adulthood
-chemical imbalance/depression
-medications that cause weight gain
-very unhappy first marriage
-I'm a good cook :D
-lack of exercise
-was very poor for a while, a $9 extra-large pizza can feed 2 overeaters for two meals, etc.
-eating far too big of portions
-drinking
-sedentary job
-stress from school
-when I met hubby #2, we got "settled" in our relationship and ate more/stayed at home
-love affair with pasta and pizza and chips and dip
-laziness!

While these things contributed to my weight gain, I am ultimately responsible for it. I am going to lose this weight, it may take me a while to "get it" but when I do, I am going to lose it!

Oh, let's see...

Genetics: Women on mom's side are big. It's near impossible to lose weight. Women on dad's side CAN be thin if they diet/exercise/focus and stay that way. Guess which side I inherited? :cry:

Birth: I'm one of those people who can say they have big bones and it's true. I'm 5'7.5" and I was born a 10 pound baby. I've been big all my life.

Childhood: Finish your dinner. Didn't matter if I was full or not; my plate had to be clean. To this day, I feel guilty leaving food behind. Now, I actually go so far as to put something in my food (pour some of my drink or mash it all together) when I'm done so I won't pick up the fork and finish despite being full.

High School: I didn't play sports. I studied German, sang in the choir, and took pictures for the yearbook...not exactly breaking a sweat! I worked at Arby's this whole time...and when the only thing around for dinner is...well...Arby's, you're kind of stuck. (Yes, looking back I realize I could have brought food with me, but I honestly didn't think of it at the time.)

Got Married: I love my husband dearly, but eating with him is hard for me. He's a Marine and he's still got the "My fork is a shovel" mindset from boot camp. I have a tendency to keep pace with him. When I finish eating, it feels like I've had nothing because I ate so fast, my brain didn't have time to recognize that I was eating a meal.

Work/School: My life is very sedentary. I go to school and I go to work. I work at the school I attend in the computer lab. I move very little throughout my day. I'm getting better about it (I walk to work some days), but it's hard to go from couch potato queen to...not couch potato queen. :D

PCOS: a.k.a. PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome. For those not in the know, it basically means my body holds on to pretty much everything i put in it. No matter how bad or how healthy, my body grabs it and turns it into mushy gushy fatness. I adore (insert sarcasm here) the paradox this presents. I developed PCOS because I was overweight...and now that I have it, it's extra hard for me to lose weight, due to having PCOS. (Not to mention I can't conceive a child.)


I'm definitely not blaming others. It's all been me. My sister got the same genes and she's not big like mom and I. Although I think she got a bit more willpower than me...

MarinePrincess, I have a friend who has PCOS... are you sure you got PCOS just because you're overweight? Usually, it just *causes* people to be overweight. ;) blame PCOS! :D

For me it was several reasons:

1) Never being taught to eat proper portion sizes and my mom encouraged me to stay home and watch TV because we lived in an apartment off a very busy street. Fitness and sports were never encouraged.

2) I have no will power to say no and hubby loves to bring home fattening take out. He has a way of showing love with food so if he knows I need cheering up he brings home food. He knows it's bad and we've had many a talks over it.

3) Quitting smoking

4) My mom's over involvment and commetns about my weight. I sometimes think I stay fat just to rile her up lol.

I got fat when I was in about the 3rd/4th grade.

I hate to "blame" anyone other than myself BUT--My after-school snacks consisted of the following:

1 whole bag of cheetos (generic) with a tub of french onion dip or
2 banquet pot pies or
2 fried eggs, several strips of bacon and two homemade biscuits or
2-3 BIG bowls of cereal (Cocoa Puffs come to mind)

Then, I'd go home and eat whatever everyone else was having for supper.

Oh, and did I mention that while I was eating those afternoon "snacks" I was usually laying on my stomach on the bed watching afternoon cartoons (Scooby Doo/Duck Tales, etc.) with the food in a chair in front of me?

