Do you consider yourself overweight?

For those of you who consider yourself overweight, what do you think caused this?

For example, was it simply overeating every single meal? Or junk food everyday (ie. half a box of cookies everyday? a bag of chips in front of the tv every night?) Genetics? Fast food every meal?

Basically, looking back, what were your biggest mistake(s) that led you to being overweight?

I eat too much. Plain and simple.

I eat when I'm not hungry, I snack constantly, make bad food choices, stress eat, eat too much junk - the works

I'm very emotional, have distorted thoughts, therefore eat too much and that's how I got bigger.

I binge ate and that is what got me at the weight I had been, I still struggle on and off.

I was overweight for almost all my life due to over-eating and not really knowing much about eating right.

I then lost a lot of weight but put it all back on and more due to unhealthy weight loss, binge eating, and over-restriction/starvation.

My weight problem is a combination of factors.

1.  Not enough exercise (desk jockey)

2.  Stress

3.  Poor eating habits.  Not eating too much.  But rather eating too little and eating the wrong foods at meal times.  High fat and high sugar at every meal.

4.  Finally - I was sick last year and had to take steroids.  I had a poor reaction and gained a lot of weight.  I put on nearly 20 lbs.  Since I was already overweight and see the first 3 above, I am just now getting rid of the excess.

I think for me it was, Once my parents split up i ate way to much. A lot of fast food. But I'm trying really hard to lose weight now.

I think I'm overweight.   5'5" with a medium frame, weigh 165 and think I should be in the 135-140 range.  At different times in my life, I was overweight for different reasons.  Sometimes it was because I was in love and we always went out for wine and dinner constantly.  Other times it was because I was bored and would eat poor choices.  Ironically, when I was bored I was also extraordinarily lazy and preferred to eat prepared foods, take out and chips (crisps to you charming Brits...).  I don't think I've ever been truly obese but my weight fluctuates in a 2 year pattern.  I look great for two years and then slowly gain it all back, plus a little extra the next two years.  In the past, my worry was all about looking good, but now in addition to that, I'm more concerned about staying healthy too.

I do think I am overweight, even though people say I'm not. I am definitely a pear shape and I carry most of my weight on my hips, butt, thighs and I just have chunky legs all around. I think I didn't eat healthy enough (not entirely my fault, I woke up and became more health conscious when I was 16) and also that I am genetically this way. I have my mom's shape and she is overweight, my dad is also overweight... But I don't know, ever since I was small I always thought I was fat compared to the other kids, and now that I'm grown up and I look at myself, I was NOT fat when I was a kid! I guess I just kept on eating thinking I was meant to be fat, anyway. Right now, the numbers say I'm overweight and I don't like the size of my butt, but except for having gained a couple of pounds my weight doesn't seem to budge and move any lower.

#1 cause for me becoming overweight was being uneducated about healthy eating.  I'm 43yo but until 6 weeks ago I didn't even know how many calories I should be eating, let alone how much protein or fat or carbs or sodium or calcium or sat fat or sugar or...

#2 cause was consuming way too many calories when eating out and with my own 'old-fashioned' home cooking.  I don't crave sweets or other junk, and I never ate till I was stuffed, but I sure overdid it on calories without even being aware of it!

#3 was lack of organized/planned exercise - it's hard and it's boring and I'm still working on my attitude about this one :)  But sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do simply because it's the right thing to do.

1.  The was I raised.  My mother is the one that taught me about eating and coming from a family that eats uncontrollably does not help.

2.  Eating when I am bored.  It is a means of doing something.  

3.  Genetics-  I have the type of body that gains weight extremely fast.  If I eat badly for a week, I can gain like 1.5 pounds.  

4.  People around you.  I live with other girls who are big and eat the same heavy stuff...

5.  I think I have an addiction to food.  I think about it a lot

I used food as a treat much too much, and would binge on my favourite foods to make me feel "better" when sad. My parents brought me up on big dinners and few veg, so it was easy to become overweight.

I'm going to take a wild guess here and bet that a you, and a lot of people posting in this thread are already skinny and wanting to be ultra thin. The tip off was the way your question is worded "Do you consider yourself overweight."  There's no considering involved.  Figure out your BMI and that will tell the tale.

Those of us who are obese, pre-obese, or overweight, know it because we use the CC tools and know our BMIs.  There are so many reasons for overweight but the biggest one is overeating.  Some of us are old and our metabolisms have slowed causing that famous middle aged spread.  We know that.  It's not rocket science.  We don't have to speculate.

We're here to learn how to eat better and less, how to move more, and how to burn calories, and we're doing it to make ourselves better.  A couple of months ago I reached my first big goal which was a BMI of under 30, taking me out of the severe overweight range and into the moderately overweight range.  Next, to get it below 25 and into the healthy range. 

Personally, and I know I'm not alone, I'm really tired of seeing posts by skinny little girls who have some sort of distorted, sick, way of thinking, that "consider" themselves overweight.  Most of the time I just skip these threads, but this one made me mad.

I made the classic mistake of settling into a comfortable and very happy relationship. After buying a place together 18 months ago, we spent many nights curled up on the sofa wathing junk tv shows whilst eating junk food! Also, may other half is a keen sportsman so eats big portions only to burn them off on the football pitch. I tended to eat whatever he did, without doing the exercise, and after about a year I was making the scales scream at 9 1/2 stone, which is a lot for my tiny 5` 1 frame!

The final straw was this Christmas, when I managed to polish off an entire tin of Roses (and not one of the little tins...!). I felt so disgusted with myself, I immediately joined up to a local step aerobics class and started eating a much more balanced, low fat, low cal diet. That was 6 weeks ago and I am thrilled to say I have lost an inch from each thigh, my waist and my hips. I have gone down a dress size and to my delight, even the next size down feels a little loose now! Have bought myself a new pair of trainers to keep myself motivated and will do something similar when I loose another inch.

And for those of you who might be wondering - my relationship is just as happy without the junk food - in fact it's happier!!

 clairelaine, I understand why your upset, but these aren't pro-ana girls (Checked the pages) so don't stress.

I have been slightly overweight (diagnosed by a doctor) for a majority of my life and it was the combination of binge eating and my mom's apathetic view on weight. Parents don't realize how much power they do have in their kids future and I wish I had a mother who cared about my health.

I am overweight.  Even as a little kid, I was always one of the bigger girls in the class.  Whether I was actually overweight or not then, I don't know.  I would have been borderline, but I didn't start weighing myself until 7th grade.  And I'm really not sure why.  I ate healthy foods with the occasional junky snacks.  I played outside with my friends.  I went biking and hiking and stuff like that with my family.  But I was still big.  I knew it and other people knew it (hence the bullying - though having a brain in my head didn't help on that front either). 

At some point in junior high, I just accepted it, gave up and started binging on junk food.  (I could polish off a whole box of snack crackers or a family sized bag of chips in two sittings.)  And that's probably when I crossed over into officially being overweight.  I continued being active, and remained just-a-bit overweight throughout high school and undergrad.  (The binging stopped midway through high school, but I never did drop any of that weight; I just ate bigger portions in general rather than having binges.)  In grad school, I no longer felt like I had time to be active other than walking to and from the university, and I gained another 10-20 pounds.  Then I lost a bit (according to my coworkers; I'd stopped weighing at the end of high school) when I got a job, but packed a bunch more pounds back on two years ago when (a) my job got really stressful and (b) my sister moved in with me for a year. 

