I was sometimes a bit overweight in my 20s and 30s...between 10-20 pounds, but managed. My mother died suddenly when I was 32. I packed on almost 50 pounds. I'm 45 now. Started trying to lose that by making small changes (skim milk, brown stuff) about 6 years ago. Calorie counting now. That, and I like food and have a terrible sweet tooth.

I've been overweight since I was a small child. My parents have always cooked in the old fashioned way, and have NO CONCEPT whatsoever of small portions. I ate adult sized meals.

Most of the stuff wasn't that unhealthy , I just ate too much of it. As I grew older I did eat a little unhealthier but again, not as much as most I know. I perhaps haven't done anywhere near as much cardio exercise as I should have either.


My current weight is the slimmest/lightest I've been in nearly 10 years. I'm 12 stone 11 now at the age of 27, I was 11 stone when I was 18, and that was only because I had a fixed brace and couldn't eat a great deal of things , such a bread, apples, pizza, all sorts of stuff, which would get stuck between the bands and fixtures.

When the brace came off everything went downhill. I ate because I could, and because I love food. I'm just greedy plain and simple :(

I do partly blame my parents for my size, they certainly didn't help in the slightest, though mother does understand now and buys the things I ask her to. But then she'll go and make a delicious looking cake which kills me to smell and see. I do have a piece but now I only have one. I take said cakes to work now to share out, so I don't eat it all myself. I also know that the rest of the blame falld squarely on me. I didn't have to eat that food. No one shoved it into my mouth but me, and I enjoyed it every time. But I have never enjoyed it's results and what I see in the mirror.

A guy at work is the one who's helped me lose weight diet-wise. He's into Bodybuilding and put me on a low carb high protien diet. Not as strict as a typical bodybuilder's show diet, but enough to work. I also started aerobics and joined the gym, and that's helped as well. I've started taking the diet pill Capsiplex after seeing excellent results on a woman at work who took it ( and she has done no exercise or changed her diet , she's lost 9lbs just being like that and taking it !!! ) So I'm hoping to get a good result from that to help boost and motivate me even more.

For me, I think it all started when I was born. After my mom died in 2002, I found the 'recipe' for the baby formula my mom fed me. It was prescribed to her by her doctor and one of the items in the formula was sugar. My mother had to make up this formula every day because this was 1961 and liong before commercially made infant formulas were developed.

As I grew up my mom loved to bake so of course I was eating lots of refined carbs as well as too much sugar from all the cookies, bread, pies and homemade jams she liked to make. From my baby and childhood photos I noticed I started really getting chubby around age 9 and continued getting heavier as I aged. Having PCOS added to my weight as I hit puberty but I never knew I had it. I only had a suspicion that 'something' was not quite right with me regarding my weight.

When I had my first child at age 23 that is when my weight really shot up. I gained over 50 pounds with my first one basically from eating whatever I wanted and sitting around watching tv.
After my second son was born I pretty much stayed on that sofa, got little exercise and ate whatever I wanted to and too much of it. I gained a LOT of weight until it got to the point where I am at today.....well over 350 pounds. In fact I am probably well over 400 but without a scale to weigh myself on that goes higher then 350 pounds I really have no idea. I just guess I am.

After many years of very disordered eating, all out self hatred seemed to be the only answer i can come up with. I gained the weight in such an intense and extreme manner (less then 7 months. the shame will never totally leave i fear) it doesn't seem "real" some days. However it very obviously is. I worry that (other then my biggest fear which is loss skin, therefore "proof" that will linger) i'll never have an "ok" relationship with food, that the fact that when i tried to allow myself to "eat/digest" food again...that i got fat, will always remain.

Mine's a back and forth story too.

