Why are YOU Fat?

[Califdreamer 5]

I guess with me it was the childhood mantra of eat everything on your plate because throwing away food is wrong. I would think...then don't serve me so much. But of course back in the old days you wouldn't dare even think of speaking like that to your parents. Meals were served, you sat, ate, then said prayer after. Both my parents come from a different country and the custom to say prayer after meals is the norm. Any way I giggled at the person who would make a night meal/party for themselves. I can so relate to that. I would do that too! I had 3 brothers so I had my own room and at night I would have these elegant meals all alone. A closet eater? I feel this could have been the beginning of my night eating. As a teen I began to lift weights with my brothers. 180 lbs and in a size 12. By the time I was in my 30's with 6 kids and still under 200. Then in my late 30's my thyroid went totally out of whack. Didn't know what and the idiot doctor couldn't figure out what was wrong. Packed on almost 150 lbs. Changed doctors and got illness under control. But after that I kept playing up and down time after time with the same 40 lbs or so. I just got tired of it and am so happy I did this! Every year I spend 2 weeks at my parents house alone and we talk and heal many issues. My kids say I am like a different person each time I return!

[Califdreamer 5]

I guess with me it was the childhood mantra of eat everything on your plate because throwing away food is wrong. I would think...then don't serve me so much. But of course back in the old days you wouldn't dare even think of speaking like that to your parents. Meals were served, you sat, ate, then said prayer after. Both my parents come from a different country and the custom to say prayer after meals is the norm. Any way I giggled at the person who would make a night meal/party for themselves. I can so relate to that. I would do that too! I had 3 brothers so I had my own room and at night I would have these elegant meals all alone. A closet eater? I feel this could have been the beginning of my night eating. As a teen I began to lift weights with my brothers. 180 lbs and in a size 12. By the time I was in my 30's with 6 kids and still under 200. Then in my late 30's my thyroid went totally out of whack. Didn't know what and the idiot doctor couldn't figure out what was wrong. Packed on almost 150 lbs. Changed doctors and got illness under control. But after that I kept playing up and down time after time with the same 40 lbs or so. I just got tired of it and am so happy I did this! Every year I spend 2 weeks at my parents house alone and we talk and heal many issues. My kids say I am like a different person each time I return!

[johnl 0]

First I would like to say hi to everyone, this is my first day on the forum. Why am I Fat? Well lets get right to it. I have been very athletic my entire life, played many sports and continued to play sports into my mid 30’s. I think a big part of me becoming fat is because of weight lifting gone bad, or me getting lazy.

For many years beginning in HS I have been somewhat of a weight lifter, and also because I played football. Well fast forward many years, two children and wife, multiple shoulder surgeries just getting plain lazy and I am now fat. My surgery is two days away so I will post pictures of myself prior to it occurring.

[jessicarabbit 0]

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[kbliss78 123]

I was in shape until I graduated HS. I ran almost daily and lifted weights. I was a size six. I felt great. Then I went through a very difficult 7 years with my family. It completely fell apart. My dad left my mom, she tried to commit suicide, my dad went to treatment for alcoholism 3 x and some other ugly stuff. It was right at the same time that I began to live on my own and in college. I ate too much, ate out too often, used food and alcohol to cope with the stress of my family. I did not even notice how fast it was coming on. I recall buying bigger stuff but not really knowing how big I was. I was in denial. I quickly gained 100 lbs. I have then hovered at the same weight (give or take 20) for 7 years. However, I cannot make the needed changes long enough to have successful weight loss. So I guess I am fat because I turned food into a coping mechanism many years ago. I hope to change that on 5/22/12......

[Krystyneh 55]

I gained all my weight at age 12 when my PCOS kicked in. My hormones changed and I just started gaining weight even though I wasn't changing my eating habits. After I went from 110 pounds to 289 in 1 1/2 years (extremely fast due to PCOS) I started telling myself that since I was fat then I should just start eating like a fat person. I ended up getting depressed and I became a secretive eater. At school I would go into the bathroom to eat because I would constantly hear people mooing at me. I dealt with all of this until I went to college straight out of high school. Instead of gaining the Freshman 15 I lost the Freshman 15 plus 20 extra pounds. I ended up meeting my husband (he likes heavy girls) and I ended up getting pregnant at age 19 and I had my daughter at age 20. I went from 275 down to 240 while pregnant due to gall stones, kidney stones and hyperparathyroidism. I ended up gaining the weight back plus some. November 2010 I weighed in at 315 pounds and that's when I started going to Curves to start losing weight. I did end up getting down to 272 pounds but I ended up gaining it back because I got stressed out. October 2011 I decided that I needed to get my butt in gear and start losing weight to help my PCOS. My husband and I ended up having 2 miscarriages last year. I'm hoping to have surgery either next month or in June. I gained my weight due to my PCOS but I kept it on due to my eating. I'm an emotional eater, secretive eater and I eat because I love food all together.

