Fat forever when you were fat as child/teen?

judywoody

Full Member
I've been wondering about that a long time..I started putting on weight when I was about ten..simply out of boredom and frustration due to family issues.

I have now read a lot about the problem that when you are overweight as a child or teen you will find it harder to loose weight and keep it off long term (as in decades) than if you put it on as an adult. Here is some science to explain it:

Fat cell number is set in childhood and stays constant in adulthood – Not Exactly Rocket Science

Basically when you put on weight as a kid your fat cells split and accumulate which results in more fat cells which you will never loose (although you can shrink them) if you put it on as adult your fat cells only enlarge but don't increase, making it easier to shed the weight again and keep it off.

So we are basically condemned to yo-yo dieting? Kind of disheartening..

I do realize that putting the weight back on comes with falling back into old habits..but I think with more fat cells our brain tells us to fill them..lol..like an addiction. On top of that, bad habits we developed as children are harder to shift I think.

I lost 5 stone in my twenties and put most of it back on when I started working from home. I swear I'll never work from home again but I think it's frustrating to know that we have to try so much harder!!

What are your thoughts on this?
 
Well I had never heard this before, but it makes sense to me.

That said, I hope it's wrong! I was at dieticians by the time I was 9 in an effort to lose weight, and had been overweight my whole life. I have a "slim" period in my twenties of about 5 years but other than that I've always been big.
 
Well I had never heard this before, but it makes sense to me.

That said, I hope it's wrong! I was at dieticians by the time I was 9 in an effort to lose weight, and had been overweight my whole life. I have a "slim" period in my twenties of about 5 years but other than that I've always been big.

I hear you! Haha... I think as long as we keep up good habits ..but it's easier said than done!



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i was a big child and adult but ohh dear no hope for me x x :wave_cry:
 
i think its certainly harder to shift the weight when you have struggled with it for a very long time... i was overweight from the age of 5 and i have struggled ever since and i will be 40 this year - i can lose several stone really fast, its keeping it off that becomes the struggle because i have been greedy for so many years... as soon as i start treating myself to the foods i have been eliminating, i just cant get back on track xxx
 
Was a healthy kid, till 12/13 when I started dieting/overeating. It becomes 'all you know' when it starts as a child, which is why it makes it more difficult in my opinion. Maybe some fear laced in with losing the weight because it was your layer of protection when little?
 
I don't believe it. I know why I'm fat. It's the junk I've put in my mouth. It's harder because out bodies take the heavy weight as comfortable and we have to break that c
 
How depressing :( probably flaming true as I am finding it sooo hard. Gotta keep fighting though!

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I think I am fat because for some reason I seemed to think that I could eat exactly the same as my boyfriends, my colleagues (all male) and my siblings (who all eat what they like and never put on any weight).

Turned out I don't have the same sort of metabolism as the people I was emulating, but I was too stubborn to admit it and too jealous and petulant to submit myself to endless dieting.

Helena
 
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Oh no, this is not good for me! I was always the chubby one! I'm not as round as I used to be now I have a more adult shape - I had a slim phase in childhood because I swam and did a bit of ballet, but then I regained it - but I still have a large tum and bum and broad shoulders! Whoever says big boned/large framed isn't real...I'm sure it is.

One of my main problems other than eating too much junk and not doing as much exercise as I should, is water retention which runs in my family. So I have a tendency to appear bigger than my average at times. I know I have bad habits though and that is why I am overweight...yes these were probably learnt in childhood and therefore are harder to break, but I don't blame my childhood figure for my current one because it is quite dramatically different, even though at the end of the day it is still too heavy and too chunky.

If it's any consolation to anyone else - I used to be so jealous of the "slim/skinny" girls when I was at school - both primary and secondary. Yet a lot of those girls, and even some of the boys, who were tiny in primary started to gain in secondary school where I stayed roughly the same, if not got a little smaller as my shape changed into a more adult one. And interestingly a few of the slimmer girls at secondary schools who I was forever comparing myself to, are now even bigger than me. Granted, one or two have had children but even the ones who haven't are still much bigger all over, including arms, face, legs etc.

So I guess like most things there may be a genetic predisposition to these kinds of things but nurture is just as responsible as nature. The science about childhood fat cells is probably true unfortunately for me, but I think there's a lot of other factors at play which affect a person's weight loss/gain - whether those factors are conscious decisions or a build up of several years' worth of lifestyle choices.

Also for us women there's so much else out there which will affect our weight such as hormones - either our own or artificial contraceptive hormones/HRT, water retention around our monthly visitor, pregnancy etc., that I think it's best just to focus on the here and now and keep doing the best we can as that's what will make the most difference.

Don't let your past negatively affect your future ;)

Sorry for the essay!

Kersten xx
 
Oh dear I hope this isn't true for me! I've been large for as long as I can remember! I didn't have an unhappy childhood, I just loved to eat chocolate and sweets, and didn't like exercise. Up until I joined SW 4 weeks ago I was still like I was as a child, greedy and lazy! But hopefully following the SW food plan will help keep me focused and away from bad foods!
 
I too was much bigger than the other kids in school, but it's because I ate too much and just love food. No other reason. I got bullied about it but nothing serious but this may have been because I was really good at all sports so despite being the fat kid, I was also the fittest and always the first one to 'get picked' in pe! Even played international level under 18 hockey which at 13.5/14 ish stone was somewhat different to the average striker! That being said, for the first time in my life just before I got married I lost 3 stone. For once in my life I looked normal. I didn't look fat or out of place - I didnt look like a model by a long way but I looked like I should be with the man I was marrying - we didn't look like the odd couple. I remember walking past a window on holiday ard that time and I glanced in it and I thought, my god - I look slim. It can be done. But 8 years on and a baby later I am back where I was. Exactly the same weight as I was when I started to loose it the last time. Maybe there is sth about this that I won't understand, but again I am back on the diet band wagon 1 stone down 1.5 to go. Only 8 years later it's MUCH harder to do.
 
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