Where did your weight come from???

Okay i'm not looking for the "duh, i overate myself fat" kind of answer. I'm looking for a deeper one. I decided to post this question after seeing another thread. For me, my weight came from growing up hearing my family, mostly my mother tell me "if you had gotten your dad's height and my build, you would be georgous!!" So I think it just gave me a complex over the years of hearing this day in - day out. So I guess I just ate b/c it really didn't matter, no matter how "skinny" i thought I was, it would never be perfect. No exercise in the world is going to make you taller.

She's 4'10 never been over 95. My dad is 6'4.

So let's hear yours.

Mine was all pregnancy weight. Each time my wife was pregnant (three times) she cooked and fed her urges.  She's a wonderful cook.  And often I'd come home to find her with a crazed look in her eye, she'd look up at me over a tray of chocolate and say, "The baby wanted toffee today.  Have some!"  And I would.

But it also came from denial.  I was skinny as a child and teenager, so my dysmorphic body image has always made me think I wasn't fat.  I ignored all the signs that I was, including occasional comments from others.  Then a trifecta of mid-life crisis, domestic crisis and enforced self-awareness made me wake up.  "Holy cow, I'm FAT!" 

mine was from bad habits established as a child. my mom had two refrigerators always stocked with food. she always cooked unhealthy meals and she made us clean our plates. she also used food as a reward which was one of the things that led to my emotional eating. My brother is mentally challenged (suffers from schizophrenia) and was adhd as a child so while he got all the attention (which consisted of a lot of beatings) I kept quiet about all of it and was always pushed to the wayside. I ate for comfort since i didnt get it anywhere else. After becoming an adult and having four children I found myself using eating to deal with stress from the children. Well Im changing it now and have been trying to find diffferent ways to deal with stress and emotions. Ive done good so far at establishing these new habits and know that it will be a life long work because falling back into these habits is so easy. But ive found excercise to be my saving grace. Big stress relief. I guess those neurotransmitters released after a good run make for a good antidepressant :).

My extra weight came from 2 things:

1- Turning 30...always thought this was a myth. Boy was I wrong

2- Having a job that was stressful because I traveled every week. To deal with the stress I drank waaaay more than usual. Not to mention every meal was from an airport or hotel. When I finally came home I was too tired to exercise or cook and ended up ordering out. Thank God I no longer have that job and the weight is starting to come off.

I was 110 lbs when I was 23 then gained 25 all of a sudden due to a stressfull way of life. Then I got pregnant and went up to almost 200 lbs during my pregnancy. I managed to get back down to 136 then got pregnant again. I gained 26 lbs with that pregnancy, but never lost it. The stress in my marriage was horrific! During my divorce I ended up getting up to over 170. By the time things calmed down in my life again I found out.... surprise your pregnant again! I managed to keep my weight down to 24 lbs for my last pregnancy. I am slowely loosing. I prefer to loose this way and am down to 149 right now. I hope to get to 110 again though. (Not unreasonable goal I'm not even close to 5 feet tall).

I have no one to point a fingure at but myself. I could have eaten healthy with my first pregnancy instead of Pizza Hut everyday, or refused to eat the kids leftovers, or when I was stressed head to the gym instead of the freezer for a pint or ice cream (or worse yet grab the Vodka or Crown in the closet.) But I didn't so here I am!

(((hugs))) people sometimes dont realize what they say can really affect a persons life.....

I was always skinny...normally i wore a 6/7 in jeans weighed about 130lbs, im 5ft7 and a half. When i got pregnant with my first baby, my mom told me how the weight came off of her really fast and it probably would me too, so i ate like crazy thinking i wouldnt have any problems losing it---i craved ice cream. I gained 38lbs and lost all but 13 lbs of it (i plateau'd but didnt realize it at the time because i didnt know much about that kinda stuff) and then i got pregnant with my 2nd  27 months later and before i lost the rest. Not counting the swelling (which added 20lbs of water weight to me before she was born) I gained a total of 15lbs during that pregnancy. My biggest mistake was about 5 months after she was born and i got the Mirena IUD...it made me gain weight before i even realized it! When i realized that i was only gaining weight instead of losing after the baby was born, i did some reading and found out that alot of other women had weight gain with Mirena, so i got rid of that ASAP. Now, im trying to lose the extra weight that i got from that plus a few extra pregnancy pounds. Im often depressed because its very unlike me to struggle with weight and when i think back about decisions i made as far as eating with my first pregnancy, i get pretty mad at myself.

