[theCandEs]

Hi, I'm a former thinnie, too. I was 98 pounds soaking wet when I graduated high school. My prom dress was a size 3, and it was too big! *sigh*

After high school, the roller coaster started. I went up to a size 12 in a year. I worked at a bank as an assistant. I had wanted to go away to school, but didn't and I was so depressed.

Then, I finally did go away to school, and the weight fell off. I was happy and, although bigger than my friends (not by as much as I thought, though) I really enjoyed myself.

After graduation, I worked in a variety of jobs. I had one physically demanding job, and I lost down to a size 8. I was happy with that. My next job was depressing, and less active. I gained up to a size 10 or 12, but I did end up meeting the wonderful man that is my husband.

I was 150 pounds when we got married. Size 14 wedding gown, but it had to be taken in because I lost 10 pounds leading up to the wedding.

I was 161 when I got pregnant with my first baby. I was 189 after. Ugh!

I went on WW and lost down to 140 pounds. Depression got me again. My baby had some troubles and had to have surgery. I ate my way back up to 160 before I "caught" myself. And then, you guessed it .... pregnant again! Back up to 194 when it was all done. Wore a size 18/16 for several years. That "baby" is now 7 years old.

I stayed there for a few years. I lost 10 doing SBD. Then, a year ago I found out I had pre-diabetes. I cut back on the carbs. First, did SBD. Adding carbs back didn't work for me, so I switched to the Primal/Paleo diet. It was good to me. Lost 45 pounds or so just doing that. I'm stuck in a plateau currently, but I'm trying to shake it.

So, that's it. I really think that this time I've changed my lifestyle. I feel a whole lot better than ever. I just wish these last few pounds would come off!! LOL

[banananutmuffin]

I was 98 lbs in high school, 102 in college, 107 in grad school, and pretty much stayed there until I was 25 and started dating my husband.

When I was in college, I would DRIVE four blocks to a local Mexican restaurant and eat a big ol' burrito with a side of cheese fries. That sentence pretty much sums up my lifelong attitude toward food and physical activity.

Once Hubby and I started dating, we ate out a lot and I started matching his "man" portions. Also, Hubby is a great cook. (If I ever write his biography, it will be titled "Mike Makes The Best Gravy.") Fast forward through marriage and two pregnancies (when I really did eat for two), and I hit a weight that had me in the "overweight" category according to the BMI charts. Bam! That was my motivation to start taking it off.

[luciddepths]

i was small until about 20...then i gained. Just over eating, eating garbage food, lots of beer. I started to gain a bit at around 16 too...after i got on the depo shot, i wanted to eat all the time. Also i found when i went off the depo i had issues with depression and what not, hormones all out of wack.

I found the weight very easy to come off, but now that i'm getting to a lower weight its starting to be harder, mind you i'm not as focused.

[Michinmn]

What a great thread!!! Yes, I am a former "thinnie" (lol) person. I weighed 110 in my teens. By the time I was 18 I was a size 0 and 1 in jeans. Even when I was 5 months pregnant I was still thin. BUT...towards the end of my pregnancy whamo! I gained 80 pounds. I was such a tubo when I gave birth. I weighed 200 pounds. 1 week after my daughter was born I weighed 172 and stayed at that weight for 2 years. (I was 23 when I had my daughter, and 25-26 when I had my real weight problem).

I finely got so fed up with how I felt and looked, I got determined, counted only fat grams....allowed myself 20 grams of fat per day, 5 days a week, then on the weekends I ate whatever I wanted. Moreover, I worked out for 60 minutes, 5 days a week. I lost 34 pounds in six months!! And kept it off for years. BUT now.......so many years later, I weigh 182 and have no will power or discipline.
I dont like the way I look or feel but cant seem to get motivated. I don't know what to do! I work out, but not consistent like I used to.

UGH!!!

[m3k]

A combination of BC, a broken ankle, moving out, college, stress, a very stable relationship, and possibly even a minor case of depression, definitely put me over the edge as far as weight. The broken ankle was the nail in the coffin though. I used to be comfortably anywhere between 120 and 140lbs. Man do I miss those days! And I thought I was fat back then!

[Beach Patrol]

I've had a weight problem all my life. But not really.

