Why are YOU Fat?

[carymom 4]

Donali inspired me to start this new thread. She has been providing information to us regarding Morbid Obesity being a disease, which is a very powerful topic for all of us.

Lately I've been discovering that there are many different categories that we fit in, so I was wondering what category you are in. I don't have labels for the categories, but let me start by telling you why I am obese.

First, my family history includes severe mental illness (Mom, aunt, etc.) I inherited a branch of mental illness - Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which had me extremely ill in my youth. My panic attacks have been under control for years, but I still have many anxiety-related problems, one being that I never stop thinking, and at night, the thoughts are consumed by food. Part of the reason I'm obese is becaseu I can't fight the mental struggle to eat for long periods of time. That part of my brain is stronger than the sensible part.

But my biggest problem is Portion Control. I'm obsessed by enormous quantities of food. I simply don't understand how anyone could order just one taco, or have a small serving of anything. With me, it's all or nothing. I would rather fast all day than to eat one chicken thigh. It's torture. A half gallon of ice cream is two servings. A family dinner is two servings.

And mine is all a night time disorder. Someone baked us fresh Cookies, all warm and steamy, and I didn't even look at them. I don't give a damn about food during the day. I feel like a monster.

[carymom 4]

Donali inspired me to start this new thread. She has been providing information to us regarding Morbid Obesity being a disease, which is a very powerful topic for all of us.

Lately I've been discovering that there are many different categories that we fit in, so I was wondering what category you are in. I don't have labels for the categories, but let me start by telling you why I am obese.

First, my family history includes severe mental illness (Mom, aunt, etc.) I inherited a branch of mental illness - Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which had me extremely ill in my youth. My panic attacks have been under control for years, but I still have many anxiety-related problems, one being that I never stop thinking, and at night, the thoughts are consumed by food. Part of the reason I'm obese is becaseu I can't fight the mental struggle to eat for long periods of time. That part of my brain is stronger than the sensible part.

But my biggest problem is Portion Control. I'm obsessed by enormous quantities of food. I simply don't understand how anyone could order just one taco, or have a small serving of anything. With me, it's all or nothing. I would rather fast all day than to eat one chicken thigh. It's torture. A half gallon of ice cream is two servings. A family dinner is two servings.

And mine is all a night time disorder. Someone baked us fresh Cookies, all warm and steamy, and I didn't even look at them. I don't give a damn about food during the day. I feel like a monster.

[carymom 4]

Great thread.

I wish I knew the truth, but I have my suspicions. I eat when I am anxious, I know that. I also have the genes in my body to help me get heavier. I am not a huge exerciser, but am loving Water aerobics. Most of my female cousins are constantly on a diet, but do much better than I. My husband of 40 years is always talking about weight, although he is a great size. When we first got married, I remember him saying that he would NOT be married to a fat lady - well, guess what - he is. My sister was tiny, as is my mom. My dad was diabetic - but not a large man.

Nutritionist told me that I do not eat a great deal - even before my lapband, and the psychologist told me that my weight issue is in my head and that I am depressed. I don't know what to believe.

My weakness is bread and butter with something sweet on it - jam, jelly, sugar, etc. CARBS!!! The bread and butter is something I have avoided since my surgery. I feel like if I eat it once, I will be like an alcholic and won't stop,

I am terrified that I will regain my weight once I have reached my goal. Folks say that you can. What can I do to keep this from happening?

Please give advice.

[tlatimo4 1]

I feel that I am overweight for several factors. First of all I have a very strange.. well not strange but different shape. I’m 5’5 and have a small waist with very large thighs and the tiniest legs. Since a teenager Ive been told that I was shape like a hour glass and that men would love me when I got older. Those comments I believe made me hide my shape from others. I used to wear long shirts to cover my butt and I would never tuck my shirt in my pants. I hated to wear dresses because you could really see my figure and I would always get stares from much older men. Up until my teenage years I would say I was overweight but healthy I mean I moved around a lot danced often with friends and wasn’t afraid to join in physical activities at school or work.

In my early twenties I became pregnant and gained 60 pounds really fast there was something defiantly going wrong with the pregnancy and I did miscarry at 6 months. Those 60 pounds never left my body till this day. With each pregnancy there after (2) I put on pounds and I would never even attempt to loose them.

