To ask, why did you let yourself get so fat and how did you know you had become really fat?

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I am a lot a little bit overweight and just can't seem to get motivated.

I know I look enormous big but I still get a shock when I look at photos and realise what I actually look like.

Anyone else in a similar situation?

Me! Just seen the holiday pics that DH took and am disgusted with myself.. However it hasn't stopped me demolishing half a pack of oat cookies today.. I really need a kick up the arse.

stress+comfort eating (too much eating, not enough walking)

how do I know? can see and feel. measure on scales.

God yes. I got enormously fat while pregnant with DS (9 months old) - I'm only short, and I'm a 16 now where I was an 8-10 before. I don't really feel much different but when I catch sight of myself in the mirror, I just have this awful realisation that I'm now a whale. I'm knackered all the time, have no energy or motivation or time to go to the gym, and I eat crap because it cheers me up. No idea what to do about it though :(

Well, obviously I need to eat less and exercise more. No idea how to get the motivation or energy to do that though.

Yes!

As a teen I was slightly overweight and thought I was huge. Now I'm very much in the obese category and it still surprises me when I really see myself

Yup.

It does just creep up- and the problem is that everything increases at the same rate, so it's much harder to notice/easier to kid yourself when you're still the same basic shape- just much wider.

Also, the fatter I am- the less exercise I wanna do. Stuck in a fug at the mo.

Diet starts tomorrow ;-)

I wouldn't say im huge but I'm definitely a lot bigger than I should be..

I joined slimming world in April and have spent the whole time losing a few lbs here and putting it all back on..

I have some clothes to lose weight to get into but I cant seem to get the motivation to actually start it properly. I know the diet, I enjoy the food.
However as soon as chocolate, takeout is mentioned I cave.

Hoping I'll hit bottom soon and then it will give me the motivation to start again.

Yes me! Ok I am in healthy bmi range but just look and feel so huge!! Hate pictures of myself, I joined ww yesterday. For me it's being at work and eating biscuits!!

I don't mind being fat so it's not about 'letting myself' it's just not that important. I know I'm fat because I can see myself but I'm not going to hate myself. It makes no odds.

At my fattest I was 14 and a half stone but I've recently lost a couple of stone. I let myself get that because because I changed from and active job to a sedentary job, ate too much and didn't do enough exercise.

The catalyst for me to lose weight was going to the theatre with my 86 year old grandmother last Christmas and she bounded up the stairs if front of me while I lumbered up behind her gasping and sweating.. It was shameful. I walk 5 miles a day every day now and run up the stairs at work. I've not used the lift anywhere since Christmas.

I'm still over weight but I'm not obese any more and i'm no longer being shamed by octogenarians.

I'm over 14st. How? I had SPD when pregnant with DD (20 months) which didn't go away after she was born and I suffered PND so comfort eating plus limited mobility sent me up to 11st. Then when DD was 10 months I ended up pg with DS2, SPD got worse, I ended up on crutches then eventually house bound. So I've spent the best part of two years immobile.
Now, 4 weeks after giving birth to a 10lb 10oz superchunk, I am starting to lose weight. Only 2lbs but I'm still pleased as its a start.

Pregnancy, then natural weight loss after pregnancy getting stopped by getting post-partum arthritis that suddenly cut down exercising a lot, and also meant that I need to eat breakfast and dinner with medication (apart from when actually pregnant I'd usually eat lunch and one of those two meals, and I miss lunch if I don't have it, so I'm eating slightly more).

It was a self fulfilling prophecy. I thought I was massive as a teenager ( I wasn't) and just ate until it came true, I guess.

Also had a traumatic incident when I was 11 and I compulsively ate whenever I was home alone to try to distract myself from thinking bad things.

Combination of things. Medication, having to stop gym for a while and getting complacent about diet. I'm not hugely overweight but more than I want to be.

The problem is getting into a routine - although I have a normal office job, I have a lot of other stuff going on outside of that which can be unpredictable.

