If you used to be thin but aren’t any more...

[MoonBabysMagicalKalimba]

There’s usually threads on here along the vein of “if you are slim, tell me all your secrets/what you eat in a day/how you think about food” etc and they are always really interesting. Usually started by an OP who has spent years, perhaps their entire life, struggling with their weight.

It got me to thinking about others like me, who were always effortlessly thin as young adults but then that changed. Why did it change? How did it change?

I was a size 8 up until my mid 20s, when I slowly started putting on weight. Up until the age of 25, when I got weighed at the doctors I was always told “you don’t want to lose any weight”. I’m now 35, 2-3 stone overweight and a size 14-16.

I’ve spent years writing it off by saying “well I’m older now, my metabolism has slowed down, I’ve had a baby” etc but I have been lying to myself. When I honesty look back at my thin days, a few things stick out:

• if I ate a massive dinner, I wouldn’t eat much the next day. Not deliberately, I just wasn’t hungry and I’d listen to my body. I’ve stopped listening to my body and will eat just because “it’s breakfast time” even if I’m not hungry.
  

• I would eat loads of takeaways, but I’d either buy small portions (my Chinese order at uni was just a portion of egg fried rice and some sweet and sour sauce) or I’d only eat a small amount and then have the rest as leftovers. A medium dominoes pizza would only have half eaten and the rest in the fridge. Same with curries. Now, I’ll eat the lot.
  

• I never really thought about what I ate. If I wasn’t hungry, I wouldn’t eat and I’d stop when I was full. I now just eat for the sake of it and clear my plate even if I’m not hungry.
  

On an emotional level, I went through a huge life upheaval in my mid 20s which I think led to me turning to food for comfort in a way I never had before. As a teen and in my early 20s, when I had a breakup or other upsetting experience, I’d lose half a stone as I couldn’t eat. A switch flipped at this age, and I started turning to food for comfort in a way I never had before.

I’m interested to know if anyone else was thin in their younger years but are now overweight, what happened? Can you pinpoint how, when and why it changed?

Let this also be a warning to those of you who are thin now, to not make the mistakes I did!

[morethanafortnight]

I put on 3 stone when I was pregnant and it never went away again.

[magicmallow]

single parent chronically sleep deprived after the birth of my child. Eating carbs to try to get energy together. Comfort eating because there was no other pleasure in life. Not able to escape my DD to go for a run / jog etc, walking everywhere at snails pace. Running a household, a job, a DD, everything with no time to exercise. Snacking on DD's leftovers. Depression, lack of time for self care. Lots of excuses I know but a large part of it was having children and the subsequent poor impact on my health was awful. :( Trying to get back on track again now but lockdown is a bit up and down for me on this front!!

[BrandyandBabycham]

I have always had issues with my weight, partly due to DM. She put me on diets in my teens when I was actually a perfectly healthy weight. I know that I am overweight now & would like to lose a couple of stone ( I’m just over 5ft 2” & 12 stone). I got down to 9 stone but feel comfortable & healthy at around 9.5/10 stone.Booze is my problem.

[TheVeryThing]

Really interstellar thread. I weighed 7.5 stone in my early twenties and never had to think about what I ate.
I also lost weight when I was stressed, doing exams at uni.
I met now dh when I was 22 and still living a student lifestyle (post graduate), walking everywhere, rarely cooking proper meals.
He was a great cook, wined & dined me and I gradually put on weight over the years. Somewhere along the way I started eating sugary crap when stressed.
Now I’m 46 and weigh 4 stone more than I did at 22. Lots of my friends who were always a bit heavier than me are now slim & healthy.

I feel like everyone else learned how to eat properly and exercise but somehow I didn’t.
It’s like being so skinny when I was young lulled me into a false sense of security and I never thought I would need to worry about my weight.

[TheVeryThing]

That should be interesting rather than interstellar 😀

[Happybint]

Yes. I was tiny. A size 8 and very slim, think I was about 7 and 1/2 stone. Now at 42 I'm 10 stone 11 and only 5ft 1. I was about 10st 4 at the beginning of lockdown. I use food as a comfort and when I'm bored. If my husband cooks he dishes up huge portions and currently I dont do any exercise. Lockdown has been hard and soul destroying. Am also on anti depressants.

[NaturalBlondeYeahRight]

Lived and worked in London, walked everywhere. Out all the time. Rarely cooked a ‘meal’ for just me.
Then moved out, 2 kids in quick succession but it wasn’t that so much as driving everywhere and being indoors/cooking for a family.