I was overweight from about junior high on, even though I was active then. It's probably the only reason I wasn't heavier than I was. Never paid much attention to my weight, and was shocked to see 222 on the scale the summer after my first year of college. I lost 40lbs, met my now ex, had two kids and managed to maintain, miraculously. After we split up, I was miserable. Not over him really, just over the path my life had taken. Within a year and a half, I had gained 60lbs. Got sick of it, lost the 60lbs and got back to my low adult weight, and became comfortable. Let go of my good eating habits because nobody in my family ate that way or supported me and I was a bit cocky (and wrongly so) about my ability to maintain/lose. A bit of depression snuck in about there, because I wasn't happy with the majority of my life, and I gained some back, but at least I stopped it then or I could have easily wound up back at 240lbs...or higher. My main problem comes when I give up on myself...I'm an emotional eater, and when I let myself get lost in food and stop believing I'm worth the effort of maintaining/losing weight, I balloon up.

I was on the heavy side of normal until college where I got up to 180 lbs. because I didn't know much about nutrition or cooking except that pasta was cheap and easy. I thought girls who were obsessed with their weight were shallow. I started playing rugby and working out and got down to maybe 140.

I got married and my husband and I loved to cuddle on the couch, watch movies, and eat delicious food. Like a retired football player, after I stopped playing rugby, I ballooned. We lived in New Orleans, which was not exactly a diet town. He didn't care what I weighed and I got up to 230. I became a fat advocate. Then we lost our house in Katrina and I got up to about 257 with nowhere to cook or store food after the storm and eating out all the time.

Really, I like food and I have trouble caring enough about losing weight. But like everyone I have an OHMYGODIAM2FAT!!! weight, and it turned out mine was 250. I used to be pretty and now I am a bit blobular. I am so looking forward to weighing something starting with a 1.

I was always active and doing things and never really paid too much attention to what I was eating. If I liked it, I ate it. I never really overate or anything. In high school for awhile I had this weird almost eating disorder where I just didn't eat anything, but I kind of grew out of that. In college, I became a vegetarian after I gained some weight, but then I was back down to a heavier but acceptable weight. I worked out like 3 days a week, was a lifeguard, and walked everywhere because I didn't have a car.

Then fast forward to grad school. It was just 3 years of terrible decisions, pretty much. I got involved in one bad relationship after another. I was stressed and tired, always. I barely had time to cook for myself, but I did find time to go out drinking 3-4 days a week, which often ended at burger king or taco bell. I didn't like coffee, but I needed caffeine so I was drinking pop, energy drinks, and starbucks mochas. I had a crappy apartment and didn't own a scale. It was a gradual gain, like 10 lbs a year, but wow, it really caught up with me. I was emotionally eating, which I had never done. Eating horrible fast food and restaurant food about 4 days a week. Not doing much exercise at all except walking to classes. Drinking way too many calories worth of alcohol. Moved to a cold climate where I wasn't out nearly as much. A combination of all of those factors just made me...fat. haha.

I blame it on poor parenting. As a kid my parents didn't cook often, and stopped by Mcdonalds for us kids just about every night. We drank soda like water, and refused to drink water. There were no limitations either, we could eat whatever we wanted, however much we wanted. When most kids were eating happy meals still, I was eating a Quarter Pounder supersized value meal. So needless to say I was a fat kid! When I got into my teenage years I changed my lifestyle and it feels so great to be healthy now.

In my adulthood I've slipped up a little bit.. I associate good memories with food I ate at the time. So sometimes I want to relive that whole feeling and go back to that food (comfort eating i guess). And also my boyfriend bringing tons of mountain dew and pizza carryout into the house has effected me a bit.

I just like to eat junk food.

I love pizza, McDonalds, Candy, cookies, ice cream, Pop-Tarts, beer, french fries, an endless list and I will eat what I want and when I want.

Then one day I stand on the scale or have to hold my breath to tie my shoes, or lie on the bed to zip my pants and I will start to eat healthy again. This lasts a while- a few months or years, then I start eating junk again.