I was a chubby child (baby fat, it was called). I always FELT fat because of that (& because my brother, who WAS stick-thin, always teased me.) However, when I hit puberty, I leaned up real fast. I stayed around 103-108 lbs thru hi-school. Granted, I still FELT FAT. I took laxatives as a means of "keeping my tummy flat". But I ate. Oh yes I did. Always had a sweet tooth since the day my first teeth came in! And my mother always made sure I had good food. But most of it was FRIED (hey, I'm a southerner, what can I say.) Still, I kept my weight below 110 thru junior high & hi-school.

UNTIL THE 12th GRADE. I had a very problematic senior year; my mother was severely injured in an accident & I had a very abusive boyfriend. I gained up to 121 lbs. I WAS FAT (by my standards).

Then I graduated, got away from the boyfriend & my mother was healing. I hung out with my friends, running around all summer, to the movies, to the lake, etc. I never took time to eat, really. I'd wake up, grab a glass of O.J. and a banana & then didn't eat more than a bite or two here or there for the rest of the day. About once a week, my mom could convince me to "sit down & eat!" ...

I lost TOO MUCH WEIGHT that summer. From 121 down to 92 lbs. And I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia and anemia. The doc put me on a strict no-fried foods/no-sugar foods diet. I was miserable! No fried chicken, no fried okra or fried squash, no pie, no cake, no juice! ARGH! ...then I was in college. I discovered weight lifting...and I was a lifeguard during the summer, so I swam A LOT. I was the typical college student, going out on weekends, hitting the clubs, dancing my arse off (literally!) but eating the typical college diet... pizza, mac & cheese, Taco Bell, McDonald's, etc. Still, it took me a year to gain up to 115 lbs.

115 pounds of good, strong, healthy muscle.

Then I got out of college... got married... suddenly found myself with no pool to do laps & no "free gym" & a desk job & what? 132 pounds? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Then divorce and a job change & major weight loss again (down to 118). Gained up to 126... got married again... another move, another "desk job"... Then came the yo-yo diets for years & years & years, and here I am at 164 after a high weight of 192.

God, what I wouldn't give to be that fat girl of "121 lbs" that I was when I graduated hi-school!!!

[Alicia84]

haha...that's me.
One thing that hurts me is..I'm a good girl (she said, narcissisticly) & I have asked friends in high school not to make fun of anyone. But I used to think to myself, "boy how did she get fat like that & I wouldn't ever reach that weight."

That was 100kgs or the triple digit number. Now, I passed that . And I know people think the same when they're around me.

Also, I never over ate & my mom used to force me to eat. Now, she begs me to stop eating when she sees me ravishingly eat. I think of food every waking second. I'm a food addict & I've tried many times to unsuccessfully change the habit. I haven't gained any weight since Jan, but I haven't lost any either.

[TheWalrus]

I was always really active, so although I was never stick-thin, the way my brother and father are, weight was never something I was worried about. I couldn't even tell you what I weighed until senior year in college, when I was weighed as part of a sports team competition. I was heavier than most girls in the group, at 191, but believe me, at 5'11", it was almost all muscle.

After college I had to give up my sport because of injuries, but I walked a LOT. As in, it wasn't an unusual Sunday for me to walk 10 or 15 miles to meet my friends for breakfast, and then go home. Then, out of nowhere, I had what my endocrinologist termed a "metabolic shift" -- I didn't change my diet or my exercise (in fact, I was in the process of leaving an abusive boyfriend, so I was actually eating less than I ever did before or have since), and I gained 100 pounds in a little over a year. Yikes.

Then I moved, at least partly to get away from the now-stalker boyfriend, and was in a hellish job in a part of the country that relies solely on cars to get around. I was already overweight because of the metabolism thing, and now I started losing muscle mass and comfort eating. After about a year, I was seriously depressed and had gained another 15 pounds.

My mom had been heavy when I was growing up, as had my great-grandmother on my dad's side, apparently, so I figured that the metabolism thing was temporary. Frankly, I couldn't believe that it was real. I felt pretty cheated, honestly.

I left the disaster job and moved to a new city, and got happier and more active. I lost back to the pre-disaster job weight and met my future husband, who had also just lost about 50 pounds. Then I switched jobs again and was in the worst situation I've ever been in. I can't believe I lasted as long as I did! But I was miserable. I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping, I wasn't exercising.

Then I got laid off. Then my husband got laid off. Fun, fun, fun. I built my own business instead of going back into the industry, which involved, yup, lots of work, sitting down, with no time to breathe, much less exercise. Then I started a combination of my business and a full-time job. My husband had been at his job since college and had worked his way up from a temp job to being a director. Losing his job shook him to his foundations. I don't want to go into everything we've been through. Suffice to say, if we've made it this far, I can't see us ever not making it.

Six years later, I have finally gotten a handle on doing a full-time job plus running my business, and I finally feel like I can accept the luxury of spending time on myself, rather than running to stay ahead of the bills. It's been difficult breaking the habits of the last 10 years, plus coming to terms with the fact that the weight isn't going to magically go away the same way it magically appeared. But I'm back down to my pre-disaster job weight (woo hoo!) and am getting closer to the level of fitness I'd enjoyed my entire life before.

I'm still hitting a stumbling block, apparently, about losing the magical metabolic shift weight, probably in part because it just seems so unfair!, but I will do it. It may take me a while, but I now know I can, and I know I will.

And the prince and the princess lived happily ever after. The end

[mamamorgan]

I was kinda chubby (at least to me, at that age, 135~140) ntil 11tg grade of highschool. That previous year, my family went throgh a lot. Parents divorced, we lived in a homeless shelter, finally found a place we could afford 10 months later, but there was barely money for food. To keep my mind off of everything, I was rarely home, stayed with friends, boyfriends, did alot of walking to get places and the weight came off. I stayed between 120 & 128 until I got pregnant with my son @ 20. I got depressed while pregnant, put on 60 lbs but as soon as I had my son, a weight lifted I felt better, happier, and was ready to lose the weight but couldnt find the time an energy to do so between my son, work, and college. I managed to lose most of it without diet and exercise but remained between 148 & 152. Enough was enough a month and a half ago and here I am. My son is now 15 months and I dont feel bad anymore to take 30 mins out of my day to exercise which helps. Between newborn and 8 months, I had alot of mommy guilt.

Now, I find it harder to lose the weight then putting it on. I have to make a clear choice to eat well and exercise. When I put on the weight, I didnt think, I ate to make myself feel better.

[alsten02]

was thin/average until 19 .. I was active & used to go out dancing often etc .. then started eating the wrong stuff at a small restaurant I worked short time at and ended up gettin my gallbladder removed.. im still amazed that i had problems with it when I had just started to eat badly lol was diganosed with pcos at 19 also.. then as the weight piled on, my agoraphobia became worse and was house bound & depressed etc, so out of boredom and emotional eating the pounds came fast and been struggling with it ever since ..hopefully this time around I can keep it off for good

[Koshka]

I was, I guess, average all the way through college. Probably weighed about 130 pounds occasionally all the way up to 135 (tongue in cheek a bit since I would love to weigh 135 now!). Looking back at photos, I looked good and not at all overweight.

During law school, I slowly gained weight probably lack of activity and being away from home for the first time and eating whatever I wanted to. I got out of school at 24 weighing about 145 pounds.

During the next years I gained 35 pounds! I was living in a very small town with few options for food. I had lunch at Dairy Queen every day (the only fast food place in town). I didn't know many people and just ate out of boredom.

After a year I went back to the big city and felt huge at 180 pounds. I did fairly quickly lose 30 pounds but I mostly settled at between 150 and 160 pounds. 10 years later I joined WW at 168 pounds (by then mid-30s). It took a couple of years but I got down to 125 pounds -- less than even during high school.

I didn't maintain it and slowly gained. This time is was mostly meeting my DH. I tried to eat like him. I had gained up to my mid 150s, got pregnant, ended up at 180 and since then bounced around. Height was at 207.

Somewhere along the way I thought it must be genetic but I didn't know as I'm adopted. I found my birthmother 14 years ago and found out that I didn't even have genes to attribute my weight gain to. She is 5'1" and struggles to get to 100 pounds!

I think that really most of it for me was just poor eating habits and lack of activity.