[Happybint]

Not sure when I started putting on weight, maybe after having kids.

[Hmpher]

Yeah, I was always naturally a 6-8 with a tiny waist. I’m more like a 12 now, which I suppose isn’t much overweight, but it does fluctuate to slightly higher and I sometimes creep into the overweight category of the bmi calculator. I’m 32. The two big things which stand out for me are the fact that I’m always eating and that I gained loads during my last pregnancy and never lost it all.

I just eat loads. I feel like I’m always hungry. Or bored. Or need a treat... or bored again. I have been a stay at home mum for ages and it’s no good for me. I’ve always had a very sweet tooth but in the past I would just stop when I was full. Or only do it once, or not eat meals if I’d eaten other stuff and wasn’t hungry. I didn’t constantly think about food then in the way that I do now.

And the other big thing is that I gained a shit ton of weight with my second child and have never lost it all. It was between 5 and 6 stone in the end. I had all the symptoms of diabetes and was tested multiple times, but the tests always came back negative. I was constantly hungry and chugging water like crazy. Nothing quenched my thirst or my hunger. I felt like I was about to pass out all the bloody time and constantly needed to stuff my face. I think a lot of people thought I was lying and just using it as an excuse to be greedy. It happened when I was in labour and I was begging the midwife for food, telling her I wouldn’t be able to give birth whilst shaking and on the verge of passing out. I’d had a double breakfast! But she did check my blood and said I was hypoglycaemic, so I had sugars and my blood sugars dropped even more so I had some more. Midwives were very confused because I always tested negative on the diabetes tests. They said I might be on the verge of developing diabetes not connected to pregnancy and to speak to my gp, but the gp wasn’t concerned and put it down to being in labour. It does still happen and will get so bad I can’t see properly if I don’t get sugary stuff quickly enough, but I can’t have diabetes because I think I would have been seriously ill by now.

But within one year I went from having to have a size 8 wedding dress drastically taken in on the waist, to gaining almost 6 stone during a pregnancy and giving birth to a 9lb 5oz baby. And having a humongous placenta!

[AnnieMaul]

Depression. Eating for comfort and out of boredom over several years. Using food as entertainment- going out to eat. Using food as a reward when celebrating. Going out for takeaways just to get out of the house (work from home usually, even pre-lockdown)

Basically developing bad food habits over time to the point it's become ingrained.

I had a low BMI as a teenager (think it was about 17ish, underweight, size 6-8) At university weight started to creep up, but I was still within a normal weight range until mid twenties. Then somehow ended up obese by late 20's!

I've now lost 3.5 stone over a couple of years and am about 8lbs over weight. 1.5 stone heavier than i'd like to be, still trying to break bad habits.

[FidgetWonkham]

My weight has crept up over the years, size 8-10 to now more a 14. I’ve never dieted properly but I have had times where I’ve cut back.
When I was really slim (BMI was about 20) i didn’t have a car and walked lots.
Didn’t have much money so wouldn’t waste it on snacks or takeaways.
Ate smaller meals and skipped the odd lunch if I was busy.
Didn’t have to make family meals so could just eat a small snacky dinner
Less snacks in house generally.
Always left food on my plate because I didn’t want it, now I can fit a load in my belly 😂

[museumum]

In my 20s I had boundless energy. Never stopped. Commuted in London by bike and had two sporty hobbies. And I didn’t have enough money to eat out.

Now mid 40s mum. Knackered. Barely enough time to myself for a half-hearted attempt at running as a hobby. No commute and most journeys involve kids too so short walks or bus/car. And I like (And can afford) good food.

I was also briefly slim again a year after giving birth to my first as I spent every day walking with the pram for hours and didn’t have time to finish a meal 😂

[Happybint]

Definitely that whole thing of deserving a treat! And I'm pre diabetic so need to steer clear of sweet treats.

[Branleuse]

I used to walk miles and I was also severely bulimic/EDNOS

Now i dont think im overweight, but im definitely at the top end of healthy. About a size 14, and I tend to drive more and enjoy my food more. I still walk a lot with dogs, but not as my mode of transport.