Various reasons. I ate mainly because I was taught from an early age that foods like "chocolate, candy, cakes, ice cream" etc were GOOD foods, and ones that you should want. So... they were ones I'd try and eat the most of. A lot of them I didn't even like the taste of, but I ate them because they were the "good" foods. They were the ones I was supposed to like. For example, I HATE greasy food. Stuff like fried chicken, greasy meats, etc absolutely disgust me. But... they are the "good" foods, so I ate them. I also don't like really salty things. They burn my tongue. But... they are "good" foods, so I ate them. I don't like meat. But... I ate it. Actually... as soon as I'm out on my own (I have to wait one more year... then I'm in college), I'm going completely vegan. I don't like meat, can't STAND eggs or fish... so... yeah.

I also ate more because our family eats in front of the TV most of the time. So... I just grab food, and don't realize what I'm grabbing.

It snuck up on me. I don't exactly know HOW it happened. It wasn't a conscious decision. Wish it could be the same way with weight LOSS.

I was a thin child that never had to excercise because I wasn't raised that way. I wasn't taught to be athletic and cared soley about my books, not my moms fault cause she knew this is what made me happy and had far too many over-active kids to be worried about the one or the way we ate. She just wanted to make sure we fed so nutrition wasn't always number one with food choices...just having food was enough. I learned to love chocolate at age 7 and fell in love with cupcakes, cookies, candy bars, icecream, hot chocolate, chocolate milk but still was slim to the point where it didn't matter up until a few years ago when I started to gain.

I gained and gained for a period of 1-3 years and then plateau into the weight i am now only going slightly down here and there. It wasn't a problem because I felt like I was attractive and had a healthy sense of self and loved me so I wasn't really hurrying to lose it but the weight and the buying of the bigger clothes is becoming a burden financially and physically on my body.

So I now want to lose weight just to look like the hot thang that I always proclaim myself to be anytime someone remotely mentions my weight.

If I am honest with myself - I am fat because
1. I eat too much
2. I do not do anywhere near enough exercise

Until I emotionally accept that I need to do less of number 1 and more of number 2...I will always be "chunky", "well upholstered", "plump" and all those other patronising words that people use in place of plain old fat.

I await the day when I stop blaming "big bones"; "being so un-coordinated that I just CAN'T do any sports"; "no sense of balance so obviously I can't ride a bike"; "too heavy to run - I can't risk snapping my ankles" ... etc etc...

I used to be a skinny skinny child, but then when puberty hit, I became a chubby girl - not fat, but definitely always had an extra 15-20 lbs on me.

It stayed this until university. Since in my life, I do everything the hard way and backwards, I did not gain in my freshmen year, but actually LOST about 30-40 lbs, just through stress, not eating as much without my mother cooking for me, etc. So I went from 155-160lbs to 118lbs (at my lowest). I also took to running on the treadmill.

I kept the weight for about 2-3 years, then graduated, and went to teach abroad. My significant other at the time, followed me. And instead of the doing the typical tourist-y things in Asia, he decided to play video games. And although it was his prerogative, and I cannot put any of the blame on him, because it was my decision, I felt he contributed to my stagnant lifestyle. He didn't make any effort to work out, and I, in my loneliness, decided to spend time with him, and try to be involved with his interests.

Why he didn't take the same effort in my interests is a whole other story. But then I gained all back and then some!!!!

I came back home at 163lbs. And now am on my way down. I really don't know what I weigh now, because I find the scale disheartening. I'd like to believe I'm around 140-150lbs. I wear a size 4/6.

So that's my story, morning glory!

Well, it took me 10 years to figure it out, and it was multiple issues.

First and foremost, I began to have hypothyroid issues at age 28, which slowed my metabolism. As the condition worsened, losing weight became impossible. I gained 90 lbs in 9 years.

I also didn't have the most realistic idea of what healthy foods were. I was eating whole wheat and vegetables and not eating fast food or drinking soda, so I thought my diet was good. What I didn't realize is my diet was FULL of common allergens. I now eat an anti-inflammatory diet.

I also had some empty calories in the form of alcoholic beverages and coffee (with cream). I have since quit drinking both alcoholic and coffee beverages and drink water or green tea.