I'd like to say there was a deeper reason but no I ate all the wrong things and did very little exercise and got fat. I went from being very active until about 20 years old to sedentary. My eating habits didn't change much and I ate a lot of junk food.

But I can see why words can hurt people and perhaps cause them to comfort eat. For you guys its harder because you have deal with this as well as getting active. I wish all the best. There is nothing like losing weight to boost your confidence. Good luck!

My weight came from living with my boyfriend.  He refuses to shop and so when I don't go to the store, he was ordering out.  Pizza, burgers, pasta, buckets of fried stuff, but I have a limit on how much junk food I can eat, so alot of times I'd just strave till the next day.  And we're a whole lot less active in every way possible.

Through, this 40 extra pounds is way too much and now I'm working out to try to drop it.  And now I have a car to go drive and buy tons of groceries and healthier foods.

Lifestyle totally. when I was single I ate what I wanted and when I wanted and worked out a lot. Then I got married and my husband liked to eat together and relax together and I set aside my desires for him in this area.

Then life got busy. We had responsibilities at our church in the evenings and I was too tired to get up and get to the gym in the morning.

Then came the kids and age. It's just little things adding up over the ears manifesting in calories, calories, calories.

Hmmm...well, I think for me my unhealthy relationship with food stared as a very small child, as far back as I can remember and then some.  I wanted sugar, in any form.  I was always skinny so I didn't think twice about my sugar addiction.  I didn't gain an ounce of fat for years and years, it wasn't until I got married and more sedentary that started to gain.  I put on about 15lbs the first few months of marriage.  Then I got pregnant and...well...that just did me in.  I gain 70lbs with my first baby, and I am still trying to loose that weight.  I am still a sugar addict...hehe, but I have learned to set limits.  I am a PRO at maintaining weight, just suck at losing weight.  So now I am losing because I refuse to enter my 30's overweight, if I don't lose it all in 2 years, then I will just be happy with where I am work out all the time and make healthy food choices!

For me it was three prenancies and 120lbs later here i am.   Never lost any of the weight I gained during my pregnancies and now its come home, clean the house, help with homework, do laundry, the list goes on.    And when you don't have time to cook, McDonalds is right around the corner.  

Beer + Stress = noooo

For me, a lifetime of slight overeating.  2 lbs a year extra, steady for 30 years.  That's only 20 calories per day - not much, but it adds up.  I think that it resulted a lot from eating habits of a younger age.  Your metabolic rate drops about 5 calories per day per year of age, so you can't keep eating what you ate at 20 and expect to maintain your weight at 40.

Guilt mostly.

Growing up we didn't have alot of money so you HAD to eat what was on your plate. Once I didn't an was forced to stay at the table until it was all gone. It was cold and stale by then.

So now, despite being far better off i HAVE to finish whats on my plate, only difference is i do my OWN food so I can determine what I'm eating.

The other thing was that for ages after we moved (and were therefore better off) my parents indulged, take-aways chocolate, etc. etc. so I associate quite bad foods with a positive experience :s

I gained weight because I got too obsessed with trying to lose weight when I didn't need to. Then I gained more because I was going through a hard time which meant I ended up eating too much all the time and not exercising.

My weight came from two pregancies, two c-sections...I wish that I would have ate healthier, but if you have ever been pregnant, you know how that goes...Also realizing that your metabolism does slow down with age....

Just a few pounds a year...hardly noticeable.  In my teens I was pretty active between actually doing the exercise in PE classes and riding my bike a few miles to and from school.

Then 18, first bf, no money for extra activities, college, work, etc.  Not living at home where mom made healthy balanced meals, eating ice cream for breakfast occasionally.  M&Ms and a cold pepsi were my working breakfast in my 20s (ick).  Various boy friends = birth control, eating out, drinking more, special treats, etc. Then a knee problem which caused me not to do even the mild exercise I got.

Last year I finally got the idea about calories and everything went from there.

mine was from my whole family, my moms side i very stout 5'0 - 5'5 for females, and very overweight, 200-400lbs. it's not a matter of genes, but of eating habbits, i've always been a "clean your plate" kind of kid, and being overweight was just a healthy bit of meat on your bones..  I was always very overweight in elementary school, and levelled out in junior high to a healthy "thick", and in highschool when I decided to loose weight I took things too far. In result my body was messed up along with my metabolism, and I began to binge eat and my weight skyrocketed.. gaining almost 90lbs last year alone.