I have been overweight my whole life with a single "normal weight" period.

In my childhood home my father cooked and although he would make veggies with dinner "the frozen, overcooked kind", he never ate them and so that was my way out as well. I wasn't a fan of fresh food which now amazes me because I love eating fruits/veggies, but I think a big part of it was lack of availability at home and the fact that the veggies that were served (with the execption of corn, which is actually a starch) were horribly cooked. Everything was fried at home and when I moved out I adopted those same cooking habits.

When I was 19 I was 175 and went to a doctor that prescribed Ionamin...believe it or not. I took it and ate a slice of toast and diet pepsi all day...I lost 45 lbs and then started losing my hair! I got pregnant with my daughter after that and never got close to that weight again. I did manage to drop about 30 lbs about 5/6 years ago using Slim-Fast and Spa Lady and kept it off for about a year and a half, but then bad choices brought back the weight and even more.

Basically for me it comes down to high calorie, high fat food and way too much of it in addition to a lifestyle that didn't include excersice. I have made a decision this time that it's not a diet, it's my new way of life and I love the food, I feel great after working out and I know that this will be the time that I will do it and keep it off.

Tamara

I've never been a small person. I remember graduating 8th grade at 172...back then it was mainly because in a class of 17 people I was the requisite 'nerd', and all that entailed.
In high school I was in an abusive relationship and got down to 128. That freaked me out because I wasn't used to looking so bony. What started out as intent to gain a wee bit of weight turned out to be about 25 lbs... I held out at about 150 for a few years. I broke my leg in 2003 or so, and got up to 220. I know I weighed more than 150 when I broke the leg, but wasn't paying attention. I spent more time smashing myself in size 7 jeans, even though they were crying from the strain....
I quit smoking and started weight watchers, causing me to lose 80 lbs ( I never gained much strictly from quitting smoking.) I evened out at 142...divine!! When my husband and I moved out of our parents house, I started to gain, never able to catch it... when I got married, I weighed 153 ( about 1 year later). Then I started using food to self medicate...what I used to use smoking for...but it happened 3 or 4 years after I quit smoking....so there's a lot of gaining right there.... I am bipolar, but it's not the medications that cause me to gain weight, it's my mind and how I handle things..you know, the cycle where you eat to feel good and then you feel bad for eating, so you eat again because you figure 'what the ****..why does it matter?" I tried weight watchers again, but messed w/ the same 15 lbs for over a year....when I moved to Illinois ( about 2 months ago) I started bodyfor life... I am not as strict as I should be, but I don't allow myself to have free days...just maybe a small dessert or 'non plan' item a day, if I want it...I love to lift weights and I'm working up to running...
My big thing is that I don't have a scale and refuse to get one. I let that number determine too much of my life..this time I am going by the 'pants-o-meter' and how I feel, how much I can lift and if I can actually break into a jog with out thinking I took a wrong turn into ****..... it's such a long journey....

1. gained 45 lbs with the first pregnancy, and 85 lbs with the second, landing me at 250.
2. eating out of the fridge with a spoon.
3. lots of chocolate.
4. Entemens danishes are not fat free if you eat the entire box at one time.
5. inability to self-soothe without food.

I was always thin growing up and after high school, but as I've aged, (esp. in my 30's) I've found how the weight can come on fast due to:

*learning that the difference b/t a wife and a girlfriend is about 45 pounds (when you get comfortable and sedentary).
*that a whole bottle of wine every Fri, Sat, and Sun helps so much... :o
*a bit of functional depression from moving across country and away from family.
*thinking that when I experimented with cooking that there were no calories, especially in pasta dishes! :dizzy:
*went from playing sports/working out several days a week to NONE when I moved.
*got lazy/lazier.... ;)

But now I've got my heals dug in and I'm working hard to change all that! However, remembering reasons like these will hopefully keep the scale going in the right direction from now on! I think I need to tape this to my forehead!

:carrot: