What made you fat in the first place

Hello all,

Hope you don't think I'm dwelling too much on the negative, but for me half of the battle of dieting was looking at why I porked out in the first place. I put on 30lb in a fairly short space of time. I had my heart broken and, being a fool, I rebounded straight into another relationship. Unfortunately the guy I went out with on the rebound was an abusive, violent, controlling bully who waged full on psychological warfare on me for a year.

This relationship was almost impossible to get out of and at my bleakest moments I considered doing something very drastic just to escape the abuse. I took solace in drinking and junk food. Plus my mental boyfriend was very controlling about what I ate and wouldn't let me eat anything healthy.

Fast forward a year, I have ditched the A-hole (with the help of a restraining order and some wonderful friends) and have lost 25lb. I also have a lovely new boyfriend. I still have a lot of work to do, physically and also  healing the mental scars but when I look at how far I have come I feel fairly proud.

Well that is my story, does anyone else want to share what made them put on weight and then decide to get rid of it

xxxxx

My story is nothing like as dramatic.   A love of good food, fine wine and no concept of portion-control started the ball rolling.  Over 10-15 years being just a few pounds heavier at the end of each year than at the start ... soon creeps up.   And then it was seriously compounded by having a baby!   I decided to get rid of the excess 50lbs+ when I turned 40 because I saw a particularly unflattering picture of myself at a party and could kid myself no longer!

My story isn't dramatic either.  The weight just crept up, a couple of pounds here and there every year, every holiday season, every vacation.  The end began for me when I got back from a vacation and saw the pictures.  I just couldn't stand to see myself look like that anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a lot to lose but I do know that without a big change in my relationship with eating not only would I not lose anything but the weight would contiune to slowly go up.  So 2 weeks ago I changed my life.....sounds so dramatic doesn't it?  So far I've lost 5 lbs and that feels pretty good.  At least I know I'm on the right road.

I'm sorry your ex put you thru all that trouble but its good you're back on your feet. I gained the weight cause of my relationship, but it's nothing bad, i was just love 'nesting'. We would constantly be up all night and sleep during the day and so we would eat before sleeping, and eat all kinds of crap and go out to eat with friends a lot and it slowly crept on me w/o me even noticing lol I just gained about 15 lbs but it made me realize i need to change all my habits. I used to be skinnier and as soon as i slept over his house all the time i gained the weight, oh and he wants to be a chef so you know he cooks all this good food but its not good FOR me lol

my story isn't very interesting but i'll share :) well i was always pretty thin as a kid.. but once i turned 7 yrs old my parents divorced, and my mom and i moved in with my grandma which strangely caused me to gain weight, ha? grandma's cooking was obviously not the healthiest but it was the best, and at that time all i needed was comfort food. so i gained about 20 lbs and by the time i turned 10 the weight was really noticeable. i hit puberty at that time and my body was still really awkward looking and that's when all my body image issues started. i developed what i know now to be an eating disorder at around 11 yrs old. i didn't know what it was back then, i just knew i could lose weight quick if i ate very little.. so i did. i lost most of the chunk i had gained. i was really active throughout middle school because i was on the danced team and so my body image issues weren't really a concern anymore. in highschool i still stayed in dance. i wasn't very thin, i was just average. i used to eat like a mad woman though. idk if it was because when i was young i was served large amounts of food but i ate a lot! i didn't really gain weight because i was in activities but it was kinda creeping up. my eating was terrible.. i would not eat breakfast because i wasn't hungry then at lunch i would eat like a cookie or some snack and then when i got home i would EAT. like really eat.. like a whole pizza pie for myself in one sitting. on the weekends i would stay up tille like 5 am and eat a jar of oreo cookies with milk right before bed, or 2 boxes of mac & cheese or a huge bowl of froot loops cereal or 3 hotdogs w/ chips, etc. anyways, my senior year i decided to drop my dancing and stick to my academics because college was my first priority. i kept up my eating habits and i guess the stress made it worse because i gained a ton of weight and reached an all time high of 155 lbs at 5'3". so that's when i noticed.. i went crazy. all i could think about was "omg when i get to college i'm going to be huge!" since i'd never really dieted before i turned to what worked for me when i was 11.. i started eating less. except this time i knew it was an eating disorder. i just told myself it was a quick fix and that i was gonna stop when i reached my gw. it went fine for a couple of months, i lost a lot of weight and started feeling pretty good about myself. but then it started getting very difficult and i started getting anxious to reach my gw. about mid-july i realized what i was doing and decided i needed to stop before it got way out of hand. so i did.. i wasn't at my gw yet but i told myself i would get there the healthy way. in august i left to college, about 7 lbs away from my gw. when i got there i went crazy. i was out of my routine and living 10 hrs away from home didn't help either. i went to the other extreme and started binging every night. then i started taking laxatives. i would try to restrict but my roomates would always offer me to go out. i felt out of place and it was just to much. i would turn to food because it reminded me of my mom and she was the only one who up to then understood me. so i didn't even last a month in college. i called back home and left because once again i wanted to avoid it getting out of hand. when i got back home i told myself i had to stop. i had to get back to recovering and eating normally. i tried again, i relapsed again.. but here i am AGAIN eating pretty well. i'm still trying to lose 4 lbs just to tone up but i'm happy with my body now and i'm happy that my eating has gotten better

I was never a "thin" person. Even my pictures as a kid I was always a little chunky. haha. Anyway in high school I was around 145-150 at 5'5. I got married the dec after I graduated and by our 2 yr mark had shot up to 165! Then I became pregnant with our first child. Wow. NEver could have imagined that eating the same way could be so different when you are pregnant! Anyway by the end of my first pregnancy I think my highest was 210? Lost 30 pounds in like 3 wks, but 7 wks after my delivery I was pregnant again with our son! Yeah. Got up to 221 by the end of that pregnancy! I knew I was big because of the numbers but ya know I never thought I looked that big! hahaha. Anyway I lost a good bit relatively fast and easily, got down to 180 a couple months after the delivery, and then the work started.

I have gone almost completely vegetarian, still eat fish and when we go out chicken sometimes. Pilates, ellipticals, and yoga were my best friends in the beginning because they don't cause very much strain on weak muscles.  I also realized how much cheese I was eating! And now know that I"ve felt bloated my whole life because I am slightly lactose intolerant! Amazing the things you learn isn't it?

Now I am walking and jogging every other day. I try to limit it to 30 min cause I don't want to lose weight by working out 2 hours everyday cause I just don't have time to maintain that!

I am down to 134 am attempting to get to 120 and that way I can say I lost 100 pounds!

Food is still not my friend, I don't think it ever will be, but I"m getting there. To me over eating is like the worst problem you can have! If you have a drinking problem, smoking, drugs, they are all things that you don't HAVE to do. When you have an eating problem it's so much worse because no matter what it's always going to be there. You HAVE to eat. SO the problem is always right in front of you. I totally support those who are over eaters and feel like they just can't stop. I know what it feels like, and I sympathize. But it is possible to control, it will just be a lifetime of work. Good luck to all my fellow losers! Feel free to email anytime!

I've never really been fat - just skinny/fat and flabby.  All in all, I can chalk it up to 1) lack of self restraint and portion control and 2) laziness, especially in regards to being on the computer.  For years I'd rather sit on the computer and play games, talk to friends, or do homework... rather than go out there and get active.

Now I'm enjoying doing cycling, running, yoga, and kickboxing - and eating well too!

Sweet.  It feels good.

I gained too much weight because I learned to eat until I felt stuffed.  I somehow got in my head that the better the food was, the more of it you should eat.  So I ate way more than "single serving" portions and I'm a sedimentary person.  I managed to lose about 5 pounds just by concentrating on serving size.

Then I quit smoking and a year later I was having to search through my closet for "fat pants."  I wasn't about to buy clothes in a bigger size, which means I had to lose weight.  I'm 45 years old and healthy--I want to stay healthy. 

I wanted to change my eating style so that I ate normal portions of healthy food.  While looking for advice on the web, I found Calorie Count Plus.  I started in mid August and I've lost almost 15 pounds.  More importantly, I'm learning how to eat differently. 

I still give in to the occasional craving, but that's not where my weight comes from.  It comes from simply eating too much!

I blame cheez-its.

You should feel proud!!! =) It takes a lot of guts to do what you did!