I used to gym at lunchtimes but work clamped down on people being 0.0001 late back from lunch and to get to the gym, do a reasonable workout, get changed and back is 1.5 hours min. I used to start early or work late to accommodate this but apparently that's not acceptable any more. If I go after work, it means getting home at 7pm, changed, out, drive to gym, back by 8.45ish which is too late to eat and would mean DH and I would have about an hour together because we both have to get up at 5am for work.

Sigh. Sorry, bit of a rant there. I want to win the lottery.

In the meantime, I am trying to stick to about 1200 cals per day and walking as much as possible.

I was lazy, in love so lots of romantic meals followed by alcohol, treats in front of TV, loads of biscuits at work, pudding after meals etc. it all added up to me looking like a barrel on legs. I'm quite short at 5ft 3in, for years I was a size 14, but crept up to a 16 about 6/7 years ago. My job was different and involved me running round like a headless chicken which must have burned a few hundred calories per day. My job now is more sedentary and this year I noticed my clothes were beginning to feel tight. I drew the line at moving to size 18 and that was the well needed kick up the backside I needed.

I'm now on a calorie controlled diet, use MFP to track calorie intake. Since March when I weighed in at 13st 7lb I have reduced to 11st. I've still got 2st to go but I feel so much better and I'm back in size 14 clothes! I still have the odd treat, but I have readjusted my view of treats to be just that, a rare exception to the rule. Oh and having gallstones helps as I have to avoid any fatty foods, but I don't recommend that as a good route to go down!

Im the biggest I've ever been & have lost 5 stone before but put it all back on. It's depressing. I've not been in a good place this last 7 months & just cba with it all. I feel resentful of dieting but need to badly. I start tomorrow too, lots of soup & fruit & early nights. I think if I can do one hardcore week even if I don't feel like it, it will be a kick start. Fx

In answer to the question, having 2 young dc & working, there is no time for food prep & eating. I'm too indulgent in having my evenings from 8pm as wind down time & have been drinking like a fish & munching crisps galore every evening for too many months. That's mostly what pushed me over the edge. I adore everything that's bad for me!

This is the limit for me & it's tight sitting in some chairs, I really worry about breaking chars when I sit in them-happened in a busy quirky restaurant when I was pregnant & was awful. So depressed at the thought of good living. Off to down the wine for one last evening....

I know I am overweight and I want to lose weight but I feel completely demoralised.

I used to be able to keep to a healthy weight fairly easily so long as I ate reasonably healthily and exercised moderately. I was a size 10 - 12 and generally looked and felt good.

Then I had two pregnancies in my late 30s. Regained slimmish figure after first pregnancy but still looked pregnant when my youngest was two years old

Still have a lot of flab around my middle now which just doesn't seem to shift.

Finally around January this year I thought enough was enough and joined the gym. Started going three times a week and spent about 45 minutes in there each time, doing cardio and weights... But didn't lose any weight, in fact put on five kg! The fitness trainer was bemused and said it must be my diet that has changed [gotten worse]... but I genuinely don't think I am eating any more, in fact, I have probably cut down on fat intake!

So now it is very hard to motivate myself to exercise when I think I have been pushing myself at the gym for 7 months with no improvement [although I guess I did feel a little fitter overall] and it's also hard to deny myself a chocolate biscuit when I see my slim friends eating these... and they don't exercise at all!

I feel it's very unfair and skinny friends try and give me tips on losing weight when I probably eat better and exercise more than they do!!!!

Lost sight of correct portion size, drank too much alcohol and snacked too much. Had cut back on alcohol and started walking lots but was weighed at the hospital and found that my BMI had crept up from 26 pre DC to 28.

Logged everything I ate with MFP and upped the walking - have lost 6kg so far (and BMI now 26 but still want to lose more) but have had a week's holiday so will see how much I've put on when I weigh myself this week

Love my food.

Love baking as a hobby.

Hovered around the same, slightly overweight weight for years until...

