How Did You Become Fat?

[elb4160]

I'm another one to add to the PCOS list.
I've always been big for as long as I can remember.
Binge eating from being bored/depressed, comfort eating or even just having massive portions.
Food was never really used as a reward but my Mum'a big too and still is to this day. We used to have a mostly healthy dinner at my grandparents and then unbelievably go home and eat another (much more unhealthy) dinner/large snack!!! Which i realise now was one of the most stupid things ever.
So of course I was big all the way through school which lead to immense bullying which in turn lead to depression and eventually self harm. I still suffer from depression now and practically zero confidence but I'm very slowly getting to grips with a healthier attitude to food and have to put in SO much effort not to binge.

I'm also another person who ate secretly when I was younger and then just ate what I wanted when I wanted when I moved out at 17!

 

[CatCrazy]

Mine was a case of forgetting to reduce portion size as I became more and more incapacitated with my chest. My diet has always been fairly good, always made my own meals from scratch...even burgers etc I just simply didn't think to reduce. I was a skinny teen then maintained 11 stone easily for nigh on 20 years and then whoosh! 7 stones in 2 years! I guess walking 5 miles minimum a day 5 days a week really helps burn calories! Especially the morning mile to school...that was done in double quick time!

 

[Lynn_]

I think i got fat because i thought i was fat, but actually looking back i wasnt. It was the dieting/bingeing cycle that took over, especially after having babies that did it. If i had never dieted to start with i dont think i would have ever got to 18 and half stone (at my heaviest ever). At 10 and half stone when i was 21 I felt fat, which is ridulous because im now a stone heavier than that and feel thin!

I know its annoying when thin people say they feel fat and need to lose weight, but ive been there and done that, so i have some sympathy. If i had known then what i know now, I would never have got on the diet cycle to start with. I blame Weight Watchers lol

 

[Aline]

I'm another one to add to the PCOS list.
I've always been big for as long as I can remember.
Binge eating from being bored/depressed, comfort eating or even just having massive portions.
Food was never really used as a reward but my Mum'a big too and still is to this day. We used to have a mostly healthy dinner at my grandparents and then unbelievably go home and eat another (much more unhealthy) dinner/large snack!!! Which i realise now was one of the most stupid things ever.
So of course I was big all the way through school which lead to immense bullying which in turn lead to depression and eventually self harm. I still suffer from depression now and practically zero confidence but I'm very slowly getting to grips with a healthier attitude to food and have to put in SO much effort not to binge.

I'm also another person who ate secretly when I was younger and then just ate what I wanted when I wanted when I moved out at 17!

Emma, you went trought a lot and I couldn't pass without send you a big hug and congratulate yourself for trying to change and fight against all those adverse factors :hug99:

Support foruns are good to boost confidence and motivation, so stay around here.

I never self-harmed, but I know how hard is to live with depression because I also suffered from it in the past.
Trust yourself Emma, attitude is a must

x

 

[elb4160]

Aww thank you Aline, that's really sweet of you
It is really hard trying to stay positive and stick with SW when most of the time I feel like I'd prefer to just curl up in a corner somewhere (I'm sure you know the feeling if you've suffered with depression too)

So many people say its so easy to lose weight, just dont eat as much or just exercise more, but when you suffer with depression its really hard to even have the motivation to get up in the morning let alone anything else.
When I lost my job last year I honestly spent about 8 months in my PJ's... it sounds daft but I just thought whats the point?
But now I'm fed up with being fat so I've decided to do something about it.

 

[Lulu22]

I think its because I cant cook! This leads to a lot of snacking and reaching to sugar to curb cravings...

 

[The Journey]

I was chubby as a child and often made fun of/bullied, and I think that's where I started having an unhealthy relationship to food, because I was always embarrassed to eat in front of others (even my family) and then I'd be really hungry and stuff my face between meals.
I also went through a bout of depression around the age of 16 and gained about 20 pounds in 6 months time. Since then I've gained another 15 lbs... not good..
In the end though I can make all the excuses I want but it's really due to a lack of disciplining myself and taking action over my health, sticking to an exercise/healthy eating routine, etc...
I binge eat and feel like crap afterwards.. well... I USED to
The new me doesn't do that anymore. I like food, in small amounts to fuel my workouts!
It's great to see so many people overcoming their weight problems and pushing through to their goals despite their drawbacks, very motivating!