A big problem for me is I am not physically activity at all and I tend to avoid being physical in every situation. I’m not a big eater and that’s why I’m praying this band works for me. I picked up a bad habit years ago to only eat dinner and that is what I have been doing over the years I never eat Breakfast sometimes Ill have a soda for lunch but dinner is my favorite meal of the day which would always be a large amount with high calories. So this is why I’m overweight I have very poor eating habits with a lack of exercise. Many people believe I didn’t need the band but I know that this tool will jump start me to a healthier eating regime and lifestyle.

So as you can see events from my childhood, teen years and my adult life has contributed to my unhealthy life.

[Cindy C 150]

I'm fat because I eat too much and don't exercise enough.

There are a lot of other things that contributed to it- enlarged thyroid medication (that I stopped taking because I was misdiagnosed), puberty, depression, antidepressant medication, college weight gain (stress), yo-yo dieting, eating out WAY too much, genetic predisposition to obesity.

I could blame everything in the world, but it's my fault when it comes down to it. The other things certainly didn't help, though.

WTG, KALA!!!! I don't really like this thread much. It gives people the opportunity to pass the buck! The bottom line is we are fat because of too many calories in and too few out. We all need to hold ourselves accountable. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

[Texasbandit 8]

I have been trying to figure out for years. I think I ruined my body during my early years and fear that I cannot lose weight.

I was a fat kid. I was raised on all the bad foods, nothing healthy. When I went to high school I was fat, but decided to do something about it. So I lost a lot of weight. By the time I graduated High School I was a lot thinner, but not skinny. I was a size 14. As an adult I gain some more then lost. Then 9 years ago I gained a lot, went on Atkins and lost a bunch. I dont know how much. Went off Atkins 5 years ago and gained a bunch. So in 2008 I got back on the wagon and lost 72 lbs. I worked out, dieted and whatever. Then I got preggo. Had to get off a Atkins. I gained like 35lbs during pregnancy. I have lost 20 of it in the past 4 months or so.

I'm not binge eater. I dont eat sugar. It's my weakness. I live by Splenda. I dont even enjoy fried foods or bad stuff. I think part of my problem is the hypertension that I have. When i dont take my meds I retain Water bad. I'm almost 300lbs, but I was blessed with being tall. I'm a size 18. I have no problem sticking to a diet or working out. The issue I do have is time. With a 16 month old and me and hubbys work schedule I have to get up at 4:00am to workout before work. I moan and groan, but I do it. I have thought long and hard if the lapband is for me since I dont really have any food issues. I dont really eat a lot. Maybe thats the issue? My metabolism is horrible. I work out 5 days a week and diet and would loose an average for 1-2lbs. Now granted I do lift weights 3 days. I hate cardio and force myself to do it. My body has to be beaten into submission. It adapts quickly. I'm a fast healer, cause my body can withstand a lot and adapt, but thats a double edge sword.

You know I thought I was exaggerating about my slow weight loss. So I did biggest loser at my job and we weighed in 2x a week and everyone was losing 2-5 lbs, but not me. One pound here and there and for a few days nothing. So lapband is my final hurrah. If this doesnt work then I'm doomed to be fat. I wonder are there any other people out there like me??

Some people feel that diets and working out is one size fits all. It's not. Same for fat. Not everyone overeats. I believe genetics play a huge factor. Some people will never be stick thin unless they do unhealthy things to make that happen. Some people have trouble gaining weight. My hubby and I did the same diet and worked out. he lost tons and I didnt. its maddening. His side of the family is mostly thin people. Mine is not. His sister can eat and eat and not gain much. We all work office jobs. I'm 35 and they are younger, but I see it many times in other people.

I got so mad at the scales that I've stopped weighing myself. I use to weigh everyday and one day I was one weight and then the next I'd gain 2lbs then back down one then up 3!!! UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KristinInCO 2]

Let's look at my pre-band daily menu and see why I am fat!

Breakfast:

Chickfil a chicken biscuit with hashbrown and ketchup and a large coke.

Lunch:

McDonald's Big Mac meal supersized with a coke and apple pie

Dinner:

Mexican restaurant with chips and hot sauce, then huge plate of beef nachos and about 4 cokes then sophapillas for dessert!

Never one minute of exercise and I sit at a desk all day in front of a computer.

I have eaten this way my entire life. I am from the south so my mother only cooked deep fried southern meals as I grew up and I loved every bit of them.