[Octopus37]

I wasn't that slim in my teens, up and down between 8 and 9st. I'm 5ft5 and small boned, as a lot of you know on this thread. Already didn't have a great relationship with food but always stayed weighting 8st something through my 20s. Pregnant at 31, weighed 8st11, after I had my DS I lost a my baby weight and another stone without any effort. I put it down to breastfeeding and doing loads of walking, although I did eat absolutely loads, including ridiculously large amounts of chocolate. God, I wish I had that figure now. I dont think I comfort ate then though, although I ate loads through tiredness and hunger that I could't ignore. Stayed around 8st ish size 8-10 until my oldest DS was 7. Started to struggle as I was approaching 40, I'm now 45 and got up to 9st11 after Christmas, now 9st2/3ish and still a size 12, 10 in dresses and tops TBH I am still quite active with walking, but I think being off AD's over the last few years has messed my metabolism up and unfortunatley my age doens't help. Struggling (failing) not to comfort eat at the moment cause I'm quite low about a few things. Keep trying to get back to 8st something, really dont want to give up, will get there one day.

[DonaldJTrumpet]

Very interesting thread.

Like others, I am a similar size to you then and now. I am a similar age.

I used to eat like a pig but it wasn't consistent. Now I eat like a pig every day.

It started with a binge eating disorder. That's still there but more controlled. If I have a feeling, I eat it. Until I get too nervous and then I can't eat. I used to not eat whenever I travelled, met a group of people, didn't know if I would be near a toilet for a while. I could just switch the hunger off.

Now I only seem to feel satiated when I'm at the point of bursting.

I exercise every day. Loads. But then I eat. And eat.

[magicmallow]

it would be interesting if someone could collate the results into a tally chart of reasons! To see what the most common reasons are...

[Paranoidmarvin]

I got pregnant. All down hill from there. I could never eat as much as I would before.

[TheGoodDinosaur]

I was at the most 8 and a quarter stone my whole adult life right up to when I got pregnant with my first age 28. Before that, I'm my younger years I smoked 20 a day and ate what I wanted. I didn't drink though. When I look back on photos I was very thin but I didn't feel particularly so. After my son was born, I separated from his dad and took up smoking again so any residual pregnancy weight fell away.

Since then, I've had 2 more pregnancies, met my DP, and discovered a love of cooking and wine/gin.

Exercise is limited due to time/opportunity and inclination, if I'm honest.

Add that to lockdown and a very stressful but sedentary job, I'm now around 12 stone and it makes me very unhappy. I keep telling myself to sort it out but I'm (frankly) lazy and tired so

[KetoWinnie]

Op, I was always size 8-10 until about 44, it's crept up a couple of pounds a year since then, now I'm 50.

I am trying to reset my insulin resistance right now.

Not focusing on weight loss but just cutting down on carbs, more fat, less hunger.

[KetoWinnie]

ps, lost 8lbs in 2 weeks, weight loss slowed down in weeks 3&4 but going in the right direction and NOT hungry.

All of this low fat hokey really tricked us. No wonder people are struggling with weight gain.

[TheGoodDinosaur]

I don't smoke any more either, haven't for about 8 years.

And I look back on photos of me in my early twenties and I feel both sad and incredulous that I didn't appreciate my slim waist, thigh gap, smooth skin, straight teeth etc etc.

I feel increasingly like a hideous (yet invisible) hag and I wonder how I'll feel about myself in another 15-20 years??

[littlemisssugarpuffs]

Was a healthy size 10-12 but then had three pregnancies close together, but I can't blame it entirely on my pregnancies as I eat far to much then the recommended amount of calories and I don't exercise at all, I'm now a size 20 and I hate it I'm so unhappy and everyday I wish I wasn't this big

[FTMF30]

I was a stick until I went on the pill (mid twenties). I didn't pile on loads of weight but the pill definitely did something. I went up a couple of sizes. I found it difficult to shift because I was used to being effortlessly thin. I've since come off the pill and had a child. I still have a bit of a mum pouch and want to lose a few pounds but I'm not aghast with my weight.

[GiraffeMomma]

Oh goodness I could've written your post! I was so skinny as a teenager/early 20s and now I'm just so, so huge.

Part of it was honestly metabolism, I could eat what I wanted as a teenager and not gain weight so my emotional eating didn't matter. If I was sad I could eat a ton of crap and it wouldn't matter. Now I just have to think about eating it and I put on the lbs!

I was put on a medication known to cause weight gain in my early 20s and three years ago I had an accident and now I can't walk properly so exercise is out of the question really. Plus I had a baby not long ago. The weight just won't shift and I keep saying "I'm the biggest I've ever been" then getting bigger. I'm not even sure at this point I can get back to where I want to be, I'd have to lose over half my body weight 😭