[DEBPROBST 10]

I have read through this thread and find that I can identify with so many people here. I think however that in order to explain why I am fat, I have to explain why I am me.I have been fat almost all of my life. When I was a baby I guess that it was cute to have the chubby little legs and cheeks so no one was worried about it. However that followed me into grade school, high school and my adult life. I too was a victim of the "Dont leave anything on your plat",e and trust me - I never!! I would even go and sneak cans of food and eat in my room at a very young age (6-7). MOm busted me once when she came and cleaned under the bed and found the stash of empty cans. However besides embarrassing me infront of other people, she didnt do anything about it so it continued. My family was highly disfunctional and we never had love. Being loved to us was having food on our plates and clothes on our backs. I guess that was where my food issues began. I guess as I got older and discovered things like pizza, Fried chicken, hamburgers and all the other fast food temptations; I was hooked. Nothing satisfies me like a good half a pizza or a Big mac Meal. The other things that contributed to my massive weight was my own lack of control and the fast food nights when my brother was living witih us and would get off at 2 am and bring home pizza. How good can that be for a 10 year old to get up and eat 3 pieces of pizza and then go back to bed??

The last couple of years I have hit weight heights that I never though were possible to me. I said to my self..I will never hit 200 lbs, I will never hit 300..and then i hit and surpassed the 400 lbs mark. Life has become somewhat of a chore. Simple things like cleanliness..something I am big on has become an issue for me. Hence, my love affair with food has been destroyed. I am learning to enjoy portions and not to fill myself on a Bag of Doritos when I am bored.I am learning that leaving food on my plate is ok and that i dont have to stuff myself and can stop eating when I get full. Isnt it weird how the things we learn as we grow up follow us and become who we are?

Anyways..that is how I got fat..and am fat.

[Lauracat 14]

When i was growing up i had a learning disablitly and i knew i was differnt and my parents to help slove the problems of being differnt not going to the same schools as everyone else would uses food to make me feel better. The only i was alould junk food was when i need to feel better. I had my own speical cabinit of " make Laura Feel Better Foods" as part of my LD effected my gross moter skills so i hated and would do anything being athletic it just was not me. I was thown out of dance class becuse i was a clultz and the teacher did not want a child like me and i was told i need to understand my place in life. I did understand it it was right next to the ice cream store the Bakey Mc Donalds the pizza store when i have a bad day I would say well it okay to slove my problems with food.

I had tryed meny deits to lose the weight and would usely quit as i just did not think they would work . I lost 100 lbs on Atkins vowed not to gain it back but i never got off stage 1 i was working out 2 to 4 hours a day I became very sick for 6 mouths with cronic apdeix it like haveing you apdexic enflamed for 6 mouths and got to my lowest as i was not eating and just vomting even then i try and eat but it would just come up. As soon as i could eat I started eating it all and gained over 100 lbs in 6 mouths. I ttryed to lose the weight over the years with deits. i found this time no matter how hard i tryed i was stuck at well over 200 lbs and almost 300 thats when my dr said it time to do something and told me about the lap band with high blood presser sleep apena pre debitic the my joints hurt all the time my kneens and hips are the worst sleeping in one postion hurts my hips my ankles are giving out beucse they hurt

This time i was ready to change my life find a new best freind becuse food is not going to be my answer

[~Lindsey~ 3]

I had a true love affiar with food. Before I went to bed I would think about what food I was going to eat the next day. I ate out pretty much everyday. I would also eat everything on my plate and stuff myself. I just enjoyed food like a addiction. Food was my drug.

[TexasDy 53]

"I weighed 165 lbs. when I was 13 and was considered a fat freak; now I can't wait to weigh 165 again."

ME TOO!!! I was 5'7", 165, and stacked - every 20year old guy's fantasy... but I was THIRTEEN!!! We lived in a duplex on a college campus while my mom was getting her degree. Kids my age thought I was fat and stuffed my bra - the college kids thought I was one of them (except for the clothes and that I rode a pink bicycle!). I look at pictures from that time and cannot believe I thought I was fat!!

I'm fat b/c... 1) I am addicted to food 2) I have high self esteem and have never really cared what others said about me 3) I've been DD and larger since I was 14. I haven't seen my waistline since then - except in the mirror of course.