[toodles11]

My weight gain was definitely decreased activity paired with excess calories. I was always between 115-125 when I was younger. Once I got my first real office job, I would eat out for lunch & dinner every day, have a drink or two after work. Get together with friends (which involved more eating & drinking) on the weekends. Never made time for exercise and if I did, it was merely 30 mins on an elliptical which did nothing to un-do all of the crappy food I was eating. Fast forward to now, having 2 kids and a full-time job, I haven't made my body a priority. Everyone else has came first. There have been so many times over the past few years that I've said if I would've just started 6 months ago, I'd be at the weight I want to be, blah blah blah. Well, now I'm doing it!

[Addicted]

Oh dear, the story of my weight.. Well, as a child, I was very tall for my age, a skinny lanky stick thing really! I would wear childrens clothes for 2-3 years older than i actually was because i needed the length and my mum would have to sew elastic into the waist of jeans to make them smaller or take in skirts and dresses.
I hit puberty early, causing me to hate my body and to wear nothing but loose baggy hoodies and tops. Then, in my early teens, having been tall my whole life, my friends started to have growth spurts and catch up with me while I all but stopped growing.
I began to fill out and wearing a UK size 8 (american size 4 i think?) and bra size 32C when i was around 13, while many of my friends were still in childrens sizes. I hated my body and began to turn to food, or so my excuse goes. I binge at BIG TIME, and would eat a huge amount, feel guilty and then not eat for the rest of the day. I'd tell myself i wouldnt do it again, but then a few days later I'd find myself sneaking the packet of cookies from downstairs to my bedroom, devouring them and hiding the evidence.
Between 15 and 17 I was a UK size 10/12 and between 64-69 kgs. Then, due to exams and giving up most sports I reached 71kgs in my final year in school, which i easily lost before college.
Moving away from home, cooking for myself (or not cooking in my case a lot of the time) I certainly gained the freshers 15, with my size 12 colthes becoming quite tight..
Although I've now lost most of this weight, I plan to get back to what I was before my food issues started and this time, appreciate myself rather than hating myself.

[runningfromfat]

As you can see in my ticker I was 140's in high school and 155 in college. In high school I watchced what I eat to some extent (but was FAR from perfect) but I was a long distance runner and would run up to 10miles a day. In college I was still an athlete but my eating habits were worse due to eating more at night while studying.

After graduating from college I shot up to ~185lbs almost immediately and fluctuated back and forth between 175-185 up until I got pregnant with DD. Then I put all restrictions aside and gained 65lbs during my pregnancy! So I gave birth at 240lbs. I did lose about 30lbs after giving birth but I gained most of that back. It wasn't until coming to 3FC that I really started taking off that weight and now I'm only 6lbs away from my prepregnancy weight (175lbs and probably my lowest adult weight but I might have been as low as ~170lbs at my wedding).

My weight loss as been S-L-O-W. However, I've purposely not counted calories and have worked more on major lifestyle changes so I figure that has more to do with it than anything else. I doubt I'll be completely free of skin issues either due to the pregnancy.

I can think of a few major advantages that I do have, though:
1. I've always loved exercise and it's more of a default for me than not exercising.
2. I love fruits/veggies and have eaten them my entire adult life. My problem is that I LOVE sweets so once I was able to deal with that everything else fell in place.
3. I know what I look like at my smallest and am pretty sure I'll be happy even if I get to the highest end of my BMI (although I might go a bit farther for those few vanity pounds).

I have no clue what maitence will be like. I feel like I could maintain my current weight easily. I still have 26lbs to go to get to a weight that I'll even think about trying to maintain after that I want to pick one that I'm happy at and I can maintain easily. I have no clue if being "thin" earlier will make that easier or not.

[Ryler832]

I was between 110-115 lb when I graduated high school and entering my first year of college. With my first pregnancy I gained 78 lb and was stuck at 140-145 lb for 7 years. I decided to lose that extra weight and started working out, eating right, etc. I got down to 136 lb and then found found out that my IVF worked and I was pregnant. I had a high risk pregnancy so I was placed on ed rest for my entire pregnancy. I managed to gain 35 lb with that pregnancy and was able to lose all of it after I stopped breastfeeding.

I do not find that it is easier to lose the weight because I used to be thin. I was always able to eat anything and not gain weight but that isn't the case any more. I have to work really hard just to lose up to one lb a week.