 

[kittykandy]

I was 11 stones at age 18 but always felt ginormous!

7 years later and I'm 4 1/2 stones heavier.

I became fat by sitting online all day eating and doing nothing! Well I went to college and worked in a hairdressers eating hot wings dipped in mayonnaise.

Considering my eating habits (of two double whopper + bf/lunch/dinner/snack/snack/snack almost daily!), I would love to say that I gained weight easily but I truly don't.

In the last ten years I've gained 5 stones = 7lbs per year = 0.1lb per week!

So yeah, no excuses. :/

 

[ilovedogs]

I stopped smoking and put on two stone over two years. I find it soooo difficult to shift the weight.

 

[Scotdeb]

Since I was a teenager, I was always big. Got worse in Uni and then I moved away from the UK to Ireland on my own when I was 21.

The combination of being away from everyone I knew and being free to eat what I want with nobody to feel ashamed in front of meant that I put on 3 stone in 3 yrs. Doesn't sound like a lot but I was 18 stone before I moved there!

 

[CeeCee-is-MeMe]

I have always been a big girl. I first saw a dietitian at just before i turned 7. I remember losing 9lbs and being so chuffed! Yet here i am at 26 still battling with my weight! That's 20 yrs of unsuccessful dieting!

I'm not sure why I've always been fat. I'm not a believer in big bones etc. I guess I've just always loved food, even as a child.

Now I kno I eat far too much & do far too little! I feel like I know exactly how to lose weight, I could write a book on it! It's doing it I find the problem! I have the knowledge just not the will power! ( until now of course

Gud luk every1

Ccxx

 

[ErinW]

My parents owned a fish & chip shop when I was young and I would spend a lot of time in the back prepping cheese slices in stacks and pineapple rings in bowls.. while nicking chips and squirting thousand island sauce onto them! Then we moved 200 miles when I was 8 and was away from my friends/extended family and was already being bullied/feeling like an outcast and would binge on sweeties when I could. I remember thinking that my weight was always equivalent to my age (10 years old=10 stone). By the time I was 12, I was a size 14 and felt massive in my bridesmaids dress (although I'd kill to be a 14 right now!). As I went through my teenage years, I completely blocked out my weight as I was already overweight and no boys were interested in me, so I just "ate my feelings" as the saying goes! Then I moved away from all my friends when my parents split up, back to the place we'd originally moved from and I put on more weight because I was lonely and depressed. I weighed 17 stone at my heaviest, but dropped to about 13 and a half throughout my early twenties on and off WW, but binging in between being on my diet. This time I am on it for good til I lose the weight, I'm tired of not living my life and feeling like I'm not a ~normal~ person.

 

[Miss Mango]

Some of these stories really touch my heart, honestly I can feel the pain in some posts Hugs for every one.

I got fat mainly due to simply not caring. I had had a big disappointment in life and I just thought to myself "stuff this, what good does looking nice do you? I'm gonna eat what the hell I want" - I so wish I hadn't made that choice but thats the place I was at during that time and it came after years of eating like a bird to stay slim - I was fed up and wanted a good feed of everything I loved so I had takeaways, fish and chips, sausages, burgers, bacon, fried foods, fizzy drinks, sweets, crisps, cakes - you name it, I was having several takeaways a week as my parents were getting one so I couldn't miss out

I hate myself now for that, I went from 9st up to 14st and I looked a complete mess. I just found some photos tonight of myself at my heaviest and they've made me feel sick, I can't believe I let myself get like that and all because of how other people had made me feel. Now they'll be gloating cos I got fat and at the end of the day, why the hell did I let other humans with sweaty feet get to me so much that I spoiled myself?? Now I have this huge journey to lose weight.

I got depressed and didn't care, got greedy, ate and didn't think of how it would affect me.

I've lost 1st 7lbs in all and now weigh 12st 7lbs down from the 14st but I want to be back down to 9st again or even 9st 4lbs - now I've turned my upset from other people's bad treatment of me into something else - I've turned it into DETERMINATION and WILLPOWER to get myself looking good again. I've turned it into a bitter fight with myself to get back to how I used to be and WHO I used to be - I should never have let other people get to me so much that I made myself fat.