I was never skinny.  My family ate a lot, my mom made rich food. However, we never had junk food like chips and that kind of things around so I was fairly good. Even in grade 9, I was about 140 lbs.  I was mostly happy with my weight, was in gym class, and active.  In grade 11, I stopped having gym class, and got my driver's liscence.  Translating in: stopped being active, and could drive to fast food restaurants with my friends. 

In grade 12, I had gotten up to about 180-185.  I then started dating this guy, dropped 10 lbs in the first three months going out because I was just so happy, and in love.  I moved into residence Sept 05, and started gaining weight.  By the end of first year, I was back to 185. 

I got kicked out of school for failing too many courses, and during the same month, the guy broke up with me.  That was the most painful thing of my life, I mean, at that point my life was horrible.  I spend a summer doing nothing, living at my parents, working at farm 10 hours a day, but eating so much that I didn't even lose any weight. 

I got really depressed, started working at Wendy's because I had no clue what to do with my life.  I then gradually gained my way to about 210 lbs by eating Wendy's food, and overeating in general.  I quit Wendy's in September 07, and went back to school.  Even since then, my weight was gradually augmenting since I was really focussed on school, and would use food as a reward for getting good marks on exams and stuff. 

Finally, in March, after the Holidays, my birthday, and reading week, I realized I was at 219 lbs, freaked out, and joined CC.  The end.

I've never been terribly overweight -- about 10 or 15 pounds. My mother is/was a wonderful cook, but an unhealthy one, and I was often forced to clean my plate. And these were adult-sized portions. Plus, there was always junk food and cake in my house, so I was eating a lot at meals and snacking all day. I've never found losing the weight hard. Keeping it off is hard for me, and I really want to do it this time. I'm down to 126 pounds now (5'3"). I feel really good, and I hope just counting calories will keep me aware of what I'm shoving into my pie hole.

Original Post by krzylittlecara:

Okay i'm not looking for the "duh, i overate myself fat" kind of answer. I'm looking for a deeper one. I decided to post this question after seeing another thread. For me, my weight came from growing up hearing my family, mostly my mother tell me "if you had gotten your dad's height and my build, you would be georgous!!" So I think it just gave me a complex over the years of hearing this day in - day out. So I guess I just ate b/c it really didn't matter, no matter how "skinny" i thought I was, it would never be perfect. No exercise in the world is going to make you taller.

She's 4'10 never been over 95. My dad is 6'4.

So let's hear yours.

Mine came from having a dad who was obsessed w/ weight. When I was a kid he would always tell me I was fat, even though I really wasn't. My mom's family is prone to being a little overweight, but not horribly (maybe 15 lbs or so). He also told my mother and my brother they were fat all the time. Anyway, I was never really fat but I had a little bit of a belly. My dad made me crazy about my weight. He would never let my brother and I have more than one of ANYTHING. One serving of meat, one serving of salad, one drink, one serving of rice, one cookie. We were not allowed to snack AT ALL in between meals and when my parents divorced there were times that we stayed with him that he had barely any food. He considered dessert or anything remotely fattening (including avocados for some reason) to be BAD foods. He started me on a path to binge eating. I had a really bad relationship with food and slowly I started gaining. I was never obese but I was definitely in the overweight category as a teen. My weight usually hovered around 155 and I am 5'4". When I was about 18 I lost quite a bit of weight when I got really involved in showing horses and I was about 130 or so. Then in my early 20's I gave up a pack a day smoking habit ...I immediately gained 35-40 lbs. I was really disgusted with myself and eventually joined Weight Watchers and lost what I had gained. Then I had my first son. I gained 55+ pounds with him and then lost it all, then had my 2nd son and also gained 55 pounds. I lost most of that weight on my own and then hired a personal trainer. That is when I finally got a clue about incorporating exercise into my routine. I ended up at 133 but my body was totally different than it was when I was younger and at 130. I actually had muscles for the first time in my life and was two sizes smaller at 133 than I had been at 130. Since then I have become a certified personal trainer and have finally taken the step to eating a "clean" diet. That has been a big thing for me because I have always been a bit of a sugar freak and that has kept my body somewhat "skinny-fat". So, my goal right now is to drop my body fat percentage so that all of that muscle I have developed can really show itself.

Oh, and my dad is still a freak about food. I think he may be bulemic. Luckily, my kids are not learning to have a negative relationship with food. We do most foods in moderation, with the exception of fast foods, that I will not allow them to eat. But, I do let them have junk food on occasion and I never tell them that food is "bad" or "good". I tell them that some foods are better fuel for your body than others and that it is important to choose the foods that are better fuel more often than foods that are not so that your body can run at its best.