When I joined CC last July, I had an BMI of 30.6, making me officially obese.  As of this week, my BMI was 26.0.  I'm hoping to get down to a BMI of 25.0 by May/June so that I can be/feel not-overweight for possibly the first time in my life.

thank you all for sharing. and susiecue, wow! congragulations on your weight loss, and how inspiring.  also, c jamie, i appreciate your frankness and point of view as well.  and since im posting, i suppose ill share.  i hadn't weighed myself in literally over a year on the advice of a therapist (yes, issues!).  and i was feeling very healthy!  slowly my pants weren't fitting yadah yadah yadah.  when i went to a doc was my wake up call, 'you're in the middle range of being overweight, just so you know'.  i'm like but i look okay.  after much thought, i somehow brought it up to the roomie, 'do you think i need to lose weight.'   at first  'no no not really.' and then 'well . . . maybe 5 lbs.  ok maybe ten, but def no more than 20.' lol! i was pissed at this bitch, but now that ive lost 8 lbs on cc i am s glad she told me.   so for me, i suppose i didn't consider myself overweight, but turns out i am.  overeating and having to get rid of my bike. . . . luckily i got a new one.  also, wait red wine is my main weight aid maybe.  1 bottle per night adds the pounds im tellin ya.

moon_doggie, from c_jamie's other post it sounds like she is in the ED/trying to gain catagory.  Though she probably isn't pro-ana, it is a little deceptive to jump on the weight loss forum and ask people if they think they are overweight and how they got that way.  Since she has an ED it could imply that she is trying to figure out what is fat, if she could be fat and not know it, how other people got fat so she could avoid it.. so on and so forth.  That is completely speculative, and I'm not saying that is her intention.  But it does make me see where clairelaines response may have come from.

Original Post by gadzooks:

I was overweight for almost all my life due to over-eating and not really knowing much about eating right.

I then lost a lot of weight but put it all back on and more due to unhealthy weight loss, binge eating, and over-restriction/starvation.

 I am the same here... My problem now is knowing when to stop or what is really the truth. I view myself as being flubby and chubby (currently size 3/4). I know a size 3/4 is not fat but it's still enough to keep me dieting. :(

Original Post by c_jamie:

For those of you who consider yourself overweight, what do you think caused this?

For example, was it simply overeating every single meal? Or junk food everyday (ie. half a box of cookies everyday? a bag of chips in front of the tv every night?) Genetics? Fast food every meal?

Basically, looking back, what were your biggest mistake(s) that led you to being overweight?

I was always overweight but not by much, maybe in the range of 10-20# growing up.  I was active though, always, I was a competive swimmer in grade school and high school.  I rowed in college.  No matter what I did, I stayed about the same weight.  When I started my residency I unfortunately started a work schedule where I would not eat for 48 hours at a time.  I would work for 24hours straight without time for a meal break or bathroom break.  Then sleep for 24.  There were even days when I went for 24hours without sitting down at all.  This went on for about 4 years then when I became a normal human being again and ate everyday and ate appropriate meals daily I gained 70 lbs in no time, I was also in a very cold climate where the weight literally worked as an insulator.  I truly screwed my metabolism and now I am paying the price because I have to eat enough calories AND they have to be good quality calories to get any weight loss.  Back in the day, I could eat a little of everything and not pay too high a price but the times they been a changin' :(

Original Post by clairelaine:

I'm going to take a wild guess here and bet that a you, and a lot of people posting in this thread are already skinny and wanting to be ultra thin. The tip off was the way your question is worded "Do you consider yourself overweight."  There's no considering involved.  Figure out your BMI and that will tell the tale.

Personally, and I know I'm not alone, I'm really tired of seeing posts by skinny little girls who have some sort of distorted, sick, way of thinking, that "consider" themselves overweight.  Most of the time I just skip these threads, but this one made me mad.

 Clairelaine, normally I enjoy your posts as they are thoughtful and helpful... I hope this isn't a new thing you're beginning here as this post was pretty rude. Whether you're condition is being overweight, and overeater, or an anorexic.... obviously if you found your way here you need help.

Why are you chastizing someone for asking a question? This post should be applied to the girls who are maliciously trying to post pro-ana stuff... then I wouldn't say anything. But this? C'mon Claire. :(