I do have an obsession with food. I think about it constantly. I love to watch cooking shows and our friends make fun of me and my husband because we will get in a conversation about the best chicken fried steak meal in our area or which restaraunt has the best fried pickles. When I am stressed I want to eat, when I am excited I want to eat, when I am sad I want to eat, When I am alone I want to eat and so on and so on. If I am going out to lunch with a friend at work now I have to find out where we are going and sit down at that place's website and figure up a meal in my calorie range. I do this for hours at a time planning just one meal. If I were to go in and not planned I will order my usual bre-banded meals still! Obsession with food is something I am seriously thinking of going to a shrink for. I don't know what started it, but I know it is nothing I can kick on my own.

The reason my band works for me is not because of the little bit of restriction I feel on occasion, but because I told everyone I was having this surgery and now that I have had it I will be the biggest loser ever if I don't lose the weight. All of my friends feel it is so drastic so I feel I would let them down if it didn't work, so see even with the band I am still losing weight for other people and not myself. I don't have excuses anymore for my portions when I have a band. That right there is why I love my band...It no longer lets me make excuses to myself and when you constantly have people asking how you are doing it makes all the differece in the world to not want to look like a loser to them and keep the weight on. Obsession is a biatch!

[KristinInCO 2]

The reason my band works for me is not because of the little bit of restriction I feel on occasion, but because I told everyone I was having this surgery and now that I have had it I will be the biggest loser ever if I don't lose the weight.

This is the EXACT reason I have told EVERYONE I know I am having this surgery! Hurry up September 27!!

[KristinInCO 2]

The reason my band works for me is not because of the little bit of restriction I feel on occasion, but because I told everyone I was having this surgery and now that I have had it I will be the biggest loser ever if I don't lose the weight.

This is the EXACT reason I have told EVERYONE I know I am having this surgery! Hurry up September 27!!

[asksdf 5]

I'm fat because up until I was banded, I ate out at least once a day - sometimes twice, and I got tired just thinking about the word 'exercise'

But oh, how much has changed...

[need2lose2 10]

Great thread!

I'm fat because i love food. Plain and simple. My entire life revolves around food. I am constantly thinking about what i will eat at my next meal and when i get invited to a party, the only thing i think of is what food they'll serve.

I also live a pretty sedentary life.

I am going through the approval process to get a surgery date. I know that the band will not allow me to make excuses or to overdo things.

[PumpkinPanda 0]

I'm an emotional eater, mostly during the evening. Actually I suspect that I'm more than just an emotional eater...I eat when I'm not hungry, I eat when I'm painfully stuffed, I eat when I'm bored. When I'm not eating I'll think about eating and it will consume me.

It's strange how when I'm upset about something, I'll eat and it magically washes most of the pain away.

If I don't eat when my brain wants me to I start to feel out of control. Like if I don't stuff my face I will seriously go nuts, mentally anyway... So yup...that's my story.

[bandedee 3]

Wow, Thank you, awesome topic! I consider myself fairly intelligent, but stupid around food.For some reason I just excepted the fact I would be fat my whole life. Everyone around me is fat, no one excersises. We are all big boned and a fat family. Of course this has nothing to do with the fact that every family gathering is based around food , and enough to feed a small country. Not to mention the only vegatable on the table is made with a pound of butter and cheese whiz. . I was the second in my family to lose alot of weight 170 pounds, and gained it all back. I have come to the conclusion that Iam an addict and Iam a compulsive over eater and I am addicted to food.

[xavier 153]

Honestly I think I have some genetic predisposition to being fat because my skinny Mom pretty much lived of coffee, cigarettes, and martinis to stay thin. Second I think I actually dieted myself to obesity by consistently losing weight and then gaining it back with a little extra each time.

Thats why I have never dieted or really exercised with my band. I just eat less because my band doesnt let me overeat!

[728newlife 2]

Mine was more on the mental side. I have fought depression since I was about 16 but I was heavier before than. I can not remember weighing less than 220 lbs all the way back to high school. Once I started college it was all about drinking 5 nights a week and eating taco bell or waffle house at 3am every one of those nights. I gained 60 lbs in college. I have tons of amazing memories, but the weight was always a nightmare. After college I moved to NC felt like I was slowly dying at 275lbs so I kicked it into gear and lost 60 lbs. Once I felt the missing of family it brought on guilt of leaving parents and 12 yr old brother...over a year I gained all 60+ back and was at 279 at surgery. I have always been an emotional eater. Didn't matter if it was boredom, loneliness, eating because I knew no one was there to see how much I ate. Guilt, depression, and not loving myself is why I am/was fat. Thank God for counseling