If you are overweight, what, in your opinion, made you that way?

[SistemaAddict]

There's been lots of threads recently about weight inspired by the government trying to crack down on obesity yet encouraging us to eat out and posters bemoaning the lockdown lard/pandemic pounds. There has been lots of discussion about the causes of obesity or being overweight due to societal and financial factors but I wanted to ask what posters think made them either overweight or obese because reasons will vary. Certain medications and conditions can cause weight gain and/or make it harder to lose weight and the peri-menopause/menopause doesn't help.

I stopped breastfeeding a year ago and my appetite didn't return to normal after stopping so I gained weight. Then my asthma was bad from October onwards and my ability to go on bike rides was limited. Then lockdown and shielding and my 5 mile school hike up and down big hills went out of the window and I ate too many biscuits and chocolate and would eat in the evening while reading or watching tv. I gained around a stone and that took me into the overweight category.

In June I decided enough was enough and started 16:8 and limited myself to around 1250 calories a day. I bought a fitbit and started using my fitness pal. Both encouraged me to go on walks with the dc and to take more trips up and down the stairs than were necessary to meet my target of 25 flights a day. I stopped eating after dinner, watched my portion sizes and cut out most of the junk I was eating. I'm now a normal weight with a BMI of 24. I'm carrying on with my healthier lifestyle and improved habits but it's hard especially in the evenings when I want chocolate. My aim is to get to a BMI of 23 as that is where I look and feel best.

I don't want this to be a judgemental thread, or for anyone to fat shame posters, I just wanted to share my own reasons for weight gain and ask others' experiences because it's a very individual thing beyond "too many calories in vs calories out" and it can be very complex.

Then I apologise wholeheartedly.

It's been a shit day, but that is no excuse.

But understand my frustration. Endless threads about how we are draining the NHS, lazy, undisciplined, if I can do it you.can do it etc, etc ad infinitum. It gets old. And, it solves nothing. Where are the threads about why people smoke, or drink, or take recreational drugs, or are consistently horrible to retail workers? All failings that are allowed. But not in your face fat (with "a face Distorted by fat" as some kind soul so happily pointed out yesterday), no THAT is an unacceptable failing on every level.

Stress. Unfortunately I was under an intolerable level of stress for reasons entirely outside my control for about four and a half years... some people lose their appetite when they're under stress. Unfortunately, I'm the opposite. I ate to distract myself, to comfort myself I'd find myself thinking a big pack of crisps won't hurt tonight or I'll have cake with that coffee. Some nights I'd eat full meal, a large pack of doritoes, a packet of jaffa cakes. Rationally I knew I was harming myself but it was almost as if worrying about that distracted from what was really wrong.

But its my fault. I'm 5 stone over weight and only I can deal with it. Its going to be a long hard haul but I have to do it before I kill myself :(

Personally I think I have an undx thyroid issue plus I'm on several meds that slow metabolism/drop blood sugar/inc appetite though actually I don't eat much at all - and yes I mean in terms of calories not just volume.

I lost some weight years ago with ww but it was really difficult and of course I was tracking carefully what I was eating and exercise at that point and even my leader queried a possible underlying medical condition.

I've raised it with gps several times none have taken me seriously.

All the women on one side of my family have the same weight history as me - VERY skinny throughout childhood and early adulthood, then after 1st baby pile on the weight BUT not during pregnancy/first year after birth but starting in the 2nd year, eventually dx with thyroid disorders in 60's!

@Littlegoth

Cake and wine

Yep - me too

I think people get overweight for exactly the same reasons they take drugs or alcohol. Partly for the pleasure gained from the thing itself, partly as an escape or a form of comfort in the face of trauma, stress or misery and sometimes as a learned habit due to the influence of family. The problem is, you can't avoid or give up food.
In my case, I've veered for years between being at the top end of the healthy weight bracket and the middle of the overweight bracket. I can't think of any childhood issues or adult traumas that could have caused it.

I think the diet seesaw itself is partly to blame. If I'd never gone on a diet, I suspect I would have stayed where I was, at the top of the healthy range.

Within 8 months of marriage to abusive H I was 2 stones overweight, even though I was 8.5 stones my whole adult life before that.

Oh lets see. Maybe it was my mother who told me I was fat every day, from when I was a child, even though I wasnt fat at all at that point. To then going on and severly restricting my food, making nasty comments every day. And if that isnt a reason to develope an eating disorder I had a sociopath stepdad that abused me every day.
Hey ho, but its all because fat people are lazy and greedy right!?

By the way I have managed to lose a lot of weight more recently, but only because I realized all the mental health crap that goes with it. The governments "meassures to tackle the obesity crisis" makes me want to laugh and smash someones head in at the same time. They just have NO CLUE, as do most people.