I just ate out waaaaaay way way way too much. =(

I think I was always in denial that I was gaining weight.  I got married over a year ago and I think since then is when the weight starting getting worse and worse.  I honestly think I was eating the same amount of food, but my metabolism slowed down when I got to my mid 20s...and I never had any clue what amounts I should be eating, but thanks to CC+ I'm on a good routine and i'm consistently losing weight.  7 pounds since Sept. 8!!!  I love knowing now how much I should be eating..I was always eating far too much for what I was burning, I'm surprised I didn't gain the weight faster then...I saw pictures of me from college when I was much thinner and I think that, along with my denial that I had gained at least 12 pounds, started getting me motivated to get healthier.

My third pregnancy.  After I had my first two girls I bounced right back - never had to change my eating habits.  After my third daughter, things were never the same..... Then I had my fourth (the most special little boy in the world)  and I bounced right back ........ to my post third baby chubbiness 

Wouldn't trade her for the world, though.  Now I still have baby fat and my baby's 9 years old.

No excuses - we can do it!!

Nothing exciting... I was skinny and relatively fit (I danced as a younger woman and waited tables through University)... then I quite smoking... and got out of grad school and started a sedentary job.

Hello 25 lbs... good bye being skinny.  I also hit one of those age landmarks when my fabulously fast metabolism hit the wall and suddenly I couldn't eat a box of chocolates without any consequences... damn!

Original Post by mamarose:

So I ate way more than "single serving" portions and I'm a sedimentary person. 

I don't mean to be a grammar nazi, or to be mean... but this really made me laugh. I guess being rock-like is sedentary too.

I was always the chubby kid in kindergarten and school. Once I was 10 and hit puberty, BAM! The weight came on and on. In the first year I gained 25 lbs, and more and more...until last year when I was at 180.

Don't get me wrong, I'm STILL at 180! :)) But I'm trying to recover from various ED's I've developed throughout basically, MY LIFE.

i ate and drank too much.  and i was also sedimentary

I blame my grandmother, my aunt and my mother. In first grade, I was skinny as can be. I knew when I was full and I stopped. My family looked at it as if it was a bad thing, as if I was being malnourished (and probably as a waste of money when we went out for meals). 

So they would tell me to eat until they were satisfied with how much I put in my mouth. So I learned to try to finish my food. And then I liked food, so I ate even when I wasn't hungry (I still do it >_<).

5'3 and 150. All my weights in my lower body and now I'm trying to make it go away.

oh wow lets me I use to be a chuby girl growing up...never really big just always like chuby...I drink wayyyy to much coca cola and junk food...thats all that I eat. I became a vegetarian and lose 20 lbs without even trying to lose weight......but then i ate even more junk food...

Now i am over weight..... need to lose 20 lbs !

I was always tiny with a kick butt metabolism. Like several others here, I love to eat, and have stuffed myself to the gills every time I ate for pretty much my whole life. I remember when I was little I used to go to my grandparents' every Friday night.. And then every Saturday I would be sick as a dog and barfing all day. My mom figured out that it was because Mawmaw kept feeding me and feeding me and I just kept right on eating, to the point that my little body could not possibly digest it! (P.S. this wasn't bulimia-- I wanted to digest the food, it just wasn't working out that way!)

Anyway, after I had children and started to get a little older my awesome metabolism slowed down, but I continued to eat the same. And the result was about 45 pounds of excess weight!  Hehe, so like someone else just said.. I ate and drank too much.

The biggest part of my new way of eating is simply not to stuff myself, to stop when I am full no longer hungry.

I gained weight for alot of reasons... but the most recent reason was im in a relationship and we both work hard, so instead of making a nutritious dinner we would eat out, or get fast food, and i would binge eat out of bordem..... and my meds for depression made me gain alot of weight, but now i got my man on track with me, he has lost 20 pounds (he is very muscular to begin with) and im on the right track... Yay :)

I fit into my old jeans today!!!! i havnt worn them in two years and i just wanted to try it out today... Yay for going from a size 16 to size 12 since september :) i havnt lost much weight but i guess its muscle?

Im sorry that you had a bad experience but congrats on getting back on track!

I have gained 37 lbs in a short period of time due to being put on Paxil CR.  Has anyone else had this problem?  It makes you crave carbs.  So my worst enemies have become ice cream and soda.  I have never been one to be addicted to carbs before, I just can't seem to control it.  But I want to start now.  I weigh more now than I did when I went into the hospital to have my first child, what a wake up call.  Any help and support from you guys would be so appreciated, and I'll be sure to return the favor!