So angry at myself. But the anger is now a steely determination and I SHALL do this. Thank you to all my Minimins friends for the support, motivation and encouragement I've needed - I'll be sticking around for a long time yet X

 

[Rachieb1]

I got fat through illness and steroids.

That was 5 years ago so I have no excuse now - I stayed fat because I ate too much of the wrong things- simple as that :sigh:

xx

same here, i went from 8.5 stone to 12.5 stone in 4 months from being on steroids for 2 years straight! I could eat a huge sunday lunch adn then head for the toast once i'd eaten it left me so hungry.

Then i came off the steroids and a stone came off easily, then another half stone till i'd lost about 2.5 stone.

Then i met my ex, who fed me the same portions as him, to start i would hardly touch what was there and be full, but a the years when by i got to the point where i could finish it without thinking, he was a builder so burnt it off the huge portions, I got fat , then he walked out and the diet started and now i'm looking pretty hot if i do say so

 

[elm]

When we were little, my parents would buy my sister and me a chocolate bar once a week but I would always steal hers. As the years went by, I always took my sisters food for some reason. This is why she is now skinny, and I am not.

 

[Stellaria]

I was never overweight as a child or teen. For me it was linked to lifestyle changes, probably depression too. I really started piling it on after going away to uni as a mature student in my mid20s. I had a tough year prior to that with more than one bereavement, then uprooted myself and felt all at sea emotionally.

I got into a relationship and a houseshare with my BF and although we all got on well, I picked up some very bad eating/drinking habits in a house that was all-male save for me - loads of eating out and I started drinking pints which was a bad idea.

After graduating I married my BF, but he too has ongoing struggles with his weight. I think we have a tendency to encourage each other's bad habits.
After that I yo-yo'ed quite a lot but really piled it on more after another house move. After another house move and at my highest ever weight I made a sustained effort with dieting and got to goal. I kept it all off a year or so then started backsliding when we had some financial worries.

I kind of gave up thinking that it was inevitable that I was going to be fat. It took several years and a health scare before I dealt with the weight again. I worry I'm going to backslide again but I'm doing a few things differently now. I no longer drink beer and I cook much more from scratch - last time I dieted I ate a lot of ready meals and even if they were low-cal they weren't really weaning me off processed junk. I don't know when I will get to the stage that I start feeling relaxed about maintenance though.

 

[colly strings]

in hindsight now i realise that my unhealthy relationship was keeping me fat...whenever i tried to eat better he would tempt me (i am not free from blame of this however and am not claiming to be) by taking home nice food as a "treat for doing well" kind of thing. he did it because he thought if he kept me fat and unhappy i would never leave him. well F him. cause i left him while fat and broken down confidence wise anyway and it's the best thing i ever did... lost a stone and 8/9lb in about 3 weeks. being slim and confident is somewhat within my reach in my mind now and lord knows i'm making a grab for it...

 

[The Moog]

I was always a size 10 until I had children. I went up a dress size with each of the three and never seemed to lose the weight. Then got even heavier still! Part of that was due to the fact that I'd been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, so I couldn't exercise the way I used to, but the other part (possibly the main part) was comfort eating and more wine than usual after our middle child was diagnosed with a serious disability.

Things are slightly easier at the moment, so now is a good time to concentrate on me for a change. 6lbs down so far this month, and I'm sticking with it!

 

[CalebM]

I grew up pretty thin and then I didn't notice I was overweight until a little after I caught pneumonia and lost a few pounds during that.

It got me thinking, "Wow, I guess I'm overweight." But I didn't know how overweight I was. And I didn't care about the scale. It wasn't that big of a deal to me.

But I kept on eating those 700 calorie chocolate muffins even though I wasn't physically hungry. Mostly emotional eating because of a stressful job I had. I was extremely sedentary at the time.

 

[Debbie.Louise]

I can remember when i was 13/14years old and my brother always saying im going to get big and fat (due to every girl in our family being very large) & myanswer was 'no im not'. Well then i was spending alot of time out with friends ect...No time at home for proper meals so then the fast foods started to take over and before i know it iv got from a size 6 being to big to a size 22 just fitting in just 3/4years.