It doesn't have to be anything like as disordered as drugs or alcohol addiction though and you can still end up overweight. A lot of people just carry on eating as they always have but because they are older aren't using up the energy in the same way. This might be only a little more than your body needs each day but weight just creeps on. Then it's much more difficult to lose weight than when you were younger also.

Putting weight on with each pregnancy (3 of them). Not making time for exercise. Or too tired to. Always walking at the pace of the slowest child and never managing to get out again for my own exercise due to always being on child duty. Comfort eating due to stress (DD with additional needs and MH issues so lots of that!). Not watching portion sizes. Ballooned from size 10 (pre pregnancy 1) to size 20 over a period of many years. Trying now to not be obese anymore, but health issues caused in part by years of being so overweight means knee pain and foot pain whenever I walk. So it's hard.

Food

I have to correct myself, I do not want to smash anyones face in! I ment more like punching, but even that I would never actually do. Because however aggressive I might sound on here, Im actually really nice (most days lol)

Hashimotos hypothyroidism firstly, and since then given up really, don't exercise, eat junk and sleep constantly disturbed.

I’m 3 stone overweight, actually I’m obese.
Why?

Too much 🍰🍕🧀🍟🍫🍦🍩 and not enough 🍏🍌🥦🥕🥗🏊‍♂️🏄‍♂️⛹🏼‍♀️.

It’s really as simple as that for a lot of people (although I do put some - not all - of it down to 56 year old middle aged spread).

Once I got in a relationship with my partner I got a little too comfortable and really let myself go. That, and working in an office where the boss bought us doughnuts, cakes and full fat Costas everyday wasn't a great combo.

Cue lockdown, I decided this was it, a chance to change my eating habits and start an exercise routine. Now have a BMI of 21, wished I'd done it sooner, I feel like I have so much more confidence and I'm much more positive about my life in general. Got a new job and feel like my life has taken a turn for the better.

Initially exhaustion with non-sleeping babies. I lost most of it between the two but never quite lost it all with DC2. Then my DM got ill and we moved house and job to be nearer. I hated my job - the HT was a bully - and I comfort ate and started drinking half a bottle of wine two or three times a week. I started anti-depressants but never shook the bad eating habits I got into, especially when my DM died. I'm happier in a new job now but have a long commute and working full time with two DC, not much motivation or willpower. I know I need to sort it out. I really hate the boredom of dieting (which is essentially what any healthy eating plan is) and only ever last a couple of days.

Where are the threads about why people smoke, or drink, or take recreational drugs

They're in the addiction section, it's a very supportive place!

I’ve been about a stone overweight all of my adult life - I just like the wrong kind of food too much. Then my youngest developed severe anorexia - her BMI was below 13 at one point. Refeeding her involved eating six times a day - she couldn’t eat alone and felt judged and unable to eat if I ate anything smaller or lower calorie than she did. She regained just under 20kg - but so did I. She’s now doing much better, not fully recovered but able to function. I want to get some of this weight off but lockdown etc has been tough on her mentally and I think of I suddenly start losing weight it will be too triggering for her to cope with. Her illness was traumatic for those around her, I’d rather stay as I am until things are more settled for her than be the reason that she relapses :(

I'm not even hungry most of the time I do it and I certainlydon'tenjoy the food.

I will eat and eat until I feel physically sick, all of the time my brain is screaming you're not fucking hungry step away from the food! Its an overwhelming compulsion when I have extreme emotional responses.

I guess its some form of eating disorder, or wouldbe if being fat couldever be consideredanything except lazy greediness by anyone.

If you have anorexia or bulimia, somehow this can be a mental health issue. Being fat is a blame issue. The one place nobody ever checks themselves in judging.

Before furlough, my job didn’t pay enough for me to buy food. We do however get free meals at work, but they are very unhealthy.

I lost a stone during Six weeks of furlough, and hope to lose the rest as the government increased benefits when lockdown began, which means I can buy more food.

I understand @CitizenCandyKane

Even as a child, after my mum died and i got fat I was struck by how cruel and nasty the adults around to me were over my weight. I often thought, if I had become anorexic or even turned to drugs, people would probably be falling over themselves to support me.

Yes, some people just love food and eat too much but look how many on this thread have been through trauma and abuse.

Do people just tell alcoholics to stop drinking or tell anorexic people to just eat more?

Do people just tell alcoholics to stop drinking or tell anorexic people to just eat more?

Yes, some of them do. And of course, evety alcoholic and anorexic turns round and says, "of course! Why did I never think if that before!" and it's all sorted and everyone lives happily ever after.

Comfort eating.

Dont excercise like i used to

Eat and drink too much

Medical condition

No longer giving a shit about myself after years of domestic abuse and then more domestic abuse by proxy via social services and family court.

Wine. If I count up my average calories minus wine they are fine, not too much most of the time, but add up the 500 plus for wine and they go over.