I had been a skinny kid until the third grade, when being the smartest kid in school started causing problems with peer relationships. It all went downhill from there, and I used food as a source of pleasure in my life to blunt the fact that other kids didn't like me. My father died when I was 14, and the role of food as a source of pleasure and satisfaction increased. However, I played sports and was able to keep from being obese. During college, I was broke a lot since I was working my way through school, and I learned some very bad eating habits. I went from mild overeating to full on gorge myself when I had money to eat. That led to eating until I couldn't breathe or felt completely stuffed instead of eating until I wasn't hungry anymore. However, I was very active with activities and walking 5 miles or more every day on campus, so I managed to hold off any weight gain. After college I got a tech support job working at a desk 8 hours a day and went from wearing size 38 pants to size 50 on my wedding day in just 3 short years. I have worn size 50-52 pants since then. My basic problem is the inability to be satisfied unless I'm stuffed to the gills. I've trained myself that I'm either hungry or stuffed. I've been working on fixing this, but it's hard. It's hardest when I miss a meal because I have a hectic work schedule that dictates how I spend my time and sometimes means I miss scheduled meal times, and I get so hungry that I overeat and then some when I do eat. I've tried eating six smaller meals throughout the day, and it helps when I can stick to the schedule, as I never get so hungry that I go nuts. So, my food issues are psychological, even though I blossomed socially when I as a teenager. That, coupled with my sedentary lifestyle has resulted in me being 365 lbs. I carry a lot of muscle, but I'm still very much morbidly obese and fat.