For me, gaining weight was gradual. I just didn't realize how severe it was until I hit 275. I then yo-yo dieted myself up to 335. It's time to take my life back. I've proven again and again that I can't do that on my own. Looking forward to using the Lap Band as the tool that will finally work!!!

[ShazamLOL 3]

I've been big virtually all my life. I started gaining massive weight when I was 7 years old, even though I was active in my local Boys and Girls club playing soccer and basketball. I never dropped the weight. I was so big during elementary school, I couldn't fit into a size 52 pants, and my elementary school days (specifically grades 3-6) I had to wear sweat pants and sweat shirts, that how overweight I was. As I grew up, though, through middle school and high school, I was able to fit into pants and t-shirts, though I never wore smaller than a 42 waist.

Post-high school, I managed to lose about 30 pounds during summer by walking 6 miles round trip to my local mall and play Dance Dance Revolution all day. After a while, I moved closer to the mall (litterally 2 blocks away), so I stopped walking, and then I got a car, and virtually stopped walking and playing Dance Dance Revolution altogether. I didn't watch what I ate, and that was a tri-fecta of weight gain. I went from 250 to 380 pounds in a little over a year.

I was wholly disgusted with myself, but never did anything active about it, until I started the process for the Lapband procedure.

[litl1997 14]

Mine is obesity runs in the family. When I was a kid I liked to run around and when it was dinner time my mom would tell me to come in and I would take a few bites to hurry and run back out, so Mom would say I had to eat everything on my plate before going back out. I guess with alittle bit of all that and plus hearing all the time that there is kids that have no food to eat so don't waste when you do have it. I soon enough got fat after 9 yrs old and have went up and down threw the years

[lovex5 25]

first, obesity runs in both sides of my family. my mother was always big. i remember her coming to eat lunch with me when i was in 3rd grade and ran home to tell her one of my friends had asked was she pregnant. it didnt dawn on me why the kid had asked me that but mom got upset. anyway my parents never put eating guidelines in place. mom was sexually abused as a child and i've always thought she kept herself obese as a barrier. my mom ate to comfort herself it seemed and i just followed along. i remember staying up late with mom during the summer watching our favorite shows and eating bowl after bowl of sugary Cereal then we'd sleep in until 11 the next day. this isnt a bash mama session, but it's true. i love my mom dearly but like anyone else (myself included) she isnt/wasnt a perfect parent. we didnt always have the most money so dinner was often fishsticks, frozen pizza, frozen steak fingers, casseroles, etc. i was horrified to start wearing a bra in 4th grade because due to my weight i was developed. in 7th grade i remember a birthday gift one year was what i later found out a maternity outfit...flowy top and stretch pants. i was always big in school. i had purple sweat pants in 9th grade track and hated indoor days because we jogged the gym alongside the boys class. one ass-hat (sorry but he was) decided to nickname me grimmace due to those sweatpants. probably funny but it hurt like hell at the time. same kid had stood behind me during a play in 5th grade and poked my fat rolls. couple times i recall weighing myself in hs i was 180ish. the summer after graduation i finally weighed myself...247. i moved out from home when i was 19, and over the next year dropped from 247 to 130 by being broke and eating once daily. maintained for a few years. met my ex husband, got pregnant at 23 and gained up to 160. he and i split the next year after my first was born and i went from 160 to 220 due to emotional eating from divorce. met and married my husband in 2006. happiness and a man that loved me for me fueled my eating obsession. i figured hey he met and accepted me at 232 who cares i can eat all day long! he likes to eat as much as i do but also does pt every morning and fortunately doesnt have a weight problem. pregnancy in 2007 took me up to 282 my all time high. from there i lost to around 230, got pregnant in 2010 went up to 250 and lost again to about 230. then around dec 2011 i hit 255. i managed to lose 20lbs on my own and right now am bouncing between 235-238. whew!! that is my fat story in a nutshell.

[Shoshanna 98]

Eating made me feel good. It comforted me through depression and anxiety and was always there when I needed it. It was all well and good to be told I needed to find a substitute way of making myself feel better, but running a mile never, ever had the instant result that eating M&Ms did. Unfortunately, overeating had some serious side effects that caught up with me when I was in junior high and have dogged me ever since.

I've lost a significant amount of weight several times but the pounds always came back and brought friends to stay. My biggest reason for choosing the lap band was the hope that having my eating physically restricted would help with maintenance. I can lose weight- I just haven't been able to keep it off.

Now I am at 156 down from 240 and hoping I'll never have to watch the numbers on the scale slowly yet relentlessly go up gain.

[AXA 19]

I got fat because food activates the pleasure-centers in my brain and makes eating, especially carbs, very enjoyable.