I got older.
I was diagnosed with a pain condition that disturbed my sleep, stopped me going outside and made me quite depressed. It should have made me lose weight as eating triggered the pain, but it didn't. Then the meds they put me on (which work, hurray!) have weight gain/trouble losing weight as a very common side effect.

On top of that I had a mobility problem that went undiagnosed for a long time. When it was finally diagnosed I was offered an op that put me on crutches for many weeks, so I was less active again.

i'm FINALLY mobile again and ready to start losing some of this by being more organised and by feeling on top of things more.

Yep, it creeps up on you. Ignorance plays a part too. I caught on I was eating too much and it got to a point where I knew I was gaining weight yet I wouldn't get on the scales and pushed it out my mind. I knew I was "too" big when my fat clothes stopped fitting....

"Let myself....." is very self blaming language OP. It won't help your mood and depressed people don't lose weight.

Mine crept up when I was caring FT for an agoraphobic and exercise became difficult to get. Then I gained as much again because of feelings of 'sod it, i'm fat now anyway' and eating things I would normally leave for special occasions. I've been yo-yoing up and down by two stomes at a time ever since and I'm starting to realise that mood (good self esteem) is key.

I'm just bordering obesity (!) at BMI 29.5 or something. I've never been sporty or keen on exercise and varied between a quite curvy 12-14 for past 10 years. However in last 2 years the stress at home and work has gone through the roof, plus some medication I think has not helped. I've put on a stone in under 12 months. Basically all I can do to unwind is consume cups of coffee and handful of biscuits or wine cheese and crackers.

It creeps up on you. I look fine in the mirror, to me. But I have difficulty crossing my legs, I have a very noticeable spare tyre/muffin top now, and unflattering pictures really show it up. I feel I have literally no time or willpower for organising a diet or fitting in exercise.

It's very hard to know where to start but once DH is back from his summer working away I hope to get ahead of the plan a bit and eat/exercise better.
Good luck ladies - it's good to be happy with how you are but good to be healthy as well, whatever that is for you.

Like many others on here spent my teenage years and early twenties thinking I was fat when I wasn't so would starve myself all day, then had three children and put everyone else first, so now I eat on the run constantly, binge because I'm exhausted and then have no energy to exercise by the time DH comes home and I can get to the gym. After having gestional diabetes with DC3 I now have diabetes :(
So 40, fat and in rubbish health. Also found that when I was at work prior to DC3 I used to walk a mile e.w. to station and back, which am no longer doing.

I was very slim most of my life. Pregnancy with DD2 combined with a crapola thyroid has me 2 1/2 stone overweight. I would never have imagined I would be so unhealthy.

I am even joining fat club slimming world. 7th circle of hell in my opinion but needs must at the mo.

It crept up on me and I really didn't realise for a long time until a friend who I could see was very overweight told me she had started weight watchers and named her weight which was only a few kgs more than me (she was also taller than me). It was a wakeup call and I got down to a healthy BMI (as did she). Now I've put it all back on since having children. I craved sugar with the lack of sleep, I got stress injuries from carrying and pushing the twins around stopping my exercise, and the stress of not working/being a SAHM has lead to some comfort eating (which I don't think I did the first time). This time I've known every step of the way but have not had the will power to change my eating habits the way I know I need to.

For me, it was a couple of years ago. I was shopping for clothes, and everything I tried on made me look fat, so after a few unsuccessful shopping trips it struck me that maybe everything made me look fat because I WAS fat. I think that the reason I get fat is that, if I eat and drink exactly what I fancy, and don't think about it, I eat fairly healthily, but tend to just eat slightly too much. I also like a glass of wine or 2, which doesn't help.
I've since lost quite a bit of weight on the 5/2 diet. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to lose weight, it has worked really well for me, and is easier to stick to than other diets I've tried. I have put on a little over the school holiday, due to getting out of routine a bit, but plan to hit it hard next week when the kids go back.